Hope, Derbyshire

There is evidence of ancient human occupation of the area around Hope. Mesolithic implements were found by a footpath at Win Hill.[2] A sandstone or ironstone Neolithic axe was found near Hope before 1877 and is now held in the collection at Bolton Museum.[3] The village is close to the Mam Tor hillfort in the adjacent parsh of Castleton and human remains and Bronze Age urns were found along with a possible barrow close to the summit of Lose Hill.[4] A Bronze Age barrow called The Folly, with a diameter of 23 metres (75 ft), is located within the parish, close to Pindale Road.[5]

Traces of a Roman road, Batham Gate,[6] and a Roman fort, Navio can be found near the hamlet of Brough-on-Noe, just east of the village. There are many remains from the site in Buxton Museum.

The Roman name of the fort Navio was later changed to the Old English word for fort, brough. Edward the Elder granted lands at Hope to Uhtred, son of Eadulf of Bamburgh. These grants were confirmed by Æthelstan.[7] The Old English gives its name to the adjacent parish of Brough and Shatton, although the fort lies within Hope parish.

Hope Motte, an earthwork on the bank of the Peakshole Water, is thought to have been constructed during the Norman period and is mentioned in a deed dating from the reign of Edward I.[8]

The Domesday Book records that Hope had a church[9] although the present parish church, the Church of St Peter, dates from the 14th and 15th century with modifications to the chancel dating from 1882.[10] The church has two ancient crosses in its grounds. The shaft of a sandstone cross dating from the Anglo-Saxon period stands seven feet high and is carved on all faces.[11] The cross may well have originated in the church grounds and a possible base now supports a sundial, but from the English Civil War until 1858 it was hidden in the village school. The stump of the Eccles Cross, originally near Eccles House, south of Hope, is also in the graveyard.[12] Between 2 and 28 July 2011, the church was broken into and about 15 items dating as far back as 1662, including two silver chalices and a pewter plate, were found to have been stolen.[13]

From 1715 a weekly market was held along with four annual fairs, one being a hiring fair.[14]

Lead mining took place in Pindale in the 19th century. The Pindale mine was producing more lead than the Odin Mine between 1800 and 1802. The mine's pumping engine house is still intact.[15]

Between 1902 and 1916 a "Tin Town" was built at Birchinlee for the workers (and their families) who constructed the Derwent and Howden Dams. In 2014 it was reported that one of these buildings had been salvaged and was now located at Hope where it housed a beauty parlour.[16]

On 5 October 1943 a RAF Handley Page Halifax Mark II bomber, HR727 returning to Snaith airfield after a raid over Frankfurt crashed in the Blackden Edge/Ashop Moor area to the east of the Kinder plateau. One of its engines was disabled by an enemy night fighter's guns. Five of the seven crewmen lost their lives.[17]

Hope cement works