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The History of the Peak District | The UK 's FIRST National Park
" To wander in the Peak National Park is to forget time and consequence..."

The UK's first and foremost National Park

Copyright - Let's Stay Peak District 2000-2007. Please refer to the foot of this page for conditions of use.

Often referred to as the 'lungs of England' - due to its vicinity to
neighbouring industrial cities such as Manchester, Sheffield and the north Midlands - the Peak District is within an hours journey of literally millions of the UK population.

The year 2001 saw Derbyshire's Peak District celebrating 50 years as the UK's first and foremost National Park... In the text and pictures that follow we take you on a journey through the beginnings, look at how the National Park ethos has stood the test of time and describe man's impact on this beautiful but living landscape....

The Peak District is at the very heart of Britain.
Surrounded on all sides by urban sprawl this treasured landscape is valued equally by those who live and work within it, and by those who live in the towns and cities for miles around, as a place where they can shrug off the demands of modern living and rediscover their own relationship to the landscape and to the natural world.

To wander in the Peak District National Parkis to forget time and consequence, and to feel the full weight of that all-important fact - our own essential insignificance in the face of something much greater in size, scope, beauty and importance.

The area has often been described as a microcosm of the English landscape: peaks and dales, rivers, woodland, moors and meadows all have their place in this wild Utopia. Acre upon acre of unspoilt countryside, remote and dramatic, looking much the same today as it did a century or more ago. But it is no mere chance that this outstanding beauty has remained for all to enjoy.

The Peak District was the first part of Britain to be generally accepted as an area worth preserving - and hence it became the country's first National Park 50 years ago, on April 17th 1951. Since then, while elsewhere the tree-fellers and bulldozers, housing developers and business tycoons have taken their toll on the landscape, the Peak District has been preserved thanks to the protective powers of the Peak District National Park authority .

Early national parks, first established in the United States, were little more than large, uninhabited areas where plants and animals could survive unhindered by the threat of encroaching civilisation.

In the 1940s the British government recognised a similar need in this country. There had to be protection for the places where the millions of town and city dwellers could go to enjoy open countryside and fresh air.

In 1949 the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act was passed and within two years the Peak District had become the first designated area to benefit from its protection.

The aim of conferring the special status was to protect and enhance the natural beauty of the landscape and to promote enjoyment of its qualities. But the Park must also strive to achieve a delicate balance - by fostering the economic and social well-being of the communities which exist within it.

Today there is little question that these twin aims are being achieved. The Peak National Park covers 555 square miles of open countryside, mainly in Derbyshire but also including parts of Yorkshire, Cheshire and Staffordshire, and sustains around 38,000 people who live and work within its boundaries.

It is a focal point for one-third of the British population - some 20 million people - who live within an hour's drive and is second only to Mount Fuji National Park in Japan in terms of global popularity. Each year the Peak District National Park attracts millions of visitors, who help support the local economy by collectively spending in excess of £137 million.

So has evolved this special area, where man and nature thrive side by side, creating a synergy which should ensure the unspoilt beauty of the Peak District remains to be enjoyed by people from all walks of life for centuries to come.

FROM FOREST TO PARK
The Peak District was a magnet for ordinary people long before it gained official recognition - from prehistoric days when Mesolithic hunter-gatherers pursued wild boar and wolves across Longdendale, leaving their tiny flint blades in the peat through Neolithic times when early farmers cultivated crops of pulses and grain in the fertile, well-drained soil through the Bronze Age when so-called 'Beaker' people built the Nine Ladies stone circle on Stanton Moor and buried their dead on the sacred ground around it and in the Iron Age when settlers built imposing hill forts including Carl Wark on Burbage Moor above Hathersage and another atop Mam Tor, Castleton's 'shivering mountain.'

The Romans too colonised the Peak District, undoubtedly attracted by the ready availability of lead. The most important archaeological site in the National Park is at Brough, where the Roman fort of Navio was stationed at the junction of the main roads they built between> Buxton, Glossop and Templebrough.

Successive civilisations added to the wealth of architectural and cultural treasures to be found in the Peak. The Saxons, the Danes and the Normans each left reminders of their occupation and cleared large tracts of woodland to create their farms and villages.

By the time the Domesday survey was compiled in 1086 dozens of hamlets had grown up across the area and a large section of the Peak District as we know it had been officially designated a Royal Forest.

