Peak Experience

Picture of Longshaw Lodge

 

Gunfire rang out around Longshaw Lodge on every 12 August between 1855 and 1927.  It was then the Duke of Rutland’s shooting lodge.  The route from Longshaw to Upper Padley takes you through woodland along the beautiful Padley Gorge.  Here you can seek out old millstones lying among the trees.  They were carved between the 1600s to 1800s.  At Upper Padley, you can see a medieval manor house and chapel.  Today’s tranquillity hides a grisly Tudor story of three Catholic priests caught in hiding.  They were hung, drawn and quartered, and the lord of the manor imprisoned for life in the Tower of London.

 

There is a gentle trail around Longshaw Lodge, with toilets, a café and gift shop at the National Trust’s visitor centre.  Padley Gorge is a moderate walk.  There is car parking at the top of the gorge, near a popular picnic site, and further along near Grindleford railway station.  Padley Chapel is 500 metres from the station.

 

The Duke of Rutland built Longshaw Lodge as a shooting retreat in 1855.  The lodge was near to a toll road that had been constructed across the moorland over 60 years earlier.  The Duke so insisted on his privacy that he had the road moved!  This is the winding road from Fox House to Grindleford that is still used today.  Such was the power of Victorian gentry.

 

The Duke’s estate included large areas of moorland that stretched from Ringinglow in the north to Gardom’s Edge in the south.  He visited regularly to shoot grouse and take guests on carriage tours of his land.  Sheffield city wanted the land for water collection and bought the Duke’s estate from him in 1927.  The National Trust acquired Longshaw in 1931.

 

Competition between the Duke’s head shepherd and head gamekeeper erupted in the late 1800s.  The test was to find out who was the best shepherd.  So began the Longshaw Sheepdog Trials in 1898, claimed to be the oldest regular and uninterrupted run of sheepdog trials in the country.

This PDF self-guided trail takes you through the Longshaw Estate owned by the National Trust, and the home to the longest continuously running sheep dog trials.

 

Padley Gorge is a beautiful riverside wood between Longshaw and Grindleford.  Keep your eyes open as you follow the paths.  There are millstones and small industrial kilns peeking through the vegetation to either side. The kilns were used to dry kindling called ‘white coal’ which was used to fuel lead smelting furnaces located on the edges above.  Millstones were carved out of boulders from at least the 1400s until the 1900s.

 

Padley Chapel was part of a manor house owned by Sir Thomas Fitzherbert in the 1500s.  He was a staunch Roman Catholic who gave sanctuary to priests and held communion during the persecution of Catholics by Queen Elizabeth I.  He was arrested in 1588 after three priests were found in his house.  The priests were tried and sentenced to death by hanging, drawing and quartering.  Sir Thomas was locked away in the Tower of London until his death three years later.  The Crown confiscated his land and the house fell into ruin.  Today, the chapel is dedicated as the Martyrs Chapel.

 

The Longshaw Estate is well served by buses from Sheffield on their way to the Hope Valley, Buxton, Chatsworth and Matlock.  Visit Traveline and look for journeys to Fox House, or call Traveline on 0871 200 2233.