Matlock Bank spreads across the steep hillside, rising to quite an altitude!  Anyone walking up the hill from the bottom for the first time will find it quite a climb. At the centre is Smedley Street, a long street crossing the hillside from east to west. Smedley Street had been called called Old Hackney Lane and Broome Head Lane (see Smedley map) but was later named after John Smedley, the mill owner, hydro pioneer and later castle builder. His single mindedness and idealism put Matlock Bank on the map as little existed on the Bank before the railway line opened and Smedley began building. What he started in the town, others emulated.

So the hydro building, and the subsequent popularity of the various treatments, was responsible for the massive development of this part of the town. J. B. Firth, writing in 1908, said: "Fifty or sixty years ago Matlock Bank was a bare expanse with few houses"^[1]. To modern residents and visitors this may be hard to believe. However, Kelly's Directory of 1848 described Matlock Bank as "a hamlet in this parish"^[1848] [Matlock] and Francis White, in his Sheffield Directory of 1862, said the Bank contained "many scattered houses"^[2].

Smedley's Hydro, now the County Hall, became very famous and a was hugely successful enterprise; it was the largest hydropathic establishment of the many in Matlock. At one stage in the town's history there were some twenty hydros where people could stay and be (hopefully) cured from their various ailments. This was the place to go for your health cure in Victorian England and hydropathy brought business and prosperity, though not to all.

In their heyday almost all of the large Hydropathic Establishments of Matlock were to be found on the Bank. Some sixteen lodging houses and apartments complemented the hydros, providing cheaper accommodation for visitors. These including the Duke of Wellington Public House and the Gate Inn and Livery Stables. There were and still are shops to support the Bank's community on the Smedley Street, many close to Smedley's Hydro, though there are fewer of them these days than there were when hydropathy treatments were in fashion.

Matlock is part of the Derwent valley and the sloping ground of the Bank faces south south west towards Masson on the opposite side of the river.

Addresses included in Matlock Bank are Lime Tree Hill (named after a very long lived tree), The Dimple, Jackson Road, Rutland Street and Wellington Street. Matlock Moor goes on from Matlock Bank, with the hillside rising even higher to the top of the hill towards Chesterfield. Bank Road, formerly known as Dob(b) Lane, goes straight down from Smedley Street to Crown Square and Matlock Bridge, the centre of the modern Matlock.

The oldest house on the Bank is the stone built Wellfield Cottage, which is Grade 2 listed. The lintel over the square headed doorway gives the date of 1667 as well as some initials. Hasker, and its farm (Asker today), can be found in 16th century documents and wills. So, too, can both the Hyrstfeld and Hurst Farm as well as the Woulds (see, for example,The Wolley Manuscripts, Matlock - Places Within Matlock).

The two photographs at the bottom of this section show the view from Crown Square looking up Bank Road and shows how steep the road is. Little wonder that in the nineteenth century Job Smith thought a tramway was a good idea as a means for people to get up and down from Smedley Street to Crown Square and Matlock Bridge. Matlock was the home of the steepest tramway in the world, which ran for over thirty four years.The large stone building on the left of the photo used to be the main part of the Crown Hotel, but the hotel has moved slightly in recent years.

Matlock Bridge developed from a small hamlet into the town's business area, centred around the mediaeval stone bridge that spans the River Derwent. Snitterton Road, Bakewell Road, Dale Road, Crown Square and the bottom part of Bank Road are traditionally part of Matlock Bridge, though these days it is not easy to see where Matlock Bridge ended and Matlock Bank began. This, historically, was one of the few crossing points along the length of the river. The County Bridge, which was widened in 1904, dates from the fifteenth century and has four arches. It has been one of the many Derbyshire scenes favoured by artists over the centuries and there is a painting, entitled "The Bridge at Matlock", by the renowned English artist Joseph M. W. Turner (1775-1851).

The railway station is in this part of Matlock and was originally known as Matlock Bridge station but in 1905 the Midland Railway Company changed its name to Matlock Station. It is now at the end of the line from Derby. In its heyday the line was part of the Midland Railway and trains stopped at the station en route for London and Manchester, although during the nineteenth century the London train stopped at Matlock Bath, not Matlock Bridge.

It all began in 1849 when the Midland Railway Co. opened a branch line that went from Ambergate to Rowsley, with stations at Matlock Bridge and Matlock Bath. This was later extended further and went as far as Manchester. In 1891 the station manager was John Ashton, but by 1908 he'd been replaced by Joseph Henry Clarke.

