Ashover

Ashover contains plenty of historical connections, including the site of a Druid temple on one of the surrounding hills. There is plenty of evidence of its past heritage of local industries, which include lead mining and nail making amongst many others. For visitors who chance to be this way, Ashover’s splendid Parish Church of All Saints dating in parts from the 13th century is worth a visit.

Viewed from the southern rocky ridge known as The Fabric (apparently because it provided the fabric for much of the local building stone) and with the monolith of Cocking Tor in the foreground, Ashover can be seen as a scattered village filling the pleasantly wooded valley of the River Amber. The name of this village means ‘ash tree slope’ and though there are, indeed, many ash trees in the area, other varieties, including oak and birch, also flourish. Ashover was a flourishing industrial town in the past. As well as lead mining, which dated back to Roman times, there was nail making, lace, ropes, stocking weaving and malting. The ropes were said to be the longest and strongest in the country.

One part of the village is called the Rattle because of the sound of the looms rattling in the making of stockings. The industries, with the exception of quarrying and fluorspar have all died out and the work is now chiefly farming. Ashover lies just outside the boundary of the Peak District National Park but it still captures the typical character of a Peak village. At the heart of the largest parish in northeast Derbyshire, the village is chiefly constructed from limestone and gritstone, which were both quarried locally. The ruined shell of Eastwood Hall, once a large fortified Elizabethan manor house, also lies in the village. Owned over the years by several prominent Derbyshire families, including the Willoughbys, the house was blown up by the Roundheads during the Civil War.

The Parish Church of All Saints, with its 15th-century tower, is a prominent landmark in the valley. It houses the alabaster tomb of Thomas Babington and his wife, said by many to be the best tomb in Derbyshire. There are also some handsome brasses. What is surprising is the lead-lined Norman font, described by Pevsner as ‘the most important Norman font in the country’. It is the only lead-lined font in an area that is so well-known for its mining. The Crispin Inn, next to the church, claims to date from the time of Agincourt, 1415. However, it is far more likely that, like many other buildings in the parish, it dates from the 17th century. The inn’s name reflects one of Ashover’s traditional trades: St Crispin is the patron saint of shoemakers and cobblers.