Panoramic Five: a route and some history

Sunday August 4, 2013 by Peter T

The Parwich Panoramic 5 fell race started in 2009. Initially set up as a fund raiser towards the redevelopment of the Memorial Hall, our village hall, it has become an annual fixture in the fell runner’s calendar.

Further down the post is an outline of the Senior Race route, and information on the history of what you might see when taking it at a more leisurely pace than the PP5 competitors do. Please walk the route and send in any photographs to parwich@hotmail.co.uk, as we hope eventually to produce a leaflet for both locals and visitors.

But first, here are the race results and photographs from previous years posted at parwich.org:

2012

2011

2010

2009

Route & History

Here is an outline route and a very rough draft of the history of what you will see. We would welcome any further information and photographs of what can be seen along the route:

The walk starts on the Green opposite the Sycamore Inn, set off west through the centre of the village, turn left before you reach the phone box in the direction of Alsop en le Dale and continue towards the edge of the village.

1. The Green & the Dam: The present layout of the village is largely dictated by the medieval boundaries. At the time of the Doomsday Survey there were some 6 farms and 2 or so other small holdings; the village would have been divided into tofts (plots for the houses and gardens) and crofts (small fields for orchards, rick yards, stock pens, etc) for agricultural use necessarily near the farm house. There would also have been a number of greens for gathering stock together before or after taking them out to the common grazing on the Hill, Hawkslow and the Moor. Most adults can remember cattle grazing on the Green. It is likely the village then included most of the present village including the central area around the Green (or Church Green), the Square in front of the Hall, Dam Lane, Lenscliffe and Smithy Lane. Many of the larger apparently Georgian houses are likely to be on the plots of their medieval predecessors and as more houses were built they would be on plots within the existing crofts, as is illustrated by the twentieth century development Croft Avenue’s name. Many houses may have property boundaries much older than the house itself, perhaps in some cases even up to a thousand years older. Along the south side of the part of the Green with the children’s swings etc there was up into the twentieth century a blacksmith’s and a joiner’s workshop. Also on this part of the Green is the village pond, locally called the Dam, which is thought to have been originally a sheep wash.
2. The Sycamore Inn: the building though largely Georgian, with a brick Victorian rear section, may date back to either the seventeen or sixteen century. We have a continuous list of landlords from when records began in 1753. We also know there were two inns in the village in 1577 and it is possible that this is one of them. Village inns would have brewed their own ale, and on the 1841 Census the landlord’s son John Kirkham is listed as a brewer. Generally the pub families would not depend solely on beer sales for the family income, for example John’s father Thomas combining work as a valuer with his work as a landlord. In the eighteenth century records there two other pubs, these are likely to be the Crown and Wheatsheaf Inns in Smithy Lane that closed in 1903 and 1908 respectively. At this time a large proportion of the rural inns in Derbyshire were closing. The Parwich Odd Fellows’ Lodge moved its meetings and annual feast from the Crown to the Sycamore at this time.
3. Dam Farm: This apparently Georgian exterior hides an earlier timber framed building inside the stone outer walls. Most if not all the buildings in the village, except the Church and the Manor House, would have been timber framed, with wattle and daub walls and thatched roofs. This was the White Peak norm up into the early 1600s. Dam Farm could be one on the Medieval farm sites in continuous use from the tenth to the thirteenth century. The present owner has found pottery from the ? century in the garden. It was the last working farm in the village and the last farm in the parish having the medieval pattern of land holding with fields ……… still in use in the 1990s.
4. St Peter’s Church: The present church building as erected in 1873/4 when the new young vicar the Rev Leighton Buckwell regarding the old Norman Church as shabby and too small, persuaded the absentee landlord Sir William Evans fund a complete rebuild. One can imagine the mixed feelings in the village. The old church was built in the twelfth century, but there has been debate about whether this replaced an earlier church. There is no record of a church here in 1086 but the Doomsday Survey misses some churches. However some argue that the carved stone over the west door is Saxon, though it is more likely that it was carved in the twelfth century using some earlier motifs. There is also potentially a roughly oval embankment thanks includes the church yard and a bit more, with a mound under the east end of the present church that was more marked with the old church. Now all that can be seen of this embankment, if it existed, is along the boundary with Church Gates and Church Cottage’s gardens. This could be a pre-Christian ritual site placed next to the Brook or an early Celtic Christian site, but there is no confirming evidence for either.
5. The Pump Shed: One of the reasons for Parwich being located where it is the plentiful supply of water. Parwich did not get a mains water supply until the 1950s. Now the bus shelter this building on the Green was the site of one of the village water sources. There have been recorded water supplies in this area since the thirteenth century when records of a land dispute refer to the spring by Hallcliffe gate. The pump house was built in 19?? to provide shelter for the village pump and became a bus stop after mains water made it redundant.
6. Brentwood: Until the establishment of the turnpike road from the eighteenth century (see no. ? below) and the railways in the nineteenth century goods came in and out of the village on horseback or on foot. Clothes, shoes, saddles and harnesses, food and metal work all need to be produced and traded locally. Roads and railways increased what was available and in the nineteenth century a number of purpose built shops appeared including the extension of the side of Brentwood; now a joiner’s workshop it was built as a grocer’s shop. When the Brownsons were here (dates?) ? Brownson had a picture framing business behind the shop and his wife and sister ran the shop. On the other side of the Fold drive there was a shed housing a hard ware shop and paraffin supplier.
7. The cottages on Shaw Lane: Shaw Lane Cottage on the other side of Brentwood housed a chip shop and a hairdresser’s variously. The range of cottages making up Shaw Lane Cottage and Shaw Lane House (formerly Village Farm) and the range further along the lane making up Hope Croft and Walnut Cottage, though much altered were original timber framed buildings that would have been encased in stone in the 1600s. Though not in its original position a cruck beam in Walnut Cottage has been carbon dated to the eleventh century, having been installed in a village house around the time of the Domesday Survey.
8. The Pinfold: Below the rocky out crop, just beyond the cave is a small enclose, with the brook forming the northern boundary. This was the pinfold, where wandering livestock would have been impounded until they were claimed by the owners or dealt with by the parish.
9. Stains Trough: Across small footbridge from what is now the drive for Stains Cottage is a stone trough supplied by a spring and enclosed in a stone wall to keep out livestock. This was the water supply for this part of the village, and had the reputation for being the sweetest water in the village.
10. Dam Lane: It is not known if Dam Lane takes its name from the pond in the centre of the village, it being continuous with the footpath that starts there, or if it takes its name from another dam. There is a lot of earth works along the bottom of the valley between Brook Close Farm and Flaxdale Holdings (see later). The stream appears and disappears along this stretch. There is record of a corn mill in Parwich in the seventeenth century, but it does not indicate where or what sort of mill it was (water, wind or animal powered). One possibility was that there was a watermill somewhere in this area, Dam Lane taking its name from the dam that held back the mill pond. It is questionable how reliable a water supply would be here, which may be why the mill did not survive, the more reliable Bradbourne Mill, by Tissington Ford taking over.

