Castleton

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CASTLETON - Description from Pigot's 1835 Directory

CASTLETON is a parish and village, in the hundred of High Peak. 164 miles from London, 27 S.E. from Manchester, 10 N.E. from Buxton, and 7 E. from Chapel-en-le-Frith. It is situate at the bottom of the steep eminence, at whose feet the 'Peak Cavern' discloses itself, and the summit of which is occupied by an ancient castle that gives name to the place, This castle was erected by William Peveril, natural son of the Conqueror, and from its situation was called 'the Castle of the Peak', or 'Peak Castle.'

The extent of the ruins evinces the former magnitude of the building; the walls of the castle yard in some places are twenty feet high, and nine feet thick. The keep consists of two stories almost entire, and standing at the south-western point of a precipitous rock, towering above the mouth of the great cavern, to the height of fifty feet; the ruins are only to be approached with difficulty from the north. The entrance of the cave called the 'Peak Cavern', or 'Devil's Cave', is 120 feet in width, 42 in height, and above 90 in receding depth; from hence a gentle descent conducts to the interior of this tremendous hollow, which must be explored by torch-light; the entire length of the excavation is 750 yard and its depth from the surface of the mountain 207.

The buildings of the village are chiefly of stone; and the support of the inhabitants is derived from the mining business, and from the remarkable places in the neighbourhood, - as also from the sale of various ornamental articles formed from spar, which is here-about obtained in great variety and beauty: the mine of flour spar, or 'Blue John', is the only one of its kind in England; and its produce is worked into chimney and other ornaments, slabs, table tops, &c. Among the number of lead mines in this district, the most valuable and ancient is the 'Odin', which he supposed to have been opened in the time of the Danes. The King is lord of the manor; the Duke of Devonshire is grantee, by letters patent from the Crown, and holds a court-baron and court-leet at Easter of Michaelmas, and a court for the recovery of debts under £5.

The places of worship are the parish church, and a chapel for the methodists: the former is dedicated to St. Edmund, and the living is a vicarage, in the patronage of the Bishop of Chester, who is also the impropriate rector; the present incumbent is the Rev. Charles Cecil Bates. Here is a free grammar school, endowed with lands producing £26. per annum, for the education of twenty-three children. Two annual fairs are held, one on the 21st of April, the other on the first Wednesday in October, for the sale of cattle, horses, cloth, cheese, and agricultural produce.

The parish of Castleton, including the chapelry of EDALE, contained, in 1821, 1,428 inhabitants, & in 1831, 1,329.

[Description from Pigot and Co's Commercial Directory for Derbyshire, 1835
Transcribed by Rosemary Lockie ©1999]

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