Tideswell is a village, civil parish, and ward in the Peak District of Derbyshire, England. It lies east of Buxton on the B6049, in a wide valley on a limestone plateau, at an altitude of above sea level, and is within the District of Derbyshire Dales. The population (including Wheston) was 1,820 in 2001, increasing slightly to 1,827 at the 2011 Census, making it the second-largest settlement within the National Park, after Bakewell. Tideswell Dale is a short limestone valley leading south from the village to the River Wye valley.

Name

There is some debate as to how the village got its name. The English Place Name Society accepts it as being named after a Saxon chieftain named Tidi, others that the name comes from a "tiding well" situated in the north of the village. This 'ebbing and flowing' well was declared to be one of the Seven Wonders of the Peak by Thomas Hobbes in his 1636 book De Mirabilibus Pecci.

Tideswell is known locally as Tidza or Tidsa. In addition, local residents are known as Sawyeds, owing to a traditional story about a farmer who freed his prize cow from a gate in which it had become entangled, by sawing its head off. Today the story is re-enacted raucously and colourfully every Wakes week by a local mummers group called the Tidza Guisers.

History and heritage

thumb|upright=1.2|Street in Tideswell, Derbyshire

thumb|left|Tideswell [[well dressing is usually at the end of June]]

In the Middle Ages, Tideswell was a market town known for lead mining. The Tideswell lead miners were renowned for their strength and were much prized by the military authorities. The Domesday Book of 1086 lists TIDESUUELLE as the King's land in the charge of William Peverel with fewer than five households.

Tideswell is now best known for its 14th-century parish church, the Church of St John the Baptist, known as the "Cathedral of the Peak", which contains three 15th-century misericords.

thumb|upright=1.2|Outside the church of [[St John the Baptist, Tideswell]]

A sundial lies in the churchyard; it is positioned on steps which local historian Neville T. Sharpe thinks likely to be those of the village's market cross. A market and two-day fair were granted to the village in 1251. The Foljambe family, later the Foljambe baronets, were the principal landowners from the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries.

The population was recorded as 1,777 inhabitants in the 1841 census. At that time, the free grammar school educated about 70 boys.

The town has a week-long festival near the summer solstice known as the Wakes, culminating in "Big Saturday", which includes a torchlight procession through the streets, led by a brass band playing a unique tune called the Tideswell Processional, and townsfolk dancing a traditional weaving dance.

Markeygate House

Markeygate House on Bank Square is thought to be the oldest dwelling in Tideswell, built in 1432. It is an English Heritage Grade II listed building (Entry Number: 1288059) that has undergone significant remodelling over time, having served as an ale house and family butcher.

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File:Markeygate House.jpg|Markeygate House

File:Detail of the door to Markeygate House.jpg|Detail of the door to Markeygate House

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Taste Tideswell

In May 2009, Tideswell won a £400,000 grant from the Big Lottery Fund's Village SOS programme. In a bid to help keep its village shops open and thriving—over 20 shops had closed in the preceding decade—Taste Tideswell was created, to reconnect local people with their food and make Tideswell famous as a food destination. On 6 December 2010 the Tideswell School of Food opened, running full-priced cookery and brewing courses as well as subsidised community courses. The School of Food was intended to be the financial engine for the project that would help to develop work in the community. It closed during 2014 because of cashflow issues.

Tideswell Made is a quality mark that local food producers, retailers, public houses and holiday accommodation can buy into. Ensuring products are sourced as locally as possible and made locally, Tideswell Made is marketed by Taste Tideswell and helps local business get wider recognition for their locally made produce. Taste Tideswell has an education service, visiting schools with a variety of food- and growing-related activities. School groups also visit the School of Food for practical hands-on activities.

Behind the Parish Church, a small community garden has been developed to provide a training ground for those wanting to learn more about growing. There is also a small commercial kitchen available for hire by local food producers, particularly those who are looking to make the step up from home-based production. In May 2011, the first Tideswell Food Festival was held, attracting over 2,000 people, despite poor weather.

On 7 September 2011, the Taste Tideswell story was broadcast as part of the Village SOS series on BBC One. It showed the rapid development of the project, along with the individual story of Tim Nicol, the 'Village Champion' who moved to live in Tideswell for a year and helped the volunteer directors get Taste Tideswell established. As of August 2011, Taste Tideswell employed eight members of staff, most of whom lived in the village, and had ten visiting chef/tutors on its books. Although the School of Food had to close, Tideswell's annual Food Festival has continued to be a success each year. or the Waltham transmitter via the Stanton Moor relay transmitter.

Local radio stations are BBC Radio Derby, Capital Midlands and Greatest Hits Radio Derbyshire (High Peak) (formerly High Peak Radio).

The village is served by the local newspapers the Peak Advertiser and Buxton Advertiser.

thumb|125px|[[Nicholas Garlick praying]]

thumb|125px|[[Edwina Currie, 2014]]

Notable people

  • Sir Godfrey de Foljambe (1317–76), a landowner and politician & Lord Chief Justice of Ireland
  • Robert Pursglove, (1504–1579), an English bishop, buried in Tideswell church
  • Blessed Nicholas Garlick (c. 1555–1588), Catholic priest and martyr, was a schoolmaster here in the 16th.C.
  • Blessed Christopher Buxton, (1562–1588), Catholic martyr, studied at Tideswell Grammar school under Nicholas Garlick
  • William Newton (1750–1830), poet and philanthropist, was buried here
  • John Ashe (1671–1735), an English dissenting minister.
  • Samuel Slack (1757–1822), notable bass singer of local fame, reputedly sang before King George III
  • Rev. J. M. J. Fletcher (1852–1940), historian & Vicar of Tideswell
  • Advent Hunstone (1858–1927), an English woodcarver, helped restore St John the Baptist, Tideswell
  • Bernard Swindell (1901–1968), trade unionist, chairman of the National Union of General and Municipal Workers.
  • Bill Sellars (1925–2018), TV producer and director, worked on All Creatures Great and Small
  • Ric Lee (born 1945), drummer of the blues/rock band Ten Years After, resides in Tideswell and participated in the male voice choir
  • Edwina Currie (born 1946), writer, broadcaster and former politician, served as MP for South Derbyshire from 1983 until 1997. She was former President of the Tideswell Male Voice Choir
  • Judy Leden (born 1959), stunt flyer and three times world hang-gliding champion
  • Nigel Ayers (born 1957), multimedia artist and leader of the industrial music project Nocturnal Emissions

References

  • Tideswell and District Community Association
  • The Village Voice – the village newsletter
  • Visit Tideswell – accommodation for visitors and holiday makers
  • Derbyshire UK – Tideswell
  • Peak District Online – Tideswell
  • Link to interesting search of Google Books on Tideswell with several good books fully online mentioning Tideswell.
  • The Feudal History of the County of Derby Vol.5 Section 9, by John Pym Yeatman. G4TIFF page images, plus poorly OCRed HTML. This has a lot of information on Tideswell during the 11th to 13th centuries.