The small market town of Wirksworth will reveal itself as a surprisingly fascinating town for those who take the time to explore the narrow streets and maze of interesting alleyways, to admire the old buildings and lovely views, to visit the ancient church and the cathedral–like close.
Standing as it does virtually at the centre of Derbyshire, about two miles to the south of the Peak District National Park boundary, Wirksworth was the centre of the English lead mining industry when it was at its height.
Lead was the basis of Wirksworth’s past prosperity and lead mining in the area goes back to at least Roman times. The Barmote Court was set up in 1288 to enforce lead mining laws, which it was said even at that time were of great antiquity. It is almost certainly the oldest industrial court in Britain, and possibly in the world; it still sits twice a year at Moot Hall in Chapel Lane.
 Between 1600 and 1780 lead mining reached a peak, before finally declining during the latter part of the 19th century. When miners were forced deeper and deeper for the ore, flooding problems became even more severe and made extraction uneconomic. The discovery of rich deposits of easily accessible lead ore at Broken Hill in Australia forced prices down even further, resulting in the closure of many mines.
As lead mining declined, the limestone quarries provided work for people who lived in the area. The arrival of the railway in Wirksworth, in 1867, which linked the town with Derby and the rapidly expanding railway network beyond, opened the way for the easy distribution of limestone which was in great demand. The situation was improved still further 12 years later when a railway tunnel was built below the town centre linking Dale Quarry, known locally as the ‘Big Hole’ with the station.
The great upheaval came in 1925/26 with the re-opening of Dale Quarry, when mechanisation was introduced and a stone crusher installed in a hole between two hundred and three hundred feet deep. Inevitably the whole of this densely populated area declined and the town was badly affected by dust, dirt and noise.
Many of the people who could afford to do so reluctantly left, along with business and commerce. Buildings fell into disrepair, frequently being left empty to decay, and what had been one of Derbyshire’s most important towns was left blighted with the residents who remained despairing that improvements would ever take place.
 Help was at hand when Derbyshire Historic Buildings Trust discovered an anonymous charity, which after a lengthy process of selection and negotiation chose Wirksworth for financial support. In November 1978, a public meeting was called at Wirksworth Town Hall to discuss the proposals for the regeneration of the town. The meeting was overwhelmingly in favour of the proposals and the Wirksworth Project was launched.
At first progress was slow, and after overcoming what seemed almost insurmountable problems, the realisation of the dramatic progress that had been made became fully apparent when national and international recognition was achieved. In June 1983, Wirksworth was presented with the prestigious Europa Nostra Award for architectural conservation.
This was the only award made to a United Kingdom project at that time. It was given for its ‘exemplary regeneration of a small county town, through a broad programme of self-help and innovative features’. Praise came from many other quarters and HRH Prince Charles referred to the project as ‘brilliantly imaginative’.
For those wanting to know more about Wirksworth a visit to the highly acclaimed Heritage Centre is essential. Situated just off the market place in Crown Yard, where Crown Yard Kitchen offers snacks and delicious home cooked meals. The Heritage Centre is housed in what once was a Silk and Velvet Mill where the ’Wirksworth Story’ is explained on three floors. This takes you on a fascinating journey through time from pre-historic days, when the bones of a Woolly Rhino were found, through the lead mining era to the present day. Excellent views over the town are obtained from the windows.
 The Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin stands on a site at the junction of at least five ancient trackways. It was one of the first centres of Christian teaching and may well have been built on the site of a prehistoric stone circle. The church dates back to about 653 and a path completely encircles the churchyard giving it a cathedral-like appearance. It contains the ‘Wirksworth Stone’ that has been described as ‘one of our greatest archaeological treasures’. Look out for the much admired carved figure of a leadminer with his pick and kibble on the west wall. On the Sunday following 8 September, the ancient custom of clypping is still observed, when the congregation join hands in thanksgiving to completely encircle the church.
Adam Bede's cottage stands at the southern end of Wirksworth, where Samuel Evans and his wife Elizabeth once lived and were portrayed as Adam Bede and Dinah Morris in George Eliot’s famous novel Adam Bede. George Eliot loosely based her novel ‘Mill on the Floss’ on Haarlem Mill that stands on the other side of the road from the cottage.
