Forest Wall, Old Boundary of the Royal Forest of the Peak, Edale

Summary

A dry-stone limestone wall running along the ridge between Castleton Dale and Edale. It follows the line of the boundary associated with the Royal Forest of the Peak. Reputedly a wall was built in 1579 so as to protect the last remnants of the Forest. A section of this former wall runs through the Scheduled Monument of Mam Tor and can be seen as a single line stones between the two barrows (NTSMR 60455 & 60454)

Identification Images (1)

Monument Types

Description

[1] On the ridge between Castleton Dale and Edale is the "Forest Wall" marked on a plan dating from the reign of Charles I (1629 - 1640). This was the stone wall enclosing most of the Champana or Champagne (corrupted into Champion) district of Peak Forest. It was a comparatively low wall with a dyke. It can be seen to be superior to other and later wall fences, particularly near Back Tor SK 145 849 where "Ludgate" is marked on the old plan. Hollins Cross SK 136 845 is marked "Losehill Gate", [](Cox,J.C 1905, p.793).

The plan referred to be Cox could not be identified at the public record office, but two plans of Charles I's time show "the foss of the wall" and "the Forest Wall" from SK 1254 8250 TO SK 1301 8000. The O.S records a generally substantial wall survival along the whole of the indicated line, but there is no evidence of a continuous ditch, and the whole feature gives no indication of antiquity.

The NT survey team in 1986 records that the present wall along the ridge between Castleton Dale and Edale follows the line of the old Peak Forest boundary. It is severely robbed where it crossed the interior of Mam Tor hillfort and is within the area of the Scheduled Monument. The wall is an important visible reminder of the historic boundary of the Royal Forest (royal hunting ground) as it marks the division between two of the Royal Forest's areas (Hopedale and Campana) as well as later parishes and farms on either side of the ridge. Stone has been removed from the wall in the past for restoration work and is still being removed by visitors, who reuse the stone to construct cairns along the length of the wall.

[2] The site was visited in June 1992 by archaeologists from Cirencester, the wall was noted as being in a bad condition as the result of robbing by the public to build cairns, with the high of the wall ranging from ground level to 0.5m in places.

The line of the wall should be preserved as a visual reminder of this important boundary along the watershed, which was an administrative division of the Royal Forest - Peak Forest, from Medieval times and is still the parish boundary. It has also long marked the division between farms on each side of Mam Tor.

[3] The wall was recorded by Bill Bevan (PDNP) in 1997 as part of his survey of Oxlow Meadows. He notes the feature as a wall forming the western boundary to the Oxlow Meadows land parcel. It is a dry-stone limestone wall little different in appearance to surrounding field walls except it is slightly more substantial. The other walls of the parcel all abut and are therefore later than this wall to suggest that it has replaced an earlier boundary form. It follows the line of the boundary associated with the Royal Forest of the Peak. Reputedly a wall was built in 1579 so as to protect the last remnants of the Forest (Anderson and Shimwell, 1981). When the Forest had been granted to William Peveril in 1069 the eastern boundary had been the River Derwent (Kerry, 1893). Encroachment into the Forest over the subsquent centuries is recorded (Cox, 1905b) and perhaps it was as a result of this that in the late 16th century it was decided to create a boundary to define the new limits of the Forest. It is depicted as the 'Forest Wall' in an early 17th century plan of the commons of Castleton (anon, 1639). It is possible that this line had previously been the boundary of the Champion land, one of the three regions into which the Forest was sub-divided. It has subsquently become the boundary of the parish of Peak Forest.

[4] The parish boundary here is marked by a typical post-medieval drystone wall. 17th century maps have data related to the bounds of the Peak Forest, indicating a boundary 'wall' along the ridgetop between Mam Tor and Lose Hill, and a further stretch following the Peak Forest/Castleton parish boundary from Oxlow House southwards. However, the intervening stretch, at site 60, is less certainly a boundary of the same antiquity.

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