Buxworth

Infobox UK place
country = England
static_

static_image_caption=Buxworth showing the 'Navigation Inn'
latitude = 53.337
longitude = -1.970
scale = 20000
map_type = Derbyshire
official_name = Buxworth
local_name = Bugsworth, Buggy
population =
shire_district = High Peak
shire_county = Derbyshire
region = East Midlands
constituency_westminster = High Peak
post_town = HIGH PEAK
postcode_district = SK23
postcode_area = SK
dial_code =01663
os_grid_reference = SK0282

Buxworth is a village in the High Peak of Derbyshire, England. It is about two miles from Whaley Bridge and about eighteen miles southeast of Manchester.

Name change

The village was originally called Bugsworth, but in the early 20th century, some residents began to dislike the name of their village and their cause was championed by the local vicar, Dr J R Towers, and the village school headmaster, Mr W T Prescott. As a result of the efforts of these two residents, Bugsworth officially became Buxworth on the 16 April 1930. [ [http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/csmonitor_historic/access/310290382.html?dids=310290382:310290382&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&date=Aug+20%2C+1930&author=SPECIAL+FROM+MONITOR+BUREAU&pub=Christian+Science+Monitor&desc=LITTLE+BUGSWORTH+IMPROVES+ITS+NAME&pqatl=google Little Bugsworth improves its name] Christian Science Monitor Boston, Mass. August 1930] No regard was paid to the ancient origins of the village name, which can be traced back to Norman times.

In 1999 the local High Peak Borough Council council spent £350 to organise a ballot of the 600 members of the local population. The result was 233 to 139 to keep the name as Buxworth [Nigel Bunyan [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/htmlContent.jhtml?html=/archive/1999/05/08/nbux08.html Buxworth result no change] Daily Telegraph May 1999] . However the village is still generally referred to as 'Buggy' by locals.

Transport

The Peak Forest Canal terminates here at Bugsworth Basin (the renaming of the village had no effect on the name of the canal basin), which was re-opened on the 26 March 2005 having been restored by the Inland Waterways Protection Society, and, once again, the canal now ends at its original terminus. It is used entirely for recreational purposes.

The canal never reached Peak Forest but limestone from quarries near Dove Holes was, between 1796 and 1922, transported to the basin by way of the Peak Forest Tramway – a distance of some six miles. Its track bed can still be discerned in places (e.g. at Whitehough, close to Chinley, and just beyond the end of the bypass on the way south to Buxton).

A main railway line (Sheffield to Manchester) passes to the north of the village. The railway was originally the Midland Railway's main line to London, built in 1867 as part of the extension of its Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway, and in 1894 the Midland built the line from Dore which is what exists today as the Hope Valley line. Almost as soon as it was built a landslip destroyed the viaduct. Some four hundred men constructed drainage channels and built a new timber viaduct, which served until 1885 when the present one was built. A tunnel to the north of the station collapsed during building, trapping a gang of navvies, who were close to death by the time they were rescued. In 1903 when the line upgraded to four tracks, the tunnel was opened out into a cutting. There was a station at Buxworth which closed in 1958.

The village is split into two by the Whaley Bridge–Chapel-en-le-Frith bypass (A6), constructed in the 1980s.

Local murder

John Cotton who was the last man to be hanged in Derby Gaol in 1898, had committed the murder of his wife in Bugsworth basin after drinking heavily in the Rose & Crown (now demolished) at Bugsworth [ [http://www.buxton.uk.net/bugsworthbasin.htm Bugsworth Basin at Buxton.uk.net] accessed June 2007] [ [http://www.brocross.com/iwps/pages/cotton.htm The Bugsworth murderer] ] .

Cricket

Buxworth cricket team, which was founded around 1848, play in the Derbyshire & Cheshire League [ [http://www.derbyshireandcheshirecricketleague.co.uk/pagebroker.aspx?page=home Derbyshire & Cheshire League] ] [ [http://buxworthcc.org/index.php Buxworth Cricket Club website] ] . Former Buxworth player Alan (Bud) Hill went on to play for Derbyshire for over fourteen seasons, scoring over 12,000 first class runs. [ [http://content-www.cricinfo.com/england/content/player/14374.html Alan Hill at CricInfo] ]

Links with the USA

Brierley Green adjoins Buxworth and in the early 1800s it was the home of the Clayton family. The eldest son, Joel Henry Clayton [ [http://www.ci.clayton.ca.us/clayton_meet-joel.php City of Clayton website] ] , emigrated to the USA to live with an uncle at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Other members of the Clayton family followed him and eventually they settled in a valley at the foot of Mount Diablo, some 30 miles from San Francisco, California where they founded Clayton. Buxworth and Clayton are now twinned.

References

External links

* [http://www.navigationinn.co.uk Navigation Inn web-site]
* [http://www.chinleyandbuxworth-pc.gov.uk Parish council web-site]