Just after Brook Close Farm drive turn left over the stile onto the footpath going up to the Flatts. Follow the footpath west along the top of the Flatts till you pass Parwich Lees.

11. The Wetherway: This trackway name dates back to medieval times, though it is not known where its origins are as ‘wether way’ a route used to drive sheep (a wether being a castrated ram), or ‘weather way’ a dry all weather route along the ridge, passable when the valley bottom route was deep in mud. The ridges and furrows run up to the trackway but do not cross it, indicating that it is older than the fields it crosses.
12. The Flatts: Most of this ridge south of the village was part of Parwich’s open field system, the ridge and furrow developed through ploughing. The ridge having deeper soil and the furrows helping drainage. The large open fields where farmed communally, most individuals not having sufficient resources to keep their own plough and team of 8 oxen. Also tenants would be expected to plough and tend the landlord’s strips. The Flatts would only be divided into a small number of very large fields. Individuals would have one or two strips in a field here and perhaps other strips in the fields on the other side of the Alsop Lane, behind the Hill or on the Wings. One reason for this scattered landholding was to ensure everyone had their share of each type and quality of land. Where the hedge rows are along changes in the direction or the end of ridge and furrow, they may reflect medieval boundaries, but where they are parallel to the ridges on either side they represent sub-divisions in the open fields that developed with the breakdown of the open field system from the sixteenth century. A typical pattern of a sub-dived open field is a series of long thin, fields that curve slightly to make a reverse ‘s’.
13. Parwich Lees: As you approach Parwich Lees across the Flatts the ridge and furrow stops with no obvious change in topography to explain it. ‘Lees’ as a place name often indicates an area of managed woodland. In the thirteenth century the place name Littlewood appears in documents relating to the area at the other end of the village still called Littlewood Farm. The use of the adjective ‘little’ suggests that also in the parish was a larger wood, possibly here at Parwich Lees. The present farm at Parwich Lees is early nineteenth century, much extended in the 18?0s when it was taken over by John Brittlebank who lived here in some style with his two sisters, each of whom had a ladies maid, the only ones in the village.

