Glossop is a market town in the borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, England, east of Manchester, north-west of Sheffield and north of Matlock. Near Derbyshire's borders with Cheshire, Greater Manchester, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire, between above sea level, it is bounded by the Peak District National Park to the south, east and north. In 2021, it had a population of 17,825.

Historically, the name Glossop refers to the small hamlet that gave its name to an ancient parish recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 and then the manor given by William I of England to William Peverel. A municipal borough was created in 1866, which encompassed less than half of the manor's territory. The area now known as Glossop approximates to the villages that used to be called Glossopdale, on the lands of the Duke of Norfolk. Originally a centre of wool processing, Glossop rapidly expanded in the late 18th century when it specialised in the production and printing of calico, a coarse cotton. It became a mill town with many chapels and churches; its fortunes were tied to the cotton industry.

Architecturally, the area is dominated by buildings constructed with the local sandstone; a number of these, including Glossop Gasworks, are grade II listed. Two significant former cotton mills and the Dinting railway viaduct remain.

History

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Toponymy and definition

The name Glossop is thought to be of Anglo-Saxon origin, named during the Angles' settlement in the 7th century, and derived from Glott's Hop—where hop could mean a valley, a small valley in a larger valley system, or a piece of land enclosed by marshes and Glott was probably a chieftain's name. Because of its size and location, Glossop had many definitions. The village of Glossop is now called Old Glossop. Howard Town and Milltown gained importance. They were named New Town and then Glossop. Local government reorganisations had caused the Glossopdale villages to be promoted to a municipal borough and then have that status removed. Land has been added to Glossop and other lands removed. From a small settlement it became an ancient parish, a manor, a borough and a township. Currently, two county divisions in High Peak Borough, Derbyshire, have Glossop as part of their names. and one for Charlesworth in 1328.

In 1433, the monks leased all of Glossopdale to the Talbot family, later Earls of Shrewsbury. In 1494, an illegitimate son of the family, Dr John Talbot, was appointed vicar of Glossop. He founded a school, and paved the packhorse route over the moors; this is known as Doctor's Gate.

At the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1537 the manor of Glossop was given to the Talbot family. In 1606 it came into the ownership of the Howard family, the Dukes of Norfolk, who held it for the next 300 years. Glossop was usually given to the second son of the family.

The land was too wet and cold to be used for wheat but was ideal for the hardy Pennine sheep, so agriculture was predominantly pastoral. At the same time there were 17 cotton mills in Derbyshire, principally in Glossop. By 1831 there were at least 30 mills in Glossopdale, none of which had more than 1,000 spindles. The mill owners were local men: the Wagstaffs and Hadfields were freeholders from Whitfield; the Shepleys, Shaws, Lees, Garlicks and Platts had farmed the dale. The Sidebottoms were from Hadfield, the Thornleys were carpenters and John Bennet and John Robinson were clothiers. and built the Town Hall, whose foundation stone was laid on Coronation Day 1838.

The Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway came to Dinting in 1842, but it was the 13th Duke of Norfolk who built the spur line to Howard Town, so that coal could be brought from the collieries at Dukinfield. Glossop railway station bears the lion, the symbol of the Norfolks.

The mill owners, Catholics, Anglican, Methodist and Unitarian, built reading rooms and chapels. They worked together and worshipped together with their workers. The Woods, Sidebottoms and Shepleys were Anglicans and hence Tory, and they dominated every vestry, which was the only form of local government before 1866. They built four churches: St James's, Whitfield, in 1846; St Andrew's, Hadfield, in 1874; Holy Trinity, Dinting, in 1875; and St Luke's, Glossop. Francis Sumner and the Ellisons and Norfolks were Catholic and built St Charles's, Hadfield, and St Mary's, Glossop. The smaller mill owners were Dissenters and congregated at Littlemoor Independent Chapel built in Hadfield in 1811, but they later built a further eleven chapels. and government intervention, no significant employer moved into Glossop.