This was not a forest in the modern sense, but an extensive area of land set aside for hunting by the king and his favourites. Its designated Keeper was William Peverel, illegitimate son of William the Conqueror and bailiff of the royal manors of north Derbyshire, who built the ancient fortress overlooking Castleton made famous in Sir Walter Scott's Peveril of the Peak.

The Royal Forest had a dramatic effect on the lives of people who lived in the High Peak. Trespassing against 'vert and venyson' [trees and deer] was declared an arrestable offence and transgressors were held in the Castle of the Peak until they could be dealt with.

The penalties were vicious: massive fines for those found in possession of bows, arrows or dogs; amputation for those caught killing deer - first of ears or fingers, then a hand, an arm or the feet. But poaching continued unabated and by the end of the 12th century punishment for killing a deer was removal of the culprit's eyes and testicles!

The situation was finally resolved when the Upper Derwent estate was granted to the highly-principled white canons of Welbeck Abbey.

The Peak District remained a popular area to live and by medieval times it was dominated by small, primarily farming communities. These were basically self-sufficient although famine was fairly common: in 1294 the price of corn in one area of the Peak rose to 21 shillings a quarter-pound, about four times the average.

However, the population fell dramatically in 1349 when bubonic plague - Black Death - reached the area, striking down around half the inhabitants and completely wiping out some hamlets including three in what is now Chatsworth Park, which simply reverted to farmland.

It was in medieval times that the Peak first began to welcome visitors - in the form of 'jaggers' who lumbered through the area on the growing network of packhorse tracks. Carrying valuable loads of salt, wool and other commodities, they traversed the high moors, braving the harsh weather and the threat of ambush by highwaymen, en route between major trading centres such as Sheffield and Cheshire.

The area has continued to attract visitors ever since. The advent of turnpike roads, stage coach services and later the railways all helped to make it easier for people to reach the previously inaccessible Peak.

The Industrial Revolution brought its own changes and soon common people, as well as the wealthy, were clamouring to escape the dirt and grime of the towns and cities and experience the freedom of the open countryside.

It was the Depression which finally gave birth to the Peak District National Park as we know it. With no jobs and little money, people were especially keen to make use of free recreational facilities - like the acres of Derbyshire moorland which offered a physical and spiritual breathing space away from the drudgery of their daily lives. Much of the moorland was in private ownership, however, and out of bounds to ordinary people.

Demand for the right to roam the empty moorland began to grow, giving rise to the access movement, and the Peak was one of the main areas of controversy.

People were resentful that hills like Kinder and Bleaklow could offer the freedom they craved, but they were prevented from crossing the land by gamekeepers, protecting their grouse and the property rights of their masters.

Notices proclaiming that 'trespassers will be prosecuted' began to spring up across the moors and photographs of offenders were published in local newspapers, offering rewards for information resulting in their apprehension.

Matters finally came to a head on April 24th, 1932, when around 600 ramblers staged a now famous 'mass trespass' across Kinder. The resulting confrontation with landowners ended in a fracas with several of the offenders being arrested and jailed.

They had, however, driven home their point and over the next few years restrictions were gradually eased until, in 1951, the National Park was founded and made the negotiation of formal access agreements one of its priorities. Today walkers have the right to roam freely across 152km of access land apart from during the grouse shooting season (August 12 - December 10) when the moors are closed for safety reasons.

PEAK PARK TREASURES
It would be hard to find a landscape which appears less affected by progress than that of the ,Peak District yet the scenery has been shaped as much by human hand as it has by nature.

Without the influence of people most of the area would still be covered by woods of ash, beech, birch, oak, hazel, alder and elm - the nature of the trees clearly indicated by many place names which still survive. But farmers have cleared much of the terrain over the centuries, and miners and quarrymen have left their own marks, creating a land rich in history and diverse in habitat.

The bedrock of the Peak is carboniferous limestone, laid down 330 million years ago when the region was covered by a vast tropical sea. The rounded upland landscape of the central and southern National Park is typical of limestone scenery, its rolling hills and green pastures criss-crossed by drystone walls hewn from the rock on which they stand.

It is limestone which has given the area its name - the White Peak - actually greyish in colour but close enough to pass on a sunny day.

The northern and easterly parts of the Park are far more dramatic, founded as they are on millstone grit, a sedimentary rock formed from deposits of sand when the Peak District became a vast river estuary 280 million years ago.

