Matlock, Derbyshire


Matlock is the county town of Derbyshire, England. It is in the south-eastern part of the Peak District, with the National Park directly to the west. The spa resort of Matlock Bath is immediately south of the town as well as Cromford lying further south still. The civil parish of Matlock Town had a population in the 2021 UK census of 10,000.
Matlock is south-west of Chesterfield and in close reach of the cities of Derby, Sheffield and Nottingham. Matlock is within the Derbyshire Dales district and is the headquarters of Derbyshire County Council.

History

The name Matlock derives from the Old English mæthel, meaning assembly or speech, and āc, meaning oak tree; thus Matlock means 'moot-oak', an oak tree where meetings are held. In the Domesday Book of 1086 it was recorded as Meslach and in 1196 it was named Matlac. It is a former spa town that lies on the River Derwent, and has prospered from both the hydrotherapy industry and the cloth mills constructed on the river and its tributary Bentley Brook.
It was a collection of villages in Wirksworth Hundred – composed of Matlock Town, Matlock Green, Matlock Bridge, Matlock Bank – until thermal springs were discovered in 1698. The population increased rapidly in the 1800s, largely because of the popular hydros that were being built. At one stage there were around twenty hydros, mostly on Matlock Bank, the largest built in 1853 by John Smedley. This closed in 1955, and re-opened in 1956 as the headquarters of the Derbyshire County Council. Matlock is also home to the Derbyshire Dales District Council as well as Matlock Town council.

Governance

Matlock has a town council, the urban equivent of the rural parish council and the lowest tier of local government. The Council meets twice a month. There are 11 Councillors who cover the area and 9 members of staff. Matlock Town Council's jurisdiction extends to the town centre, Matlock Bank, Hurst Farm, Matlock Green, Matlock Town, Starkholmes and Riber.
The second tier of local government is Derbyshire Dales District Council, which covers almost a third of the mainly rural parts of the county, including the towns of Matlock, Ashbourne, Bakewell, Wirksworth and Darley Dale and over 100 villages. The council has 39 District Councillors elected in 25 wards. Matlock is represented by six councillors in the two wards: Matlock All Saints and Matlock St Giles.
The top tier of local government is Derbyshire County Council, which has responsibilities for the whole of Derbyshire apart from the City of Derby. Matlock is represented by one county councillor.
The main offices of all three tiers of local government are sited in Matlock. The Town Council is housed in the Imperial Rooms close to the bottom of Bank Road, the District Council is halfway up Bank Road and the County Council is at the top.
As regards national democracy, Matlock forms part of the parliamentary constituency of Derbyshire Dales. The MP is currently John Whitby, who was elected in the 2024 General Election.

Geography

Natural physical features

The main physical features of the Matlock area are the hills and watercourses. The height of the town varies from 91m at Causeway Lane to 203m at the top of Wellington Street. Matlock is overlooked by Riber Castle at 260m from the south-east and by Masson Hill at 339m from the south-west. The first human settlement in the area was in what is now known as Old Matlock or Matlock Green. This was where the Bentley Brook joined the River Derwent. When the town grew in the late 19th century, the town spread up the steep hillsides to the north-east of the narrow valley bottom.
Various industries made use of the natural features:
  • The underlying bedrock was quarried and mined.
  • The watercourses were harnessed to power corn mills, cloth mills, and other mills.
  • The hillside thermal spring water gave rise to the hydros.
The natural features also constrained transport links:
The geology of the Matlock area is extremely complex. Broadly speaking, the Derwent valley bottom forms a boundary between the sandstones and gritstones of the Dark Peak to the north-east and the limestones of the White Peak to the south-west. There are igneous intrusions into the limestones to the south-west.
This geology has been exploited by the quarrying and mining industries. The sandstones and gritstones have been quarried as building materials and the limestones for building materials and the manufacture of lime. The igneous intrusions gave rise to valuable minerals which have been mined, particularly for lead. A very rare lead halide mineral called Matlockite was first discovered at nearby Bage Mine in the early 1800s, and is named after the town.
The route of the River Derwent downstream of Matlock is especially interesting to geologists in that it has cut its way through a limestone gorge below High Tor, rather than follow the "simpler" way to the east. It is thought that landslips and/or glaciation may have had an influence over how the present route of the river was established.

