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Baslow
Baslow is comprised of many different parts, namely Over End, Nether End, Bridge End, West End, Far End, all wich add to its wonderful charm and character. The location of the village makes it ideally situated as a centre for visitors to the Peak District for it stands where the limestone country of the `White Peak' meets the millstone grit of the `Dark Peak' in the heart of the Peak National Park, and with excellent access from all directions. The A619 Chesterfield to Bakewell road provides excellent access from the South and East and the A623 runs into Baslow from Chapel-en-le-Frith in the west. The A621 brings regular visitors to Baslow who come to taste the many delights and attractions that Baslow, and its near neighbour Chatsworth have to offer.
There has been a settlement at this point on the east bank of the Derwent since Anglo-Saxon times. The oldest part of the village surrounds the church which stands close to the riverbank at Bridge End where an elegant stone bridge still stands. This old stone bridge, which is the only bridge across the Derwent never to be destroyed by floods, replaced an earlier wooden one that marked the place where an ancient track and early trade route had forded the river.
Crossing the bridge meant that each person had to pay, and monies where collected by a villager in the tiny stone-slabbed toll-house, big enough for one person and manned in turn by the villagers, which still stands at the eastern end of the bridge opposite Toll Bar Cottage and close by the Rutland Arms, as evidence of a bygone age. It is known locally as `Mary Brady's House' after a local beggar who slept rough in it many years ago. Traces of the old ford can still be seen at the water's edge downstream beside the old bridge.
A short distance upstream beside the remains of the Old Corn Mill, the Derwent tumbles over a broad and scenic weir - and an equal distance downstream it is crossed by the A619 via the Devonshire Bridge built in 1924-5.
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