Glossop
Glossop is a market town within the Borough of High Peak in Derbyshire, it lies on the Glossop Brook, a tributary of the River Etherow, about 15 miles east of the city of Manchester and 24 miles west of the city of Sheffield.
Glossop is situated near Derbyshire’s county borders with Cheshire, Greater Manchester, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire. It is between 150 and 300 metres sea level.
The name Glossop is thought to be of Saxon origin, that gave its name to an ancient parish recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, and then the manor given by William I of England to William Peverel.
It was named during the Angles’ settlement in the 7th century, and derived from Glott’s Hop – where hop could mean a valley, a small valley in a larger valley system or a piece of land enclosed by marshes while Glott was probably a chieftain’s name.
The Romans arrived in 78 AD. At that time, the area was within the territory of the Brigantes tribe, whose main base was in Yorkshire. The Romans built a road over the Pennines that descended into the Etherow valley along Doctor’s Gate and in the late 1st century a fort – Ardotalia – on high ground above the river in present day Gamesley.
The site of this fort was rediscovered in 1771 by an amateur historian, John Watson and subsequently acquired the name “Melandra Castle”. This extensive site has been excavated, revealing fort walls, a shrine and the fort headquarters.
Architecturally the area is dominated by buildings constructed of the local sandstone. There remain two significant former cotton mills and the Dinting railway viaduct.
The first mills in Glossop were woollen mills. In 1774 – Richard Arkwright opened a mill at Cromford. He developed the factory system and patented machines for spinning cotton and carding. In 1785, his patents expired and many people copied Arkwright’s system and his patents, exemplified by the Derwent Valley Mills.
By 1788 there were over 200 Arkwright-type mills in Britain. At this time there were 17 cotton mills in Derbyshire, principally in Glossop – by 1831 there were at least 30 mills in Glossopdale
A town whose environs provided a backdrop for the macabre incest-fest that was The League of Gentleman, traditionally, Glossop has been a heads-down, “get on with it” sort of place, with a stronge community spirit and a Lowry-esque landscape of hulking mills and doughty millstone terraces.
Its enviable location, curled in the damp embrace of the Peak District countryside and yet only a 30 minute train ride from Manchester City Centre, this meant that walkers and country-seeking city dwellers used it as a jump-off point for the High Peak.
But recently things have begun to change – following an influx of arts & media types – mainly BBC employees relocating to Salford’s MediaCity and academic folk , drawn by the work-life balance with the local landscape.
The terraced High Street is now a bustling area, previously a mix of local shops-for-local-people, has been transformed with a smattering of eau-de-nil shop-fronts, artisan delis such as Praze , Pico Lounge is a large new café bar and a new wine merchant, Harvey Leonard’s where you can perch on stools with cheese plates and drink by the glass.
Also there are more ambitious venues like Dowds or the contemporary Sri Lankan Ayubowan both getting very good reviews at present..
This is all accompanied by a thriving arts and music scene, with bands playing regularly at The Oakwood pub and the Globe, the latter as legendary for its vegan food and home-brewed beers as its world-music gigs.
Old Glossop, the historic centre of the town with a medieval cross at its heart, is a 10-minute walk away, across leafy Manor Park. The Queens and The Wheatsheaf remain popular for honest pub-grub, real ales or a pint from the local Howardtown Brewery.
Theatres bookshops and artist’s studios – including Brook St Studios and Smithy Studios, all help to fuel the ever popular Derbyshire Open Arts Festival in May.
Although speciality coffees and artisan crafts are now freely available, Glossop is still finding its feet with accommodation.
Hotel stalwarts such as the George and the Wind in the Willows have been joined by a Travelodge, and B&Bs including Bird’s Nest Cottage and Windy Harbour Farm – which also accommodates camping and caravaning
There are also some deliciously characterful cottages like Rowan Cottage, in Old Glossop, or Beehive Cottage, which handily faces the Beehive pub with it’s 100-plus whiskys.
Going self-catering also allows you to feed yourself from Glossop’s growing cluster of independent shops or the monthly artisan producers market -the second Saturday every month.
Top of the tree is Mettrick’s – named the UK’s finest butcher, for anything from local High Peak lamb to a proper pork pie. Mettrick’s second shop, up the road in Hadfield, doubled as Briss Butchers, purveyors of “special stuff” in the League of Gentlemen.
But tourists don’t visit Glossop just for the art, organic quinoa, or even the teenyCurly Cornet café, which serves Bradwells local ice creams in summer. They come for the great outdoors, which begins barely 15 minutes’ walk from the train station.
The town sits atop a spaghetti junction of rambler’s ley lines including the Trans Pennine Trail, the Pennine Bridleway, the Longdendale Trail and the mother-lode that is the Pennine Way, and is heaven for hikers, fell-runners, mountain-bikers and horse-riders.
The landscape ranges from the ominous, cloud-licked tops of the aptly-named Bleaklow and Kinder Scout (home to a number of historical plane wrecks), to the lusher, more shire-like rolling green hills further south, and the Derwent Valley where the Dambusters squadron trained. The beautiful waterside walking circuits around the reservoirs here cater for both keen walkers and families with young children in tow – at low-water levels, the occasional rooftop or spire used to poke through the Ladybower’s surface, an eerie reminder of the villages flooded to create them.
Some of the reservoirs, such as Bottoms or Torside (home to an award-winning sailing club), are 30-45 mins walk from the town centre, though reaching the summit of the Peaks or Ladybower itself would take a good half day hike (or, cheating, a 20-minute drive).
Although speciality coffees and artisan crafts are now freely available, Glossop is still finding its feet with accommodation.
Hotel stalwarts such as the George and the Wind in the Willows have been joined by a Travelodge, and B&Bs including Bird’s Nest Cottage and Windy Harbour Farm – which also accommodates camping and caravaning
There are also some deliciously characterful cottages like Rowan Cottage, in Old Glossop, or Beehive Cottage, which handily faces the Beehive pub with it’s 100-plus whiskys.
Going self-catering also allows you to feed yourself from Glossop’s growing cluster of independent shops or the monthly artisan producers market -the second Saturday every month.
Top of the tree is Mettrick’s – named the UK’s finest butcher, for anything from local High Peak lamb to a proper pork pie. Mettrick’s second shop, up the road in Hadfield, doubled as Briss Butchers, purveyors of “special stuff” in the League of Gentlemen.
But tourists don’t visit Glossop just for the art, organic quinoa, or even the teenyCurly Cornet café, which serves Bradwells local ice creams in summer. They come for the great outdoors, which begins barely 15 minutes’ walk from the train station.
The town sits atop a spaghetti junction of rambler’s ley lines including the Trans Pennine Trail, the Pennine Bridleway, the Longdendale Trail and the mother-lode that is the Pennine Way, and is heaven for hikers, fell-runners, mountain-bikers and horse-riders.
The landscape ranges from the ominous, cloud-licked tops of the aptly-named Bleaklow and Kinder Scout (home to a number of historical plane wrecks), to the lusher, more shire-like rolling green hills further south, and the Derwent Valley where the Dambusters squadron trained. The beautiful waterside walking circuits around the reservoirs here cater for both keen walkers and families with young children in tow – at low-water levels, the occasional rooftop or spire used to poke through the Ladybower’s surface, an eerie reminder of the villages flooded to create them.
Some of the reservoirs, such as Bottoms or Torside (home to an award-winning sailing club), are 30-45 mins walk from the town centre, though reaching the summit of the Peaks or Ladybower itself would take a good half day hike (or, cheating, a 20-minute drive).