The gritstone is in some parts fused with shale, created at around the same time from mud residue. The Dark Peak label owes as much to the sombre, forbidding landscape as it does to the colour of the stone.

Millstone grit underlies the imposing peat moorlands and breaks through the surface to form spectacular rocky outcrops and edges. It creates a harsh and inhospitable scenery which is nevertheless compelling: wild and desolate, untouched and untamed.

The value of limestone and gritstone as building materials has long been evident and the Peak District landscape is scarred by the imprint of quarrymen. The scale of the industry is now controlled by the National Park authority, but as much as six million tonnes of rock every year is quarried within its boundaries.

The countryside conceals other hidden treasures too. Mineral extraction in the area goes back as far as Roman times and the remains of several old lead rakes can still be found. There are around 50,000 open or partially concealed mineshafts in the White Peak alone - another legacy of the leadminers who worked the area until the late 1800s. But it is not merely galena, or lead ore, which is found beneath the subsoil, the Peak Park is built on rich mineral deposits.

It is one of Britain's richest sources of fluorspar - used in the manufacture of refrigerants, solvents, anaesthetics and fluoride toothpaste - and barytes for use in the paint and paper industries and as a drilling lubricant on oil rigs.

In the past the area has been mined for copper, sphalerite (zinc ore), calcite and chert, a very hard stone used by Josiah Wedgewood to grind flints for the pottery industry. It is also the source of 'black marble' - actually a polished dark limestone which was popular in the 19th century - and the semi-precious Bluejohn stone, a unique form of fluorspar which gets its name from 'bleu jaune' the French for its colours, blue and yellow.

The Peak District is dissected by two main rivers, the Derwent and the Wye, but many others, including the Dove and the Lathkill, traverse its length. It has no natural lakes, but manmade reservoirs have become a feature of the landscape thanks to the damp climate.

In the early part of the 20th century a higher-than-average rainfall, of up to 60 inches per year, attracted the attention of water engineers anxious to secure fresh supplies for nearby cities.

The result was a deluge of reservoir building in the northern highlands. The largest of these are Howden, Derwent and Ladybower - the latter famous as the site where the 617 'Dambusters' Squadron carried out trials of the historic bouncing bomb.

The vast expanses of water were formed by the construction of huge dams and subsequent flooding of the surrounding land. The hamlets of Derwent and Ashopton were completely submerged as a result, villagers were moved to new homes just up the valley and an ancient packhorse bridge, protected by a preservation order, was also moved, section by section.

Remains of the old buildings reappear somewhat eerily during hot summers when the water level in the reservoir falls.

A more natural phenomenon of the Peak District rainfall is the series of underground caves and potholes. The area is riddled with subterranean passages, created over countless centuries by the action of water on permeable limestone.

Rain gradually seeped into the rock then gushed in torrents to form underground rivers, which in turn carved out caverns beneath the earth's surface.

The most remarkable of these are at Castleton , where four show caves are open to the public. Peak Cavern, whose mouth is a vertical drop from the ruins of Peveril Castle , once acted as a shelter for villagers who built their houses in its vast entrance.

The smoke stains from their chimneys remain, along with an old rope-walk first established by the inhabitants in the 15th century and still working until a few years ago.

Treak Cliff Cavern and the Blue John Mines are famous for their magnificent stalagmites and stalactites and for the Bluejohn stone found in their depths. Speedwell Cavern, reached via an old mining tunnel, is now filled with water and visitors are taken along the underground canal in boats.

At the opposite end of the scale are the forbidding plateaux of Kinder and Bleaklow, desolate and beautiful peat moors stretching for miles and forming the highest summits in the National Park at more than 2,000 feet above sea level in places.

THE BIRDS, THE BEES AND THE BOG MOSS

The diversity of landscape which gives the Peak District its beauty also has a dramatic impact on the wildlife that makes its home in the National Park.

The extremes of terrain between White Peak and Dark Peak provide a huge breadth of habitat. Even the climate of the area changes subtly as the warmer southern dales meet the remote northern uplands.

The Peak is home to a number of rare plants and animals, some finding a natural haven in the unspoilt countryside and others thriving in specially managed National Nature Reserves.

These areas are designed to preserve important examples of habitats, flora, fauna or geology. One of the best examples is Lathkill Dale which boasts outstanding ash woodlands, limestone grasslands and cave systems which in turn provide habitats for a huge range of creatures.