Turn left onto the trackway running south through the fields up towards the Tissington Trail. Follow the trail north to the car park Alsop Station.

14. The Ashbourne to Buxton Railway: The line was built by the London & North Western Railway, being fully opened by 1899. The service provided links with Manchester via Buxton and London via Ashbourne. The number of navvies required to build the line must have had a significant if temporary impact on local communities. Also the freedom of travel and transport of goods in and out will significantly altered local consumption and production. For example, milk could be readily sold to towns, drastically the production of farm made cheese locally. Further the easier movement on this and the older Cromford & High Peak line promoted quarrying and such as the Brickworks at Friden, just east of Newhaven to the north. The line was absorbed into the London, Midland & Scottish Railway in 1923 and was nationalised as part of British Rail in 1948. Regular passenger services ceased in 1954.
15. Newton Grange: as the term ‘grange’ this was a sheep ranch belonging to the monastery at … It is probable that it was an existing farm, perhaps dating to well before the Norman Conquest, that was granted to the monks of ?, ?. Looking at the grange farm names map it can be seen that Parwich and Alsop were virtually surrounded by these monastic ranches. Some of these Saxon farms had been in the process of growing into small villages, such as at Hanson Grange and Eaton Grange, but this was halted by the creation of the granges. Initially the ranch would have been run by lay brother with the occasional visit from monks, but by the time of the dissolution of the monasteries it is likely to have been let to a tenant farmer, so the changes arising from Henry VIII’s seizure of church lands would have meant just a change in landlord.
16. The A515 and Gag Lane: Up until the eighteenth century there were no roads in this area capable of taking wheeled vehicles, with the possible exception of the Roman road, the Street, running from Little Chester (Derby) to Aqua ? (Buxton). Here it passes through Longcliffe, behind Minninglow and through Pikehall, joining the current A515 near the Bull i’the Thorn some 3 miles north of here. All goods had to be transported on foot or by packhorse. The Roman road was turnpiked as far as Brassington, but the steep hills particularly between Brassington and Longcliffe restricted the size of loads. In 1738 an alternative route from Derby was created going through Ashborne and Thorpe, crossing Thorpe pasture and following Gag Lane and dropping down to the present A515 route by New Inns. It is hard now to imagine that this was one the main routes from London to Manchester. This explains the local tradition that Dick Turpin, the infamous highwayman, at times frequented this road, visiting the New Haven Hotel, some 2 miles further north. Again a better route was created in 1777, following the route of the present A515 from Ashbourne.
17. Moot Low: On the skyline you can see various pre-historic burial mounds dating from the Neolithic (from some seven thousand years ago) to the Bronze Age (from some four thousand years ago). Moot Low on the far side of Gag Lane is a Bronze Age mound clearly visible from both sides of the ridge. Its name suggests it was an Anglo-Saxon meeting point. A moot being a cross between a local parliament and a court. This ‘moot’ would have been located on the existing burial mound because of its prominent position, perhaps on or near the boundary between two territories.
18. New Inns: There is some debate about the derivation of the name New Inns: now a private hotel it has been for some time an inn serving the passing trade on the turnpike. There have been various inns and ale houses on this route over the last two hundred and fifty years or so. It could be this was called the new inn to distinguish it from an older one; alternatively it could be a corruption of ‘new ings’, ‘ings’ being an Anglo-Saxon term for field, suggesting this was a medieval farm, though perhaps later than Newton Grange.
19. Alsop Station: The car park of the same name, now occupies the site of Alsop Station, which served Alsop, Parwich and the local farms.

After Alsop Station take the footpath to the right dropping down to the hamlet of Alsop en le Dale. When you reach the road turn right into the hamlet.

