The village of Beeley sits snugly amongst the gently undulating wooded hills which rise on the east bank of the River Derwent about a mile and a half due south of Chatsworth House, the home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, and about a mile along the B6012 from its junction with the A6 at the former rail-head village of Rowsley. It’s easy to miss. Most visitors to the Peak District just go shooting past in their car or on their bikes, heading towards Chatsworth House or Baslow.

The Beeley Brook collects water from the moors above and, fortified by a stream which drains Fallinge Edge, cascades over several small waterfalls on its way down the hillside, adding its sweet, natural music to the tranquil and peaceful atmosphere as it runs delightfully through the village to empty into the nearby River Derwent.

Image: Beeley Brook, Peak District.

Beeley Brook, Peak District.

The village of Beeley stands to the east of the A6 near Rowsley, whilst, to the west, Lindup Wood rises above the Derwent Valley and there are magnificent views northward to Chatsworth Park. The proximity of Chatsworth with its magnificent open parkland has had a major influence on the character of Beeley and its surrounding landscape ever since Sir William Cavendish bought the Chatsworth Estate on December 31st 1549 – though the village itself remained independent of any ducal control for another two hundred years until the third Duke of Devonshire purchased Beeley Hill Top in 1747.

Beeley has enjoyed the benefits of two centuries as an estate village under the control of successive Dukes of Devonshire, and though this is no longer the case, with many of the properties having been sold off in recent times, the evidence of ducal influence is still plain throughout the village today.

On Bunker’s Hill, about a mile north-east of the village, stands the prehistoric Hob Hurst’s House, whilst two hundred yards south the remains of a Neolithic stone circle stand close to a derelict tumulus on the barren hillside. Thus Beeley Moor contains plenty of evidence that the area has been occupied for thousands of years. Hob Hurst’s House is a Bronze Age tomb and local legend has it that if you listen carefully at dusk, you can hear the voices of it’s long-gone internees. It is a well-preserved square burial mound with a deep ditch and external bank. Also on this moor are at least four stone circles plus other burial mounds. They are generally not well preserved, the best of the bunch being Park Gate circle. This has a continuous bank but only a few of the original 10 – 14 standing stones remain upright. Several sunset alignments have been postulated from here.

Modern Beeley, with a population of under 500, remains much as it was two centuries ago, save for the addition of the houses at the bottom of Chesterfield Road, which sweeps up past the Devonshire Arms, a 17th century hostelry with a good reputation for food.

Image: Paxton designed Chatsworth estate houses at Beeley.

Chatsworth estate houses at Beeley

At the junction directly opposite the pub stand three cottages (pictured above) built in a triangular pattern with very unusual Dutch-gabled roofs: the style is reminiscent of Paxton who designed the estate-village of Edensor which is situated at the opposite end of Chatsworth Park. For the rest, this small agricultural community, once farmed by a thane named Godric, sleeps timelessly on in the bosom of its peaceful country setting, oblivious to the traffic which passes to and from Chatsworth House on the B6012.