There are 2,700 farms within the National Park, nearly 500 hectares of managed woodland and 55 reservoirs covering more than two hectares, all offering very different environments for both plant and animal life. At one extreme the park is the northern boundary for species such as the nettle-leaved bellflower and the nuthatch while at the other it is the southernmost limit for the cloudberry and mountain hare. English Nature has designated nearly one-third of the Peak Park as Sites of Special Scientific Interest.

Two sections - one in the north and the other in the south-west - have been cited as Environmentally Sensitive Areas, aimed at conserving and enhancing the landscape. Other schemes encourage conservation of traditional field boundaries, creation and management of woodland, or protection of animals and birds .

The Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, which has over 4000 members and manages 40 nature reserves, is one of many locally-based conservation groups, most with their own specific aims and interests.

A partnership of several local voluntary organisations has recently been involved in restoring and improving wildlife habitats along the River Wye, with the aim of re-establishing species such as the otter.

The Peak Park's many clearly-defined habitats support completely different types of flora and fauna. The commonest species of bird in the Peak, according to the Derbyshire Biological Records Centre, is the meadow pipit, found mainly on upland moors.

But there are many other inhabitants too, including golden plover, snipe, curlew, lapwing, skylark, whinchat, ring ouzel and, of course, the grouse, whose presence turns acres of moorland into hunting grounds each year.

The vast expanses of open land also attract numerous birds of prey: kestrel, merlin, short-eared owl, hen harrier and peregrine falcon all hunt and roost among the heather-covered plains. The peat bogs of Kinder and Bleaklow are home to the golden plover and dunlin.

Limestone areas attract a range of different birds. Jackdaws are among those that nest in cliffside holes, while species such as the skylark make their home on farm fields. The decline of hay farming, however, is currently threatening the twite, which relies on this distinctive habitat for its survival.

Woodland birds include pied flycatchers and green woodpeckers which feed on wood ants. Owls, goldcrest, nuthatch, tree creeper, jay and finches are also found among the trees and summer visitors include tree pipit, redstart and warblers. Non-indigenous conifer plantations have little wildlife interest except for some crossbills, coal tits and goldcrests.

The Peak offers various water-based environments, each with its own distinct inhabitants. Quiet stretches of river are home to dippers, grey wagtails, moorhens and grey heron, while damp ground with rushes attracts birds such as snipe and curlew. The water in reservoirs tends to be acidic and supports mainly wildfowl like goosanders or red-breasted mergansers, mallard, teal, pochard, sandpipers, gulls and Canada geese.

To anyone taking no more than a cursory interest in the passing scenery, the most prolific animal inhabitants of the Peak District must seem to be sheep. In an area too exposed for less hardy species, too inhospitable for crops and too hilly for most other industries, sheep farming has its obvious attractions.

Mountain breeds like the Whitefaced Woodland originated here but are now sadly diminished - commercial and political influences have taken their toll. But still the area's dedicated hill farmers strive to make a living from the land and by their efforts contribute in no small way to the preservation of the landscape.

Shale valleys are more fertile than the gritstone moors, tending to be less exposed, with a consequently milder climate. This means they are often cultivated for farming, resulting in less wildlife. But natural shale areas, like the grassland just north of Hartington , provide ideal habitats for less common species like the orange-tip butterfly.

These can also be found on gritstone escarpments, along with the common blue. Streams, filtered through porus limestone, support a variety of pollution-sensitive life, including mayfly, stonefly and caddisfly larvae, while quiet stretches of river are home to trout and water voles.

A number of mammals make their home in the Peak. The fox, badger, hedgehog and long-tailed fieldmouse all frequent woodlands after dark. In the daytime the most common are grey squirrels, rabbits and the occasional red deer for those who are patient - or lucky.

On high moorland plateaux the rare mountain hare is seen, easy to spot in winter with its distinctive white fur, but less discernable in its summer coat of brown. The common lizard is the only reptile common in these parts, although occasional adders or slow worms may be found.

The Peak District is famous for its heather-clad moors and grassy limestone hills, but there is a lot more to the area than at first meets the eye. The hills are home to a whole range of plants including rare orchids, scabious, bloody cranesbill and cowslip.