It was as a direct result of the railway line and the station that Matlock expanded into the town we know today. There was more space for development here than there was in Matlock Bath and the small hamlets and clutch of houses became part of the modern town.

A Market Hall, with Assembly Rooms above it, was opened on Dale Road in 1868. By 1908 the market was held in the lower portion of the building every Friday and Saturday^[1908]. Matlock still has its market, but nowadays it isn't on Dale Road. Also to be found on Dale Road at the end of the nineteenth century was Robert Alfred Harker. He was a chemist and druggist and advertised "Harker's Compound Balsamic Cough Elixir, Quinine and Iron Tonic, Teething and Cooling Powders, three well-tried medicines which should be kept in every house"^[1908].

Just over a hundred and ten years ago there were a variety of industries that are no longer in the town^[1908]. Employers in Matlock Bridge included Thomas Beck, the stone merchant, Thomas Boden, coal & coke merchant and Walter Drabble & Co. Ltd., (lead mine owners) who were based at Station yard; Constable, Hart & Ltd. were operating Cawdor Quarries (Norman Hart was the manager) and Job Greatorex & Son were tar paving contractors and quarry owners were based on Dale Road; Hall & Co.were also on Dale Road; the Matlock & District Gas Co., (Robert Hall F.S.A.A.was the secretary and Thomas Brown the manager) had works on Darley Road and the Singer Sewing Machine Co. Ltd. (whose agent was Charles Herbert Buckley), were on both Smedley Street & trading in the Market Hall.

Hotels in Matlock Bridge have also changed considerably over the years but the old buildings of the Crown, the Old English (more recently known as the Cromwell Hotel) and the Boat House remain. The Crown and the Boat House were well established before hydros were even thought of^[3].

Shops have changed use as owners have come and gone. Half a century ago there was The Manchester Store on Dale Road which sold linens; it is now a restaurant. Marsdens was a drapers/clothiers and school outfitters where the little boys went with their mother to be fitted with a best suit in the gentleman's section. Gone, too, from Dale Road is the Picture Palace Cinema and Hunter's. Burgon's, Orme's and the Derwent Valley Co-Operative Society have disappeared from Crown Square.

Dale Road was developed in the nineteenth century; the Firs Parade shops were built by the local firm of Wildgoose in the twentieth. Woolworth's caused quite a stir when they opened their store on the corner in the 1950s.

The former Picture Palace Cinema on Dale Road was the first cinema to open in Matlock. It opened in 1913 and could seat 500. The cinema was closed and rebuilt during the summer of 1928.

Mr Henry Knowles offered, in February 1898, to transfer to the public the fields known as the Hall Leys and in June of that year the Council gave £500 towards the project^[4] . This became a public park, with gardens, promenade, Band Stand and eventually tennis courts, boating lake, bowling, and a children's play area - including a paddling pool and miniature railway along the riverbank.

Until 1926 there were three shops between the Park and Crown Square but these were demolished. The tram shelter was moved from the middle of Crown Square to its present position following the Council's decision to stop running the tram.
See Bank Road & the Steep-Gradient Tramway

The Bandstand is in the centre of the park. Matlock's Brass Band have performed here on countless occasions.
Matlock's Brass Band website
Some onsite information about the band

The small maker's plate on the Bandstand states that it was made by Lion Foundry, Kirkintilloch. Colin Goodwyn has said that If you go to Kirkintilloch and look in their park, as he has did one evening some years ago, you may be surprised to see an identical Band Stand to the one on the Hall Leys, though in a somewhat better condition. This suggests that, if that town used that particular design themselves, then it must have been the best one that the foundry could supply and that the design Matlock purchased was therefore the "top model".

At the end of the path is the footbridge across the river to Dale Road, which has two plaques on it showing the levels flood water reached in the 1960's. The flood water would have covered the floor of the Bandstand.
There is more information about the floods.

Matlock Town, together with Matlock Greeen, are the older parts of the parish and the oldest buildings are in Matlock Town. It is a quieter part of the Matlocks. Nikolaus Pevsner (1953) observed that "No-one can feel the nearness of modern Matlock here".

On the green beside the church is a lovely stone house that dates from 1681 which is now a Grade II* listed building; Wheatsheaf House was originally Wheatsheaf Farm but has been both a pub and a pottery in the past.

The Old Rectory is on Church Street and dates from the late 18th century. On the opposite side of the road is the Duke William Inn, a Georgian building built in 1734 (or 1754?). The old school next to it, greeted with such pride when it was rebuilt in 1860, has now been converted into residential accommodation (see Schools in earlier times). The former King's Head is even older that the Duke William (late 17th century); it is a little further down the hill but is no longer a pub.

