Coordinates: 53°12′47″N 1°40′41″W / 53.213°N 1.678°W / 53.213; -1.678

Bakewell
Bakewell All Saints' parish church as viewed from the south
Bakewell  Bakewell shown within Derbyshire
Population	3,979 (Parish)
OS grid reference	SK2168
Civil parish	Bakewell
District	Derbyshire Dales
Shire county	Derbyshire
Region	East Midlands
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	BAKEWELL
Postcode district	DE45
Dialling code	01629
Police	Derbyshire
Fire	Derbyshire
Ambulance	East Midlands
EU Parliament	East Midlands
UK Parliament	Derbyshire Dales
List of places: UK • England • Derbyshire

Bakewell is a small market town in the Derbyshire Dales district of Derbyshire, England, deriving its name from 'Beadeca's Well'.^[1] It is the only town included in the Peak District National Park, and is well known for the local confection Bakewell Pudding (often mistaken for the Bakewell Tart). It is located on the River Wye, about thirteen miles (21 km) southwest of Sheffield, 31 miles (50 km) southeast of Manchester, and 30 miles (48 km) north of the county town of Derby; nearby towns include Chesterfield to the east and Buxton to the west northwest. According to the 2001 Census the civil parish of Bakewell had a population of 3,979. The town is close to the tourist attractions of Chatsworth House and Haddon Hall.

History[link]

Although there is evidence of earlier settlements in the area, Bakewell itself was probably founded in Anglo Saxon times, when Bakewell was in the Anglian kingdom of Mercia. Bakewell Parish Church, a Grade I listed building, was founded in 920 and has a 9th century cross in the churchyard. The present church was constructed in the 12th and 13th centuries but was virtually rebuilt in the 1840s by William Flockton.^[2] By Norman times Bakewell had gained some importance—the town, and its church (having two priests) being mentioned in the Domesday Book.

A market was established in 1254, and Bakewell developed as a trading centre. The Grade I listed five-arched bridge over the River Wye at Bakewell was constructed in the 13th century, and is one of the few surviving remnants of this earlier period.^[3] A chalybeate spring was discovered, and a bath house built in 1697. This led to an 18th century bid to develop Bakewell as a spa town, in the manner of Buxton. The construction of the Lumford Mill by Richard Arkwright in 1777 was followed by the rebuilding of much of the town in the 19th century.

Geography[link]

Villages near Bakewell include Ashford-in-the-Water, Elton, Great Longstone, Monyash, Over Haddon, Sheldon, Rowsley, Pilsley, Youlgreave & Baslow.

Economy[link]

Bakewell attracts many domestic and international tourists. Monday is a particularly popular day for visitors as this is the day that the traditional market is held in the town. The cattle market is housed in a new purpose built agricultural centre, across the river from the main part of the town. A medium sized stall market is held in the town centre. There is a picturesque public park, alongside the River Wye, which has its source in nearby Buxton (illus. below). For a town of its size, it has a very large town centre. This is mainly because of the touristic nature of the town.

A major employer within the town is the Peak District National Park Authority, based at Aldern House on the Baslow Road. The National Park Authority is tasked with conserving and enhancing, as well as promoting understanding and enjoyment, of the local area.^[4] Opposite Aldern House is another major employer, Newholme Hospital, an NHS cottage hospital providing outpatient clinic services to the local community.

Landmarks[link]

Bakewell Cross, in the churchyard of Bakewell Parish Church

All Saints Church is a Grade I listed church founded in 920, during Saxon times and the churchyard has two 9th century Saxon crosses. During restoration work, in the 1840s, many carved fragments of Saxon stonework were found in and around the porch, as well as some ancient stone coffins.

