Lets Go Buxton
Great Hucklow, SK17 8RG, United Kingdom, 0845 166 8022, info@peakdistrictonline.co.uk
Buxton History
http://www.letsgo-buxton.co.uk
10:56 06-Sep-2010
- Bess of Hardwick
- Broad Walk
- Devonshire Dome
- Eagle Parade
- Hall Bank
- Hydrotherapy
- Mary Queen of Scots
- Operas Past
- The Crescent
- The Old Hall Hotel
- The Palace Hotel
- The Slopes
Buxton as we know it today wasn't around at the time of the Beaker people, but the area that modern Buxton occupies is historically significant thanks to the documented evidence of bronze age settlements.
Many of the hills surrounding Buxton carry the name of 'low' somewhere in their name and this is from the old English word 'hlaw' meaning 'burial mound' or 'barrow'. Names like Arbor Low and Grin Low on the outskirts of Buxton itself are ancient bronze age burial grounds where excavations have taken place and revealed evidence of burials, or internments.
At Grin Low, where Solomon's temple stands on the site of one such burial mound, evidence was found of 3 internments and 2 cremations including that of a child. Other evidence found at the site included a flint scraper, a decorated food vessel, a dog's jaw bone and a slate whetstone. The Grin Low barrow itself measured 15 metres across and stood over 1 meter high.
Pooles Cavern at the foot of Grin Low Woods contained evidence of occupation that dates back to Roman Times, and we have the Romans to thank for the romantic sounding name of Aquae Arnemetiae. Buxton Museum & Art Gallery has a permanent exhibition of Roman artefacts which includes a brooch that was discovered in Cowdale.
Many aristrocratic and noble people have been associated with Buxton through the Devonshire/Cavendish family, and Buxton was at the forefront of fashion in the 17th century when it began to be known as a Spa with healing waters. The resort of Buxton was one of the first in the country, alongside seaside resorts, to offer secular holidays to people living outside the area.
Buxton couldn't offer sea bathing, but it could offer a cure for all ills which was just as good: the naturally warm, clear and flowing mineral water for which the town is still famous today.
From this steady flow of clean pure Buxton water sprang a whole industry of medical cures and holiday treatments. Pilgrimages were made to the remote town of Buxton in order to receive water cures and later hydrotherapy, and hotels and treatment centres sprang up to cater for the sick and needy.
They could bathe in it, drink it, have it jetted all over them from every angle, swim in it or get dunked it in, wallow in mud mixed with it, take it hot, take it cold, or most bizarrely get the shock treatment when electricity was mixed with it.
Probably the best known visitor to Buxton who came to 'take the waters' was Mary, Queen of Scots.
She visited Buxton on at least five occasions and took the mineral water for her rheumatism which, she proclaimed, was very beneficial. She stayed in the 'Hall', which is now the Old Hall Hotel, and was a prisoner under house arrest of George Talbot, the 6th Earl of Shrewsbury and the fourth husband of Bess of Hardwick.
Talbot imprisoned Mary, Queen of Scots for 14 years from 1569. During this time she was kept at various locations in Derbyshire including the Hall. Buxton was mixed up in the court scandals and intrigues that surrounded Mary and was reputedly one of the places where conspirators working on the side of the Scottish queen met and plotted.
Another name you'll come across in Buxton is that of Cavendish, the family name of the Duke of Devonshire. Street names, buildings and even a shopping arcade in Buxton have Cavendish in their name.
Sir William Cavendish was a Suffolk landowner and was Treasurer of the Royal Chamber to both Henry VIII and George VI. He was also the second husband of Elizabeth Hardwick, now famously known as Bess of Hardwick, and it was she who persuaded him to sell land in southern England and purchase estates in Derbyshire. It was on these estates that she instigated the building of the great English houses of Chatsworth and Hardwick.
Chatsworth is a few miles outside Buxton and is still home to the Duke of Devonshire and his family. At one time the Devonshire estate owned much of Buxton and is still a major landowner in the area. Through the centuries the Devonshires have been responsible for the building or financing of many of the outstanding structures in Buxton, including the magnificent Dome of what is now the University of Derby, The Crescent, the Pavilion Gardens and Broad Walk which was originally called Cavendish Terrace.
Famous architects who helped shape the town of Buxton include Robert Ripon Duke, Henry Currey and Joseph Paxton. Between them they designed the Opera House, The Natural Baths, Hall Bank, Eagle Parade in Higher Buxton, the Palace Hotel and the lovely Broad Walk alongside Pavilion Gardens.