Bakewell is a small and typical Peak District market town built in grey local stone with undulating streets bordered by quaint terraced cottages. Perhaps best known for the Bakewell tart, the town is also a quaint day visit while touring nearby attractions. Here is a look at some beautiful scenes to see if you visit Bakewell in Derbyshire:

Initially a town in the kingdom of Mercia, Bakewell is known to date back to, at least, the Anglo-Saxon era before being listed as Badequelle in the 11th-century Domesday Book. With this history in mind, Bakewell has all the requisite features of an old English market town; crooked rooftops and chimney stacks, lush and colourful gardens and creeping vines, bunting strung over its main market street and ancient churchyards. 

The grade-listed parish church of All Saints stands by the town’s centre and was founded in 920. Though the structure that towers over the town today was built in the 13th-century there are many ancient monuments and artefacts littered around the churchyard including a 9th-century stone cross, Anglo-Saxon stonework around the porch and ancient stone coffins. Nearby is The Old House, a heritage museum with 16th-century buildings and a host in artefacts within. Built around the same time is Haddon Hall, a Tudor stately home open to the public.

Not unlike the nearby town of Buxton, a spring was discovered beneath Bakewell and attempts to transform the village into a spa town was made in the 18th-century, centred around a bathhouse that had been built in 1697.

Flowing through Bakewell is the River Wye, which begins just north of the town outside Buxton and eventually streaming down through the counties until spilling out into the North Sea.

Because of its countryside setting, Bakewell is a great place to go for an open-air day with riverside picnics and a browse around the many independent stores and cafes. It is surrounded by a number of delightful ancient English hamlets and villages such as Ashford-in-the-Water, or you could spend the day at the nearby grand country estate of Chatsworth, home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire.

There is no train station in Bakewell but there are frequent bus services that travel to nearby cities such as Sheffield and Manchester. The town is in a drivable distance to other Pretty Places such as Ely. Use the ‘Pretty Places‘ tag to view other quaint villages and towns to visit around England.

images: scene therapy, wikicommons