One cross is the Beeley Cross, dug up in a field at a disputed location near Beeley and moved for some years to the grounds of Holt House near Darley Bridge. Although only the base and lower part of the shaft survive, it stands over five feet high and is carved on all four faces.^[5]

The other cross is the Bakewell Cross, eight feet high and almost complete. It was carved in the seventh or eighth century and shows a number of scenes including one of the Annunciation. This cross may originally have stood at Hassop Cross Roads, although there is no firm evidence as to this.^[5]

The church contains a selection of cross fragments and carved stones collected by Thomas Bateman and donated to Weston Park Museum in Sheffield before being moved to Bakewell in 1899.^[5]

Transport[link]

Railway[link]

In 1862, the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway opened Bakewell railway station. The line became part of the Midland Railway and later the LMS main line from London to Manchester. John Ruskin objected to what he saw as the desecration of the Derbyshire countryside, all so that "a Buxton fool may be able to find himself in Bakewell in twelve minutes, and vice versa." In return for the Duke of Rutland's permission for the line to pass through his estate at Haddon Hall, the Bakewell station buildings, located on the hillside overlooking the town, are more imposing than a small town might be thought to justify, and the Duke's coat of arms are carved into the stonework. Such pandering to the nobility and landowners, was typical of the time, since their support would be necessary to obtain the Act of Parliament, even though the inconvenient high contour of the railway, which forced the station to be placed out of town, was due to the Duke insisting that the line ran out of sight of Haddon Hall. The station buildings are now used for small businesses, because the line between Matlock and Buxton closed in 1968: most of the trackway has now been designated the Monsal Trail, a quiet motor-traffic-free track for walking, cycling, and horseriding.

"Normal" trains now run from Derby via Ambergate only as far as Matlock, and from Manchester only as far as Buxton. There have been repeated proposals for fully reopening the remaining, Wye Valley, portion of the line, which would run through Bakewell and over the magnificent Monsal Dale viaduct.

Peak Rail, a local preserved railway venture, has shown the way by reopening the line from Matlock to Rowsley, a village that is a few miles to the east of Bakewell near Haddon Hall. Reaching Bakewell is just one of Peak Rail's long-term ambitions, and in order to keep alive the intention for a future return of the railway (under one auspice or another), Derbyshire County Council is currently protecting the trackbed from development, (in order of seeing the old railway station fully restored and return to its former glory and use, as it still remains completely intact).

Bakewell pudding[link]

A Bakewell pudding

Three shops claiming to own the original recipe of the Bakewell pudding

Bakewell pudding is a jam pastry with an egg and ground almond enriched filling. Not to be confused with Bakewell tart which is a completely different confection, made with shortcrust pastry, an almond topping and a sponge and jam filling; Mr Kipling also made Cherry Bakewells, often known as Bakewell tarts too. The origins of the pudding are not clear, however the generally accepted story is that it was first made by accident in 1820 when the landlady of the White Horse Inn (now called the Rutland Arms) left instructions for her cook to make a jam tart with an egg and almond paste pastry base. The cook, instead of stirring the eggs and almond paste mixture into the pastry, spread it on top of the jam.^[6] When cooked the jam rose through the paste. The result was successful enough for it to become a popular dish at the Inn, and commercial variations, usually with icing sugar on top, have spread the name.^[7]

Three shops in Bakewell offer, what they each claim is, the original recipe. The Bakewell Tart Shop & Coffee House sells four different variations of the confection, including: Bakewell Tart, Iced Bakewell Tart, Moist Bakewell Tart and Traditional Bakewell Pudding;^[8] whilst The Old Original Bakewell Pudding Shop and Bloomers of Bakewell both sell a Bakewell Pudding.^[9][10]

Events[link]

There are a number of annual events that take place in the town. The Peak District traditional "well dressing" takes place during June in which colourful images made of petals embedded into clay appear at several places throughout the town. The Bakewell Agricultural Show (the Little Royal) is one of the largest covered agricultural show in the UK, and attracts around 65,000 visitors.^[11] It takes place on the first Wednesday and Thursday in August at the Bakewell Showground. August also has the Bakewell Arts Festival — a music and theatre event that started in 1997. The Peak Literary Festival is held in the Spring and Autumn of each year. The Spring festival starts on the last Friday in May and the autumn on the last Friday in October. Carnival week, culminating in a procession through the town, is held at the beginning of July.^[12]

Recreation[link]

Bakewell has a large recreation park to the east of the town centre, which has tennis courts, children's playground, and football/cricket pitches. In the town itself, and located near to the library, is the municipal swimming pool and gym.

