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Parish · Derbyshire and Staffordshire

The Peak.

Half White Peak limestone and half Dark Peak gritstone, which sounds like a geological footnote and is in practice two entirely different sets of problems.

The ground it covers.
Where

The ground it covers.

Derbyshire, the Staffordshire Moorlands and the Cheshire edge. The boundary follows the landscape rather than the county line, which is why it looks wrong on an administrative map and right on a soil one.

It meets first Tuesday of the month, 7.30pm. A village hall at Youlgreave, nine pounds for the evening, paid out of the parish tin.

Joe Padley is the warden. Drystone waller out of Bakewell. Has taught more members to wall than anybody else on the register. The wardenship is unpaid, was not appointed by us, and can only be ended by the parish itself.

1,455
members
September 2024
opened
First Tuesday of the month
cadence
The specification

The details.

The parish

Ground
Derbyshire, the Staffordshire Moorlands and the Cheshire edge
Members
1,455Register at 30 August 2026.
Rank by size
5 of 12
Opened
September 2024
Cadence
First Tuesday of the month, 7.30pm
Venue
A village hall at Youlgreave, nine pounds for the evening, paid out of the parish tin

The warden

Warden
Joe PadleyA volunteer member, not staff, and not paid.
Day job
Drystone waller out of Bakewell. Has taught more members to wall than anybody else on the register.
Confirmed by
The parish, at a meet
Can be stood down by
The parish, at a meetNot by us. That is deliberate.

Everything on this page is the parish’s own, published by its warden. We host it and we do not write it.

In practice

What it actually does.

Walling school

Six days a year. About seventy members have now built at least a metre of wall that has not fallen down.

Access negotiation

Members who farm and members who walk, in the same room, being reasonable about it.

Gritstone flocks

Derbyshire Gritstone and Whitefaced Woodland keepers, both breeds in more trouble than they should be.

Gate and stile repairs

Four working parties a year on rights of way, done with the landowner rather than at them.

The diary

The next three things in the diary.

Published by the warden. If it says nothing is in the diary, nothing is in the diary.

1 September

Monthly meet

Youlgreave village hall, 7.30pm. Access working group reports back.

6 October

Monthly meet

Youlgreave, 7.30pm.

18 October

Walling day

Above Monyash. Ten places, tools provided, backs are not.

The people

Who runs it.

One volunteer and a register. There is no third layer.

Joe Padley
Warden

Joe Padley

Drystone waller out of Bakewell. Has taught more members to wall than anybody else on the register.

The parish
Everybody else

The parish

1,455 members, of whom about thirty-one come to any given meet, which is a completely respectable turnout for anything.

From the register

What members of this parish said.

Farmers and walkers in one room, talking about gates. It should not work and it does.
Ruth, Peak parish
I read the minutes, I have used the lending list twice and I have never been to a meet. Nobody has ever made me feel odd about that.
A member of The Peak, name withheld by request

Not in this one?

Placement is by postcode and moving takes a tap. Twelve parishes, all free.

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Every parish

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