Gamesley underwent considerable change in the 1960s, when a large council estate was built, mainly to house people from Manchester. These housing areas, called 'overspill estates', were also built in other towns surrounding Manchester.

Plans

thumb|Henry Street Staircase realised through Glossop Vision

Glossop has been included as pilot in the Liveability scheme, and has drawn up the Glossop Vision masterplan for the improvement and gentrification of the town. This is being partially funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. It aims to open up access to the Glossop Brook, to coordinate developments in Glossop town centre, to enhance the built environment and to link the town to its wider setting. As such, the mills have become a retail development with housing, trees are to be planted along the A57 and the market square has been pedestrianised.

Governance

thumb|[[Coat of arms of Glossop Borough Council, granted in 1919. The arms became obsolete with the council's abolition in 1974.]]

In the local government reorganisation of 1974 the Municipal Borough of Glossop was abolished, and since then the two levels of local government are Derbyshire County Council, based in Matlock, and High Peak Borough Council then based in Chapel-en-le-Frith.

Glossop was included in the "South East Lancashire Special Review Area" under the Local Government Act 1958, and the Redcliffe-Maud Report of 1969 recommended its inclusion in a South East Lancashire–North East Cheshire metropolitan area. Glossop was not ultimately included in the Greater Manchester area established by the Local Government Act 1972, with the residents voting to remain in Derbyshire in 1973. The county council, originally based in Derby, moved to Matlock in the late 1950s to facilitate easier travelling to the county hall from the northern extremities such as Glossop and the High Peak.

For the county council, Glossop is split between the divisions of Glossop and Charlesworth (electing two councillors), and Etherow (electing one councillor). Etherow division contains Hadfield North, Hadfield South, Gamesley and the large and sparsely populated Tintwistle ward, which was formerly in Cheshire. These boundaries were set in 2013.

At the district level, that is High Peak Borough Council, Glossop comprises these wards: Dinting, Gamesley, Hadfield North, Hadfield South, Old Glossop, Padfield, Howard Town, Simmondley and Whitfield. St John's represents the rural area that was formerly Glossopdale RDC and lies within the National Park. These were the wards used in the 2001 Census.

Glossop itself does not have a parish council, but Tintwistle and St John's are parished.

The Member of Parliament for the High Peak constituency since 2024 has been Jon Pearce.

Historic Glossop

thumb|A map of the different areas that have held the name Glossop.

Historically, the ancient parish of Glossop consisted of the ten townships of the manor: Glossop, Hadfield, Padfield, Dinting, Simmondley, Whitfield, Chunal, Charlesworth, Chisworth, Ludworth and nine more: Mellor, Thornsett, Rowarth, Whittle (Whitle), Beard, Ollersett, Hayfield, Little Hayfield, Phoside, Kinder, Bugsworth, Brownside and Chinley. Within the parish were the chapelries of Hayfield and Mellor. The ancient parish was in the Hundred of High Peak; it was about long and wide, with an area of . Beard, Ollerset, Thornsett, Rowarth and Whitle later formed the town of New Mills, while Hayfield, Little Hayfield, Phoside and Kinder joined the parish of Hayfield. The chapelry of Mellor included Mellor, Chisworth, Ludworth, Whittle and part of Thornsett.

The Manor of Glossop was made up of the territory that includes Hadfield, Padfield, Dinting, Simmondley, Whitfield, Chunal, Charlesworth, Chisworth, Ludworth and the village of Glossop, now called Old Glossop. The remaining parishes of Charlesworth, Chisworth and Ludworth formed Glossopdale Rural District, which remained in existence until 1934 when the parishes were split, Ludworth going into Marple RDC, Chisworth and the greater part of Charlesworth joining Chapel en le Frith RDC and the smaller part——joining Glossop.

The present community of Glossop is centred on Howardtown. It is served by the Glossopdale Area Forum and the Glossop Town Partnership.

The previous hamlet of Glossop is now known as Old Glossop.

