Peak District National Park

We are housesitting in Thurcroft, east of Sheffield. Today we drove to the Peak District National Park, to take a peek! Wish we would have had more time there as it is very pretty. Scenes from Pride and Prejudice were filmed there.

The village of Castleton is named for the 11th century Norman castle on the hill above the town. The town has lots of rock buildings and rock walls, a brook, (called a" beck" in the UK) and a museum.

In the museum the story of 18th and 19th century lead mining history was explained. The area now has several caves to tour, including two that produce Blue John stone, a semi-precious stone found nowhere else on earth! The name Blue John is thought to originate from the French words, bleu et jaune meaning blue and yellow.

The park also has some reservoirs, which were built in the early 1900s to supply water for the industrial areas of Sheffield, Manchester, and Derby.Read more