A report on Derbyshire, Buxton, Peak District and Sarah Ward (novelist)

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

Sarah Rhiannon Ward (living) is an English novelist and critic living in the Peak District of rural Derbyshire.

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

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

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

The books are set in and near the fictional town of Bampton, which the author states "is partly based on Buxton with its Georgian architecture, Bakewell, which is a well-heeled market town with a strong tourist industry, and Cromford with its canal and fantastic industrial heritage."

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.

The Peak District is the scene of a series of four crime novels of the 21st century by Sarah Ward: Bitter Chill (2015), The Shrouded Path (2020), A Deadly Thaw and A Patient Fury.

A series of four recent novels by Sarah Ward – In Bitter Chill (2015), A Deadly Thaw (2017), A Patient Fury (2018) and The Shrouded Path (2019) – feature the fictional town of Bampton, which the author states "is partly based on Buxton with its Georgian architecture, Bakewell, a well-heeled market town... and Cromford with its canal and fantastic industrial heritage."

Another local author who sets crime novels there is Sarah Ward.