Chinley, Buxworth and Brownside is a civil parish within the High Peak district, which is in the county of Derbyshire, England. Partially rural with several villages contained within, its population was 2,794 residents in the 2021 census. The parish is north west of London, north west of the county city of Derby, and north of the nearest market town of Chapel-en-le-Frith. Being close to the edge of the county border, it shares a boundary with the parishes of Chapel-en-le-Frith, Edale, Hayfield, New Mills and Whaley Bridge. A substantial portion of the parish is within the Peak District national park.
Geography
Location
Placement and size Chinley, Buxworth and Brownside parish is surrounded by the following local Derbyshire places:
Hayfield and New Mills to the north Chapel-en-le-Frith and Whitehough to the south Barber Booth and Edale to the east Furness Vale and Whaley Bridge to the west.
It is in area, in length and in width, within the western portion of the High Peak district, and is to the north of the county. The parish is roughly bounded by land features such as the Kinder Scout nature reserve to the north and east, the Chinley-Edale rail link and the A6 road to the south, and the River Goyt to the west.
Settlements There are areas of built environment mainly to the south of the parish, outside of this being essentially rural with dispersed settlements and farms throughout. The main locales are:
Chinley Buxworth
Chinley
This is to the south of the parish, hemmed in between the Black Brook to the south and hillside in the north. It is the primary location of the parish, taking up prominence in the title as it is the largest urban area. Chinley maintains core local services such as food stores and hospitality, other retail, schools, railway station and churches.
Buxworth
Lying to the west of Chinley, it is a more scattered, less dense area, with the Black Brook and A6 road cutting through the settlement. Public functions here include school, public house, churches and canal marina.
Other places Community areas, villages and hamlets within the parish include:
Bridgeholm Green, east of Chinley Brierley Green, east of Buxworth, north of the railway line Chapel Milton, to the south east Chinley Head, in the far north Leaden Knowl, west of Chinley New Smithy, north of Chapel Milton Breckend/Wash, east of Chapel Milton and New Smithy (this crosses the boundary into Chapel-en-le-Frith parish)
Routes The key road is the A6 from Derby to Manchester, which bypasses many of the parish populations centres and is to the south of Buxworth. The A624 from Chapel-en-le-Frith to Glossop passes through Chapel Milton, New Smithy and Chinley Head. The B6062 spurs off this at New Smithy into Chinley, through Buxworth, and connects to the A6 close to Whaley Bridge and Furness Vale.
Environment
Landscape The Black Brook in the south forms a flat valley in which much of the populated areas exist. Outside these, it is primarily farming and pasture land throughout the parish, with patches of forested areas, mainly along the A6 corridor to the south west and at Chinley Head to the north. The parish is hilly bar the areas around the core settlements which are in the river valley. It contains some raised areas and slopes primarily around the national park region in the north and east. The location encompasses a number of Dark Peak characteristics, such as gritstone upland, pastures and moorland ridges and hills.
Geology Throughout much of the western areas of the parish and river basins are superficial deposits of the Till, Devensian - Diamicton range. These deposits formed between 116 and 11.8 thousand years ago, dating from the Quaternary period. The bedrock of the parish consists of mudstones, siltstones and sandstones of various types such as Milnrow, Chatsworth, Roaches and Kinderscout grits, most formed between 329 and 319 million years ago during the Carboniferous period. There are superficial deposits of coal west of Chinley and peat in the upland area towards Brown Knoll, formed between 2.588 million years ago and the present during the Quaternary period. In the vicinity of South Head to the north of the parish are several shake holes.
Hydrological features The parish western edge is formed by the River Goyt. Peak Forest Canal runs parallel to the river to the west. A tributary of the Goyt, Black Brook runs along much of the parish south boundary and doubles as a canal. The Otter Brook rises at Chinley Head and flows south through Chinley into Black Brook. Hockham Brook is another tributary that forms a portion of the eastern boundary. Roych Clough and other unnamed streams are on higher ground to the far east, some of which also marks an eastern edge of the parish.
Land elevation The parish lowest point is along the far north west boundary by the River Goyt, at . The land rises towards the north and east, Buxworth is in the range of and Chinley . Outside the settled areas, Browne Hill south of Buxworth is at , the parish rising more steeply once within the Peak District boundary, with several high points including Chinley Churn South at , Chinley Churn North at and South Head at , all north of Chinley. The peak is along the north eastern border, by Brown Knoll at .
History
Toponymy The locales were not listed in the Domesday 1086 landholding survey, likely because of the wider area's designation as hunting forest owned by the king during the period. The three names demarcate the parish into informal areas.