Geography

Glossop is at the north-western extreme of England's East Midlands region, north-west of London, east of the city of Manchester, west of the city of Sheffield and north of Derby. It nestles in the foothills of the Pennines, with Bleaklow to the north-east and Kinder Scout to the south. It lies on Glossop Brook, a tributary of the River Etherow, in the area of peat moorland commonly known as the Dark Peak. The moors, which rise to over , are cut by many deep V-shaped valleys known as cloughs, each formed by a stream known as a brook. Shelf Brook passes through Old Glossop where it joins Hurst Brook to form Glossop Brook, which passes westward through Milltown, Howard Town and Dinting to the River Etherow, which in turn runs south to join the River Goyt at Marple Bridge. Two other notable brooks are Padfield Brook and Gnat Hole Brook.

thumb|top|left|upright=0.75|alt=Shelf Brook photo|Shelf BrookShelf Brook leads from Shelf Moor on Bleaklow down Doctor's Gate through Old Glossop to Glossop Brook. The valley was used by the Romans for a road, and currently contains a bridleway. The north slope of Holden Clough and Hurst Brook is used by the A57 road known as the Snake Pass. The Snake Pass crosses the Pennine Way near Doctor's Gate Culvert ( above sea level) before descending to the east to Ladybower Reservoir along the northern side of the River Ashop valley. Here a road leads east over Hallam Moor into Sheffield, and south along the River Derwent into Baslow and Matlock. To the north of Glossop is Tintwistle; the River Etherow is the boundary. Today, the Longdendale valley forms a chain of reservoirs that provide drinking water for Manchester. At the head of the valley is Woodhead, where the road from Huddersfield joins the road to Sheffield, and a railway tunnel brought the railway from Penistone.

Geology

thumb|Schematic diagram of the rocks beneath Glossop

Directly beneath Glossop lie areas of Carboniferous Millstone Grit, shales and sandstone. Glossop is on the edge of the Peak District Dome, at the southern edge of the Pennine anticline. The Variscan uplift has caused much faulting and Glossopdale was the product of glacial action in the last glaciation period that exploited the weakened rocks. The steep-sided valleys of the cloughs cause significant erosion and deposition. The layers of sandstone, mudstones and shale in the bedrock act as an aquifer to feed the springs. The valley bottoms have a thin deposit of boulder clay. The brooks are fed by the peaty soils of the moors thus are acid (pH5.5–7.0); this means the instream wildlife is dependent on food sources from outside the channel.

Climate

Glossop experiences a temperate maritime climate, like much of the British Isles, with relatively cool summers and mild winters. There is regular but generally light precipitation throughout the year. Glossop has a history of flash flooding, the most recent being in 2002 when High Street West was flooded to a depth of .

Demography

Glossop demographics were recorded as the following: A major fire in 1996 destroyed half the mill. The remaining half has been redeveloped into flats and retail units.

Wood's Mill, Howardtown Mills, Milltown Mills

From a group of small mills at Bridge End, John Wood built a complex of mills. Bridge End Mill was originally built in 1782 as a fulling mill. Today one mill building is being restored, and the Milltown mills lie idle.<!-- more research needed here -->

Town Hall

Glossop Town Hall and Market Hall was designed in Italianate style by Sheffield architects Weightman and Hadfield. The foundation stone was laid on 28 June 1838, the Coronation Day of Queen Victoria. The buildings were opened on 10 July 1845. Cost of construction exceeded £8,500. The facilities included a lock-up with four cells heated by hot water.

Coronation Bridge

Coronation Bridge (sometimes known as Webster Bridge) crosses Glossop Brook at a spot many locals call the 'Sandhole'. The current reinforced concrete bridge of replaced the 1902 original, of which it was reported in the Glossop-dale Chronicle and North Derbyshire Reporter of 25 April 1902 that "the new George Street Coronation Bridge has now arrived at Glossop, and a portion of it had a sort of triumphal procession through the town yesterday (Thursday) morning." It is a popular spot for local amateur photographers and was earmarked for improved access under Glossop's Active Travel Masterplan in 2024. The present church has a nave of five bays, 25 yards long by 16 yards wide, with north and south aisles, and a chancel of 14 yards by 7 yards with a north aisle dedicated as St Catherine's Chapel.

