East Midlands Bakewell and its church, Derbyshire

Bakewell is an attractive small market town of gritstone buildings set on the River Wye in the Peak District.

It is the main service town for the area and is also popular with visitors, especially on Mondays when the weekly market with over one hundred and fifty brightly coloured stalls selling everything under the sun, line Granby and Market Streets.

It still has a thriving livestock market on the edge of the town. There is a monthly farmers market as well as the yearly food festival. The blight of the chain stores has yet to hit Bakewell and it has many small family owned shops. It is a shopaholics paradise.

Mention Bakewell to anyone and they will immediately link the name with that of the tart, but this is very different to the original (and genuine) Bakewell pudding. This was the result of a misunderstanding between the Mrs Graves, landlady of the Rutland Arms and her kitchen assistant. A nobleman had asked for a jam tart but the kitchen assistant made a mistake with the recipe and instead of stirring the egg and almond mix into the pastry base, piled it on top of the jam. The Bakewell pudding was born and is still made in Bakewell today and the Old Original Bakewell Pudding Shop is a popular stop for the tourist. Be warned, the pudding is much richer than the more usual sponge topped Bakewell tart.

When tired of shopping, Bath Gardens in the centre of the town, overlooking Rutland Square, is a lovely place to drop out and relax. The name reflects the tepid mineral springs found in the town and the unsuccessful attempt in the early C19th to promote Bakewell as a Spa town.

The Rutland Arms Hotel in the square is a splendid stone building dating from 1804 and is thought to be where jane Austin stayed while she was writing ‘Pride and Prejudice’.

There is a lovely walk along the river with its ducks. The C13th bridge, one of the oldest in the country is still in use today although it was widened in the C19th.

Further downstream near Holme Hall is a C17th packhorse bridge, used by people coming from Monyash to avoid paying tolls as they entered the town. Several of the later footbridges across the river are decorated with love locks and there is even a shop in the town selling them.

The C13th All Saints' Church with its tall spire stands proud above the town.

Just a short walk from the church is Old House Museum. The lovely stone house dates from the early C16th and was built for the tithe collector and was later extended. In the late C18th it was converted into five cottages for mill workers. By 1950 the cottages were condemned as unfit for human habitation and were in danger of being pulled down. They were saved by the local history society as a folk museum. Displays cover the history of the house and its occupants, complete with Tudor toilet and Victorian privy. There is a mill worker’s kitchen as well as displays of textiles and costumes. There are doll’s houses and information about the famous pudding.

The M&C Collection of Historic Motorcycles is on Matlock Street. With over 50 exhibits it shows the development of motor cycles since the early days of motor cycling along with associated memorabilia.

There is lots of information available from the Tourist Information and Visitor Centre in the old market hall on Bridge Street. This also sells locally produced arts and crafts and there is a photographic gallery on the first floor. Visitor Centre above the Old Market Hall on Bridge Street. Bakewell is thriving and a full list of events in Bakewell can be found here.

Bakewell is also a good centre for exploring the Peak District. Chatsworth House and Haddon Hall are close by. There is also the spa town of Buxton or the plague village of Eyam within a few minutes drive. For those wanting to walk or cycle, there is the Monsal trail along the disused railway line that takes you across viaducts and through tunnels.

 

[SusanSeattle]

Eleanor, thanks for the great write up of Bakewell. I visited the Peak district a few years ago and really enjoyed the area. I stayed in Buxton but really wished I had stayed in Bakewell. There were a couple of day of crazy cold rainy weather (people were dressed in winter parkas!) while I was there, so I would love to go back & spend more time in the area.

Thanks for mentioning Haddon Hall. I think most people know about Chatsworth, but not as many about Haddon. The gardens there are amazing - I was there during the peak rose season. People may recognize it from the 2011 Jane Eyre movie.

 

[Eleanor]

All Saints' Church

Set on the hillside above the town, All Saints' Church was designed to be seen, even though the spire was surrounded by scaffolding when I took this photograph.

There have been Christians worshiping in Bakewell since Roman times and there has been a church here since the C7th when Celtic missionaries arrived from Northumbria. They established a Minster Church here, serving the area. This church was plundered by the Danes in the C9th and a new church was built to replace it. By the time of the Norman conquest, Bakewell was a wealthy church which supported two priests.

William the Conqueror granted the manor of Bakewell to William Peverel who rebuilt the church in 1111, in the latest Norman style with rounded apses. The blocked rounded arches on the west wall are all that remain of this church. They were intended to give entry to two west towers that were never built.

The church was remodelled in the C13th in the then current Early English style. The north aisle was widened and the south transept was rebuilt and extended. It is still referred to as the Newark (New Work). This was subdivided by a splendid carved oak screen and to the east was the chantry chapel of the Blessed Virgin. Pointed arches replaced the round Norman arches of the arcade and a clerestory was added. The Norman apse was removed and the chancel extended.

In the late C14th the Norman tower was rebuilt with an octagon and spire, and battlements were added. The south porch was added in the early C15th and the outside of the church was very much what can still be seen today.

After the Reformation, all the wall paintings were whitewashed. The chantry chapels were removed and that in the south transept became the Vernon Chapel, housing the tombs of the Vernon and Manners families from nearby Haddon Hall.

