Chapel-en-le-Frith in 1836

CHAPEL-EN-LE-FRITH, a market-town and parish in the hundred of High Peak, county of Derby, 5 miles from Buxton, 11 miles N.W. by W. from Derby, and 167 N.W. by N. from London. It includes the townships of Bowden’s Edge, Bradshaw Edge, and Coomb’s Edge, and contains 3,234 inhabitants, most of whom are employed in the manufacture of cotton or paper.

The Peak Forest lime-works lie three miles east of the town, and communicate by railway, with the Peak Forest canal, which runs within three miles to the N.W., in consequence of the vicinity of which there is a large carrying trade here. There is a small market on Thursday, and numerous fairs in the course of the year for the sale of cattle, wool, and provisions.

There are places of worship for the Episcopalians and Wesleyan Methodists. The church, dedicated to St. Thomas a Becket, was rebuilt at the beginning of the last century. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the jurisdiction of the dean and chapter of Lichfield, having £400 private benefaction, £400 royal bounty, and £300 parliamentary grant, and in the gift of the resident freeholders, who choose a committee of twenty-seven from the three townships, by a majority of whom the minister is elected.

There is an endowed school at Chapel en le Frith, where nineteen scholars are taught, and another at Bowden’s Edge, for the instruction of eight girls. A library has been recently established.

The town is not lighted, and only partially paved. Its elevation above the level of the sea at low water is 566 feet. The High Peak court for the recovery of small debts is held here every third week, at which the duke of Devonshire’s steward presides. About two miles south is a Roman road and the remains of other antiquities.