20. Alsop en le Dale: The name Alsop is Saxon meaning the ‘hope’ or valley of the man called Alles, presumably he was the first or one of the early farmers here, creating a farm sometime between ?00 and ?00. At the time of the Domesday Survey, Alsop (probable the modern parish of Eaton & Alsop) was an outlier of Parwich. There may have been a small settlement somewhere within the parish, perhaps on the site of Alles farm, or alternatively it could have been worked by people traveling out from Parwich. By the time of the Second Crusade, Alsop was a separate manor held by the ancestors of the Alsop family, possibly descendants of Colne who held Alsop, part of his manor of Parwich. There is some debate whether the medieval village of Alsop was sited where the present Alsop-en-le-Dale is located, or on Alsop Moor.
21. St Michael and All Angels’ Church: As in Parwich the church was first built as a chapelry of Ashbourne Church in the twelfth century. It was not a parish church in its own right rather the clergy here were curates under the vicar of St Oswald’s. The south doorway, the chancel arch and ? are Norman survivals. It is perhaps surprising that there are no significant memorials to the Alsop lords of the manor in the church, but more surprising is the fact that the tower, substantially contributing to the charm of the build only dates to 18??. The church became a separate parish church in 16?? But from at least the mid nineteenth century was linked to Parwich the two parishes sharing one vicar.
22. Alsop Hall: It is not known where the Medieval manor house was located, though one possibility was that it was demolished to make way for the present building. The present Alsop Hall was built in the sixteenth century by the Alsop family, when it is thought to have been substantially larger than the present building. We have a brief account of the building when Thomas Becon sought refuge from Mary Tudor’s persecution of protestants: … … … The last of the original Alsop line to hold the manor was ?? whose declining fortunes forced the sale of his estate in 16?? For the next two hundred years the hall was relegated to a farmhouse, resulting in it being reduced in size. Samuel Allsopp the Burton brewer bought the Hall in 18?? At this time his peerage was in the pipeline and he sought to prove his descent from the original Alsop line to entitle him to the title of Lord Alsop of Hindlip and Alsop, Hindlip being his principal seat. However he failed and had to be content with the title of Lord Hindlip of Hindlip and Alsop. His son the second Lord Hindlip sold the Alsop estate.
23. Manor Farm: This is an interesting house that may just date from the sixteenth century, taking its name from the fact that it was next to the manor house. Alternatively it is possible that the house is older and grew out of old manor house that was superseded by the present Hall. Though some of the larger independent farm houses in the area were stone buildings in the Tudor period, the tenanted village farms were mainly timber framed buildings. (Check the hearth tax returns and the number of households in Alsop in the 1500s. It would certainly be worth investigation by an architectural historian or archaeologist. Interestingly there is a tradition that one of the plotters that with Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up King James I and Parliament in ????, hid here after the discovery of the plot.
24. Church Farm: This fine Georgian farmhouse can only be fully appreciated from the south, its elegant garden front reminiscent of the fine Georgian houses of Edinburgh’s New Town. Unfortunately only the rear of the building is visible from the road. Local tradition has it that the location and the largely blank road front was a deliberate insult to the brother of the builder who lived at Manor Farm. Certainly it would have substantially impaired the view from the front windows of Manor Farm.
25. Field System: On the hillside behind Manor Farm is a strange field system of ? ‘terraces’ running parallel to the road. They might date to the Roman period, but they are larger than the other ‘lynchets’ in the area and somewhat surprisingly are parallel to the road rather than following the contour lines which means they contain quite steep gradients along the longest dimension of each field or ‘terrace’.

As you come out of the village, take the footpath to the left heading east, and follow it south of Peakway Farm house, across Middlehill Farm’s drive rejoining the road just after the sink hole (need to walk the route to complete the directions). Continue on the road easterly towards Parwich for ? hundred metres.