By the end of the C17th, the weight of the steeple was pushing the walls outwards and causing cracks. An architect’s report in 1829 stated that the church was in a dire state of repair and likely to fall down. Plans were submitted for a new church, but parishioners chose to restore the existing building as a faithful copy of the original. When the north and south transepts and tower were taken down, many Saxon and Early English stones were discovered. Most of these were recycled into the foundations and walls but the best were preserved and are now displayed in the porch and back of the church.

The nave was rebuilt next. The galleries and box pews were removed. By the end of the C19th it was time for the chancel to be restored. A new mosaic floor was laid along with new high altar, reredos and chancel screen. The stained glass windows are C19th.

More recently, a new wooden and glass screen has been built across the Newark, creating a separate space for community use.

There are two early Christian cross shafts in the graveyard. The one by the south transept is C8th/9th and has been moved here from elsewhere. That by the south porch is C10/11th and was moved here from Darley dale. It may have come from the bridleway between Chatsworh and Alfreton.

There are many old gravestones in the churchyard. I particularly liked the sentiments on this one.

There are more early stones in the south porch. Those on the right are the earliest and are described as Norse/Anglian. They seem to be C10th and have the characteristic Celtic scroll designs.

Those on the left are later C12/13th grave slabs and are decorated with crosses.

There are also examples of C13th floor tiles.

There are more examples of carved stones displayed at the back of the church, along with information panels. These are mainly fragments of carved Saxon stones.

cont...

 

[Eleanor]

All Saints' Church cont....

It is a large and impressive church with plenty to see. Even on a bright sunny day, the interior can be quite dark.

An arcade of pointed arches separates the nave and side aisles. On the pillars are small square modern Stations of the Cross. The19th wood roof still has C14th carved bosses.

The oldest part of the church is the bottom of the west wall, with the blocked Norman doorways intended to lead into towers which were never built.

The lovely carved tub font just inside the south door is C14th. The carvings represent the Virgin Mary, St John the Evangelist, St Peter with the keys of heaven, St Paul, John the Baptist and unidentified bishop and priest.

The Stone pulpit is C19th.

On the wall by the entrance into the Newark is a late C14th Foljambe monument, all that remains of the chantry chapel of Sir Godfrey and his wife Avena. He was a prominent landowner and politician, and was Lord Chief Justice of Ireland. Made of alabaster, it shows Sir Geoffrey and Avena as if they are looking out of a window.

Beneath it are two aumbry cupboards which would have held books and vessels for the chapel.

High on the wall near it is a funeral shield with the Plantagenet arms which probably came from the funeral hearse of Sir John Manners who died in 1611, or his son Sir George.

In the north transept is the Chapel of St Michael & St George. The reredos of the crucifixion with the Virgin and St John is by Ninian Comper.

Near it is the 1538 Churchwardens chest which was used to store valuables and parish records. It is now used for the Christmas decorations.

Above is a lovely pre-Raphaelite window.

At the back of the north aisle is the Kempe window with his trademark wheat sheaf and St Hubert and St George. St Hubert was out hunting a stag on Good Friday when he should have been worshipping in church. He saw a crucifix between the deer’s antlers and a voice telling him to repent or face the fires of hell.

cont...

 

[Eleanor]

All Saints' Church cont...

The chancel is separated from the nave by a lovely open carved C19th wood screen.

The floor is also C19th and a mosaic design with fleur de lys, red roses and crosses.

In front is the organ, moved here from the north transept to make room for the Chapel of St St Michael & St George.

The three seat sedilia with a piscina are all that survive of the original church.

The choir stalls are copies of medieval stalls with misericords but do reuse some of the medieval wood.

On either side on the back of the chancel screen are carvings representing the Acts of Mercy.

The chancel windows show the Resurrection and Communion of the Saints. Above the high altar is a carved marble frieze of the twelve apostles with their symbols. Above is a carved wood reredos of the crucifixion. As well as the grieving figures of the Marys, there are Roman soldiers on horseback and playing dice.

cont...

 

[Eleanor]

All Saints'Church cont...

The Vernon Chapel in the south transept was originally a chantry chapel but after the Reformation became the funeral chapel of the Vernon and Manners family from Haddon Hall. It is separated from the rest of the Newark (south transept) by a carved C14th screen. The roof had recently been restored when I visited in 2016, which may explain why the chapel still looked a bit like a dumping ground .

The oldest tomb predates the Vernons and is that of Sir Thomas Wendesley, in full armour who was killed in the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403.

Beyond is the splendid table tomb of Sir George Vernon who died in 1567 and his two wives Margaret and Maude. Next to this is a smaller tomb, that of John Manners, the third son of Sir John, who died in 1590.

On the south wall is the memorial to Sir John Manners who died in 1611 and his wife Dorothy who was the daughter of Sir George. The tomb originally had the figures of their four children along the bottom, but two have been lost.

On the north wall is the splendid memorial to their son, Sir George Manners who died in 1623 with his wife Grace. Below are their nine children, one of whom died in infancy.

The church is open daily from 9-5 in the summer months and 9-4 during the winter. The church does not have its own car park. The post code is DE45 1FD and the post code is SK 216685.

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