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Open spaces

Two public open spaces in Glossop have been given the Green Flag Award: Manor Park, close to the town centre, which has views of the surrounding countryside, and Howard Park, which was described by the Award organisation as "a good example of visionary layout from the Victorian era retaining many original features". Glossop's parkrun takes place in Manor Park every Saturday at 9am. Harehills Park, with its riverside footpath and mature trees, has been identified by Glossop Vision as a strategic open space, and was donated by the 2nd Lord Howard of Glossop as a First World War memorial. The trains operated on the line are three-car Class 323 electric multiple units, built between 1992 and 1996 by Hunslet Transportation Projects.

Buses

There are regular bus services running to towns in Tameside, Buxton, New Mills, Whaley Bridge, the Hope Valley, Sheffield and infrequent services to Holmfirth.

Bus services in Glossop are operated predominantly by High Peak and Metroline Manchester (under the Bee Network) with services to Hyde operated by Go North West (Bee Network).

Roads

The main road through Glossop is the A57. To the west, this road (with the parallel M67 motorway) leads to Manchester, while Sheffield and the Hope Valley lie to the east, via the Snake Pass. The B6105 leads north then east, along the Woodhead Pass (A628) and eventually to the South Yorkshire town of Barnsley and the M1 motorway. Chapel-en-le-Frith, Buxton and Derby lie to the south, along the A624 and A6.

Leisure

The Peak District Boundary Walk runs along the eastern side of town through Charlestown and Old Glossop and the Pennine Bridleway passes the western side of town around Gamesley and Hadfield.

Schools and further education

Primary schools:

Secondary schools:

  • St Philip Howard Catholic Voluntary Academy
  • Glossopdale School

Adult learning:

  • Glossopdale Adult Community Education
  • Glossopdale Sixth Form

Libraries:

  • Glossop Library (Victoria Hall, Talbot Street, Glossop)
  • Hadfield Library (Station Rd, Hadfield)
  • Eric Read Community Library (Gamesley Primary School, Grindleford Grove, Gamesley)

Sport

Glossop is the smallest town in England to have had a team in the top tier of the English football league system. Glossop North End were members of the Football League between 1898 and 1915; for the 1899–1900 season, they played in Division One. The team now plays in the North West Counties Football League Premier Division.

The town also has a number of sports clubs, including tennis, golf, rugby union, cricket, bowls, running, cycling and sailing at Torside Reservoir.

Culture

Performing arts

Partington Theatre is an amateur theatre with a 120-seat venue in the centre of the town. It runs six plays each season and was established in 1954. The building was started in 1914 and completed in 1917.

Glossop Improv is an improvisation group for adults, running drop-in workshops online and in-person.

Glossop & District Choral Society is a community choir founded in 1949 by Margaret Lomas.

Glossop Operatic and Dramatic Society was an amateur musical/drama society established in 1976.

Community events

Glossop Victorian Weekend was the biggest weekend event in Glossop and was featured on the BBC's Songs of Praise. The weekend included many activities, including a Grand Victorian Costume Competition and a Shop Window Competition. The Victorian Weekend was discontinued in 2009 due to lack of local support. Running parallel with the Victorian Weekend was Glossop Beer Festival, run by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) and featuring over 30 beers and a barbecue in Glossop's Labour Club.

Glossop has a range of other cultural activities including Peak Film Society, a film club. Many other activities, including Glossop Folk Club take place at Glossop Labour Club. Also at Glossop Labour Club is the monthly Glossop Record Club, which holds vinyl listening sessions on the second Thursday of each month.

Glossop has a thriving indoor and outdoor market where a wide selection of goods can be purchased. The indoor market is open every Thursday, Friday and Saturday, while the outdoor market is open every Friday and Saturday. The Outdoor Market is joined by the Local Produce Market on the second Saturday of every month throughout the year.

