Flash is a village within the

Staffordshire Moorlands Staffordshire Moorlands is a local government district in Staffordshire, England. Its council, Staffordshire Moorlands District Council, is based in Leek and is located between the city of Stoke-on-Trent and the Peak District National Park. The ...

local government district of England, and the

Peak District The Peak District is an upland area in England at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. It includes the Dark Peak, where moorla ...

National Park. It is currently the highest recognised village in the United Kingdom. Population details taken at the 2011 census can be found under

Quarnford Quarnford is a village and civil parish in the Staffordshire Moorlands district of Staffordshire, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 244, reducing marginally to 242 at the 2011 census. The village is in the Peak Distri ...

. It was an early centre for

Wesleyanism Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan–Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charles W ...

Location and geography

Flash is the main village in

parish. It lies just off the A53 main road about 4 miles southwest of

Buxton Buxton is a spa town in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, England. It is England's highest market town, sited at some above sea level. The parish forms the Staffordshire corner of

Three Shire Heads Three Shire Heads (also known as Three Shires Head) is the point on Axe Edge Moor where Cheshire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire meet, at UK grid reference , or . It is on the River Dane, which marks the Cheshire border in this area. On the east ...

, a

tripoint A tripoint, trijunction, triple point, or tri-border area is a geographical point at which the boundaries of three countries or subnational entities meet. There are 175 international tripoints as of 2020. Nearly half are situated in rivers, l ...

marked by a

packhorse bridge A packhorse bridge is a bridge intended to carry packhorses (horses loaded with sidebags or panniers) across a river or stream. Typically a packhorse bridge consists of one or more narrow (one horse wide) masonry arches, and has low parapets so ...

on the River Dane, where Staffordshire,

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

and Cheshire meet. To the south is Morridge, with a

trig point A triangulation station, also known as a trigonometrical point, and sometimes informally as a trig, is a fixed surveying station, used in geodetic surveying and other surveying projects in its vicinity. The nomenclature varies regionally: they a ...

at at Merryton Low which provides views across the Cheshire plain and

The Roaches The Roaches (from the French ''les roches'' - the rocks) is a prominent rocky ridge above Leek and Tittesworth Reservoir in the Staffordshire Peak District of England. The ridge with its rock formations rises steeply to . Along with Ramsha ...

. Also in this area is Ramshaw Rocks, a part of the range which includes Hen Cloud and The Roaches. The Winking Man is a rock outcrop on Ramshaw Rocks that resembles a human face in profile; its eyehole appears to 'wink' to passing travellers on the A53. East of Flash, and just over the A53, are the heads of the River Dove and

River Manifold The River Manifold is a river in Staffordshire, England. It is a tributary of the River Dove (which also flows through the Peak District, forming the boundary between Derbyshire and Staffordshire). The Manifold rises at Flash Head just sout ...

. Further south is the head of the

River Churnet The River Churnet is a river in Staffordshire, England. It is a tributary of the River Dove. Etymology The origins of the name "Churnet" are unknown, though it is thought to derive from the pre-English, British name for the river. Course ...

and to the north is the head of the

River Goyt The River Goyt is a tributary of the River Mersey in North West England. Etymology The name ''Goyt'' may be derived from the Middle English ''gote'', meaning "a watercourse, a stream". Derivation from the Welsh ''gwyth'' meaning "vein" has bee ...

. The River Dane also rises within the parish.

Highest village in Britain

At above sea level, Flash claims to be the highest village in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

. In 2007 the claim was upheld by the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

, which settled a dispute with its rival claimant,

Wanlockhead Wanlockhead is a village in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, nestling in the Lowther Hills and south of Leadhills at the head of the Mennock Pass, which forms part of the Southern Uplands. It is Scotland's highest village, at an elevation of ar ...

in Dumfries and Galloway. The

Ordnance Survey Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of 1745. There was a ...

measured the highest house in each village and Flash was higher, although the results were disputed by residents of the Scottish village. More recently the claim has been disputed by the residents of

Nenthead Nenthead ( ) in the county of Cumbria is one of England's highest villages, at around . It was not built until the middle of the 18th century and was one of the earliest purpose-built industrial villages in Britain. History Nenthead was a ma ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. C ...

. There is, however, no doubt that the former

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

Chapel is the highest in Britain; the certainty is helped by the scarcity of Methodist chapels in the

Southern Uplands The Southern Uplands ( gd, Na Monaidhean a Deas) are the southernmost and least populous of mainland Scotland's three major geographic areas (the other two being the Central Lowlands and the Grampian Mountains and the Highlands, as illustrate ...

The village

During the first half of the 19th century the population of the parish was around 700; it had reduced to half that by the end of the 1800s. In 1851 there were 40 agricultural labourers, about the same number of silk workers, and almost as many colliers. There were also stonemasons, dressmakers, blacksmiths and cordwainers, and a shoemaker, errand boy, wheelwright, game-keeper, grocer, peddler and tailor, as well as a number of house servants, 275 young people and 50 scholars. At one time 29 families were receiving weekly relief and 23 families occasional relief, nearly a quarter of the population. The first record of

coalmining Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron fro ...

in the parish comes from 1401 when Thomas Smith took a year's lease on the 'vein coal' of Black Brook, near Upper Hulme. There were a large number of coal pits in the area, including Orchard Common, Blackclough, Hope, Goldsitch and Knotbury. They were worked throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, and some into the early 20th century, for both commercial and domestic use. Flash is an isolated community with a small population; it previously had a school attended by as few as four pupils (the school is now closed). Flash previously had a reputation for being a centre for illegal activities such as

cock fighting A cockfight is a blood sport, held in a ring called a cockpit. The history of raising fowl for fighting goes back 6,000 years. The first documented use of the ''word'' gamecock, denoting use of the cock as to a "game", a sport, pastime or ente ...

and counterfeiting ('Flash money'). According to some sources, the counterfeit money manufactured at Flash used to be exchanged at the nearby

(where Staffordshire, Cheshire and

meet, and where prizefighting was also said to have taken place). The village currently has a village shop, Flash Bar Stores, and a

brewery A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of bee ...

, Flash Brewery, which has bottled beer suitable for

vegan Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal product—particularly in diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan. ...

s. St Paul's is the parish church of Quarnford, in the middle of Flash village. The church was rebuilt in 1901 to the design by Buxton architect William Radford Bryden and is a Grade II listed building.

Methodist history

Wesleyan

Methodism Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's br ...

was so well established in Flash during the 18th century that a chapel was built as early as 1784. At this time, there were 61 Methodist " members of Society". This account suggests that Flash became a centre from which Methodism and spread into other neighbouring villages, such as Hollinsclough.Dyson, op cit''

records the conversion of John Lomas who later built Holinsclough Chape

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Notes and references

External links