About the village of Hayfield, High Peak, Derbyshire

Just 40 minutes from Manchester centre, Hayfield was a former tiny staging post on the pack-horse route across the Pennines from Cheshire to Yorkshire. It grew into a bustling hive of activity with the arrival of the cotton industry in the 19th century. The picturesque centre of the village still boasts a fine church and a number of old cottages.

One kilometre north of the village, towards Glossop, is the hamlet of Little Hayfield, where the original mill has been affectionately converted into apartments. The hamlet pub is called The Lantern Pike, after the sharply pointed adjacent hill over which the Fell Races are run.

Once a industrial town, Hayfield is nowadays is considered a thriving Peak District village with a strong community spirit. In the 2001 Census, the parish had 2,852 residents, across 1,205 households (2,164 of those residents living in the village itself). Many residents work outside of Hayfield in nearby Stockport and Manchester, or in neighbouring towns and villages, although there are a handful of local businesses providing employment, including farms.

Hayfield is considered a very desirable place to live within the High Peak and this is reflected in higher property prices compared to neighbouring towns and villages. An increasing number of residents have moved from nearby Manchester and Stockport in order to experience a better quality of life, and it is possible to argue that Hayfield is undergoing gentrification.

An annual May Queen procession is held in the village each year in May, 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.

Sourced from wikipedia

The History of Hayfield

Some kind of settlement has been in existence in Hayfield since Roman times, and possibly before.

Early History

The area was once woodland but this was largely cleared, allowing for sheep farming, although the soil was not good enough for arable farming.

The village lies on the line of a Roman road from Buxton (Aqua Arnemetia) to Glossop (Ardotalia). It is also on an important former packhorse route between Cheshire and Yorkshire. The village provided refuge for traders travelling from Castleton and Edale to Marple, Glossop, and Stockport.

The village appears in the Domesday Book as "Hedfelt" (some sources state the village was recorded as Hedfeld), and Kinder was recorded separately as Chendre. It was included in the Royal Forest of the Peak in medieval times, but was not a parish until it was created perpetual curacy by Richard II. The forest was popular amongst Norman rulers for hunting, for which it was well noted.

Hayfield's location and nearby geography made it an isolated and practically self-sufficient village until the Industrial Revolution; unlike other areas, Hayfield lacked a feudal lord or stately home, although tithes were paid to the Abbot of Basingwerke in North Wales.

Other than St Matthew's Church, Fox Hall (dated 1625) and an adjoining barn (possibly earlier) are the earliest surviving buildings in the village. Both buildings are located near the bottom of Kinder Road and are visible from the car park of the Royal Hotel.

There is some dispute as to which is the oldest pub in the village, with both the Bulls Head (believed to have been established circa 1396) and the George Hotel (believed to have been established circa 1575) vying for the title. Both are located in the heart of the village.

The Industrial Revolution to Present Day

Eventually woollen manufacturing became a main industry within the village, and the propensity toward three-storied terraced houses within the village reflects this—the top floor, with its better light conditions, was where the loom was operated. In Descriptions of the Country from 30-40 Miles Around Manchester (1795), John Aikten wrote: "The inhabitants [of Hayfield] are principally clothiers, though the cotton branch of late has gained a small footing."

As with most northern English villages, the Industrial Revolution brought rapid expansion, chiefly the creation of several cotton mills within Hayfield, along with numerous fabric printing and dyeing businesses, as well as paper manufacture. Hayfield became known for spinning, weaving and calico printing.

Other local industries included stone quarrying and millstone manufacturing. Some quarrying still takes place within the area, and the remains of old quarries can easily be seen within Hayfield and its surroundings. Clog making, charcoal burning and domestic implement manufacture also took place in the village. During the 16th century, Cutler's Green (now a camp site, and formerly the site of Kinder Printworks Mill) was known for cutlery trade, before nearby Sheffield became dominant in that area. Hayfield and surrounding areas were also home to several paper mills.

In 1868, a railway line was built linking Hayfield to Manchester. Initially built to carry fuel to power the mills, the railway line also bought passengers to Hayfield. It was estimated that around 5,000 people each weekend would travel from Manchester in 1920-1930, in order to enjoy the countryside around Kinder Scout.

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 main street through the old village centre); the line skirted the cricket field and continued up the Sett Valley, and its course can still be traced in places.

During World War II, the village was home to evacuees from all over the country. However, on July 3, 1942, a stray bomb intended for Manchester was dropped on a row of terraced houses in Watery Hey. Six people died.

As late as 1937, the book The King's England: Derbyshire stated that Hayfield "is busy making paper and printing calico". But with industrial decline in the mid-to-late 20th century, Hayfield returned to its original status of a quiet rural village. Whereas once the village had 17 public houses and dozens of small shops, along with a gas works, it now has six pubs and only a handful of shops (there are eight pubs if the parish is taken as a whole). Only one mill is still standing, in the Little Hayfield area, and it has since been converted to luxury flats. Despite this decline, several new housing developments (both local authority and private) were built in the village across the latter part of the 20th century, increasing the village's population substantially, and the village remains a popular area in which to live.

The railway line to Hayfield closed in 1970 as part of the Beeching Cuts, but with increasing car use and good road links with Manchester, Hayfield remains a magnet for those who enjoy outdoor pursuits. The dismantled trackbed of the railway line now forms a popular 2½-mile linear recreational route, the Sett Valley Trail.

Churches in the area

The parish church of St. Matthew has existed in its present location since 1386, having previously stood at Kirksteads, the name given to the area where the rivers Kinder and Sett meet near Bowden Bridge. However, the church was not completed until 1405.

The church as seen today is a result of it being largely rebuilt in 1817–18, although 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 there from Glossop church.

St John's Methodist Church dates from 1782. It claims to be the 13th Methodist church built and was visited by John Wesley, who may well have opened the church personally (Wesley's diaries show he took particular interest in Hayfield, declaring in his diary that he found "uncommon liberty in preaching" when holding a service before the church was built). Although the building has been added to since construction, the four walls of the main church are entirely original.

Methodism was prominent in the area and lead to the building of several other chapels. Hugh Bourne Primitive Methodist Chapel was built on Jumble Lane (now Kinder Road) in 1867 and deconsecrated in 1969, its congregation merging into St John's. The building now houses Hayfield Library. Bethel Methodist Church was founded in 1836 and a dedicated church built on Walk Mill in 1867. The church was founded largely to provide Sunday School facilities. It was deconsecrated in 1956. Little Hayfield Primitive Methodist Chapel was built in 1851 and deconsecrated in 1975.

Location

The village is located in a valley on the River Sett between the towns of Glossop, New Mills and Chapel-en-le-Frith. The village is split into roughly two halves, intersected by the A624 bypass (Glossop/Chapel Road). One half contains the traditional village centre, including several shops, businesses, and St Matthew's parish church, while the other half contains mostly dwellings along with a handful of businesses and St John's Methodist church. The bypass was built to ease heavy traffic that once travelled through the narrow main street of the village.