Hartington

According to the English Place-Name Society the name of the village derives from the Old English for either 'Stags' hill' or 'hill connected with Heorta'. Hartington was mentioned in the Domesday Book as belonging to Henry de Ferrers and being worth forty shillings. The parish was originally quite large, and part of the hundred of Wirksworth. Hartington had four townships, known as the Town Quarter, Nether Quarter, and Middle Quarter, and Upper Quarter, which are now all separate parishes. These became separate civil parishes in their own right in 1866. They are marked on Ordnance Survey maps. Surnames that originate from this area include Heathcote.

Notable buildings in the village include the market hall (formerly the site of a market), the 13th-century parish church of Saint Giles, and the 17th-century Hartington Hall. The prominent Bank House in the centre of the village was built by the former village mill owner, and in the past was used as the village bank. A half-mile (800 m) to the south of the village, on the river Dove, is the fishing house of the famous angler Charles Cotton. In the north of the village is Pilsbury Castle, an 11th-century motte-and-bailey castle, that survives only as an earthwork. Near Hartington is the finest neolithic stone circle in the Peak District, Arbor Low. There are numerous ancient tumuli and…

The village has a youth hostel at Hartington Hall, which serves two major National Cycle Network routes: the Tissington Trail and the High Peak Trail, which meet at nearby Parsley Hay. These trails pass just under one mile (1500 m) to the east of the village; they offer 30 mi of off-road cycling and walking along old railway trackbeds through the Peak District National Park. Hartington signal box, on the site of the former Hartington railway station and nearly two miles (3 km) from the village, has been renovated and converted into a visitor centre; there is also a car park on site. A little south of the village, overlooking the Dove, stands Wolfscote Hill (388 m at ) which is a good…