Peak Experience

 

 

Picture of Hathersage church  Picture of North Lees Hall

 

Charlotte Bronte’s greatly loved novel Jane Eyre is closely associated with Hathersage and North Lees Hall. Charlotte stayed in the village and visited the hall just before she wrote her novel.  Robin Hood’s friend Little John is also connected with Hathersage.  He is thought to have been born and died in the village.  There is a large grave in the churchyard where it is claimed he is buried.  Dating back even earlier, there is a Romano-British village near North Lees.

 

Traveline has details of the regular bus service through Hathersage.  North Lees is 2 km north of Hathersage. You can access the land by a network of footpaths from nearby roads.  There are two car parks within 1 km.

 

North Lees Hall is thought to have been the inspiration for Thornfield Hall, the home of Mr Rochester in Jane Eyre.  The Eyre family lived at the hall between 1750 and 1882.  Charlotte Bronte visited them in 1845, two years before Jane Eyre was published.  Charlotte drew inspiration for her novel from the local area, basing Morton village on Hathersage.

 

North Lees Hall has a history 250 years older than the Bronte sister’s visit.  It was built in 1590, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.  There was a chapel near to the hall for Catholic worship in 1685, but it was torn down by Protestants.  The rebuilt round-headed doorway is a poignant memorial to religious hatred.

 

Little John’s reputed grave is a 3.5-metre-long mound in Hathersage churchyard.  When it was excavated in the 1700s a huge thighbone was found, 75 centimetres long.  No other bones were recorded.  It is difficult to believe that Robin Hood’s famous large friend was quite the giant this would suggest.  According to the story, Robin and John famously met when they fought each other to cross a river.  John won but was so impressed by his foe that he joined the Merry Men.  They were most likely outlaws, who had fought with a losing pretender for the English throne.

 

The grave has existed since at least 1685, when it was first recorded.  Little John’s bow, cap and horn are supposed to have hung in the church.

 

Also by the church is Camp Green.  This large defensive earthwork is all that survives of the local Norman baron’s castle, dating from sometime around 1100 AD.

 

The remains of a small Romano-British village survive near North Lees.  The remains show that villagers built timber houses on terraces among the rocky outcrop.  The terraces and supporting walls are still clearly visible.  A small excavation found Roman pottery and a corn-grinding stone.  The villagers cultivated fields on the deeper soils to the south of the village.

 

The families who lived in the village were probably native Britons.  They would have paid tribute to their chief, who paid some of this as a tax to the Roman government.

 

Prehistoric fields can be found on Sheepwash Bank, to the north of North Lees.  You can see stone clearance cairns scattered across the heather moorland – the piles of stones cleared from fields to allow better cultivation of crops.  They probably date to the Bronze Age, over 3,500 years ago.

 

Explore the ancient places of Hathersage along with some of its links with Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice as well as some of the village's (hosted by Moors for the Future - external link).

 

Peak Experience self-guided trails

Hathersage Jane Eyre Trail (614kb)