Chinley, Derbyshire. A former mill village and railway junction just to the west of the Peak Distric

Chinley

Local Services:

B & B

Local Geography:

Modern Chinley is a large busy village with many stone-built Victorian buildings, situated just on the western edge of the Peak District National Park. It is a good base for exploration of the western side of the Peak District and for walks up onto Kinder and its outlying hills.

View of Chinley and Cracken Edge

The area around the village was part of the Royal Forest of the Peak and there was probably little but a few isolated farms here until the 17th century. The oldest building in the area is the Elizabethan hall built at the nearby hamlet of Whitehough by the Kyrke family at the end of the 16th century and now the Old Hall Inn, but some farms along Stubbins Lane are also quite old and in 1711 Charles Wesley was entertained at Chinley End Farm, which still stands in Lower Lane.

In fact Wesley was a regular visitor here and preached often at nearby Chapel Milton, for the area was a hotbed of early Nonconformism. Perhaps one reason why he came was because Chinley was also the home of Grace Murray (later the wife of Charles Bennet, another famous preacher), who is said to be the only woman Wesley loved, and would have wished to marry.

The New Chapel

The industrial revolution came to the Chinley area and brought the construction of three mills along the Blackbrook which runs through the village, followed by the Peak Forest tramway in 1799 - a crude railway which used horse-drawn wagons to carry stone from the quarries at Dove Holes to the canal at nearby Bugsworth basin, which was completed in 1806. However, it was the arrival of the railway in 1867 and its later extension in 1901 to carry trains to Sheffield which made Chinley grow rapidly, and in the early years of this century it was an important railway junction and a regular stopping-point for trainloads of ramblers at weekends.

The modern village contains many houses from this era, built out of stone quarried from nearby Cracken Edge for wealthy commuters who took the train to Manchester every morning. The railway is now a shadow of its former self, with the line to London closed since 1970 and the Manchester - Sheffield service much reduced from its heyday. The centre of the village has some shops and there is a pub at nearby Whitehough. Chinley is beautifully situated with plenty of walking close at hand, and a walk up Chinley Churn or Cracken Edge gives an excellent view across the area.

Chinley Photo Gallery - click on the images to enlarge- Click Here for a slide show

0 - Chinley shops	1 - Chinley - Whitehough Old Hall	2 - Chinley with Cracken Edge behind	3 - Chinley Chapel
4 - Chinley Chapel interior	5 - Chinley Farm	6 - Chapel-en-le-Frith market cross	7 - Chapel-en-le-Frith cottages
8 - Chapel-en-le-Frith Hearse House	9 - Chapel-en-le-Frith church	10 - Chapel-en-le-Frith stocks

Local places of interest
Chestnut Centre, Chapel-en-le-Frith	The Chestnut Centre otter and owl sanctuary has otters, owls, wild cats, foxes and other animals. Based near Ford Hall, Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire.
Chinley New Chapel	Chinley 'new' Chapel, Derbyshire, is a beautiful early nonconformist chapel. Founded by William Bagshawe, the 'Apostle of the Peak', and John Wesley preached here.
New Mills Heritage Centre and Torrs Riverside Park	The New Mills Heritage Centre is a museum with a display about the history of New Mills. The Torrs Riverside Park is in the gorge below the museum and has spectacular scenery and industrial archeology.
Sett Valley Trail	The Sett Valley Trail is a cycle trail which follows the line of the former railway between Hayfield and New Mills, Derbyshire.

Chinley, Derbyshire. A former mill village and railway junction just to the west of the Peak Distric

Chinley, Derbyshire, has several former mills and was once an important railway junction. Charles Wesley was a frequent visitor and Chinley New Chapel is a fine example of an early Nonconformist chapel.

Chinley

Local places of interest