Harpur Hill

Harpur Hill
St.James church at the junction in Harpur Hill.
Harpur Hill
Harpur Hill shown within Derbyshire
OS grid reference	SK065711
District	High Peak
Shire county	Derbyshire
Region	East Midlands
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	BUXTON
Postcode district	SK17
Police	Derbyshire
Fire	Derbyshire
Ambulance	East Midlands
EU Parliament	East Midlands

Harpur Hill is a small village on the outskirts of Buxton, Derbyshire. It is in the Cote Heath ward of the High Peak District council. It has a primary school, a park, a pub, a working men's club and a Methodist church. It also has 3 football pitches which are homes to Harpur Club & Harpur Hill FC. Buxton Rugby Union Club also have their HQ at Harpur Hill. They can be found on Sunnyfields Road. The tops of Buxton Rugby Club's goal posts are the highest in the country.

In 1938 the RAF used Harpur Hill as an underground munitions store. Tunnels were dug out to house munitions and ordnance. When the RAF left the tunnels were used as a mushroom farm. When the tunnels closed they were sold to a group of local businessmen, trading as Stowtime, and used as a cold store for cheese; a warehouse was built for dry and bonded wines and spirits. A number of local hauliers provided the transport for these goods, the most notable being Lomas Distribution. The business was bought out by Christian Salvesen and was a major employer in the area; it later sold the site to French transport company Norbert Dentressangle. Many of the bunkers can still be seen in the surrounding hillside.

The Health and Safety Executive's laboratory is also situated not far from Harpur Hill. A railway has been constructed with old Jubilee Line, London Underground trains that were used to reconstruct the 7/7 London Tube bombings. When the red flag is flying at the laboratory, an explosion is imminent.

Also nearby is Far Hill Quarry, now flooded, where swimming has been popular but is discouraged by the authorities as unsafe.^[1]

References

• Gibson, Gary. Peak Sport Climbs from Horseshoe to Harpur Hill: mid-grade sport climbing in the Buxton and Matlock area, British Mountaneering Council (2004). ISBN 9780903908726

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