Hayfield
|
Hayfield from the northwest |
Hayfield () is a village and
civil parish in the borough of
High Peak, in the county of
Derbyshire,
England.
The village is located on the
River Sett between the towns of
Glossop,
New Mills and
Chapel-en-le-Frith. The village appears in the
Domesday Book as
Hedfeld and lies on the line of a
Roman road from
Buxton to
Melandra Castle, and on an important former packhorse route between
Cheshire and
Yorkshire.
The civil parish includes Hayfield village itself, along with
Little Hayfield,
Rowarth and
Birch Vale.
A mile east of the village is the confluence of the rivers
Sett and
Kinder at Bowden Bridge (a
packhorse bridge), from where
rights-of-way lead past Kinder Reservoir (built 1911) and on to the
Kinder Scout plateau. The
Mass trespass of Kinder Scout started from Bowden Bridge Quarry in
1932. Hayfield is a popular
walking centre; it lies on the
Pennine Bridleway long-distance route and is the home of the Kinder
Mountain Rescue Team.
A 19th-century railway line from New Mills closed in 1970 and the dismantled trackbed now forms a popular 2½-mile recreational route, the
Sett Valley Trail. A short-lived continuation to the line was built in the early 20th century to convey materials and workmen during the construction of Kinder Reservoir. A famous photograph shows a locomotive crossing Church Street; the line skirted the cricket pitch and continued up the Sett valley, and its course can still be traced in places.
Hayfield
church (the Parish Church of
St. Matthew) was founded in the 14th century but was largely rebuilt in 1817–18; remnants of the earlier building are visible in the
crypt. The tower was built in 1793 and raised (and a clock added) in 1894. The interior is galleried on three sides and contains a notable monument of 1786 to Joseph Hague, moved here from Glossop church
[Pevsner, Nikolaus (1953) (revised Elizabeth Williamson 1978). The Buildings of England: Derbyshire. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-071008-6]. Other than the church, Fox Hall (dated 1625) and an adjoining barn (possibly earlier) are the earliest surviving buildings in the village.
An annual
May Queen procession is held in the village, as are
sheepdog trials at nearby
Little Hayfield in September.
Well dressing has recently been introduced. An annual
jazz festival was discontinued in the late 1980s.
*
Hayfield Parish website
