Stoney Middleton

Nestling in the cleft of Middleton Dale, the old cottages of Stoney Middleton cling to foundations embedded deep in stone. The village has an octagonal toll cottage converted into a chip shop, and an octagonal church with an octagonal font. Tradition has it that Roman legionaries bathed in the local sulphurous springs, and the waters still flow through a well preserved bath-house near the church. High on the limestone gorge in the Dale is Lover’s Leap Rock, from which in 1762 a jilted maid took off her bonnet and jumped. But her voluminous skirts billowed out and slowed her fall. She landed with just a few scratches - the Peak’s first parachutist!