The ancient church of St Giles is here too, next to the Wheatsheaf, on the hill going up the from Matlock Green towards Starkholmes. It is also a Grade II* listed building. The church, often described as being on a high rock, is on a limestone plateau overlooking Matlock Dale. Amongst all the local people buried in the churchyard are a number of tombstones commemorating those who did not survive their treatment in the various Hydros (this can also be said of the gravestones at Holy Trinity Matlock Bath). The list of Rectors, linked on the right, spans many centuries; the earliest named was alive in 1300. The Matlock War Memorial is also here, and is positioned with a commanding view of the modern town (see War Memorials).

Old maps show that the settlements of both the Town and the Green were for many years separate communities from the rest of Matlock.

John Smedley was the owner of the largest hydropathic establishment in Matlock and built the Castle as a home for himself and his wife. It was built on a grand scale and the Castle's salon was vast. Built very quickly, the castle was constructed of massive blocks of local gritstone taken from a quarry near the castle and Smedley was the sole architect. Smedley employed skilled craftsmen. Plasterers, for example, came from Italy to work on the Castle. He also bought good quality materials. For example, some of the ceramic tiles used were made by Maw & Co.. There was electricity and gas, plus a deep well for water.

Mrs. Caroline Smedley continued to live at Riber Castle after her husband died, though the building has since been used for a variety of things, including a boys' school owned by a Reverend John William Chippett, previously of Harrogate. It became a food store during WW2 and this proved disastrous for the building. It was later used as a zoo.

Riber itself is a small hamlet near the castle; it is 798 feet above sea level and this rises to 928 feet.

Riber was the property and residence of the Wolley family for several centuries and there is an altar tomb dated 1578 in St. Giles' church that is dedicated to Anthony Wolley of Ryber, Agnes (his wife) and six children. The Wolley family were long livers, as the tombstone of Adam Wolley (1558 -1657) and his wife Grace (1559 - 1669) that is also in St. Giles' shows. This couple were married for 76 years and lived at Allen-hill in Matlock. The Wolley's were important people in Matlock's history and their family papers, and other documents collected by Adam Wolley are listed among The Wolley Manuscripts.
Wolley MIs in Matlock's Parish Church
Wolley Manuscripts, Matlock
Wolley Manuscripts, Derbyshire
Pedigree of Wolley of Riber
Wolley of Darley Abbey, descendants of the Wolleys of Allen Hill.

It was another Anthony Wolley, a bachelor, whose sisters sold the stone built family home (now Riber Hall) to Thomas Statham after his death in 1669. Then, in 1724 the co-heiresses of the Chappell family, who then owned it, divided it into two moieties (note: moiety means half). In Lysons' time Joseph Greatorex lived in the left half as you face the building and members of the Wall family in the right^[8]. The half Mr. Greatorex lived in was later owned by George Allen and then the Sellors family. It more recently was a first class hotel and restaurant although this has now closed.

Another of Riber's landowners was Fairfax Moresby, who was living at Riber in the late eighteenth century.
Eighteenth Century Lists: Matlock Land Tax, 1780 records him as an owner and occupier, although it does not specify where his land was.

Riber Manor House, which used to be Riber Old Hall, has a date stone of 1633 with the letters G.W. M.W. It is easy to confuse this as meaning Wolley but the W was for Walker and their home was later lived in by the Jaques and Cotterill families. In the late 19th century the Marts were at Riber Old Hall and half of Riber Hall was shown as still being inhabited by the Walls^[9].

Hearthstone (Harston) was the "property of a yeoman named Statham" in the late 1800s^[4].

The Local Schools - for many years the children of the village attended the National School in Starkholmes.

Churches & Chapels - discusses the place of worship for Primitive Methodists and the Fox Memorial Primitive Methodist chapel that was built at Starkholmes in 1905.

Historical Records: trades directories and census info: see Kelly's 1876 Directory | Kelly's 1891 Directory | Bulmer's 1895 Directory (included under Matlock Bath) | Kelly's 1891 Directory | Kelly's 1899 Directory |
Also see Distribution of Occupations in the 1841 census and Distribution of Occupations in the 1871 census.