26. Peakway Farm:
27. Midhills Farm:
28. Hawkslow and land enclosures: Looking north you can see the modern farm of Hawkslow, created in the early nineteenth century, though the name, taken from the Bronze-age (check) burial mound on the skyline behind the farm house, has been in use from at least the thirteenth century. There are fields of various ages in this area. The small irregular fields close in to Parwich are of medieval origin; the long thin fields, as we saw on the Flatts, were created from the strips of the medieval open field system as that system was breaking down; fields resulting from various later enclosures. Firstly there was a private enclosure in ? reached by agreement amongst the various landowners (list names), these fields can be seen ?? Secondly the large fields with very straight walls date from the Parliamentary Enclosure of 1791, when the common grazing of Hawkslow was divided up and improved.
29. Flaxdale: This place name appears in documents from at least the thirteenth century, indicating that flax was grown here from early times. Flax was used to create linen until cheaper cotton was imported from the North American colonies some four hundred years later. Presumably there was weaving happening in the village, though the first record we have of this is a court case in 17?? when some yarn put out to dry by the weaver ? Ball was stolen. However by this date it is most likely that by this date wool would be all that was woven locally. Flax is a thirsty crop (check this is true) and there is evidence that the area either side of the modern drive to Middle Hills Farm was artificially irrigated. A natural brook course runs along the lower east side of this field, but in the hedgerow on the west upper side of this field is a man-made water channel. Presumably this channel took water from the brook to irrigate this field.
30. Tithe Barn Cottage: Although the walls now only stand to 3 or 4 feet, this cottage was inhabited within living memory. Tithes were a tax within each parish collected as a percentage of everything produced. The original purpose of this tax was to maintain the church and clergy. In a minority of parishes the tithes continued to be paid to the holder of the living, who would have been, as in Bradbourne, a rector. However, often the tithes went to a monastery or bishop who in turn appointed a curate or vicar to the living, either paying him a fixed salary or giving him only a portion of the tithes, known as the lesser tithes. The significance of this to parish clergy can be seen comparing the incomes in ???? of the rector of Bradbourne at £? and the vicar of Parwich at £?. As Parwich originated as a chapelry of St Oswald’s in Ashbourne which in turn was held by Lincoln Cathedral, the main proportion of the tithes (the greater tithes) was payable to the Dean and Chapter in Lincoln. When the tithes are belong to an individual or institution beyond the parish there is a need for a collection point and storage facility, which traditionally was a tithe barn. Presumably the name Tithe Barn Cottage suggests that either the Parwich tithe barn was in this area, or that the Cottage was an early barn conversion. One wonders why a more central location wasn’t chosen, unless there were a number of tithe barns located near the various open fields around Parwich. The system of tithes became even more confusing after Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries, when often the recipients of the tithes would be a lay person. Also the system of collecting a portion of income in kind was fraught with difficulty: how do you divide up things that might not be uniform; who decides whether you take the best calves or the poorest ones; etc. Early in the nineteenth century it was decided to replace collection in kind with payment in cash. As part of this process parish were mapped in detail, the Parwich tithe map being compiled in 1843. The Tithe Barn Cottage appears on the Parwich Tithe map as ………. Censuses?
31. The Sink Hole: It is not unusual in limestone area to have holes where streams disappear under ground only to re-emerge somewhere else. Behind Tithe Barn Cottage is a surprisingly large sink hole fed by the brook running down Flaxdale. Indeed the Cottage was built surprisingly close to it. Unfortunately this sink hole has been used as a rubbish tip.

Take the next footpath going up the trackway on your left just after the farm buildings on the right, known as Flaxdale Holding. Follow the footpath through the fields until you reach the lane by the School.

32. Flaxdale Holding: This range of buildings was erected by Sir John Crompton-Inglefield who lived at Parwich Hall from 193? To 1965. He bred and showed ? cattle, with these buildings serving as the home farm. Because Parwich Hall had largely absentee owners from the start of the eighteenth century, there was no need for a home farm to serve the Hall.
33. Sunken brook course: On the left as it approaches the road, the brook course is remarkably deep. It is likely that this is not natural and one wonders the reason for this. One possibility is that there was a pond and a dam here, perhaps the dam that gave Dam Lane its name. As already mentioned we know there was acorn mill in Parwich, but not what sort of mill it was. Is it possible that this was part of the water supply to a water mill?
34. Mill Croft: The last field before you come out on the lane by the School is called Mill Croft on the 1843 Tithe Map. This may relate to a water mill somewhere in the valley bottom, but also at the top of the hill is a slight mound that might possibly be the site of a windmill. As already mentioned the water supply would mean a watermill relying on this brook, would only be able to work all year, but similarly Parwich, even on this ridge would not be a great location for a windmill.

Turn left down the lane passing Parwich School on your left, continuing straight on coming out onto Main Street. Continue east back to the Green.

