About the High Peak
High Peak
High Peak is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful constituencies in England. It is largely a rural constituency with several market towns and villages. Limestone quarrying is one of High Peak’s biggest local industries, requiring a careful balance between economic and environmental pressures. 95% of companies in High Peak have fewer than 20 employees.
Buxton is best known for its Buxton Water. Buxton’s Opera House hosts international festivals of Opera and Gilbert & Sullivan. The town is the new northern home of the University of Derby and HQ of the government’s Health and Safety Laboratory. Buxton has a historic Georgian town centre and Crescent, and is the subject of a substantial regeneration programme.
Glossop, to the north, is a Victorian mill town from where many people commute into Greater Manchester. BBC TV’s hit The League of Gentlemen is filmed in the village of Hadfield. Local Councillor’s and our MP actively supports the campaign for a Tintwistle to Mottram bypass.
New Mills has a splendid heritage and an arts festival. It is spectacularly placed at the convergence of the Goyt and Sett Valleys. Its Millennium Walkway was featured on a Millennium postage stamp. Nearby Hayfield was the site of the famous 1932 mass trespass of Kinder Scout.
Chapel-en-le-Frith is home to High Peak’s largest manufacturing employer, Federal Mogul (formerly Ferodo). Whaley Bridge is the constituency’s fifth town.
To the East of these towns is the Hope Valley, part of a vast rural area of upland sheep farms and smaller villages, in the Peak District National Park.