Mining for lead in the 1950s

More images of Starkholmes on this website:
- Starkholmes ARP Wardens, about 1940 |
- Starkholmes Sunday School Picnic, about 1920/1 |
- Starkholmes School, 1953 |
- Starkholmes Village Hall, 1953 |
- Starkholmes Women's Institute, late 1953 - Tree Planting |

The corn mills and bleach works of the district were in located in Lumsdale. This was an industrial area of Matlock, where most of the population of Tansley were employed at one time and is now an industrial archaeology site of some note. This small area supported some seventeen or so mills at one time, the earliest probably dating from the seventeenth century. They were able to operate because of the water power generated by one small stream, the Bentley Brook, that runs through the narrow Lumsdale valley and which falls about eighty feet. Weirs and ponds were constructed in the very steep hillside so the mills could operate and some of these are still intact, though the mills set into the hillside are in ruins. It is said that in winter time, when the waters were high, some mills were unable to operate because there was too much power! The Upper Lumsdale Valley, also a nature reserve, was declared an ancient monument in 2014.

The wider Lumsdale area also covers part of Tansley, where there are also mills and mill ponds, and follows the Knabhall or Tansley Brook. Tansley Mill (later Scholes), a cotton mill was built here at the end of the eighteenth century for Samuel Unwin (see Lumsdale Ponds). Both these valleys are part of Lumsdale Conservation area today.

Before 1800 there had been lead smelting works in Lumsdale (see Lead Mining and Lumsdale, about 1900). The valleys supported cotton, tape, paper, saw mills etc. and there was even a small railway that carried the cotton between what was the Upper Bleach Mill and Garton's Mill. The tracks can still be seen.

In 1857 Lumsdale was describes as '1½ miles east from Matlock. Here are three bleach works and a cotton spinning factory, all of which are in Tansley^[6]'. Matlock Mills, in Lumsdale, advertised its use of water & steam in 1891^[1891]. The proprietor of this mill was the miller Ernest Henry Bailey, who was also a dealer in barley, oats, Indian corn and linseed cakes etc.

The names of several families, Garton, Radford, Farnsworth and Drabble, dominated the ownership the industries in Lumsdale during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Several generations of the Garton family lived in Lumsdale in the nineteenth; they were there for almost a hundred years, owning a bleach works (Garton's Mill) and barytes manufacturing business as well as being farmers. In 1870 the Derby Mercury reported that Mr. Garton had given all his workforce a roast beef dinner. The article went on to say that "Mr Garton kindly pays all his workpeople their wages for Christmas and Good Friday, which has been a custom at these works for more than half a century"^[19]. When Joseph Hodgkinson, the Matlock auctioneer, advertised the auction of Edward Hall Garton's Lumsdale Estate in 1906 it included a farm of about 25 acres, and 14 Lots of property, made up of accommodation, land, cottages, the bleach works in the Lumsdale, formerly occupied by the late Mr Garton (by then leased to the Farnsworths), together with the valuable water-power connected with the estate^[20]. In 1929 Paton & Baldwins bought the Farnsworths' bleaching and dyeing mills^[21] but in 1936 about 80 employees were made redundant, mostly men who had worked at the Mill for 40 years^[22]. After the Second World War the company announced it would continue to make angora yarn at its two Matlock Mills.

The Radfords were at Tansley Wood Mills as bleachers, candlewick manufacturers and cotton spinners. They were to lease the mill to Arthur K Baines & Co., and then to Robert Lowe who was also at Tansley Mill (later Scholes). Frederick Henry Drabble took over the lease of the Tansley Wood site, eventually buying it, and four generations of Drabbles kept the Mill running. They were bleachers, dyers and wool and waste merchants. Drabbles Mill eventually closed - after 110 years in Lumsdale - in 1999, shortly after it changed its name. It had many loyal employees during its existence; their long service must have meant they were happy at Drabbles.

The mill buildings in the upper part of the valley on the Bentley Brook became derelict and the valley was neglected until Mrs. Marjorie Mills stepped in and purchased it in 1939. She did not have the resources to take care of the land or restore the buildings, but it is thanks to her that the derelict buildings have survived as she refused permission to demolish them so the stone could be used for other purposes. There is a Lumsdale project group today, made up of Lumsdale residents and members of the Arkwright Society and under the Arkwright Society's umbrella, which is concerned with preserving and restoring the historic site.

When a Russian delegation visited Matlock some years ago they were particularly interested in both Matlock Bath's Masson Mill beside the River Derwent and Lumsdale.

Waterfalls on the mill stream, Lumsdale
As the photographs show, the densely wooded valley is very picturesque.

	Lumsdale, about 1900 Matlock's oldest industrial area
	Image of Lumsdale in a Tourist Booklet of Matlock, Matlock Bath & District, about 1900
	Lumsdale Ponds Tansley Mill later (Scholes) Dam and the Middle Pond