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Hope
Hope lies about a mile and a half due east of its neighbour Castleton and in the centre of the broad alluvial Hope Valley to the north of the Derbyshire and at the confluence of the River Noe and Peakshole Water, within the Peak National Park. Hope can be found at the junction of Carboniferous Limestone and the Edale Shale and Gritstone and is surrounded by a magnificent landscape of dramatic hills and high moorland with the low hills of the White Peak to the south and the mountainous region of the High Peak to the north and west.
The village is built around the crossroads of the A625 Sheffield to Chapel-en-le-Frith road and the B6049 which runs northwards from Tideswell to Edale. This minor road follows roughly the line of the ancient trading route the old Portway, which ran the length of the county from south to north.
Hope, a word for valley, is one of the very few Derbyshire villages to be mentioned prior to the Domesday Survey of 1086, and the earliest surviving record dates from a charter of 926 AD . Hope is also unusual for having kept its name with the spelling unchanged for over a thousand years. At the time of the Norman Conquest the Parish of Hope was one of the largest in England and one of the most important in Derbyshire, embracing two thirds of the Royal Forest of the High Peak, including Buxton, Tideswell and Chapel-en-le-Frith. The Parish covered almost forty thousand acres until it was greatly reduced in the 19th century by the creation of the separate parishes of Bradwell, Edale and Fairfield. Significantly, Hope was the only church in North Derbyshire mentioned in the Domesday Book.
There are many attractive points within Hope and in the surrounding area. The Market Place stands opposite the church at the end of Station Road and beside The Old Hall, now a public house but originally Hope Hall, the former home of the Balguy family. Its grounds originally covered the cattle market area and it was the Squire, John Balguy who in 1715 obtained a charter for a weekly market. An ancestor, Thomas Balguy built nearby Aston Hall in 1578 and the family crest can still be seen above the main entrance. Markets are still held here on alternate Fridays between January and July and on Wednesdays and Fridays from July to Christmas. The 16th century Daggers House stands at the end of Station Road and was from 1720 until 1860 the Cross Daggers Inn, so-named because it was used as a hostelry by carriers of cutlery from Sheffield to Manchester. At the junction of Castleton Road and Pindale Road and opposite the old Blacksmiths Cottages is the Woodroofe Arms.
Hope is home to an abundance of shops, cafes, art galleries and other services which cater for the thousands of visitors each year who come for the famous Hope Show and Sheepdog Trials on August Bank Holiday Monday.
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