35. Parwich Hall: Looking over the roves of Parwich School gives one of the best views of Parwich Hall and the terraced parts of the gardens. What you see of the house is mainly Georgian, but this hides an earlier Tudor building, thought to have been a tower house similar to North Lees Hall near Hathersage (?). Within the Levinge family there is a tradition that they built this house around 1550, though the first documentary evidence of them in the village is when they bought the main part of the manor from the Cokaynes of Ashbourne in 160? However it is possible that they were already in the village as tenants of the Cokaynes by that date. Presumably this building replaced an older medieval building but we have no definite information on where the previous hall was located. Further we have no information about any tenants in chief in the village from Colne in 1086 up to the arrival of the Levinge family, raising the possibility that there was no local tenant in chief. Of the Tudor Hall the only visible features are to be seen in the undercroft. In the garden the first brick terrace is made of bricks dating to around the reign of Queen Ann (1702 to ?), suggesting that there was some redevelopment of the Hall within a few years of the Sir Richard Levinge’s relocation to Ireland in 1702. It is interesting to speculate why his son, Sir ?, engaged in such a substantial rebuild of the house in 1747 when they were living in much grander properties in Ireland. Under the ownership of the Evans family from 1814 the Hall was used as the Vicarage. The Lewis family inherited a share of the Parwich estate from their Evans relatives, and the Rev Claude Lewis added an extension on the west side of the Hall (the left hand side as you look at it), also he had the garden extended in 1911 by Sir ? ? The upper floor on this extension was added in 193? by the then owner Sir John Crompton-Inglefield. The Hall steadings located across the road from the house are an interesting much altered range of buildings. The oldest arched central section would have housed the coach house and stables to the Tudor hall, but it has also been suggested that this may have been adapted from an earlier house. The north end of the range was added to provide more stabling and farm buildings for the Georgian Hall. The upper room in this section nearest the hall was used as a school room for village children in the first part of the nineteenth century, and the southern section as added or adapted at the same time to provide a house for the school master, both these were replaced when the present school was built.
36. Parwich School: The present School was built in 1861 by Sir William Evans, the westerly section originally being the school masters house. The school remained in private ownership until the Rev. Claude Lewis sold it to the Local Education Authority in 1918. In 196? the school house was incorporated into the school itself and the new rear classroom was added in 200?
37. The Square: The area bounded by the Hall, the Hall steadings, School Lane and Pump Hill is known as the Square, presumably because it makes up a square shape. In 181? It was the site of a major village celebrating, possibly to celebrate the exile of Napoleon to Elba. Sometime after the Evans purchase of the estate it was turned into allotments, being described as ‘new gardens’ on the 1843 Tithe Map. These allotments continued in use up to around 1930. The long low house in School Lane is a former farm as was a house demolished to make way for the present School and a house on the site of Green Gates on Pump Hill.
38. The old Parwich Shop: (Check Censuses) The brick extension was built in 190? at a cost of ? It was the last separate shop in the village and continued trading until 2008. The Shop in the Sycamore Inn opened a month or so after its closure.
39. Fernlea: This house is of particular interest in that it is the most recent building in the village, built in 174?, known to have been built with a thatched roof. Thatched roofs have a shallow pitch than tiled roofs and the older shallow pitched roof timbers still remain under the present roof. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries it was home to the village doctors including two generations of Twiggs and ? Potter.
40. Sunniside (the Old Post Office):
41. Flaxdale House: This grand village farm house was built in 17??, with the date stone indicating two sets of initials ?R and ?R. Normally one would expect such paired initial to be a husband and wife, but in the Roe family who are thought to have built i there are no suitable couples. However, there is a possible father and son pairing, ? and ? Roe. Our first information on the Roe family is in 15?? when they bought land from Matthew Hawley and his father, including land in Flaxdale, on the Sitterlow end of the Flatts, behind the Hill and elsewhere. Matthew Hawley emigrated to New England and still held some land in Parwich when he died in 15??. It is probable that this land was tenanted by the Sampson Roe, who is taxed for ‘Halloy’s (Hawley’s) Estate’ in 1705, and probable that this was also bought by the Roes. By 17?? the Roe family would be consolidating their Parwich farm, be benefiting from the improvement in farming incomes, and want to display their prosperity. In the nineteenth century Flaxdale House and the farmland scattered around the parish was tenanting by ? Swindell, a younger son of another family of long standing Parwich freeholders, however the property still owned by Roes living elsewhere. Presumably the house took its name from the area Flaxdale which was included in the land farmed from here. Flaxdale House continued as a working farm into living memory, though between 19?? And 19?? it was a YHA youth hostel.

If you have more information about the route do add a comment below or email parwich@hotmail.co.uk.

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A community website for the residents of Parwich, Alsop-en-le-Dale, Ballidon and Pikehall in the Derbyshire Peak District.