Old hayfields are the perfect spot for dog daisy and yellow rattle, while hardy species like bilberry and cowberry are common on moorland, along with the heather and mat grass.

Even inhospitable rocky areas have their own particular types of vegetation. Exposed cliff ledges provide a haven for yew, rock whitebeam and alpine currant - and ferns, mosses and lichens grow from cracks in the rockface.

Gritstone escarpments support bilberry and rowan while scree slopes and dry rocky outcrops sustain little life except herb robert, occasional ash trees, succulents such as wall pepper, and salad burnet with its deep, water-seeking roots.

Industry too has played its part in the evolution of Peakland plant life. The bare ground in quarries helps to develop fine vegetation like fairy flax, autumn gentian, eyebright and orchids. Lead mines, surrounded by waste heaps, have poor soil so the most common plant is leadwort or spring sandwort which tolerates toxic soil, or yellow mountain pansy.

Peat bog, unique to the southern Pennines, is made up of the undecayed remains of vegetation including sphagnum moss, now rare because of acid rain. This can still be found in flushes - where water emerges between gritstone and shale - along with sedges, bog asphodel, cranberry, marsh thistle and marsh pennywort.

Wetter moorland supports purple moor grass, cross leaved heather and bracken and occasional cotton grass cloudberry, crowberry and bilberry can be found on the barren, high plateaux.

Grassland with fertile soil encourages species such as meadowsweet, milkwort, field scabious and meadow cranesbill. In upper pastures common grasses include bent and fescues and flowers like tormentil and harebell; but reduction in sheep grazing has allowed hazel and hawthorn scrub to regenerate and shade out most small flowering plants.

Sessile oak woodlands once covered most of the landscape but are now uncommon. Ancient woodland survives in some areas, featuring ash, hazel, bird cherry and guelder rose. Other trees include birch and rowan and the woodland floor is rich with bilberry, cowberry, wavy hair grass, woodrush, ferns, mosses and lichens.

But increasingly sycamore - not indigenous but spread by seed - has taken over, causing early shade which kills species such as the wood anemone. Wayside flowers such as knapweed and meadow cranesbill are still fairly common.

PEAK DISTRICT LEGENDS
The Peak District is a land steeped in tradition, where folklore and custom are as much a part of the landscape as the hills themselves. Ancient rituals and beliefs have grown into legends and ceremonies still observed centuries on.

Mystery and intrigue play an important part in the evolution of folklore and there has been no shortage of either in these parts. The 'Dark Peak' has always lived up to its name, witnessing many sinister goings-on over the years.

The Dark Peak
Those who venture up to the northernmost limits of the park might come across a memorial to the late James Platt, who met his untimely demise on the moors in a shooting accident. His brother John, a former MP for Oldham, built a Scottish baronial-style home on the banks of the Dovestone Reservoir and it is said James haunted the house until its demolition in 1981.

Relatively recent victims of the Peak have included Joseph Tagg, who died while crossing Howden Moor in 1953. His body was not found until three months later, but Tip, his faithful sheepdog had stayed with her master's body throughout and her story is now commemorated in a memorial by the roadside at Derwent Dam.

A few years later student Neil Moss was pot-holing at Peak Cavern and became stuck down a 'chimney,' hundreds of feet into the underground system. A major rescue operation was mounted, but despite the efforts of dozens of experts who poured in from all over the country, Moss remained firmly wedged and finally lost his battle for life.

His body was sealed into its final resting place, where it remains today.

The very rock on which the area is founded has contributed to its mystique. The vast mouth of Castleton's Peak Cavern - 50ft by 100ft - was once known (a name recently revived) as the 'Devil's Arse' and commanded a healthy respect from those who lived in its shadow.

Villagers built their homes beneath the protection of its roof, partly for shelter and partly to ward off any evil spirits lurking in the area. Nearby Mam Tor is another example: its alternating layers of gritstone and shale work against each other, causing landslides and giving the hill both its distinctive appearance and its nickname - the Shivering Mountain.

Castleton is also the scene of one of the area's unique customs - the annual Garland ceremony. Held each Oak Apple Day (May 29th), it commemorates the restoration of Charles

II in 1660 but probably originated years before that as a pagan fertility rite. The Garland is a three-foot high beehive-shaped crown of wildflowers and oak leaves, weighing more than 60lb.

