Tideswell - Peak District Villages

http://www.peakdistrictonline.co.uk presents Tideswell. Tideswell straggles along either side of a twisting, narrow valley on the moors of the limestone plateau between Litton and Wheston, and about a mile to the west of the main A623 Baslow - Chapel-en-le-Frith road. It forms the point of a triangle on the map along with Bakewell and Buxton, which are seven miles south east and the same distance south west respectively.

When the Romans arrived here almost two thousand years ago in 60 AD they would have found a small settlement of Ancient Britons living in mud and wood huts along the banks of a swift flowing stream. Today the stream is culverted and runs beneath the streets of a thriving, award winning rural community which has won the coveted East Midlands In Bloom competition three times in the last five years.

From all accounts Tideswell seems to be a place with an identity crisis,- too small for a town and too big for a village, and whilst the War Memorial at the end of Church Street honours `the men of this town' who perished in both World Wars, the majority of it`s 2000 residents prefer to describe themselves as villagers. Regardless of its designation Tideswell remains a place of great charm and character with interesting architecture and a fascinating history.

The Saxons ruled here after the Romans had departed and in the 7th century Tideswell was named `Tidi's Wall` after the Saxon Chieftain Tidi. The name remained with a variety of spellings until the 17th century when it became fashionable to suppose that the ebbing and flowing well described as one of Croston`s `Seven Wonders of The Peak` had created the present name of Tideswell.

The `tiding well` which was an intermittent spring produced by a natural syphon in the rock ceased to ebb and flow about 1790, but may still be seen in the garden of Craven House in Manchester Road.

Tiddiswell is recorded in the Domesday Book as a Royal Demesne and Berewick in the Royal Manor of Hope given by William the Conqueror to his illegitimate son, William Peverell who occupied Peverell Castle at nearby Castleton.

Peak District Online Recommended Places

The George Hotel - Tideswell
http://www.peakdistrictonline.co.uk/p...

For more information on this village please visit the new Peak District Online Group Village website http://www.peakdistrictvillages.co.uk