23-778: The River Alport flows for 5.6 miles (9 km) in the Dark Peak of the Peak District in Derbyshire , England. Its source is on Bleaklow , 3 miles (4.8 km) east of Glossop , from which it flows south through the Grains in the Water bog, then over gritstone below the Alport Castles landslide to Alport Bridge on the A57 Snake Pass route from Sheffield to Manchester , where it joins
46-490: A cap of Millstone Grit sandstones with softer shale underneath, meaning that in winter the soil is almost always saturated with water. The land is thus largely uninhabited moorland plateaux where almost any depression is filled with sphagnum bogs and black peat . The High Peak is an alternative name for the Dark Peak, but High Peak is also the name of an administrative district of Derbyshire which includes part of
69-684: Is a region of moorland and hill country in northern England lying towards the southern end of the Pennines . In the west it includes the Rossendale Valley and the West Pennine Moors . It is bounded by the Greater Manchester conurbation in the west and the Bowland Fells and Yorkshire Dales to the north. To the east it is fringed by the towns of West Yorkshire whilst to the south it
92-483: Is bounded by the Peak District . The rural South Pennine Moors constitutes both a Site of Special Scientific Interest and Special Area of Conservation . The Southern Pennines National Character Area defined by Natural England includes the West Pennine Moors and is a landscape of broad moorland, flat-topped hills and fields enclosed by dry stone walls. Settlements built from local gritstone occupy river valleys with wooded sides. Peat soils and blanket bog on
115-558: Is the higher and wilder part of the Peak District in England, mostly forming the northern section but also extending south into its eastern and western margins. It is mainly in Derbyshire but parts are in Staffordshire , Cheshire , Greater Manchester , West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire . It gets its name because (in contrast to the White Peak ), the underlying limestone is covered by
138-621: The Churnet Valley , and the Eastern Moors southwards towards Matlock . The Dark Peak is one of 159 National Character Areas defined by Natural England ; as defined by Natural England, the Dark Peak NCA covers 86,604 hectares (334 sq mi) and includes the northern block of hills approximately bounded by Marsden , Stocksbridge , Hathersage and Chapel-en-le-Frith , plus the eastern moors between Hathersage and Matlock, but excludes
161-655: The Derwent Reservoir a few yards north of the dam wall. The outlet is visible from the viewing area. The valley of the Alport contains some farmland, but the banks of the valley are mostly coniferous plantations and heath . The coniferous plantations are being converted to semi-natural deciduous woodland. The small hamlet of Alport lies on the west bank near the southern end of the river. 53°24′09″N 1°47′19″W / 53.4025°N 1.7886°W / 53.4025; -1.7886 Dark Peak The Dark Peak
184-641: The River Ashop . The Ashop flows into Ladybower Reservoir about 2.5 miles (4.0 km) down the valley, which discharges via the Rivers Derwent and Trent to the North Sea . The source of the Alport is close to the Pennine watershed . The course of the river includes three small waterfalls . At its southern end lie the remains of a tunnel constructed to carry water to a planned but unbuilt cotton mill . A weir
207-612: The Rochdale Canal between Greater Manchester and Lancashire in the west and West Yorkshire to the east. The Huddersfield Narrow Canal and the Manchester to Huddersfield railway pass through the Standedge Tunnels and the A62 road crosses the moorland at Standedge . The Leeds and Liverpool Canal passes through Bingley and Keighley en route to Skipton. Natural England describes
230-537: The 18th century, water powered mills were vital for industrial expansion of the textile industry, initially for spinning cotton, but subsequently for woollens and worsteds. Walking, mountain-biking and horseriding are common pastimes enjoyed in the area. Numerous walking trails have been established including, amongst many others, the Calderdale Way and the Bronte Way . The long-established Pennine Way passes through
253-603: The Dark Peak, generally because of a combination of numerous nearby air bases, inexperienced pilots, primitive or faulty equipment and poor visibility. Because of the bleakness and emptiness of the high moorlands and the consequent difficulties of recovery, substantial wreckage remains at some sites in remote parts of the moorland, though militarily sensitive materials were removed and salvage teams sometimes gathered debris into piles, or burned or buried it. 53°24′N 1°48′W / 53.4°N 1.8°W / 53.4; -1.8 South Pennines The South Pennines
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#1732876882100276-660: The SSSI is included in the South Pennine Moors Special Area of Conservation . Part of the land area designated as Dark Peak SSSI is owned by United Utilities . Principal upland areas within the Dark Peak include Kinder Scout , Bleaklow (both of which rise to over 600 m (2,000 ft)), Black Hill , the Roaches , Shining Tor , Mam Tor , Win Hill and Stanage Edge . Over the years, military aircraft have crashed on