Chinley first appeared in the late 13th century, recorded in public records with the alternate spellings Chynley(e), Chinley(e), Chinle and Chinlege. It meant 'clearing in a deep valley'.
Buxworth was Buggisworth(e), Bugg(e)sworth(e), Bugg(e)sword also first seen in the 13th century, possibly derived from an Anglo Saxon manor owner Bugca, meaning 'Bugca's enclosure', but more likely to derive from Ralph Bugge from Nottingham who became the Bailiff of the Forest in the Peak in 1250, whose enclosure covered the present area. It was later changed by local government order from Bugsworth to Buxworth in 1935.
The name Brownside is a now little-used reference to a hamlet east of the A624 road that was first reported in the 16th century, grouping a number of scattered farms close by Breckend and Wash, and is possibly in reference to the dark, peaty landscape contained within the upper slopes of Brown Knoll which is now part of the Peak District National Park to the far east of the parish.
Parish and environment
Prehistory to medieval era and early economy The area has unearthed few prehistoric and early history remains, such as flint scatter along the banks of the Roych Clough of unknown date or era, although similar finds in the region are estimated to be from the early Mesolithic to late Neolithic (10000 BC to 2351 BC) period. Also undated are the possible remains of a tumulus on Chinley Churn or Roman (43 AD to 410 AD) camp, which could be simple earthworks of a later period. A suggested route of a nearby Roman road from Buxton to Glossop to the east, comes through Wash village and follows the path of the present day A624 Hayfield Road. A carved stone head with Celt stylings, appearing to date from much older although generally were medieval creations, was found in the Hough area north of Buxworth after the millennium. Black Brook was named from antiquity, the darkness of its waters derived from the peat surrounding its upland source.
Chinley was also known alternately as Mainstonefield in the Middle Ages and Medieval period. The wider area was part of the Royal Forest of High Peak, established since the time of the Norman Conquest of 1066 by William the Conqueror. It spread across over , and the parish was then a part of the Campagna ward of the forest. William Peveril was the initial steward and he was based at Peveril Castle, his descendants continued to oversee the forest laws, but the area was later repossessed by King Henry II after the family fell out of favour. The forest was granted away several times since to others including royal sons, until coming under the ownership of the Duchy of Lancaster at the end of the 14th century. Merevale Abbey, a Cistercian religious order was founded in 1148 and in the early 12th century granted a herbage near Chinley Head, now known as Monk's Meadow Farm, the Duchy however continued to collect rent on the holdings for several centuries. In around 1157 the ancient parish of Glossop was established, Bowden Middlecale was a southern subdivision for taxation reasons, and it eventually contained ten hamlets including Chinley, Buxworth and Brownside.
One of the first instances of industry was recorded at what would become Chapel Milton, which was noted in records from the late 13th century, the Kings Mill was reported by 1391 as a corn mill owned by the monarch, and this forming the placename. The Chapel prefix is a reference to the nearby town of Chapel-en-le-Frith, as the village had no local religious buildings. Forest wardens were living in Chinley and Buxworth before the 14th century to assist in upholding the law of the forest, but by this time the growing population had begun encroaching on the area, breaching laws by using land for farming, obtaining fuel and building houses. Although fines and other severe forms of punishment were at first routinely handed out to offenders, by the mid-17th century, enforcement had softened and locals instead being charged rent or taxed.
North-west Derbyshire is said to be ‘a vast extent of rough grazing’, with ‘short, cool summers, harsh winters and 60 inches of rain', and with a resulting landscape that sets hard expectations with what is achievable when farming. Up to the 16th century this was generally a mix of subsistence farming based on sheep, cattle, corn and oats. Due to this it was designated hunting forest, as well as forest rules slowing local development, until the time of the Industrial Revolution era, the area of Chinley, Buxworth and Brownside only contained dispersed farmsteads and scattered residences, the nearest settlements being at Chapel-en-le-Frith and Hayfield. Although there was an attempt near to Chinley in 1569 to enclose common land, this was opposed by locals violently with riots, with further disputes in the middle 1570s. The Duchy's herbage was subdivided in 1569 and the portions rented out to local farmers. Chinley eventually was enclosed by 1628. and the arrangement remaining for some centuries until the late 1800s when it was sold. By 1590 the Earl of Shrewsbury had purchased from Elizabeth I much of the Longendale estate surrounding Glossop village, and a map prepared showed the Chinley herbage surrounded by lands described as 'great waste' but which did contain some settled areas.
End of forest era, later industrial period