Buxton
Buxton town centre
Buxton Location within Derbyshire
Population	20,048 (2021)
OS grid reference	SK059735
District	High Peak
Shire county	Derbyshire
Region	East Midlands
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	BUXTON
Postcode district	SK17
Dialling code	01298
Police	Derbyshire
Fire	Derbyshire
Ambulance	East Midlands
UK Parliament	High Peak
List of places UK England Derbyshire 53°15′32″N 1°54′40″W / 53.259°N 1.911°W / 53.259; -1.911

Buxton is a spa town in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, in the East Midlands region of England. It is England's highest market town, sited at some 1,000 feet (300 m) above sea level.^{[1][nb 1]} It lies close to Cheshire to the west and Staffordshire to the south, on the edge of the Peak District National Park.^[1] In 1974, the municipal borough merged with other nearby boroughs, including Glossop, to form the local government district and borough of High Peak.

The town population was 22,115 at the 2011 Census. Sights include Poole's Cavern, a limestone cavern; St Ann's Well, fed by a geothermal spring bottled by Buxton Mineral Water Company; and many historic buildings, including John Carr's restored Buxton Crescent, Henry Currey's Buxton Baths and Frank Matcham's Buxton Opera House. The Devonshire Campus of the University of Derby occupies historic premises. Buxton is twinned with Oignies in France and Bad Nauheim in Germany.^[2]

History

The origins of the name are unclear. It may derive from the Old English for Buck Stone or for Rocking Stone.^[3] The town grew in importance in the late 18th century, when it was developed by the Dukes of Devonshire, with a resurgence a century later as Victorians were drawn to the reputed healing properties of its waters.^[4]

Stone Age beginnings

The first inhabitants of Buxton made homes at Lismore Fields some 6,000 years ago. This Stone Age settlement, a Scheduled Monument, was rediscovered in 1984, with remains of a Mesolithic timber roundhouse and Neolithic longhouses.^[5]

Roman settlement

The Romans developed a settlement known as Aquae Arnemetiae ("Baths of the grove goddess").^[1] Coins found show the Romans were in Buxton throughout their occupation of Britain.^[6]

Batham Gate ("road to the bath town") is a Roman road from Templebrough Roman fort in South Yorkshire to Navio Roman Fort and on to Buxton.

Middle Ages

The name Buckestones was first recorded in the 12th century as part of the Peverel family's estate. From 1153 the town was within the Duchy of Lancaster's Crown estate, close to the Royal Forest of the Peak on the Fairfield side of the River Wye. Monastic farms were set up in Fairfield in the 13th century and in the 14th; its royal ownership was reflected in the name of Kyngesbucstones.

By 1460, Buxton's spring had been pronounced a holy one dedicated to St Anne, who was canonised in 1382. A chapel had appeared there by 1498.^[7]

Spa town boom

Built on the River Wye, and overlooked by Axe Edge Moor, Buxton became a spa town for its geothermal spring,^[8] which gushes at a steady 28 °C.

The spring waters are piped to St Ann's Well, a shrine since medieval times at the foot of The Slopes, opposite the Crescent and near the town centre.^[9] The well was called one of the Seven Wonders of the Peak by the philosopher Thomas Hobbes in his 1636 book De Mirabilibus Pecci: Being The Wonders of the Peak in Darby-shire.^[10]

The Dukes of Devonshire became involved in 1780, when the William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire used profits from his copper mines to develop it as a spa in the style of Bath. Their ancestor Bess of Hardwick had brought one of her four husbands, the Earl of Shrewsbury, to "take the waters" at Buxton in 1569, shortly after he became the gaoler of Mary, Queen of Scots, and took Mary there in 1573.^[11] She called Buxton "La Fontagne de Bogsby" and stayed at the site of the Old Hall Hotel. The area features in the works of W. H. Auden, Jane Austen and Emily Brontë.^[8]

Buxton's profile was boosted by a recommendation from Erasmus Darwin of the waters there and at Matlock, addressed to Josiah Wedgwood I. The Wedgwood family often visited Buxton and commended the area to their friends.^{[citation needed]} Two of Charles Darwin's half-cousins, Edward Levett Darwin and Reginald Darwin, settled there.^[12] The arrival of the railway in 1863 stimulated growth: the population of 1,800 in 1861 exceeded 6,000 by 1881.^[13]

20th century

Buxton held a base for British and Canadian troops in the First World War. Granville Military Hospital was set up at the Buxton Hydropathic Hotel, with the Palace Hotel annexed. The author Vera Brittain trained as a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse at the Devonshire Hospital in 1915. The Royal Engineers based in Buxton used the Pavilion Gardens' lakes for training to build pontoon bridges.^[7][14][15] Prisoner of war camps at Ladmanlow and Peak Dale were established in 1917 to supply workers for the local limestone quarries.^[16]

RAF Harpur Hill became an underground bomb-storage facility during World War II and the country's largest munitions dump. It was also the base for the Peak District section of the RAF Mountain Rescue Service.^[17] Prisoner of war camps for Italians and Germans were set up on Lismore Road, off Macclesfield Road and at Dove Holes.^[18][19][20]

