Product Code Database
Dovedale is a valley in the Peak District of England. The land is owned by the National Trust and attracts a million visitors annually.
Dovedale's other attractions include rock pillars such as Ilam Rock,
settled in the area in the 9th century Common Era. Local place names such as Thorpe are of origin. Anglo-Saxon and Viking Derbyshire, Richard Bunting, Wye Valley Press (April 1993), These settlements became permanent, and Thorpe is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086.
Viator's Bridge, a packhorse bridge in Milldale, has been in use since the medieval period when silks and flax were transported from nearby Wetton and Alstonefield.
Tourism started in the 18th century, and Dovedale is now one of the most visited natural tourist sites in Britain.
In July 2014 it was announced that a hoard of Late Iron Age and Roman Britain coins had been discovered in Reynard's Kitchen Cave. The 26 coins discovered, which have been declared as "treasure", included three Roman coins from before the Roman invasion of Britain, and gold and silver pieces of Late Iron Age date, which are believed to have come from the Corieltavi, a Celtic tribe based in the East Midlands. National Trust archaeologist Rachael Hall said: "The coins would suggest a serious amount of wealth and power of the individual who owned them." The coins were scheduled to go on display at Buxton Museum in late 2014.
The National Trust became embroiled in controversy in 2010, when in conjunction with Derbyshire County Council it oversaw the "renovation" of Dovedale's iconic stepping stones. It involved topping all but one of the stones with layers of mortar and limestone slabs.
Its name "cloud" is a derivation of the Old English word clud which means "hill". On the opposite bank, at , is the higher but less isolated Bunster Hill, , which is also a reef knoll. They were acquired by the National Trust in 1934 for the South Peak Estate.
From this the bridge acquired the name Viator's Bridge.
The bridge has been in use since the medieval period, for packhorses transporting silks and flax from nearby Wetton and Alstonefield. It is listed as an ancient monument.
At Lover's Leap, a young woman who believed her lover had been killed in the Napoleonic Wars threw herself from the promontory. Her skirt caught in the branches of a tree as she fell and saved her life. When she got home, she heard her lover was alive. There are other similar legends about Lover's Leap, including one placing the story in World War II.
Opposite Lover's Leap is a limestone formation called the Twelve Apostles. The rock spires have been created from hard reef limestone; they protrude from the valley side, and the river has eroded the rock and soil around them. The National Trust clears plant life to ensure the rock formations are visible.
In 1931 Ramsay MacDonald's Labour government recommended creating a ‘National Park Authority’ to select natural areas for designation as national parks. Dovedale was one of the areas selected, and it was eventually included within the Peak District National Park when it became Britain's first National Park in 1951.
In July 1937, Staffordshire County Council converted the Leek and Manifold Valley Light Railway into a tarmac path now known as Manifold Way. The Ashbourne–Buxton railway line closed in the mid-1960s and was converted into a track known as Tissington Trail.
In a Peak District National Park survey conducted in 1986/87, more than a fifth of visitors said walking was their main reason for visiting. A footpath count on a Sunday in August 1990 recorded 4,421 walkers on the Staffordshire side of the river and 3,597 on the Derbyshire bank. Riverside paths make the valley accessible to walkers.
Samuel Johnson, Lord Tennyson, John Ruskin and Lord Byron all praised Dovedale's scenery. The last wrote of Dovedale to the poet Thomas Moore, "I can assure you there are things in Derbyshire as noble as Greece or Switzerland."
Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy talk about her travels in Derbyshire, including Dove Dale, after they meet unexpectedly at Pemberley in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.
Dovedale was featured on the 2005 BBC TV programme Seven Natural Wonders as one of the wonders of the Midlands. The stepping stones across the river figure prominently in Jorge Grau's 1974 film The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue. The area along the river was used in Franco Zeffirelli's 1996 version and the BBC's 2006 version of Jane Eyre, and Dovedale also featured in the 2008 film The Other Boleyn Girl. The Ridley Scott film Robin Hood also used Dovedale as a location, and it can be clearly seen in several scenes towards the end of the movie.
First organised in 1953, the race takes place on the first Sunday of November, although previously it was held on the closest Sunday to Guy Fawkes Night. The race has been cancelled on five occasions, most recently in 1998, 2000 and 2004, as a result of bad weather, and in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
|
|