Nearby places

The Dimple

The area on the western edge of the town, bounded on the north and east by Old Hackney Lane, Hurds Hollow, and Dimple Road, and on the south by Bakewell Road, is named as Dimple, on the Ordnance Survey map.

Flooding

has occasionally flooded, including during November 2019 when large areas of England were affected. This flood in particular claimed one life: that of Matlock's former high sheriff, Annie Hall, who was swept away by the water and subsequently drowned, aged 69. This flood also caused damage to many of Matlock's businesses, including the local Wetherspoons, which was forced to close due to the damages and later reopened as Ostello Lounge, part of the Lounges group, in March 2022.

Transport

Railways

National Rail services run generally hourly each way between Matlock and Derby on the Derwent Valley Line, operated by East Midlands Railway.

History

In 1849, the railway came to Matlock. Matlock railway station was opened on the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway, later the Midland line between London and Manchester, until the section between Matlock and Buxton was closed in 1968 following the Beeching cuts. Network Rail has considered re-opening the line, with a study carried out by the county council; although it proved to be unfeasible in the short term, the track bed will be kept free of development as the study showed that the line could be economically viable from around 2025. The section from Wye Dale to Coombs viaduct, a point about a mile south-east of Bakewell, has now become the Monsal Trail, an walking and cycle trail.

Heritage

, a preserved railway, runs steam trains on a section of the closed line between Matlock, Darley Dale and Rowsley. Previously it used its own station, Matlock Riverside, a short distance to the north of the mainline station; however, from 2011, both Peak Rail and trains on the Derwent Valley Line share the same station.

Buses

The town is well served by bus routes, operated by Trent Barton and Stagecoach Yorkshire.

Roads

The A6, which links Carlisle with Luton, passes through the town; it provides access to Manchester, Stockport, Buxton, Bakewell and Derby.

Bank Road Tram

In 1893, Matlock Cable Tramway was built up Bank Road from Crown Square at Matlock Bridge to Wellington Street with a stop halfway up at Smedley Street where Smedley's Hydro was situated. Conceived by Job Smith, the tram was inspired by San Francisco's famous cable cars and cost £20,000. When it was built, it was the steepest tramway in the world at a gradient of 1 in 5½ and it rose. The fare was tuppence up and one penny down. It closed in 1927, after losing business to cars and buses.

Hall Leys Park

Hall Leys Park is a Victorian public park in the centre of Matlock, Derbyshire which opened in 1898. It lies between the River Derwent to the south and Causeway Lane to the north. The park has many facilities and in 2004–2005 underwent major regeneration as part of the Matlock Parks Project with funding from the Millennium Commission.
At the Crown Square/Matlock Bridge end of the park there is the town's war memorial and a wishing well. Beside this there is the shelter from the former cable tramway which was moved to the park when the tramway ceased to operate in 1927.
Moving away from Crown Square there is, next, a large grass area and some tennis courts. As part of the refurbishments which took place, the old grass tennis courts were replaced with a skateboard park.
In the centre of the park is the Victorian bandstand, which is used regularly in the summer months by local brass bands and for events such as the annual Matlock Victorian Christmas Weekend, held on the first weekend of December. Beside the bandstand is a footbridge over the Derwent that has markings indicating the height of several floods that hit the town in the 1960s and 1970s. The café, on the opposite side of the bandstand, has similar markings for other floods.
Hall Leys Park is now a central part of the town's flood protection. The wall which surrounds the northern side of the park has the ability to have the footways sealed with sheets of wood which would dam the progress of any overflow from the river and turn the entire park into a large reservoir. Further down the park there is a putting green and a Crown Green Bowls green. A boating lake, with several small islands, is home to a large number of birds, including ducks and moorhens as well as being host to the longest-running pleasure boats in the country. A miniature railway runs half the length of the park along the river but, because of the lack of any turning space, the return journey is made in reverse. At the far end of the park is a children's playground, which was significantly upgraded in 2005.
Hall Leys Park is occasionally the site for visiting "Continental Markets" and, since the summer of 2006, regular "Farmers' Markets". It is also the centre of the Matlock Victorian Christmas Weekend, held annually on the first weekend of December.