299-641: The South Pennine moorlands as the Watershed Landscape where the area's high rainfall fills a multitude of reservoirs. The South Pennines and its fringe has a population of more than a million people. Woodland covers about 4% of the terrain mostly on steep valley sides. The South Pennines provide evidence of Mesolithic , the late Bronze Age and Iron Age findings. The Romans built roads and built forts in Ilkley and at Castleshaw . They also dug coal which
322-570: The South Pennines includes Rombalds Moor , Rishworth Moor, Haworth Moor, Turton Moor and Castleshaw Moor. The highest point of the M62 motorway , the highest motorway in England, is at 1,221 feet (372 m) on Windy Hill near Junction 22. The rivers Aire , Calder and Colne drain the area to the east and the Roch and Irwell to the west. The Calder Valley provides a low-level route for road, railway and
345-744: The South Pennines mostly cover the Pennine area between the Yorkshire Dales, Bowlands Fells and Peak District. It is separated from the Yorkshire Dales to the north by the Aire Gap , the Bowland Fells to the north west by the Ribble Valley and the Peak District to the south by the Tame Valley , Standedge and Holme Valley . The West Lancashire Coastal Plain and Greater Manchester conurbation are both to
368-651: The White Peak. The areas of Millstone Grit form an 'inverted horseshoe' around the lower uncapped limestone areas of the White Peak, enclosing it to the west, north and east. Hence the Dark Peak is said to cover the higher, northern moors between the Hope Valley to the south and the Tame Valley , Standedge and Holme Valley to the north, separating it from the South Pennines , the Western Moors stretching south to near
391-536: The end Carboniferous Coal Measures which in this region are all assigned to the Pennine Lower Coal Measures Formation . It comprises mudstones, siltstones and sandstones and of course coal seams. Coal Measures rocks occur along the eastern and western margins of the region, on either side of the ‘Pennine Anticline’, and across much of the West Pennines. Although precise definitions vary,
414-477: The moors store carbon while high rainfall fills many reservoirs supplying water to the adjacent conurbations. The area is important for recreation having open access areas, footpaths and historic packhorse routes. The area is almost wholly formed from multiple layers of sedimentary rock dating from the Carboniferous period. The oldest of these are the limestones and associated mudstones which outcrop in
437-533: The northernmost part of the region, though which are thought to underlie the entire area at depth. These are assigned to the Craven Group . Overlying these and occurring widely across the region are the mudstones and sandstones of the Millstone Grit Group . Many of the sandstones, particularly the coarser-grained ones are commonly referred to as gritstones or ‘grits’. The Millstone Grit is in turn overlain by
460-731: The west while the West Yorkshire conurbation is to the east. Settlements within the South Pennines include Addingham , Ilkley and Otley in the north, as well as Bingley , Keighley , Haworth and Oxenhope . Halifax , Sowerby Bridge , Hebden Bridge and Todmorden are in the Calder Valley . These also include Marsden , Slaithwaite and Meltham in the south-east, Darwen , Haslingden and Rawtenstall in Lancashire , and Greenfield , Horwich , Ramsbottom , Oldham , Rochdale and Littleborough in Greater Manchester . Moorland in
483-676: The western moors between Chapel and the Churnet Valley (which it places in NCA 53, the South West Peak), and the area around Glossop (in NCA 54, Manchester Pennine Fringe). An area of 31,852 hectares (123 sq mi) is designated as the Dark Peak Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), which excludes the separately designated Eastern Moors. The SSSI extends over the borders into Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire. A large part of
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#1732876882100506-643: Was built on the river in about 1922 and a short watercourse added to feed the water into the Ashop weir located upstream of the confluence. The water was then culverted along the valley to the Ashop Siphon near Hagg Farm, where it then crossed over the River Ashop in a 6-foot-diameter (1.8 m) steel pipe 273 yards (250 m) long, passed through a 1,065-yard (974 m) tunnel under the hill and then via another open watercourse of 761 yards (696 m) to discharge into
529-469: Was further exploited especially during the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Steep-sided valleys with fast flowing streams provided power and water for the area's early mills and factories. Water-powered corn mills and fulling mills were used in medieval times and more fulling mills were built after the mid-16th century as the woollen industry grew. At the end of
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