The limestone cottages of The Dale and Green Hill cling to the hillside, as if Wirksworth was some little Cornish fishing village with nothing but the sea missing. In places it is possible to walk from the garden of one house onto the roof of another below. This is the area where the lead miners used to live, the jumble of small cottages having been built mostly of random stone extracted from nearby quarries. Nowhere is the lack of planning more apparent than in the area between the remains of Dale Quarry and Middle Peak Quarry, known locally as Puzzle Gardens.
The cottages are linked by a maze of ‘ginnels’ or ‘jitties’, there is no room for vehicular access and it is a nightmare for any new postman. Halfway up Green Hill is Babington House, at one time used as a hospital, is an excellent example of the old builders’ rule, ‘Always use local products if they are available’ the builder having quarried the stone from the back garden. At the foot of Green Hill stands Hopkinson’s House, restored from dereliction by the ‘Wirksworth Project’.
Wirksworth’s ancient market place occupies the centre of the town and it is surrounded by a remarkably large number of handsome buildings, which combine to make an impressive town centre. Little has changed over the last 150 years, apart from the construction of Harrison Drive, in 1940, to ease the flow of quarry traffic through the town.
The facades of many of the shops and houses date from between 1760 and 1840, but the structures are often much older. A market is now held every Tuesday on the steeply sloping area at the foot of West End. It is very much reduced in size from 1306, when Edward I granted the town a market and four fairs per year. It is worth walking to the top of the market place to admire the view of the town and the hills beyond.
This is Peak Practice Country, the town often having been used to shoot scenes from the ITV television programme. At the bottom of the market place set on an island site, is the Hope and Anchor, where the elaborately carved wooden fireplace in the lounge bar, probably dates back to about 1660. The Chemist’s Shop, established in 1756, has bow windows that are believed to belong to one of the oldest practising pharmacies in the country.
The Red Lion is said to be haunted by the ghost of a coachman whose horses bolted while he was trying to manoeuvre his coach through the archway, losing his head in the process. The Old Lock Up, now a luxury Guest House, served as a police station for 100 years and DH Lawrence and his German born wife Frieda, listed as an alien, had to report there once a week during the First World War when they lived at Middleton-by-Wirksworth.
In the 19th century, North End Mills along with four other mills in Wirksworth manufactured 800 miles of ‘Red Tape’ each week. Visitors to the mills can see hosiery being made at what has become one of the largest factory shops of its type in the United Kingdom.
Every year at Spring Bank holiday, Wirksworth holds its annual Well Dressing ceremonies and carnival. In September the town celebrates the talents of local, national and international artists, along with performers of all descriptions, when it holds its prestigious annual festival.
 Carsington Water has been a very popular visitor attraction since the reservoir was opened in May 1992 by Her Majesty the Queen.
The reservoir is owned and operated by Severn Trent Water and exists to store water pumped from the River Derwent at times of high rainfall, to store the water and return it to the river when the river level would otherwise be too low to allow water extraction for treatment further downstream.There is a Visitor Centre and opportunities for sailing, fishing and walking.
The former Cromford and High Peak Railway. The centre is still under development and therefore a little embryonic, but still has some interesting things to see. The main feature of the centre is its permanent display of rocks and minerals and the story of their formation, which is housed in the 'Discovery Centre' at the site. This costs £1.80 for entry (£1.50 for concessions, £0.90 for children). Outside there is a trail around the quarries of the site, which includes one of the best fossil reefs in the country plus an old lime kiln and the shafts of several former lead mines. The centre is open all year, seven days per week.
The Ecclesbourne Valley Railway is in the process of buying and re-opening the line between Duffield and Wirksworth in the Derbyshire Dales. Its headquarters are at Wirksworth Station where the railway's volunteers are busy working to bring the line back to life after many years of disuse. The line passes through the lovely Ecclesbourne Valley and it is planned to restore the railway in stages, the first stage being the section around Wirksworth and south to Gorsey Bank, about a kilometre of the 14 kilometre total.
There are temporary visitor facilities at Wirksworth Station (on Coldwell Street) including a Visitor Centre describing the project and a small shop and cafe. These are open every day from 10.00 am to 4.00 pm, so do call the station (Tel: 01629 823076).
Admission to the station area is free and special events are held from time to time.
The National Stone Centre occupies an area of disused quarries overlooking Wirksworth and crossed by the Harboro Rocks, Brassington.
