Great Longstone

infobox UK place
country = England
static_

static_image_caption=Great Longstone station, showing part of the Monsal Trail
latitude= 53.24
longitude= -1.69
official_name= Great Longstone
population =
shire_district = Derbyshire Dales
shire_county = Derbyshire
region= East Midlands
constituency_westminster= West Derbyshire
post_town= BAKEWELL
postcode_district = DE45
postcode_area= DE
dial_code= 01629
os_grid_reference= SK210720

Great Longstone with Little Longstone is one of two villages in the local government district of Derbyshire Dales in Derbyshire, England.

History

A place called "longsdune" was mentioned in the Domesday Book as belonging to Henry de Ferrers Henry was given a large number of manors in Derbyshire including Doveridge, Spondon, Pilsbury and Breadsall.] and being worth thirty shillings; this is considered to be Great Longstone."Domesday Book: A Complete Translation". London: Penguin, 2003. ISBN 0-14-143994-7 p.748]

The church of St Giles, in Great Longstone, dates from the thirteenth century. A mediaeval cross lies in the churchyard, and the head of a cross is built into the wall of the vestry.Neville T. Sharpe, "Crosses of the Peak District" (Landmark Collectors Library, 2002)]

The manor house, Longstone Hall, has its origins in the following century, but was rebuilt in the mid 18th. That century was one of prosperity, with lead-mining and shoemaking; the public house in the village is called "The Crispin Inn", after St Crispin, the patron saint of cobblers.

The manors of Great and Little Longstone passed through many hands over the years. Walter Blount, Lord Mountjoy, was Lord of the Manor on his death in 1474, when the lordship passed to Robert Shakerley and his wife Margaret, daughter and heiress of Roger Levett. [ [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50709 Shakerley of Longstone, Magna Britannia, Vol. 5, Daniel and Samuel Lysons, 1817, British History Online] ] The two families' coats of arms adorn the church of St Giles. In subsequent years, Shakerley descendants sold the manor to the Countess of Shrewsbury. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=0FwvAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA99&lpg=PA99&dq=shakerley+levett&source=web&ots=FfcQfonjLR&sig=q1eqM3IPYBs_d8cuhycAHrpHot0&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=3&ct=result#PPA100,M1 Notes on the Churches of Derbyshire, John Charles Cox, Vol. II, London, 1877] ]

A market cross lies on the village green.

Little Longstone is further west, with a manor house from the seventeenth century and still has its village stocks.

To the north is Longstone Edge, a limestone ridge some 1,300 feet in height, on an upfolding of the Derbyshire limestone known as the Longstone Anticline. It has been, and is, intensively quarried for galena, fluorspar and barytes, and more controversially, limestone. Since Longstone Edge is a noted beauty spot and is located within the Peak District National Park there is strong local pressure for the quarrying to stop altogether. Some of this quarrying is strictly controlled by the Peak District National Park Authority, but the Authority has been conducting a lengthy legal battle to try to stop other quarries which are operating outside of the authority's guidelines.

Further north is the White Cliff, where the exposed limestone contains fossilised corals.

There was a railway station, built by the Midland Railway in 1863, when it extended the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway towards Buxton. Originally known as "Longstone", in 1913 it was renamed "Great Longstone for Ashford" (Ashford in the Water). It closed in 1962, but the building, designed to match the nearby Thornbridge Hall, survives as a domestic residence, and the trackbed through the station is part of the 8.5 mile Monsal Trail, a walk and cycleway.

Famous residents

Lord Hattersley, former Labour party deputy leader.

References

External links

*oscoor gbx|SK210720
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/conservation/story/0,13369,1446493,00.html "Stop destroying my Peak District", Roy Hattersley, "The Observer", 27 March 2005]
* [http://www.greatlongstone.net Great Longstone village website]
* [http://www.peakdistrict.gov.uk/longstone-edge Quarrying on Longstone Edge]
* [http://www.longstone-edge.org Save Longstone Edge Campaign]
* [http://www.letsstay.co.uk/blog/?cat=1 Great Longstone Charity Walk, 18 October 2008]