Edale is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the

Peak District The Peak District is an Highland, upland area in central-northern England, at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. It is subdivi ...

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

, England, whose population was 353 at the 2011 Census. Edale, with an area of , is in the Borough of High Peak. Edale is best known to walkers as the start, or southern end, of the

Pennine Way The Pennine Way is a National Trail in England, with a small section in Scotland. The trail stretches for from Edale, in the northern Derbyshire Peak District, north through the Yorkshire Dales and Northumberland National Park and ends at Kir ...

and, to less ambitious walkers, as a starting point for evening or day walks. The village is accessible by generally hourly railway services from

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

and

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

. There are two

pub A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the late 17th century, to differentiate private ho ...

s serving

real ale Real ale is the name coined by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) for ale that is "brewed from traditional ingredients, matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed, and served without the use of extraneous ca ...

and food.

History

As spelt, the name is first recorded in 1732. Earlier recorded versions of the name are ''Aidele'' (1086), ''Heydale'' (1251), ''Eydale'' (1275), ''Eydal'' (1285) and ''Edall'' (1550). Historically, Edale was the name of the valley of the River Noe. From the

Norman Conquest of England The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, French people, French, Flemish people, Flemish, and Bretons, Breton troops, all led by the Du ...

it was in the royal Forest of High Peak and at its centre is the Edale Cross, which marked the boundary of the three wards at the Forest, Campana, Hopedale and Longdendale. Settlement in the valley consists of several ''booths'', originally established in the 13th century as 'vaccaries' (cattle farms) along the valley of the River Noe, which have since developed into the hamlets of Upper Booth (once Crowdenley Booth and Over Booth), Barber Booth (once Whitmorely Booth), Grindsbrook Booth, Ollerbrook Booth and Nether Booth (also known as Lady Booth and, formerly, Lower Booth).

Cotton mill

Edale is the site of a historic cotton mill built in 1795 on the site of a corn mill and tannery by Nicholas Cresswell in partnership with James Harrison, Robert Blackwell and Joseph Fletcher. Workers were brought in from the towns and accommodated in cottages and in a nearby house called Skinner's Hall. Many of the women workers walked each day from Castleton over the thousand-foot Hollins Cross pass. The mill continued spinning cotton until around 1940 but then fell into disuse. It was restored in the early 1970s by the

Landmark Trust The Landmark Trust is a British architectural conservation, building conservation charitable organization, charity, founded in 1965 by John Smith (Conservative politician), Sir John and Lady Smith, that rescues buildings of historic interest or ...

who have since sold off all of the apartments.

Countryside

As well as being the start of the Pennine Way (the official start is the Old Nag's Head, a former smithy dating back to 1577), the village is surrounded by walking country which is excellent in its own right. The village lies in the Vale of Edale and is surrounded by hills: the plateau of

Kinder Scout Kinder Scout is a moorland plateau and National nature reserve (United Kingdom), National Nature Reserve in the Dark Peak of the Derbyshire Peak District in England. Part of the moor, at above sea level, is the highest point in the Peak Distric ...

to the north, where the highest point in the parish is found, the Great Ridge (running west to east between Rushup Edge over Mam Tor to Lose Hill) to the south and east, Win Hill to the east (outside the parish), and Dalehead (Brown Knoll, Horsehill Tor and Colborne) to the west. Almost the entire parish is over 200m above sea level; only along the River Noe east from Carr House does the elevation drop below this level. The bed and banks of the River Noe from Barber Booth upstream to approximately the contour constitute the Edale SSSI, cited for geological interest. The "important exposures" of the Edale

Shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of Clay mineral, clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g., Kaolinite, kaolin, aluminium, Al2Silicon, Si2Oxygen, O5(hydroxide, OH)4) and tiny f ...

s here contain fossils of technical interest.

Amenities

There is a

youth hostel A hostel is a form of low-cost, short-term shared sociable lodging where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed in a dormitory sleeping 4–20 people, with shared use of a lounge and usually a kitchen. Rooms can be private or shared - mixe ...

about a mile from the village centre, several B&Bs and both pubs also provide accommodation. The pubs also provide food and there are two cafés. In 2006, a new information and visitor centre was opened at Fieldhead; it was developed by the Moors for the Future partnership and is owned and operated by the Peak District National Park Authority. Edale is also a popular camping village, with two major campsites and numerous others in the surrounding area.

Media

Regional TV news comes from Leeds-based

BBC Yorkshire BBC Yorkshire is one of the English regions of the BBC. It was formed from the division of the former BBC North region into BBC Yorkshire and BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, based in Kingston upon Hull. Serving West, North and South Yorkshir ...

and

ITV Yorkshire ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...

. Television signals are received from the local relay transmitter. Local radio stations are

BBC Radio Derby BBC Radio Derby is the Local BBC Radio, BBC's local radio station serving Derbyshire and East Staffordshire. It broadcasts on frequency modulation, FM, AM broadcasting, AM, Digital Audio Broadcasting, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from s ...

and Greatest Hits Radio Derbyshire (High Peak) (formerly High Peak Radio). The village is served by the local newspapers the ''Peak Advertiser'' and the '' Buxton Advertiser''.

Transport

Edale railway station lies on the trans-Pennine

Hope Valley line The Hope Valley line is a trans-Pennine railway line in Northern England, linking Manchester with Sheffield. It was completed in 1894. Passenger services on the line are operated by Northern Trains, East Midlands Railway and TransPennine ...

and receives a reasonably frequent service for such a rural area. The typical off-peak is one train an hour in both directions, with some gaps at certain times of the day, to

and to

Manchester Piccadilly Manchester Piccadilly is the main railway station of the city of Manchester, in the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester, England. Opened originally as Store Street in 1842, it was renamed Manchester London Road in 1847 and became Manchest ...

via Marple. Services are operated by

Northern Trains Northern Trains, Trade name, trading as Northern, is a British train operating company that operates Commuter rail, commuter and Inter-city rail, medium-distance intercity services in the North of England. It is owned by DfT Operator for the Dep ...

. The short but narrow, twisting and dead-end road to the village centre is not suitable for visitors' cars and parking in the village centre is almost impossible. However, there is a large pay-and-display car park near the village hall and parking for rail users at the railway station. Additional parking near the station is provided at busy times by the Parish Council.

Famous residents

* Nicholas Cresswell (1750–1804), native farmer and diarist in America 1774–1777 * Peter Cropper (1945–2015), violinist * Berlie Doherty, novelist, poet, playwright and screenwriter *

Anthony Favell Anthony Rowland "Tony" Favell (born 29 Мay 1939), is a former British Conservative Member of Parliament. Parliamentary career Favell first stood for Parliament in 1979 for Bolsover, but was beaten by Labour's Dennis Skinner. He later becam ...

, Conservative MP * Bella Hardy, folk musician *Frederick ('Fred') Heardman,

British Empire Medal The British Empire Medal (BEM; formerly British Empire Medal for Meritorious Service) is a British and Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth award for meritorious civil or military service worthy of recognition by the Monarchy of the United Ki ...

recipient * Mark Wallington, writer

Gallery

Edale.JPG, Grindsbrook Booth, Edale Old Nags Head.jpg, The Old Nags Head pub Vale of Edale001.jpg, Vale of Edale Ringing Roger - geograph.org.uk - 267648.jpg, Ringing Roger

Panorama

References

External links

Edale Information Edale.org.ukEdale Village Hall and Playing FieldEdale Primary School
{{authority control Civil parishes in Derbyshire Towns and villages of the Peak District Villages in Derbyshire High Peak, Derbyshire