Sculpted out of an outcrop of Dolomitic Limestone (most of the Peak is Carboniferous) on the high ridge above Brassington, Harboro Rocks are notable for their spiky outline, which can look really eeiry in misty conditions. They offer good quality, if short, rock climbs. The rocks are just off the High Peak Trail.
Daniel Defoe came here and described a family living in Harboro Cave - a natural cavern which has been excavated by archaeologists who have found items from the Ice Age onwards.
Nestling in a bowl of hills at the northern end of the beautiful Ecclesbourne Valley about six miles south of Matlock and bisected by the Cromford to Ashbourne road, Wirksworth is one of the oldest settlements in the county, having been almost continuously occupied for at least two thousand years.
It has a long and fluctuating history, recorded from early Saxon times. The Romans mined lead here, but when they arrived around 55 - 60 AD, the Iron Age Celts already had an established local economy, with two ancient trading routes, later used by the Anglo-Saxon’s as `Portwegs’ or Portways, intersecting at a place occupied today by Wirksworth’s enchanting, crazily- tilted Market Place.
The Saxons gave it it’s name, `Woerc’s –worth’ – an enclosure belonging to Woerc – and built it’s first church, on the site of the present parish church of St. Mary. The pagan Danes tore part of it down when they sacked the nearby Mercian capital at Repton in 873 AD, and the rule of Danelaw created the Soke & Wapentake of Wirksworth, or `Werchesvorde’ , as it was later referred to in the Domesday Book of 1086.
The Normans mined both lead and silver here during the 11th and 12th centuries, and commenced the rebuilding of the church in 1272. Lead mining continued to provide prosperity to Wirksworth, which reached it’s peak of prominence in Tudor times, being the second largest town (next to Derby) in the whole of the county.
Much of it’s delightful early Georgian architecture is a product of the prosperous lead-mining years of the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when it was a veritable boom town of the Industrial Revolution.
The coming of the railways and the corresponding rise in the manufacture of goods for the commercial market offset the demise of lead mining from the mid-nineteenth century. But when the lead mining all but ceased in the late Victorian era, and small scale limestone quarrying began, there was a mass exodus as Wirksworth’s population plumetted, along with it’s importance and social status.
By 1901 it had fallen from being the 2nd most populous place to 33rd on the list, and throughout the 20th century, modern quarrying methods made hundreds of local men redundant. When the railway finally closed it’s passenger service in 1947, it signalled a decline which, by the end of the 1950’s had rendered Wirksworth a virtual ghost town.
As Frank Priestley says in his excellent book, `The Wirksworth Saga’, “As quarrying intensified, noise and dust invaded the very heart of the town. Not surprisingly, those who were able to do so, left the town. As businesses moved away, jobs were lost. Fine old houses were either left empty or they were occupied by people who could not afford to keep them in good repair.
The town, which over many centuries had been one of the finest in Derbyshire, was sinking fast. Many of it’s building were now literally falling down. However, in 1978 the town was selected by the Monument Trust for regeneration and the Wirksworth Project, administered by the Civic Trust, was born”.
Nowadays a revitalised Wirksworth is fast becoming an important tourist centre, and rewards it’s visitors with much of interest and fascination, from the enchanting narrow streets and alleyways, with views of surrounding roof-scapes and distant green hills, to the rich architectural heritage of it’s restored Georgian splendour.
The magnificent cruciform parish church of St. Mary, founded in 653 AD by an Anglo-Saxon monk named Betti, stands sedately in the centre of a charming cathedral-type circular close, and is itself encircled by the paved and cobbled Church Walk, with entrances leading from it through a variety of alleyways into the surrounding town streets.
The ancient ceremony of `Clypping the Church’ - which is thought to pre-date the Christian era - takes place annually on the Sunday following the Festival of the Blessed Virgin Mary on September 8th, when the congregation encircle the church and link hands, thus symbolically and literally `embracing’ the church.
St.Mary’s has been much restored over the centuries and successive restorations have unearthed many ancient relics, including fragments of the early Saxon church and one of Britain’s most important pieces of Anglo-Saxon sculpture – an elaborately carved coffin lid known as the Wirksworth Stone, believed to be from the grave of the church’s founder, the Saxon Monk Betti.
