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The Heart of a Peak District Community
A Walk around the old town
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begin at the western end of Spring Gardens outside the Natwest Bank. Opposite, and to the right of where the Victorian veranda offers shelter from Buxton's sometimes inclement weather, you will see the large curved building that was once The Royal Hotel. Constructed during the period of 1849-52 on the site of an earlier premises known as The Angel, this building was eventually taken over in 1914 by Buxton Lime Firms, who had quarries at Peak Dale, some 2 miles away to the Northeast.  Share Dividend Notice, Sept. 1902 - Buxton Lime Firms  Potters - September 2007 Proceeding up hill towards the Market
Place, on the left we pass one of Buxton's longest surviving family
businesses, that of Potters. |
The park that lies opposite these houses, is known as the Slopes. It provides a fine view from their windows, although the traffic on the road today, now offers
very little by way
of peace and quiet compared to that enjoyed by former and much earlier
residents.
Continuing our walk, and in passing St Anne's RC church on our left, we
soon reach the fine building that now houses Buxton's museum and art
galleries.
It is one that offers a fine insight into life through the ages, at a time long before mankind roamed the planet. The art gallery holds frequent displays of
work from artists on an international scale. The ground floor shop stocks books, postcards, items suitable for children, mineral specimens and
other exciting souvenirs.
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Leaving the museum behind, the open vista of the market place soon comes into view. This is one of the oldest shopping areas of the town. Some of the buildings here date from the eighteenth century. Notably, the Eagle which was rebuilt from an earlier construction during 1760 under the guidance of the Duke of Devonshire. |
The Market Cross is said to date from the fifteenth
century and once stood just in front of the Town Hall until it was
moved to its present site around 1947. Standing beside the market
cross, there is a long disused well. Higher Buxton Well |
 Although water no longer flows freely from this, it still plays its roll in the annual dressing of the town's wells during July. |
 Saturday Market |
On Tuesday and Saturday of every week, the busy local market shares its trade with the multitude of colourful shops that surround it. Although on an exposed site, the market traders do not suffer quite so badly during the winter months as their predecessors once did. |
This part of Buxton also saw a lot of trade
from the many horse drawn coaches which travelled to all the local
cities and towns during the nineteenth century. These coaches carried
passengers and mail to Manchester, Nottingham, Derby, Sheffield and
London.
Their names conjured the sense of travel and exploration of the period,
The Champion, Enterprise, Peak Guide, Duke of Devonshire, The Sun,
Peveril of the Peak, Duke of Rutland and the Lady of the Lake. However,
depending upon the prevailing weather conditions at the time of
travelling, those who could only afford to sit in the open on top of
the coach, would most certainly not feel as comfortable as those inside.
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The market place also sports a fine array of public
houses, places to quench ones thirst on a hot sunny day, or to share
company for a social evening out. The Sun Inn and the Cheshire Cheese, which both stand further along and on the High Street, show architecture typical of the inns which traded during those early coaching days. The Eagle, before becoming a hotel, was also a coaching inn. Both the Sun inn and the Eagle have been recently refurbished, the Sun being restored to look as it did when it was first built, and is full of atmosphere of the period. |
| On the corner of Bath road and behind the White Swan
public house, the walker will find one of Buxton's oldest, and smallest
surviving churches, St Anne's. It is thought to have been built during
the early part of the seventeenth century. Walk as far as the traffic lights at the end of the High street, turn right, and then follow West Road, where after a few minutes walking, Bath Road, Burlington Road and Broad Walk all meet beside the Pavilion Gardens on our right. |
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Returning to where we began our walk at the corner of Spring Gardens, we have the opportunity to stroll through the Pavilion Gardens, to see some of the refurbishment carried out during the past few years. Across the great lake, we can see the new Boat House and play area for children. This is a very pleasant and peaceful area to stop and sit a while. |
Further along and across the path that runs
from Burlington Road to Broad Walk, we reach the little railway. The
new features of this are the safety railings that keep walkers and
trains apart on the footbridge that spans the smaller of the gardens
lakes. There is also a tunnel which acts as a storage place for the
trains at night. Another of the features from the Victorian era, yet to
be put into place, is the Sundial that will sit once again near to the
old site of the Bowling green/Croquet lawns opposite the Conservatory.
Crossing in front of the Old Hall Hotel and leaving the gardens behind
us, we proceed past the Tourist Information office on our left and St
Anne's Well on our right, where the Turner's memorial comes into sight,
and finally the Natwest bank where our walk began.