Hartington Middle Quarter is a civil parish within the Derbyshire Dales district, which is in the county of Derbyshire, England. Formerly a part of Hartington parish, for which it is named, it has a mix of a number of villages and hamlets amongst a mainly rural and undulating landscape, and is wholly within the Peak District National Park. It had a population of 354 residents in 2021. The parish is north west of London, north west of Derby, and south east of the nearest market town of Buxton. Being on the edge of the county border, it shares a boundary with the parishes of Chelmorton, Flagg, Hartington Town Quarter, Hartington Upper Quarter, Middleton and Smerrill, Monyash in Derbyshire, as well as Hollinsclough, Longnor and Sheen in Staffordshire.
Geography
Location Hartington Middle Quarter parish is surrounded by the following local locations: Buxton, Chelmorton and Sterndale Moor to the north Hartington and Pilsbury to the south Flagg and Monyash to the east Hollinsclough and Longnor in Staffordshire to the west.
It is in area, in length and in width, within the north western portion of the Derbyshire Dales district as well as its most westerly parish, and is to the west of the county. The parish is roughly bounded by land features such as Earl Sterndale and Pomeroy settlements to the north, the River Dove to the west, the A515 road to the east, with Crowdecote, High Peak trail and Parsley Hay in the south.
Settlements and routes There are a number of villages and hamlets within the parish: Earl Sterndale, the largest settlement, is roughly to the central north of the area. It has a two-row road layout, with many of the residences aligned to this.
From Earl Sterndale: Crowdecote is in the south of the parish, south east of Earl Sterndale Glutton is to the west Glutton Bridge is to the south west High Needham is south east Hurdlow is to the east, east Parsley Hay is south east Pomeroy is east Sparklow is south east
Outside of these settlements, the parish is predominantly an agricultural and rural area. There are two key routes through the parish: The A515 road between Buxton and Ashbourne runs through Pomeroy and Parsley Hay. It forms much of the eastern perimeter of the parish The B5053 road spurs off the A515, and passes to the west of Earl Sterndale, through Glutton and Glutton Bridge which is over the River Dove, before entering Staffordshire.
Environment
Landscape It is primarily farming and pasture land throughout the parish outside the populated areas. The region is feature rich with many hills and slopes, notable points of interest including High Edge, Chrome Hill and Parkhouse Hill (informally known as the Dragon's Back from their rugged appearance), Hitter Hill, High Wheeldon, Dowel and Fox Hole caves, a number of tumulus, and Aldery Cliff by Earl Sterndale, these together culminating in scenic vistas as part of the wider Peak District characterisation.
Geology
Being within the Peak District National Park, much of the parish is of the Bee Low Limestones Formation. This is sedimentary bedrock formed approximately 331 to 337 million years ago in the Carboniferous period. Along the banks of the River Dove, comprises the Bowland Shale Formation which are mudstone, siltstone and sandstone deposits, formed approximately 319 to 337 million years ago in the Carboniferous period. Chrome and Parkhouse hills are remnants of apron reefs when water levels were higher.
Water features The parish, district and county western edge is formed by the River Dove. There are a few tributaries that start from springs on higher ground, including the Swallow Brook which shapes a north western perimeter of the parish.
Land elevation The parish has a large range of hills and dales. The lowest points surround the River Dove to the south west, from . Crowdecote, lying along the banks is slightly higher at , Earl Sterndale sits on the edge of a valley between , Parsley Hay at , Hurdlow is and Pomeroy . The highest point is High Edge to the far north by a cairn, at . Other notable high peaks include Chrome Hill at , High Wheeldon (), Cronkston Low (), Pilsbury Hill ( and Parkhouse Hill ().
History
Toponymy The name Hartington possibly derived from an Anglo Saxon farmer Heorta in the 6th century, and later became Hortedun when recorded in the 1086 Domesday survey. It was in medieval times an extensive parish, and was divided into four townships, with Hartington Middle Quarter centred on Earl Sterndale, becoming a church parish and later a standalone civil parish in 1873.
Parish and environment
The area is rich in historical remains, prehistoric examples including caves with occupational evidence dating from 500000BC such as at Etches near Dowel farm and from 40000BC at Fox Hole. There are several Middle or Late Neolithic period (4000 BC to 2351 BC) and Bronze Age (2350 BC to 701 BC) finds such as a stone axe within High Needham farm, a flint axe at Parsley Hay a bronze axe from Chrome Hill, and an arrowhead with several being placed in Buxton Museum. There are some barrows and cairns throughout the area typically dating from the Bronze Era, such as at Hindlow, close to High Edge, and at Glutton Hill, although a number of others have since been destroyed by later mining and quarrying. An iron knife was found in one of the excavated mounds, with a second burial dated approximately between the 1st to 7th century AD. Later evidence during the Roman Britain occupation period (43 AD to 409 AD) include a possible settlement in Dowel Dale, and a road from Derby to Buxton which ran in the east of the parish by Parsley Hay, which was close to and parallel to the present day A515 road.