Outside the church stand two open medieval stone coffins, whilst inside is a rare Geneva Bible from 1602, and some fine alabaster tombs of the Gell family, including the significant tomb chest of Anthony Gell (d1583), who founded the Free Grammar School in 1576 and endowed the quaint Almshouses on Church Walk.
Embedded in the wall of the south transept is the Saxon carving of a lead miner, complete with pick and kibble which was brought from nearby Bonsall in 1876. Affectionately known as `t’owd man’, it has become synonymous with Wirksworth and is regarded by most as an emblem of the town, which has been called `the Lead-Mining Capital of England’.
The Barmote Court, the oldest industrial court in the world with much of its terminology and regulations dating from Saxon times, still meets twice annually at the Moot Hall in Chapel Lane as it is known to have done since 1266, and probably for much longer. A standard bronze measuring dish holding 14 pints of ore and presented by Henry V111 in 1512 hangs on the wall. By tradition the twelve jurymen are provided with bread, cheese and beer, and afterwards long clay pipes are smoked, and have become greatly prized collector’s items.
The ancient custom of well dressing takes place here with nine wells being dressed annually on late spring bank holiday Saturday, which is also the time of the town’s annual carnival, and modern Wirksworth also boasts an annual Arts Festival in September.
The town has several literary connections, being the `Snowfield’ in the novel, `Adam Bede’ by George Eliot and the home of Eliot’s aunt, Elizabeth Evans, whose cottage home still stands on the Derby Road.
Baroness Orczy (1865-1947), author of `The Scarlet Pimpernel’ featured the Crown Inn, a former coaching inn which overlooks the market place, in her novel, `Beau Brocade’, and D H Lawrence’s mother’s family, the Beardsall’s were natives of the town. Lawrence and his German born wife Freida lived at nearby Mountain Cottage from May 1918 for a year, and were frequently seen in the town.
Wirksworth’s fascinating history is wonderfully well documented and displayed at the excellent Heritage Centre, a converted former silk and velvet mill in Crown Yard just off the market place. Here visitors will find visual displays telling the Wirksworth Story, lots of interesting local literature and souvenires, and an excellent café serving food and refreshments.
Another valuable resource is the National Stone Centre situated alongside the High Peak Trail, just off Porter Lane, which has a permanent indoor exhibition, `The Story of Stone’, and mineral specimens from around the world can be purchased at The Rock Shop. Outside there are trails over ancient fossil reefs, including one of the finest examples in England of a coral reef from the carboniferous period.
Daniel Defoe, visiting in 1725, wrote, “The town of Wirksworth is a kind of Market for Lead, the like not known anywhere else that I know of…”. He described the lead miners as, “ a rude, boorish kind of people…..they are a bold, daring and even desperate kind of fellows in their search into the bowels of the earth; for no people in the world outdo them”.
Defoe, Eliot, Lawrence, the Arkwrights, the Gells – and the lead miners, are long since gone and remain only as memories, along with the cotton, silk and velvet mills, the hat factory, china works, the railway and many other vestiges of Wirksworth’s long and colourful history. But the legacy left behind is perhaps best described by Frank Priestley in the conclusion to his Wirksworth Saga:
“During the past two millennia Wirksworth has been swept by waves of invaders. It has seen great industries rise and fall. Some of its inhabitants have gained wealth, many have known poverty. Fine houses have been built, and the town has been almost brought to its knees. But it has survived. Not only survived, but prospered. How did this happen?
It was not because of lead, limestone, or Arwright’s mills, nor was it due to those who left the town.
Wirksworth is what it is today because of the character of those who stayed and lived in the town and demonstrated such qualities as perseverance. Adaptability and ambition. Surely these were the qualities recognised by defoe when he said `No people in the world out-do them”.
The Wirksworth Project has literally worked wonders for Wirksworth, and in recent years it has risen magnificently like the proverbial Phoenix from the ashes of it’s own decline. The project’s success was recognised in 1983 by the European Community when the town was awarded the prestigious Europa Nostra Medal. Its wealth of architectural and historical heritage having been saved by a well coordinated series of restoration projects incorporating the Civic Trust, Sainsbury’s Wirksworth Project and the Derbyshire Historic Buildings Trust - who together with the townspeople, have restored Wirksworth’s civic pride.
Prospect Amberwood
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