The Peak District is a vital place with landscapes of great beauty from wild moorlands to walled fields around picturesque villages. There are few places in the world where such a rich history is visible in one relatively small but varied landscape. This book introduces a wealth of archaeological sites and landscapes. It explores patterns of settlement, with contrasting zones where villages dominate and others where scattered farmsteads are the norm. These settlements are found in radically different farming landscapes, some with medieval origins, others coming later when extensive upland commons were enclosed. Industrial sites and landscapes are examined, including those for quarrying for stone and mining for lead and coal. People have always travelled through the Peak, with many old routeways now abandoned but still visible. Water has been vital and it was carefully managed. The landscape has many surviving prehistoric sites. There are also Roman and medieval remains built by church and state. Similarly, there are polite landscapes created by the wealthy contrasting with conflict landscapes where men trained for war, while others defended their homeland. The book concludes with description of the ways individual communities have long cross-cut local differences in landscape character, each using a wide variety of different resources.

Underground mine and quarry workings are to be found in all counties in England. This little-seen and often exciting world has workings that are different from each other in terms of what was extracted and how this was achieved. The archaeological evidence allows us to interpret what was being done and when this took place. Some places have impressive workings and these have such things as engine chambers, arched levels, deep shafts, underground canals, drainage soughs, and discarded equipment. This book presents a detailed introduction to the underground mining and quarrying heritage in England. It reviews the many types of mineral and stone taken from the ground over several millennia and also looks at the wide range of archaeological remains that survive today and are accessible to those who venture underground. It is designed to illustrate the many and varied wonders to be found underground and give the reader ways forward should they wish to follow up their interest in particular types of extraction or what is present in their region.

Gardom's Edge is an area of gritstone upland situated on the Eastern Moors of the Derbyshire Peak District. Like other parts of the Eastern Moors, Gardom's Edge has long been renowned for the wealth of prehistoric field systems, cairns and other structures which can still be traced across the surface. Drawing on the results of original survey and excavation, An Upland Biography documents prehistoric activity across this area, exploring the changing character of occupation from the Mesolithic to the Iron Age. It also tacks back and forth between local detail and regional patterns, to better understand the broader social worlds in which Gardom's Edge was set.