Tideswell
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Tideswell is a village in the Derbyshire Peak District, England (location map). It lies six miles east of Buxton, off the B6049, in a wide dry valley on a limestone plateau, at an altitude of over 1,000 ft above sea level. The population was 1717 in 1991, making it the second largest habitation within the National Park, after Bakewell.[1]
There is some debate as to how the village got its name. Some say it originates from a Saxon chieftain named Tidi, others that the name comes from a "tiding well" situated in the north of the village.
In the Middle Ages, Tideswell was a market town known for lead mining, but it is now best-known for its fourteenth century parish church, the Church of St John the Baptist, known as the "Cathedral of the Peak".
The town has a week-long festival near the summer solstice known as the Wakes, culminating in "Big Saturday" which includes a torchlight procession through the streets, led by a brass band playing a unique tune called the Tideswell Processional[1] , and townsfolk dancing a specific weaving dance.
Tideswell is locally called "Tidza" (or "Tidsa"), and the folk known as "Sawyeds" due to a traditional story that when a farmer's cow got its head stuck in a gate, the farmer got it free by sawing off its head. Today this story is re-enacted raucously and colourfully each Wakes by a local mummers group called the Tidza Guisers.
[edit] Reference
- ^ Peak District National Park Factsheet 16: Population & Employment in the Peak District National Park
[edit] External Links
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