It is placed on the chosen king's shoulders, then he and his lady mount on horseback and lead a procession from inn to inn throughout the village. At each stopping place girls perform a garland dance. The procession ends at the parish church where the Garland is finally removed and hoisted up the tower.

Well Dressing
The Peak District is the most land-locked spot in Britain, as far from the sea as it is possible to get, and built on fast-draining limestone where water is a precious commodity.

Small wonder, then, that early Derbyshire folk began to worship water gods, offering floral sacrifices at the springs and wells which were so essential to their lives. Over the years the custom has taken on christian significance and evolved into well dressing, an art form in its own right.

Each year, throughout the summer, dozens of villages stage well dressing festivals, decorating wooden panels around the wells with scenes usually on a religious theme. Wet clay is 'puddled' into a shallow frame and used as a base for the designs.

These are outlined on paper then segments are filled in one at a time, overlapping mosaic fashion, with natural materials including flower petals, berries, moss and seeds, edged with 'blacks' - usually slivers of bark or cones. The finished wells are blessed by a local clergyman and then left on display throughout the following week.

Eyam Plague
A service in Cucklett Dell on the last Sunday in August coincides annually with Eyam's well dressing, but holds far more significance. It commemorates the sacrifice made by villagers in the 17th century when bubonic plague swept through the land.

The Black Death arrived in Eyam from London in a roll of cloth and claimed 257 lives - as many as five out of every six people in the village. But rector William Mompesson was determined that neighbouring hamlets should not be affected and he persuaded villagers to adhere to a self-imposed quarantine.

Food was delivered to the village boundary in return for money, left underwater in what is now known as Mompesson's Well, and open-air services were held on a limestone crag in Cucklett Dell.

More than 300 years later, memories of the plague live on. The homes of those who died are still marked by crosses above the doors and the annual commemoration service ensures their sacrifice is remembered.

Rush Bearing
The most south-westerly point of the Peak District is the village of Macclesfield Forest: isolated, mysterious and sufficiently off the beaten track to preserve a tradition which was once common but now almost unheard of elsewhere in the country.

The Macclesfield Forest Chapel still holds its rush-bearing ceremony every August. Rushes are collected from local moorland and used to decorate the tiny barn-like church. Bundles are hung above the doorway and others are strewn across the floor, just as they would have been centuries before when this was the only form of matting available.

Lovers' Legends
Thwarted love has given rise to a rich seam of folklore over the centuries and the Peak has its fair share. Like the tale of Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall who, on the eve of the wedding planned by her autocratic father, supposedly eloped with John Manners, Roman Catholic son of the Earl of Rutland.

A flight of steps and a bridge on the path of her flight from Haddon, are both named after her. But there is some scepticism in the truth of the story since neither would have existed in her day.

In 1762 young Hannah Baddaley was so distraught at being jilted that she tried to end it all by throwing herself off a limestone cliff at Stoney Middleton .

But the fashions of the day worked against her - and her voluminous skirts acted like a parachute, billowing out and then catching on brambles to break her fall. She was rescued from a sawpit at the bottom, suffering from nothing worse than a few cuts and scrapes. But her escapade is remembered in the name of the cliff: Lover's Leap.

Bakewell Pudding
Another popular legend is that surrounding the origin of Bakewell Pudding. This famous confection of flaky pastry, with a moist almond and jam filling, was first served up two centuries ago at the old White Horse Inn (on the site of the present Rutland Arms Hotel).

It seems that landlady Mrs Greaves was usually in charge of the kitchen, but on a particularly busy day she left the baking to her assistant - and the woman mistakenly put jam at the bottom of the pastry case, instead of on top of the finished pudding.

Fortunately the dish proved a bit hit with guests at the coaching house and the 'secret' recipe has been handed down through the generations ever since.

Robin Hood
The Peak District also plays a part in that most famous of British legends: Robin Hood. Although impossible to prove, it is quite likely that the famous outlaw and his band of followers once roamed these parts.

The Peak Forest certainly adjoined Sherwood Forest and was governed by the Sheriff of Derby and Nottingham until 1566. Many local place names also suggest links - such as Robin Hood's Cave at Stanage Edge, Robin Hood's Spring on Howden Moor, Robin Hood's Well at Longshaw and the hamlet surrounding the Robin Hood pub near Baslow .

Hathersage was reputedly the home of Little John and his grave can be seen in the local churchyard, set high on the hillside between yew trees ten feet apart.

