Matlock

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MATLOCK - Description from Pigot's 1835 Directory

MATLOCK is a village and parish, in the hundred of Wirksworth; 144 miles from London, 42 S.S.E. from Manchester, 34 N.W. from Nottingham, 18 N.W. by N. from Derby, 14 N.N.E. from Ashbourn, and rather more than 3 N. from Wirksworth. The village is most delightfully situate, partly in a valley, and partly on the side of a hill, on the eastern banks of the river Derwent, and at a short distance from the main road. It is chiefly built of stone, and at its entrance is a neat stone bridge; at some distance from which, on the verge of a most romantic rock, and upon a precipice almost perpendicular, stands the church, dedicated to St. Giles, shrouded amidst trees whose luxuriant foliage spreads over the face of the grey rock.

The building is an ancient erection, with a square tower and arched roof, the interior of which is covered with paintings, taken from various scriptural subjects. In many parts of the church yard the graves are cut out of the solid rock: the dean of Lincoln is patron of the living, which is a rectory. Fairs for cattle are held here on February 25th, April 2nd, May 9th, and October 24th. The parish of Matlock contained, in 1821, 2,920 inhabitants, and in 1831, 3,262.

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MATLOCK BATH, about a mile and a half S.S.W. from the village, is seated in a valley, amidst scenery of unparalleled grandeur and variety. The appendages of picturesque beauty are here so happily united, that they cannot fall in raising those indescribable associations invariably attending a mind attuned to the contemptation of such sublime scenes - which to delineate, the powers and variations of the pencil must be employed, as alone adequate. To enter into a particular description of the petrifying wells, the numerous caverns, and the variety of fancy articles manufactured and produced here, and to do justice to the general interest, would form a little volume.

The Royal Museums, where articles fabricated at this place (with a variety of other fancy goods), are constantly on exhibition and sale, and open to the public daily, free of expense, from ten in the morning till nine at night, under the management of Mr. Vallance & Mr. Abbott: a library, and news-room has been added to the museum of Mrs. Mawe's.

The diseases to which the Matlock waters are peculiarly applicable are, rheumatism, and all those complaints that are increased by a relaxed state of the muscular powers. The fountain bath is situate at the foot of the towering eminence, called the 'Heights of Abraham', to which lofty altitude there is an easy ascent by a zigzag path, embellished with plants and flowers. The two principal hotels have baths attached to them, the 'Old Bath Hotel', and the 'New Bath Hotel', where very superior accommodations are afforded to the visiters resorting to this delightful region; in the former are an elegant concert or assembly room, a spacious dining-room, and a billiard-table. Numerous boarding and lodging houses, also, are adapted by their conductors to the comfort and convenience of the inmates.

Boats are constantly ready, at a spot nearly opposite the old bath, to convey the visiters to the other side of the river, or to enable them to view the magnificent scenery, as they glide upon the surface of the transparent stream. Torr Cottage, the late residence of Colonel Payne, and now in the occupation of H. Collingwood, Esq. is a neat gothic building, placed in perhaps the most delightful and romantic situation in the county; it commands the finest view of the High Torr (a perpendicular rock, rising from the bed of the river Derwent to the height of about 300 feet), and a bird's eye view ofthe variegated, wide and rich valley, hills, rocks, and woodlands, for several miles: the river Derwent, which abounds with fish, washes the garden grounds and premises. Amongst the natural curiosities are lunar rainbows, which are not unfrequent here; and the other eminences deserving attention are Masson hill, and the romantic cliff forming the boundary of the dale.

There is a commodious chapel here for the independent denomination of dissenters. and at Cromford Bridge is the episcopal chapel, begun by Sir Richard Arkwright, and completed by his son, to which there is access by the beautiful grounds of Willersley Castle; the Rev. Richard Ward is the incumbent.

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

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