After a decline as a spa resort in the earlier 20th century, Buxton had a resurgence in the 1950s and 1970s. The Playhouse Theatre kept a repertory company and pop concerts were held at the Octagon (including the Beatles in 1963).^[21] The Opera House re-opened in 1979 with the launch of the Buxton Festival, and the town was being used as a base for exploring the Peak District.^[22]

Geography and geology

Although outside the National Park boundary, Buxton is in the western part of the Peak District, between the Lower Carboniferous limestone of the White Peak to the east and the Upper Carboniferous shale, sandstone and gritstone of the Dark Peak to the west.^[23] The early settlement (of which only the parish church of St Anne, built in 1625, remains) was largely made of limestone,^{[citation needed]} while the present buildings of locally quarried sandstone, mostly date from the late 18th century.^{[citation needed]}

At the south edge of the town, the River Wye has carved an extensive limestone cavern known as Poole's Cavern. More than 330 yards (300 metres) of its chambers are open to the public. It contains Derbyshire's largest stalactite and some unique "poached egg" stalagmites. Its name recalls a local highwayman.^[24]

Climate

Buxton has an oceanic climate with short, mild summers and long, cool winters. At about 1,000 feet (300 m) above sea level,^[25] Buxton is the highest market town in England.^{[nb 1]} Buxton's elevation makes it cooler and wetter than surrounding towns, with a daytime temperature typically about 2 °C lower than Manchester.

A Met Office weather station has collected climate data for the town since 1867, with digitised data from 1959 available online.^[26] In June 1975, the town suffered a freak snowstorm that stopped play during a cricket match.^[27]

Notable architecture

The many visitors to Buxton for its thermal waters, particularly in the 18th and 19th centuries, led to several new buildings to provide hospitality facilities.

The Old Hall Hotel is one of the town's oldest buildings. It was owned by George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury, who with his wife, Bess of Hardwick, acted as the "gaolers" of Mary, Queen of Scots, who came to Buxton several times to take the waters, her final visit being in 1584. The present building dates from 1670, and has a five-bay front with a Tuscan doorway.^[31]

The Grade I listed Crescent was built in 1780–1784 for the 5th Duke of Devonshire, as part of his effort to turn Buxton into a fashionable spa town. Modelled on Bath's Royal Crescent, it was designed by architect John Carr, together with the neighbouring irregular octagon and colonnade of the Great Stables. These were completed in 1789, but in 1859 were largely converted to a charity hospital for the "sick poor" by Henry Currey, architect to the 7th Duke of Devonshire's. Currey had previously worked on St Thomas' Hospital in London. It became known as the Devonshire Royal Hospital in 1934. Later phases of conversion after 1881 were by local architect Robert Rippon Duke, including his design for The Devonshire Dome as the world's largest unsupported dome, with a diameter of 144 feet (44 m) – larger than the Pantheon at 141 feet (43 m), St. Peter's Basilica at 138 feet (42 m) in Rome, and St Paul's Cathedral at 112 feet (34 m). The record was surpassed only by space frame domes such as the Georgia Dome (840 feet (260 m)). The building and its surrounding Victorian villas are now part of the University of Derby.

Currey also designed the Grade II listed Buxton Baths, comprising the Natural Mineral Baths to the west of The Crescent and Buxton Thermal Baths to the east, which opened in 1854 on the site of the original Roman baths, together with the 1884 Pump Room opposite. The Thermal Baths, closed in 1963 and at risk of demolition, were restored and converted into a shopping arcade by conservation architects Derek Latham and Company. Architectural artist Brian Clarke contributed to the refurbishment;^[32][33] his scheme, designed in 1984 and completed in 1987, was for a landmark modern artwork,^[34] a barrel-vaulted modern stained glass ceiling to enclose the former baths^[35] — at the time the largest stained glass window in the British Isles — creating an atrial space for what became the Cavendish Arcade.^[36][34][37] Visitors could "take the waters" at The Pump Room until 1981. Between 1981 and 1995 the building housed the Buxton Micrarium Exhibition, an interactive display with 50 remote-controlled microscopes.^[38] The building was refurbished as part of the National Lottery-funded Buxton Crescent and Thermal Spa re-development. Beside it, added in 1940, is St Ann's Well. In October 2020 Ensana reopened the Crescent as a 5-star spa hotel, after a 17-year refurbishment.^[39]

Nearby stands the imposing monument to Samuel Turner (1805–1878), treasurer of the Devonshire Hospital and Buxton Bath Charity, built in 1879 and accidentally lost for the latter part of the 20th century during construction work, before being found and restored in 1994.^[40]

When the railways arrived in Buxton in 1863, Buxton railway station had been designed by Joseph Paxton, previously gardener and architect to William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire. Paxton also contributed the layout of the Park Road circular estate. He is perhaps known best for his design of the Crystal Palace in London. Buxton Town Hall, designed by William Pollard, was completed in 1889.^[41]

Other architecture

Zdroj:https://en.wikipedia.org?pojem=Buxton
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