The Crown Inn public house at 142 Victoria Street, built in the 1840s, is on the Campaign for Real Ale's National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors.

Emergency service provision

Calls for service in the rural areas usually increase during the summer as the population is boosted by approximately twenty million visitors each year to the Peak District and its surrounds. Winter weather on the high ground around Glossop and Kinder Scout can also cause problems for traffic and residents.

Hospitals

State healthcare is provided for in Glossop and District by the NHS Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board. Despite this, patients from the area use Tameside General Hospital located in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, because there are no district general hospitals (hospitals with an Accident and Emergency Department) within the borough of High Peak. The nearest hospital with A&E facilities within the county is in Chesterfield, some from the town by road.

Ambulance and paramedics

The North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) is the main ambulance service provider for the area, with an ambulance station on Chapel Street. However, services are occasionally complemented and assisted by the East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS) in times of high demand, or to assist with a major incident.

Police and crime

When Glossop was granted Municipal Borough Status in 1867, the Watch Committee elected to implement its own police force. Glossop Police remained independent until 1947 when they amalgamated with the Derbyshire Constabulary. The police station on Ellison Street is staffed by statutory police officers from B Division of Derbyshire Constabulary. It has a custody suite, five cells and an incident room. There are also a team of volunteer special constables and six police community support officers.

Fire service

General fire and rescue cover is provided by the Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service. Glossop fire station is based in the Charlestown area, just off the A624 road.

Mountain rescue

Specialised search and rescue services are provided by the volunteer Glossop Mountain Rescue Team, part of the Peak District Mountain Rescue Organisation. Their remit is to 'save lives in the mountains and moorlands'.

Twin town

Glossop is twinned with Bad Vilbel, a spa town in the Wetteraukreis district of Hesse, Germany, north-east of Frankfurt.

In 1985 the Glossop–Bad Vilbel Twinning Association was established. Its aims are:<blockquote>To promote and foster friendship and understanding between the people of Glossop and district and those of Bad Vilbel and district in Germany.

To encourage visits by individuals and groups to and from the linked towns, particularly by children and young people, and the development of personal contacts, and by doing so to broaden the mutual understanding of the cultural, recreational, educational and commercial activities of the linked towns.<br/><small>Source: The Glossop-Bad Vilbel Twinning Association</small></blockquote>

In 1987 formal twinning ceremonies were held in both towns, with a tree being planted in Norfolk Square. The Twinning Association arranges for visitors to stay with families.

The two signatories of the charter were Catherine Holtom, the Mayor of High Peak, and Gunther Biwer, Bürgermeister of Bad Vilbel.

Literature and the media

Hilaire Belloc wrote about Glossop in a letter to a Miss Hamilton in 1909: "Do you know the filthy village of Glossop? It is inhabited entirely by savages. I tried every inn in the place and found each inn worse than the last. It stinks for miles. Rather than sleep in such a den I started walking back to Manchester with a huge bag...."

Glossop is mentioned in the satirical book England, Their England by A. G. Macdonell. The town's fictional newspaper, the Glossop Evening Mail, is described as the lowest rung in the journalistic profession.

In 2013, Old Glossop was used for filming in the BBC drama series The Village, starring John Simm and Maxine Peake. The Parish Church of All Saints and the former Duke of Norfolk school building appeared in the series.

Local newspapers includes the Glossop Advertiser newspaper owned by the Manchester Evening News, the Glossop Chronicle, the Buxton Advertiser, the Glossop Gazette,

Regional TV news comes from Salford-based BBC North West and ITV Granada. Television signals are received from Winter Hill and the local relay transmitters.

The town's local radio stations are BBC Radio Manchester, Glossop Community Radio and Greatest Hits Radio Derbyshire (High Peak), formerly known as High Peak Radio.

