A report on Peak District, Derbyshire, Buxton, Matlock, Derbyshire and White Peak

Buxton is a spa town in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, England.

Matlock is the county town of Derbyshire, England.

The White Peak, also known as the Low Peak, is a limestone plateau that forms the central and southern part of the Peak District in England.

Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire.

It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest.

It is situated in the south-eastern part of the Peak District, with the National Park directly to the west.

It includes the Dark Peak, where moorland is found and the geology is dominated by gritstone, and the White Peak, a limestone area with valleys and gorges.

It lies close to Cheshire to the west and Staffordshire to the south, on the edge of the Peak District National Park.

Broadly speaking, the White Peak covers the Derbyshire and Staffordshire parts of the Peak District from the Hope Valley southwards to the Weaver Hills near the Churnet Valley.

As defined by Natural England, the White Peak national character area covers 52,860 ha and includes the area approximately bounded by Ashbourne, Buxton, Castleton, Matlock and Wirksworth.

Later they settled round Buxton, famed for its warm springs, and set up a fort near modern-day Derby in an area now known as Little Chester.

Outside the park, the wider Peak District often includes the area approximately between Disley and Sterndale Moor, encompassing Buxton and the Peak Dale corridor.

Buxton's profile was boosted by a recommendation from Erasmus Darwin of the waters there and at Matlock, addressed to Josiah Wedgwood I. The Wedgwood family often visited Buxton and commended the area to their friends.

White Peak

The towns of Glossop, Chapel-en-le-Frith, Buxton, Macclesfield, Leek, Ashbourne, Matlock and Chesterfield are on the national park's fringes.

Although outside the National Park boundary, Buxton is in the western part of the Peak District, between the Lower Carboniferous limestone of the White Peak to the east and the Upper Carboniferous shale, sandstone and gritstone of the Dark Peak to the west.

Broadly speaking, the Derwent valley bottom forms a boundary between the sandstones and gritstones of the Dark Peak to the NE and the limestones of the White Peak to the south-west.

The A6, which links Carlisle with Luton, passes through the town; it provides access to Manchester, Stockport, Buxton, Bakewell and Derby.

It has a county council based in Matlock and eight district councils and since 1997, a unitary authority area of the City of Derby.