An architectural patchwork: Wirksworth
Many of the hundreds of stone outcrops in the Peak District have been worked for building stone, but before about 1700, stone was only used for castles, churches, important houses and field walls. Ordinary houses were usually of timber, ‘wattle' and clay. Bricks were not common until after 1800.
Sandstone (gritstone) when fresh, is easier to shape than the local limestone and was the main building material in the Dark Peak.
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In the White Peak, limestone formed the main walling material (often rendered with plaster to hide the rough surface), although gritstone was still employed for steps, window and door frames and quoins (edges).Wirksworth displays architectural styles from medieval times to the present, including cruck-beamed cottage remains and a formal Georgian town house. In Wirksworth, Namurian sandstones - pink from Bolehill and Black Rock, buff from Gilkin, and pale grey limestone from quarries on the edge of the town, were combined with dark red ‘rustic' hand made bricks produced from Namurian mudstones.
Before railways introduced Welsh slates and Staffordshire tiles, most buildings would have been roofed with thin sandstone slabs (stone ‘slates') or thatch.
Elsewhere in the area, large quarries opened along the Derwent, wherever sandstone was
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accessible from the valley floor, particularly at the extensive Dukes Quarries at Whatstandwell. Millstone making was also important in medieval times around Whatstandwell. |