Notable persons

thumb|upright|[[Edmund Potter, before 1883]]

thumb|upright|[[Vivienne Westwood, 2008]]

thumb|upright|[[Jeremy Heywood, 2015]]

  • Nicholas Garlick (c. 1555 – 1588), English priest, martyred in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.
  • Charles Calvert (1785–1852), a British landscape painter.
  • Frederick Baltimore Calvert (1793–1877), an English actor and academic.
  • Michael Pease Calvert (1798-1875) a British landscape painter.
  • Edmund Potter (1802–1883), businessman, industrialist, politician and MP, he moved his business to Glossop in 1825
  • Francis Sumner (1807–1884), built a large business. mill owner and became the first Mayor of Glossop
  • Matthew Ellison Hadfield (1812–1885), Gothic Revival architect, born at Lees Hall.
  • Charles Hadfield (1821–1884), journalist, edited the Manchester City News from 1865 to 1867.
  • Edward Partington, 1st Baron Doverdale (1836–1925), industrialist from Bury, arrived locally in 1874
  • Benjamin Charles Garside (1863–1933), expatriate to Wisconsin, machinist and Populist legislator.
  • Sir Samuel Hill-Wood (1872–1949), businessman, politician, cricketer and football club chairman.
  • Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889&nbsp;– 1951), Austrian philosopher, stayed at the Grouse Inn in Glossop in 1908 while studying and working at Manchester University.
  • Harold Fletcher (1907–1978), botanist and horticulturist and Her Majesty's Botanist from 1966 to 1978.
  • Sir Norman Skelhorn (1909–1988), barrister who was Director of Public Prosecutions for England and Wales from 1964 to 1977.
  • Paul Raymond, (1925–2008), strip-club owner, publisher of pornography and property developer, moved to Glossop where he was educated by the Irish Christian Brothers.
  • Frederick Rowbottom (1938–2009), British logician and mathematician. The set theory, Rowbottom cardinal is named after him.
  • John Vernon Lord (born 1939), illustrator and author of children's books, such as The Giant Jam Sandwich, and Professor of Illustration at the University of Brighton relatives owned local cafe.
  • Dame Vivienne Westwood (1941–2022), fashion designer, brought modern punk and new wave fashion into the mainstream
  • Hilary Mantel (1952–2022), British novelist, short story writer and critic.
  • Eileen Cooper (born 1953), English contemporary painter and printmaker best known for her stylised paintings of women or couples,
  • Andy Wilman (born 1962), co-creator and producer, BBC Top Gear, born in Glossop.
  • Jeremy Heywood, Baron Heywood of Whitehall (1961–2018), Cabinet Secretary, from 2012 to 2018 and Head of the Home Civil Service from 2014 to 2018; lived on Spire Hollin.
  • Libby Lane (born 1966), brought up locally, the first Anglican bishop
  • Maiya Quansah-Breed (born 1997), English singer and stage actress, brought up locally.

Sport

thumb|upright|[[Ellie Simmonds, 2025]]

  • Thomas Foster (1848–1929), cricketer who played 90 matches for Derbyshire
  • Joseph Bowden (1884–1958), cricketer who played 231 first-class cricket games for Derbyshire
  • Leonard Oliver (1886–1948), cricketer who played 174 first-class cricket games for Derbyshire
  • Frederick Bracey (1887–1960), cricketer who played 77 first-class cricket games for Derbyshire
  • Terry Fogerty (1944–2013), rugby league footballer who played 298 games with Halifax Panthers
  • Dan Money (born 1976), bobsleigher who represented GB at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.
  • Keith Briggs (born 1981), football coach and former player, he played over 300 games
  • James Vincent (born 1989), footballer and coach who played 374 games
  • Ellie Simmonds (born 1994), retired Paralympian swimmer who won two gold medals at the 2008 Summer Paralympics
  • Andy Cannon (born 1996), footballer played 250 games, lived in Simmondley and attended St Philip Howard Catholic Voluntary Academy.
  • Alisha Palmowski (born 2006), English racing driver, runner up in the 2024 GB4 Championship

See also

  • Listed buildings in Glossop

References

  • Glossop Gazette