Sport[link]

Rugby union is played regularly in the town by Bakewell Mannerians RUFC who currently compete in Midlands 2 East (North).^[13]

The town is represented by two football teams Bakewell Red Lion FC and Bakewell Town FC both compete in the Hope Valley Football League.

Stephen Downing case[link]

Bakewell was the focus of attention during the Stephen Downing case, which was also known as the "Bakewell Tart" murder. The case involved the conviction and imprisonment in 1974 of a 17-year-old council worker, Stephen Downing, for the murder of a 32 year old legal secretary in Bakewell cemetery. Following a campaign by a local newspaper, his conviction was overturned in 2002, after Downing had served 27 years in prison. The case is thought to be the longest miscarriage of justice in British legal history,^[14][15][16] and attracted worldwide media attention.^[17]

On television[link]

• Bakewell features in the last episode of Most Haunted: Midsummer Murders. In the episode the team investigates a murder which took place in the 1800s on Christmas Eve. It was also crowned the scariest most haunted live episode ever, as the corpses of two unknown men buried in soil were found.
• In 2010 the Rutland Arms Hotel featured in an episode of "The Hotel Inspector".^[18]

Picture gallery[link]

• 

  River Wye park, with view of five-arch, 13th C. bridge

References[link]

Notes[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Town Without Pity, Don Hale, Century (4 April 2002), ISBN 0-7126-1530-X
• Bakewell: The Ancient Capital of the Peak, Trevor Brighton, Devon Books (Nov 2005), ISBN 1-84114-419-3
• Bakewell, Robert Innes-Smith, Derbyshire Countryside Ltd; 2r.e. edition (Jan 1994), ISBN 0-85100-114-9

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bakewell

• Bakewell.co.uk - Supporting the Bakewell community
• BakewellOnline.co.uk - Dedicated to Bakewell
• Peak District: Bakewell
• BakewellDerbyshire.com
• CressBrook Towns: Bakewell
• Bakewell Parish Church
•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bakewell". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
• History Of the Bakewell Pudding
• Events In Bakewell

Joan Dawson Bakewell, Baroness Bakewell, DBE (born 16 April 1933 in Stockport) is an English journalist, television presenter and Labour Party Peer.

Early life and education[link]

Born Joan Dawson Rowlands, in Stockport, Cheshire, she was educated at Stockport High School for Girls – a grammar school in local authority control, on the site of what is now Hillcrest Grammar School – where she was head girl, and at Newnham College, Cambridge, where she studied Economics, then History.^[1]

Career[link]

Television[link]

Joan Bakewell first became well known as one of the presenters of an early BBC Two programme, Late Night Line-Up (1965–72 and 2008). Frank Muir dubbed her "the thinking man's crumpet"^[2] during this period and the moniker stuck, although Bakewell herself dislikes the epithet.

Bakewell co-presented Reports Action, a Sunday teatime programme which encouraged the public to donate their services to various good causes, for Granada Television during 1976–78. Subsequently, she returned to the BBC, and co-presented a short-lived late night television arts programme; briefly worked on the BBC Radio 4 PM programme, and was Newsnight's arts correspondent (1986–88).

Later, Bakewell came to the fore as the main presenter of the documentary and discussion series Heart of the Matter,^[3] which ran from 1988 to 2000.

In 2001 Bakewell wrote and presented a four part series for the BBC called Taboo, a personal exploration of the concepts of taste, decency and censorship. The programme dealt frankly with sex and nudity and in some cases, pushed the boundaries of what is permissible on mainstream television.^[4] Bakewell used frank language and "four-letter words" to describe pornography and sex toys. She watched a couple having sex while they were filming a pornographic movie and read out an "obscene" extract from the novel Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller. Taboo was broadcast between 9.50pm and 10.30pm on BBC2.

