Chinley, Buxworth and Brownside is a civil parish within the High Peak district, which is in the county of Derbyshire, England. Partially rural with several villages contained within, its population was 2,796 residents in the 2011 census. The parish is north west of London, north west of the county city of Derby, and north of the nearest market town of Chapel-en-le-Frith. Being on the edge of the county border, it shares a boundary with the parishes of Chapel-en-le-Frith, Edale, Hayfield, New Mills and Whaley Bridge. A substantial portion of the parish is within the Peak District national park.
Geography
Location
Placement and size
Chinley, Buxworth and Brownside parish is surrounded by the following local Derbyshire places:
Hayfield and New Mills to the north
Chapel-en-le-Frith and Whitehough to the south
Barber Booth and Edale to the east
Furness Vale and Whaley Bridge to the west.
It is in area, in length and in width, within the western portion of the High Peak district, and is to the north of the county. The parish is roughly bounded by land features such as the Kinder Scout nature reserve to the north and east, the Chinley-Edale rail link and the A6 road to the south, and the River Goyt to the west.
Settlements
There are areas of built environment mainly to the south of the parish, outside of this being essentially rural with dispersed settlements and farms throughout. The main locales are:
Chinley
Buxworth
Chinley
This is to the south of the parish, hemmed in between the Black Brook to the south and hillside in the north. It is the primary location of the parish, taking up prominence in the title as it is the largest urban area. Chinley maintains core local services such as food stores and hospitality, other retail, schools, railway station and churches.
Buxworth
Lying to the west of Chinley, it is a more scattered, less dense area, with the Black Brook and A6 road cutting through the settlement. Public functions here include school, public house, churches and canal marina.
Other places
Community areas, villages and hamlets within the parish include:
Bridgeholm Green, east of Chinley
Brierley Green, east of Buxworth, north of the railway line
Chapel Milton, to the south east
Chinley Head, in the far north
Leaden Knowl, west of Chinley
New Smithy, north of Chapel Milton
Breckend/Wash, east of Chapel Milton and New Smithy (this crosses the boundary into Chapel-en-le-Frith parish)
Routes
The key road is the A6 from Derby to Manchester, which bypasses many of the parish populations centres and is to the south of Buxworth. The A624 from Chapel-en-le-Frith to Glossop passes through Chapel Milton, New Smithy and Chinley Head. The B6062 spurs off this at New Smithy into Chinley, through Buxworth, and connects to the A6 close to Whaley Bridge and Furness Vale.
Environment
Landscape
The Black Brook in the south forms a flat valley in which much of the populated areas exist. Outside these, it is primarily farming and pasture land throughout the parish, with patches of forested areas, mainly along the A6 corridor to the south west and at Chinley Head to the north. The parish is hilly bar the areas around the core settlements which are in the river valley. It contains some raised areas and slopes primarily around the national park region in the north and east. The location encompasses a number of Dark Peak characteristics, such as gritstone upland, pastures and moorland ridges and hills.
Geology
Throughout much of the western areas of the parish and river basins are superficial deposits of the Till, Devensian - Diamicton range. These deposits formed between 116 and 11.8 thousand years ago, dating from the Quaternary period. The bedrock of the parish consists of mudstones, siltstones and sandstones of various types such as Milnrow, Chatsworth, Roaches and Kinderscout grits, most formed between 329 and 319 million years ago during the Carboniferous period. There are superficial deposits of coal west of Chinley and peat in the upland area towards Brown Knoll, formed between 2.588 million years ago and the present during the Quaternary period. In the vicinity of South Head to the north of the parish are several shake holes.