The Middle Quarter area was a part of the wider Hartington parish and manor, which was reported in 1066 at the time of the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror as under the ownership of Godwin of Tissington and Ligulf. Another place, Soham or Salham had also been recorded in Domesday, and was thought to have been in the vicinity of Earl Sterndale. Both were described as 'waste' with no value. By the time of the survey both manors had been granted to Henry de Ferrers as part of the wider Derbyshire holdings under the Honour of Duffield. There were subsequent improvements by the Ferrers to the manors such that in 1204 a market and fair had been allowed to take place at Hartington, being one of the first in Derbyshire. Also, there was growth throughout the outlying area; in 1244 on public record was details of the surrounding hamlets that had since sprung up, in what would become the Middle Quarter were listed Stenredile (Earl Sterndale), Crudecote (Crowdecote), Salvin (Salham), Nedham (High Needham), and Hordlawe (Hurdlow). Others mentioned at the same time included nearby Buckstanes (Buxton).
The same records also outlined an area around the 'forest of Hertingdone and Crudecotes up to the water of Goyt' which was not a true forested area, but a hunting area used by the earls called the Frith, and adjacent to the royal Forest of High Peak. The manor and settlements were held by descendants (who bequeathed local land to monasteries such as Combermere Abbey and Basingwerk Abbey) until 1266 when Robert de Ferrers, 6th Earl of Derby rebelled against Henry III and, after a defeat at the Battle of Chesterfield, lost his lands and titles. The ownership was granted to Edmund Crouchback, royal prince and Earl of Lancaster. In 1399 the manor was merged back into wider Crown holdings. In 1603 it was given to Sir George Hume but on his death in 1611 the holdings reverted to James I, who requested in 1614 a survey of the manor and the landholdings by William Heyward, including Earl Sterndale. In 1617 Hartington was again granted away, this time to George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham. In 1663, William Cavendish, Earl of Devonshire bought the manor which was held by his descendants until the 20th century.
The Hartington parish was a sprawling area covering some 24,000 acres and one of the largest in the country, spanning some in length, and up to in width. It was split into townships by the 16th century for easier administration, or with the establishment of St Michaels chapel in around the 14th century. It was described by the Parliamentary Survey of Livings, undertaken in 1650, reporting on Hartington and particularly the Middle Quarter: "It is a parish and vicarage of large extent, usually divided into four quarters. The two neather quarters are thought fitt to be continued to ye parish churche. The whole vicarage is worth £19 10s., whereof £10 aryseth out of the gleabe and the two neather quarters. Earl Sterndall is a chapel of ease in the parish of Hartington, a member of the middle quarter, which is thought fitt to be made a parish church, and these hamletts of middle quarter, Harlee, Glutton, Doewall, Crowdicoate, Wheeldontrees, Needham Graunge, Hurdlow, Cronkston, and Sterndale, £2." It is thought that Hurdlow and Needham were more substantial settlements which shrunk in later medieval times and the areas repurposed for farming. A formal civil parish was created for the Middle Quarter in 1873.
There is a reputed story that Bonnie Prince Charlie's men came across cattle owned by Cronkstone Grange hidden in a dale, killing them and having a great feast contributing in the process to the name Glutton to the grange, the placename predates those events, being Glotonhous in the 15th century. Abbot's Grove is to the south of Earl Sterndale, it was built atop an earlier residence used by abbots when they were visiting monastery granges, During the 1850s, it was also the location of the local tannery. Nat Gould, the prolific Victorian writer, was descended from the Wheeldon families who in the 16th-17th centuries resided at Cronkstone Grange, and Gould families who lived in Crowdecote and for some centuries at Pilsbury Grange in neighbouring Hartington Town Quarter. Hartington Middle Quarter held a workhouse in the 18th century housing 70 inmates, but the management was taken over by Bakewell poor law union in 1834 and a purpose built site erected in Bakewell. A school was built in the grounds of the St Michael's chapel in 1850, while the Wesleyan church was also built in the same year.
During the middle 1800s, the parish was involved in legal dispute, which set a judgement used in future law cases regarding issue estoppel, where the facts decided by an issue during a case cannot be litigated a second time between the same parties. It involved a Levershulme (then in Lancashire) family, the Goulds. In February 1848 a parent, Esther Gould had been moved to a Lancashire asylum, and in October 1849 there was an attempt to formally resettle her two children to Hartington Middle Quarter, where their father and her husband resided. The overseers, Bakewell poor law union notified Chorlton Poor Law Union that the father was actually a resident of Hartington Town Quarter due to it being his place of birth, which was under Ashbourne poor law union and so should have liaised with that authority, however the children were allowed to remain in Middle Quarter. In March 1854 while attempting to recover maintenance expenses for Gould, Chorlton appealed to the courts to determine Gould's last residence, which ascertained the last legal settlement of Gould was in Hartington Middle Quarter due to the location of her family, and thereby ordering Bakewell union to cover costs. Hartington Middle Quarter parish appealed against this order citing the earlier decision, which meant that Chorlton Poor Union was barred from disputing the order.