Rowsley

For the rural locality in Australia, see Rowsley, Victoria.

Rowsley (/ˈroʊzli/) is a village on the A6 road in the English county of Derbyshire. The population as at the 2011 census was 507.

Rowsley
The Peacock Hotel
Rowsley Location within Derbyshire
Population	507 (2011)
OS grid reference	SK258659
District	Derbyshire Dales
Shire county	Derbyshire
Region	East Midlands
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	MATLOCK
Postcode district	DE4
Police	Derbyshire
Fire	Derbyshire
Ambulance	East Midlands
UK Parliament	Derbyshire Dales

Monsal Trail
Midland Railway ← Buxton│Peak Forest → Topley Pike junction Chee Tor No. 1 tunnel Millers Dale Millers Dale viaducts Litton Tunnel ( 516 yd 472 m ) Cressbrook Tunnel ( 471 yd 431 m ) Monsal Dale Headstone Viaduct Headstone Tunnel ( 533 yd 487 m ) Great Longstone Hassop Bakewell Coombs Road viaduct (end of trail) Haddon Tunnel ( 1058 yd 967 m ) (closed) Rowsley (proposed extension) Rowsley South Darley Dale Matlock Riverside Peak Rail line
Sources

It is at the point where the River Wye flows into the River Derwent and prospered from mills on both. The border of the Peak District National Park runs through the village west of the River Wye and immediately to the north of Chatsworth Road. The Peak District Boundary Walk goes through the village.

Overview

The original Rowsley railway station

Notable features are the bridge over the River Derwent, St Katherine's Church, Rowsley and the Grade-II*-listed Peacock hotel, originally built in 1652 as a manor house by John Stevenson, agent to Lady Manners, whose family crest bearing a peacock gives it its name. Both Longfellow and Landseer are said to have stayed there. Nearby is Chatsworth House, home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire.

It was the site of an extensive motive power depot and marshalling yard, the first being built by the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway with a railway station designed by Joseph Paxton in 1849. This was replaced by a new station when the line was extended northwards in 1862. It was frequently used by King Edward VII when he visited Chatsworth House. The original station became a goods depot until 1968, when it was used as a contractor's yard. It then became the centrepiece of a shopping development known as Peak Village.

Railway stations

Rowsley South

Rowsley South is the northern terminus of the preserved heritage railway Peak Rail; it is about a quarter of a mile south of the village itself. The line currently runs for a length of four miles from Matlock.

Rowsley

Peak Rail are close to securing a 99-year lease with the local council on the disused trackbed from Rowsley South to the A6 road, at the site of the former Rowsley station site. The former station, which is still extant, will have to be rebuilt.

Preceding station	Heritage railways			Following station
Rowsley South		Peak Rail Future Extension		Bakewell

Notable residents

• Phillip Whitehead, MP, MEP, author and Emmy Award-winning television producer, was brought up here.

See also

• Listed buildings in Rowsley

Further reading

• The Peacock at Rowsley. (1869). A gossiping book about fishing and country life with a descriptive of a well-known resort of anglers at the junction of the Wye and River Derwent, by John Joseph Briggs, London: Bemrose and Sons

External links

• "Picture the Past" Rowsley station building in 1987