Tideswell

There is some debate as to how the village got its name. The English Place Name Society accepts it as being named after a Saxon chieftain named Tidi,[3] others that the name comes from a "tiding well" situated in the north of the village. This 'ebbing and flowing' well was declared to be one of the Seven Wonders of the Peak by Thomas Hobbes in his 1636 book De Mirabilibus Pecci.[4]

Tideswell is known locally as Tidza or Tidsa. In addition, local residents are known as Sawyeds, owing to a traditional story about a farmer who freed his prize cow from a gate in which it had become entangled, by sawing its head off.[5] Today the story is re-enacted raucously and colourfully every Wakes week by a local mummers group called the Tidza Guisers.

Tideswell well dressing is usually at the end of June[6]

In the Middle Ages, Tideswell was a market town known for lead mining. The Tideswell lead miners were renowned for their strength and were much prized by the military authorities.[7] The Domesday Book of 1086 lists TIDESUUELLE as the King's land in the charge of William Peverel[8] with fewer than five households.[9]

Tideswell is now best known for its 14th-century parish church, the Church of St John the Baptist, known as the "Cathedral of the Peak", which contains three 15th-century misericords. A sundial lies in the churchyard; it is positioned on steps which local historian Neville T. Sharpe thinks likely to be those of the village's market cross. A market and two-day fair were granted to the village in 1251.[10] The Foljambe family, later the Foljambe baronets, were the principal landowners from the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries.

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,[11] and townsfolk dancing a traditional weaving dance.

Tideswell Sports Complex was built in 2001 following a £1.2 million Sports Lottery grant and substantial fund-raising in the village. There are two football pitches, a floodlit multi-use area with two tennis courts and five-a-side pitches marked out, a cricket ground, crown-green bowling area, a skate-park and two pavilions. The town has a football team, Tideswell United, and they play in the Hope Valley League 'A' Division. They also run a reserve side competing in the Hope Valley League B Division as Tideswell United Blue Star. The ground has floodlights for midweek games, one of few sides at such a low level to use them. The bowling club competes in local leagues, the cricket and tennis clubs compete in local friendly matches.

The village has a long theatrical tradition, Tideswell Theatre having been formed over 200 years ago to perform leading plays of the time. It was revived in 2002 to bring professional-quality theatre, music, dance and comedy to the area. Tideswell Community Players are one of the oldest drama groups in the country, formed in 1929. Until the 1960s the village also had its own cinema, The Picturehouse. Tideswell Cinema was revived in 2005 to bring film once more to the community, with screenings for three seasons at Bishop Pursglove School's hall, before relocating in 2008 to the upper storey of The George Hotel. A number of musical ensembles are also active in the village – notably Tideswell Male Voice Choir and The Tideswell Singers.

• Sir Godfrey de Foljambe (1317–76), Lord Chief Justice of Ireland
• Blessed Christopher Buxton, Catholic martyr, studied at Tideswell Grammar school under Nicholas Garlick[13]
• Ric Lee, drummer of the blues/rock band Ten Years After, resides in Tideswell and participated in the male voice choir
• Rev. J. M. J. Fletcher (Vicar of Tideswell), historian[14]
• Blessed Nicholas Garlick, Catholic priest and martyr, was a schoolmaster here in the 16th century[13]
• Judy Leden, stunt flyer and three times world hang-gliding champion
• William Newton, poet and philanthropist, was buried here[15]
• Samuel Slack, notable bass singer born 1757 of local fame, reputedly sang before King George III[16]
• A monument in the south transept of Tideswell parish church is doubtfully identified as that of Sir Thurstan de Bower
• Edwina Currie, current President of the Tideswell Male Voice Choir[17]
• Robert Pursglove, sixteenth-century bishop, buried in Tideswell church

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tideswell.

• Tideswell and District Community Association
• The Village Voice – the village newsletter
• Visit Tideswell – accommodation for visitors and holiday makers
• Derbyshire UK – Tideswell
• Peak District Online – Tideswell
• Link to interesting search of Google Books on Tideswell with several good books fully online mentioning Tideswell.
• The Feudal History of the County of Derby Vol.5 Section 9, by John Pym Yeatman. G4TIFF page images, plus poorly OCRed HTML. This has a lot of information on Tideswell during the 11th to 13th centuries.