STONEY MIDDLETON is a chapelry, in the parish of Hathersage and hundred of High Peak, five miles E. from Tideswell, and four and a half N. from Bakewell. The houses forming the village are singular in their appearance, being scarcely distinguishable from the grey rocks which impend over them, and from which they appear to have been hewn. The church here is a small edifice, of octagonal form, remarkable for its neatness, erected principally at the expense of the Duke of Devonshire. It is dedicated to St. Mark: [Ed: No! St. Martin] the living is a perpetual curacy, in the gift of the Vicar of Hathersage; the present incumbent is the Rev. Edward Parker. The lime works in this neighbourhood employ many of the inhabitants. The chapelry contained, in 1821, 635 inhabitants, but at the last census (1831) the number returned was only 479.

EYAM is a township, in the parish of its name, in the same hundred as Stoney Middleton, about one mile N.N.W. from that town, fire E. by N. from Tideswell, and twelve W. by N. from Chesterfield. The neighbourhood of this village derived, at one period, a considerable degree of prosperity from the lead mines at Foolow, a small village one mile west of this place; but for some years past these works have declined, and with them the population of the neighbourhood.

Nothing of early note is attached to the village, except its having been visited by that dreadful pestilence, the plague, in 1666; and by which it was nearly depopulated. The infection was communicated by some cast off clothes being sent from London to a person residing at this place. The church is a very ancient building, dedicated to St. Helen: the living is a rectory, in the gift of the Duke of Devonshire and two others, alternately; the present incumbent is the Rev. E. B. Bagshawe. In the church-yard is a very ancient stone cross, supposed to be of Roman origin. Ann Seward, poetess and novelist, was a native of this place, of which her father was rector. The parish contained, in 1821, 1,516 inhabitants, and in 1831, 1,372, of which last number 911 were returned for the township, being fewer by 89 than it contained in the year 1811.

CALVER is a hamlet, in the parish of Bakewell; one mile E. S.E. from Stoney Middleton, situate upon the river Derwent. It contains a considerable cotton mill, and the neighbourhood abounds with lime-stone. The population, by the parliamentary returns for 1831, amounted to 616.

POST OFFICE:- STONEY MIDDLETON, Barbara Brightmore, Post Mistress:- Letters from BAKEWELL arrive every evening at five, and are despatched the same evening at six.

Description(s) from Pigot and Co's Commercial Directory for Derbyshire, 1835.
Transcribed by Rosemary Lockie in May 1996.