Bradwell

Pints, Food and the Edge

The White Hart was built in 1676 and does not serve food. It is the oldest surviving pub in Bradwell, a drinks-only local with a log burner, four well-kept Bradfield ales and a name for pub quizzes and friendliness. One visitor called it "a beautiful little building tucked away on the hills," which is accurate on both counts — the village climbs a hillside, and the pub is tucked into it.

Bradwell is a cluster of stone cottages stacked up the slopes where the White Peak limestone meets the gritstone edges, in a side valley off the Hope Valley. Bradwell Brook runs through the middle of it. Behind it, Bradwell Edge rises steeply — a gritstone escarpment with Hope Valley views above the village, with Mam Tor and the Great Ridge in the distance.

For food you have the Shoulder of Mutton, a traditional inn with a car park, valley views from the outdoor seating, and home-cooked pub dishes at reasonable prices. It keeps a few rooms, and dogs are allowed in the bars and some of the bedrooms. Ye Olde Bowling Green Inn pours locally sourced beers.

Samuel Fox and Village Tables

The Samuel Fox Country Inn, once the village's fine-dining address — a seven-course tasting menu, two AA rosettes, a place in the Michelin Guide — closed in July 2023, and its future is uncertain. It was named after Samuel Fox, born in Bradwell in 1815, who invented the Paragon steel umbrella frame and went on to found the Stocksbridge steelworks.

The Bakehouse handles sandwiches and salads. There's a Co-op for the rest.

Ice Cream and Sacred History

The village ice cream, Bradwells Dairy, was made here for over a century. Grandma Hannah mixed her recipes "by hand in her front parlour" and sold them across the Peak, though production has now ceased.

The church is St Barnabas, Victorian, built from 1867 with a spire finished in 1891. Samuel Fox put £100 toward it. The village also kept a strong non-conformist streak — a Presbyterian chapel from 1754, now the scout HQ, a Baptist one from 1790, a Methodist one from 1807.

Lead Mining and Bagshawe Cavern

Bradwell was a lead-mining village, worked since Roman times. The fort of Navio stood nearby to control the trade, and the Batham Gate Roman road still runs through. Miners wore the "Bradder Beaver," a hard hat shaped like a military helmet with a candle fixed on top, said to be a prototype of the tin hat. The village had six hat makers producing them.

In 1807, miners in Mulespinner Mine dug straight into Bagshawe Cavern, a set of chambers still not fully explored. You can visit by appointment.

Arriving and Village Traditions

Hope station, on the Sheffield–Manchester line, is a short drive, and buses stop four times in the village — at Batham Gate, the Memorial Hall, Town Gate and the Church.

Each August there is a carnival, and Bradwell still dresses its wells, which is the Derbyshire way of decorating a spring with a picture made of flower petals.