A thigh bone, 32in long, was exhumed from the site in 1784, but replaced after a series of mysterious accidents befell the man behind the investigation.

RESPONSIBLE TOURISM
When the Peak District National Park was founded in 1951 it aimed to preserve and enhance the natural beauty of the landscape: and to promote its enjoyment by people throughout the country. To some extent it has become a victim of its own success.

Designation of specialist status was enough to bring the tourists crowding to this unique area. Of course the dramatic scenery, studded with picturesque villages, had always been a honeypot for day trippers.

But it soon became popular for a host of other activities besides horse riding along the many bridleways, fishing in the well-stocked rivers and streams, climbing on the challenging gritstone edges and, more recently, mountain biking and off-road driving across the rocky terrain.

Additional attractions, such as cycle trails (often constructed along disused railway tracks) and watersports centres (which have grown up alongside the reservoirs), all added to the area's appeal.

People travel from far and wide to experience the delights of this national playing field - and they have left their mark stamped indelibly on the countryside.

Many thousands of visitors crowd into the park in some weeks, 90% of them by road, which means overcrowded car parks, traffic congestion and long queues for everything from tourist attractions to a cup of tea.

Any motorists braving the Peak on a sunny bank holiday weekend must expect to spend a good proportion of their outing stuck in a hot, cramped car. The good idea is to come mid-week or stay over for a few days!

In the decade up to 1996 traffic increased by over 40% and in the last 20 years the average number of vehicles passing along the A6 at Bakewell has doubled. Attempts to deal with the problem have led to a number of schemes over the years.

One of the most controversial - and arguably the most successful - has been in the Goyt Valley where the central section was completely closed to vehicles at peak times. Visitor traffic is currently banned from the road between 10.30am-5.30pm on summer Sundays and bank holiday Mondays; a park-and-walk system operates.

Alternative methods of transport
The Peak Park authority invests significant sums in exploring alternative methods of transport. It spends around £100,000 per year on subsidising bus services and publicising public transport. It is also backing moves to re-open two railway lines across the National Park.

But it is not only drivers who cause problems. There are over 3,000 footpaths in the park and over-use of the most popular has led to heavy erosion.

Dovedale in particular has suffered from the battering it gets from thousands of visitors who traipse annually along its well-worn riverbanks. Walkers are also guilty of trampling crops, leaving gates open so livestock can stray, damaging drystone walls by climbing over them instead of looking for stiles and dropping litter including broken glass - a danger to animals and a major fire hazard in the summer.

The National Park authority adopts a policy of 'sustainable tourism' based on a series of zones where varying degrees of growth are permitted. Natural Zones, such as Kinder Scout, are completely protected with no development of any kind allowed.

Zone 1 areas, such as Burbage Moor, are permitted basic facilities only: perhaps a car park or picnic area. Zone 2 status, conferred on places such as the Longdendale Valley, allows modest scale developments including a visitor centre and surfaced path.

Principal tourist facilities, shops and hotels are concentrated in Zone 3 areas, like Bakewell. This 'capital of the Peak' has recently undergone a major transformation involving the construction of an Agricultural Business Centre and redevelopment of a large part of the town centre.

Such projects are the foundation on which the future of the park must rest. The intensity and pressures of modern business, coupled with increasing amounts of leisure time, mean more and more people want a chance to experience the simple pleasures of fresh air, open space, spectacular views and unspoilt countryside.

But progress demands that where people gather, so facilities must be provided to cater for their needs.

Sympathetic response to the requirements of modern life, tempered by the calculated restrictions of the National Park authority should ensure the Peak District is in a strong position - and able to cope with the demands of both economy and ecology well into the 21st century.

RELEVANT LINKS
For more information on the Peak District National Park, visit the Authority website at: www.peakdistrict.org

Peak District BLOG

Friends of the Peak District - Friends of the Peak District is the National Park Society for the Peak Park, campaigning to safeguard its unique landscapes for generations to come.

Moors for the Future - is a partnership project to restore large parts of the internationally important Peak District moors

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- Let's Stay Peak District is delighted to allow schools, colleges, libraries and other non-commercial organisations to link directly to this page. The following details and link text MUST be used when so doing, thank you:
Link: http://www.peakdistrict-nationalpark.com/history.php
Link text: For information and photographs about the history of the Peak District - the UK's oldest National Park - please click here.

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