Duddon Valley

The Duddon Valley is a valley in the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. The River Duddon flows through the valley, rising in the mountains between Eskdale and Langdale, before flowing into the Irish Sea near Broughton in Furness. In its lower reaches it is bounded by the Furness Fells and Harter Fell.

The part of the valley near the village of Ulpha is marked as "Dunnerdale" on Ordnance Survey maps, and upstream towards the village of Seathwaite is Hall Dunnerdale. The name "Dunnerdale" is often used as a synonym for "Duddon Valley", but people, including Alfred Wainwright, prefer the name "Duddon Valley". He wrote in The Southern Fells, "I ought to mention that I am aware that the Duddon Valley is also properly known as Dunnerdale, a name I haven't used in the book, preferring the former; just as I never refer to Blencathra by its better-known modern name of Saddleback. It's a matter of personal choice.".

The "Dunnerdale Fells" are between Broughton Mills and the main Duddon Valley. The civil parish of "Dunnerdale with Seathwaite" includes the valley of Dunnerdale Beck as well as the main length of the River Duddon. Advertisements for holiday cottages at Hall Dunnerdale describe the cottages as being "in the Duddon Valley".

Duddon

Coordinates: 53°10′N 2°44′W / 53.17°N 02.73°W / 53.17; -02.73

Duddon is a small settlement in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It is on the A51 road and is 8 kilometres (5 mi) east of the town of Chester. Local features include Duddon St. Peter's Church and St. Peter's Primary School. The church was erected in 1835 as a chapel of ease to the parish church at Tarvin. It was built in the early English style at a cost of £603 to the designs of William Railton.

Legend of the "Headless Woman"

The name of the Headless Woman public house name recalls the local legend of Grace Trigg who died in about 1664. She was a servant at nearby Hockenhull Hall, found hiding in a cellar there by Oliver Cromwell's parliamentarian soldiers after the royalist owners had fled. They tortured her to force her to reveal where the family valuables were hidden and, when she would not tell them, beheaded her in the attic, dragged her body downstairs and dumped it off one of the "Roman Bridges" (a pair of medieval packhorse bridges on the River Gowy, still standing today at the end of Platts Lane in Hockenhull).