Taboo was referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions by the National Viewers and Listeners Association (subsequently renamed Mediawatch). Following the complaint, Bakewell faced the nominal prospect of being charged with blasphemous libel after she recited part of an erotic poem by James Kirkup concerning a Roman centurion's affection for Jesus, "The Love that Dares to Speak its Name". After its first publication in 1976, Denis Lemon, the editor of Gay News, was given a nine-month suspended jail sentence and was told he had come close to serving it.^[5]

On 26 May 2008 Bakewell introduced an archive evening on BBC Parliament called Permissive Night. The programme examined the liberalising legislation passed by Parliament in the late 1960s. Topics covered included changes to divorce law, the death penalty, the legalisation of abortion, the Race Relations Bill, the partial decriminalisation of homosexual acts (using editions of the documentary series Man Alive) and the relaxation of censorship. Permissive Night concluded with a special one-off edition of Late Night Line-Up which discussed the themes raised in the programmes over the course of the evening.

In 2009 she won "Journalist of the Year" at the annual Stonewall Awards.

Print[link]

Bakewell's autobiography, The Centre of the Bed, was published in 2004.^[6] It concentrates on her experiences as a woman in the male-dominated media industries and touches on her affair with Harold Pinter, while he was still married to the actress Vivien Merchant and she was still married to Michael Bakewell. That affair was the basis for Pinter's 1978 play Betrayal, adapted in 1983 as a film.

Bakewell currently writes for the British newspaper The Independent in the 'Editorial and Opinion' section. Typically, her articles concern aspects of social life and culture but sometimes she writes more political articles, often focusing on aspects relevant to life in the United Kingdom. Formerly, from 2003, she wrote the "Just Seventy" column for The Guardian newspaper. In September 2008 she began a fortnightly column in the Times2 section of The Times. Her first novel was published in March 2009 by Virago Press. All the Nice Girls drew on her experiences in war-time Merseyside to tell the story of a school "adopting" a ship.

Honours and public roles[link]

She was appointed CBE in 1999 and was Chairman of the British Film Institute from 2000 to 2002. She was promoted Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours. In November 2008, Joan Bakewell was appointed a voice for older people by the UK Government. She is Chair of the renowned theatre company Shared Experience. It was announced in November 2010 that she would be awarded a life peerage, joining the Labour benches. She was formally introduced to the House of Lords on 25 January 2011 as Baroness Bakewell, of Stockport in the County of Greater Manchester,^[7] supported by fellow Labour peers, Lord Puttnam and Baroness Kennedy. On 20 July 2011, Bakewell was made an honorary graduate at the University of Essex and has an honorary doctorate from the University of Chester.

Views and advocacy[link]

In 2008, Bakewell criticised the absence of older women on British television. She said: "I think the fact that people are phased out, people like Moira Stuart and Selina [Scott] – out of the public eye – when they become a certain age is a real disadvantage to serious broadcasting. There's a whole segment of the British population that does not see its equivalent in serious broadcasting and that is women over 55. Now, that is not healthy for a broadcasting organisation's relationship with its audience. The public should be represented on the screen in various colours, forms, sexualities, whatever."^[8]

In 2010, Bakewell criticised the side effects of the sexual revolution of the 1960s. She said: "I never thought I would hear myself say as much, but I'm with Mrs Whitehouse on this one. The liberal mood back in the 60s was that sex was pleasurable and wholesome and shouldn't be seen as dirty and wicked. The Pill allowed women to make choices for themselves. Of course, that meant the risk of making the wrong choice. But we all hoped girls would grow to handle the new freedoms wisely. Then everything came to be about money: so now sex is about money, too. Why else sexualise the clothes of little girls, run TV channels of naked wives, have sex magazines edging out the serious stuff on newsagents' shelves? It's money that's corrupted us and women are being used and are even collaborating."^[9]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Joan Bakewell at the Internet Movie Database
• Lost voices, John Mullan, The Guardian, 1999-06-18
• Listen to an audio slideshow interview with Joan Bakewell talking about her first novel All the Nice Girls on The Interview Online.