DISCOVER DERBYSHIRE

AND THE

PEAK DISTRICT

 EARL STERNDALE

 THE FEATURE

Earl Sterndale is a pleasant, unspoilt, working village, lying at 1,100 ft above sea level, surrounded by some of the most picturesque countryside in the Peak National Park. Unlike almost anywhere else in the park, apart from Thorpe Cloud, it has what many first time visitors to the area expect to find “peaks”. The Peak District took its name from the Pecsacetans, “the hill dwellers” who once lived in the area and not its mainly flat-topped hills, which tends to confuse the newcomer.

The two dominant hills on the western side of the village, Parkhouse and Chrome, are conical in shape. They originate from former reef knolls, or coral reefs formed under the waters of a lagoon millions of years ago. High Wheeldon to the south east of Earl Sterndale is conical, but not so markedly so as the other two hills.

High Wheeldon was given to the nation, as a memorial to the men of Derbyshire and Staffordshire who gave their lives in two World Wars, and is now in the hands of the National Trust. Fox Hole Cave, on the hill was excavated in the 1970s revealing a range of Stone Age implements and the remains of animals hunted by the men of that period.

The village is surrounded by a number of farms, which include “grange” in their titles, a reminder that during the Middle Ages much of the land was owned by Basingwerk Abbey. Farming is still an important industry in the area as is quarrying; the quarries hidden away behind the eastern ridge scar large areas of the landscape.

St Michael’s Church has had a somewhat unusual life. In Norman days it was a chapelry of Hartington, but during the 18th century fell into disrepair. It was rebuilt in 1828, but disaster struck again in 1941, when it became the only church in Derbyshire to be struck by a German bomb. This tragic event in the history of the church was recorded by local humorist Tom Wise, in the following words.

The Sterndale Blitz

They bombed our church them Germans did

In nineteen forty one

And left it there without a lid

 Exposed to wind and sun

And when at last the war was o’er

And Hitler was the loser

We knelt, praying as of yore

Thanked God they missed the boozer

Ten years later the church was rebuilt and its Saxon font restored by an expert craftsman from London.

The sign at the village pub, The Quiet Woman, carries the immortal adage “Soft Words Turneth Away Wrath” which is below the picture of a headless woman. The story goes that a former pub landlord’s wife, known as “Chattering Charteris” nagged so much that she even started ranting in her sleep. At last her husband could stand it no more and cut off her head. The approving villagers even had a “whip round” to pay for the headstone.

Over 400 years old, the pub is a magnificent unspoilt rural inn. It retains its original beams, there is an open fireplace and you are likely to see notices on the wall advertising eggs, hay and silage and the like. One notice of different type warns “The fire is for the comfort of all patrons, not just the few who think the rest need protecting from the heat”. The pub has won several awards and been mentioned every year, but one since 1976, in the Good Beer Guide. Headless Ale, brewed in Leek, Staffordshire is now available at the pub to help meet the needs of thirsty customers!

There is a thriving school in the village, which holds some classes in the church, a large village green and a Methodist Chapel. A GR post box is inset in the wall of a house, but sadly there is no post office. Along the attractive row of cottages leading out of Earl Sterndale to the east, is Woodbine Cottage. It was once the home of Billy Budd, who fought in the Afghan War in 1880. He marched from Kabul to Kandahar, wearing no boots his feet wrapped in cloths. A remarkable effort considering they are 350 miles apart.

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