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Peak Forest
Peak Forest is a delicate White Peaks village located high in the hills and enjoys some spectacular views. Peak Forest takes its name from the Royal Forest of the Peak which once covered an area of 180 square miles, and had three wards – Longdendale in the north, Hopedale in the south east and Campagna in the south west. The northern and eastern boundaries were marked by the Etherow and Derwent rivers. North-west of the village lies Chamber Farm, where the Swainmote (one of the courts of the Royal Forest) used to meet, but the present building dates from the eighteenth century, long after the forest was abolished.
From 1665 the minister at Peak Forest church had the power to grant marriage licences, giving Peak Forest the name of 'Gretna of Derbyshire'. By 1728 so many runaways were wed at Peak Forest that a second register began for ‘foreign marriages’. In 1753 the Marriage Act should have put an end to the solemnising of elopers, but it continued on a lesser scale until 1804, after which time there were isolated cases, the last being a couple married in 1938. The church that stands today in Peak Forest was rebuilt in 1876-7 for the 7th Duke of Devonshire.
The nearby Peak Forest reading rooms of 1880 are said to have been built using fabric from the 17th century chapel, including a Venetian window. On Eldon Hill, not far from Peak Forest, there is Eldon Hole. This mysterious gaping chasm was known for centuries as the ‘Bottomless Pit’ as no-one who dropped stones down it could hear them reach the bottom. It was considered to be the largest pothole in Derbyshire, although the newly discovered Titan cavern may well have taken the crown! The mouth of Eldon Hole is some ninety feet by forty feet and is listed as one of the Seven Wonders of the Peak. It was not until the reign of Elizabeth I that anyone dare venture down into the darkness.
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