Tideswell

Tideswell is a village and civil parish in the Peak District of Derbyshire, in England. It lies 6 mi east of Buxton on the B6049, in a wide dry valley on a limestone plateau, at an altitude of 1000 ft above sea level, and is within the District of Derbyshire Dales. The population was 1,820 in 2001, making it the second-largest settlement within the National Park, after Bakewell.

Name
There is some debate as to how the village got its name. The English Place Name Society accept it as being named after a Saxon chieftain named Tidi, others that the name comes from a "tiding well" situated in the north of the village.

Tideswell is known locally as Tidza or Tidsa. In addition, local residents are known as Sawyeds, owing to a traditional story about a farmer freeing his prize cow from a gate it had become entangled in by sawing its head off. Today the story is re-enacted raucously and colourfully every Wakes week by a local mummers group called the Tidza Guisers.

History and heritage
In the Middle Ages, Tideswell was a market town known for lead mining. The Tideswell lead miners were renowned for their strength and were much prized by the military authorities.

Tideswell is now best known for its 14th-century parish church, the Church of St John the Baptist, known as the "Cathedral of the Peak", which contains three 15th-century misericords. A sundial lies in the churchyard; it is positioned on steps which local historian Neville T. Sharpe thinks likely to be those of the village's market cross. A market and two-day fair were granted to the village in 1251.

The town has a week-long festival near the summer solstice known as the Wakes, culminating in "Big Saturday", which includes a torchlight procession through the streets, led by a brass band playing a unique tune called the Tideswell Processional, and townsfolk dancing a traditional weaving dance.

Taste Tideswell
In May 2009, Tideswell won a £400,000 grant from the Big Lottery Fund's Village SOS programme. In a bid to help keep its village shops open and thriving—the village had lost over 20 shops in the preceding decade—Taste Tideswell was created. The venture aims to reconnect local people with their food and make Tideswell famous as a food destination. On 6 December 2010 the Tideswell School of Food opened, running full-priced cookery and brewing courses as well as subsidised community courses. The School of Food is intended to be the financial engine for the project and will help to develop work in the community.

Tideswell Made is a quality mark that local food producers, retailers, public houses and holiday accommodation can buy into. Ensuring products are sourced as locally as possible and made locally, Tideswell Made is marketed by Taste Tideswell and helps local business get wider recognition for their locally made produce. Taste Tideswell has a popular education service, visiting schools with a variety of food and growing related activities. School groups also visit the School of Food for practical hands-on activities.

Behind the Parish Church, a small community garden has been developed to provide a training ground for those wanting to learn more about growing. There is also a small commercial kitchen available for hire by local food producers, particularly those who are looking to make the step up from home-based production. A small nano-brewery offers a course in beer-brewing. In May 2011, the first Tideswell Food Festival was held, attracting over 2,000 people, despite poor weather.

On 7 September 2011, as part of the Village SOS series on BBC One, the Taste Tideswell story was broadcast. Filmed over two years by Jane Beckwith and Mandy Wragg, and presented by Sarah Beeny, it showed the rapid development of the project, along with the individual story of Tim Nicol, the 'Village Champion' who moved to live in Tideswell for a year and helped the volunteer directors get Taste Tideswell off the ground. As of August 2011, Taste Tideswell employed eight members of staff, most of whom lived in the village, and had ten visiting chef/tutors on its books.

Facilities and activities
Tideswell Sports Complex was built in 2001 following a £1.2 million Sports Lottery grant and substantial fund-raising in the village. There are two football pitches, a floodlit multi-use area with two tennis courts and five-a-side pitches marked out, a cricket ground, crown-green bowling area, a skate-park and two pavilions. The town has a football team, Tideswell United, and they play in the Hope Valley League 'A' Division. They also run a reserve side competing in the Hope Valley League B Division as Tideswell United Blue Star. The ground has floodlights for midweek games, one of few sides at such a low level to use them. The bowling club competes in local leagues, the cricket and tennis clubs compete in local friendly matches.

The village has a long theatrical tradition, Tideswell Theatre having been formed over 200 years ago to perform leading plays of the time. It was revived in 2002 to bring professional-quality theatre, music, dance and comedy to the area. Tideswell Community Players are one of the oldest drama groups in the country, formed in 1929. Until the 1960s the village also had its own cinema, The Picturehouse. Tideswell Cinema was revived in 2005 to bring film once more to the community, with screenings for three seasons at Bishop Pursglove School's hall, before relocating in 2008 to the upper storey of The George Hotel. A number of musical ensembles are also active in the village - notably Tideswell Male Voice Choir and The Tideswell Singers.

Notable people

 * Blessed Christopher Buxton, Catholic martyr, studied at Tideswell Grammar school under Nicholos Garlick
 * Ric Lee, drummer of the blues/rock band Ten Years After, resides in Tideswell and participated in the male voice choir
 * Rev. J. M. J. Fletcher (Vicar of Tideswell), historian
 * Blessed Nicholas Garlick, Catholic priest and martyr, was a schoolmaster here in the 16th century
 * Judy Leden, stunt flyer and three times world hang-gliding champion
 * William Newton, poet and philanthropist, was buried here
 * Samuel Slack, notable bass singer born 1757 of local fame, reputedly sang before King George III
 * Michael Bradbury, father of TV presenter Julia Bradbury, was born in Tideswell
 * A monument in the south transept of Tideswell parish church is doubtfully identified as that of Sir Thurstan de Bower
 * Edwina Currie accepted the post of President of the Tideswell Male Voice Choir in November 2011.