17 April: The Peak District

On this date in 1951 The Peak District became Britain's first designated National Park. Here are 10 things you might not know about the Peak District.

1. The name “Peak District” probably brings to mind mountains, but it doesn't actually have any. It has rounded hills, plateaus, valleys, limestone gorges and gritstone escarpments known as the "edges". The name is thought to come from the Pecsaetan, an Anglo-Saxon tribe who once lived the area. The highest point is Kinder Scout, at 636 metres (2086 ft).
2. The area of the national park is 555 sq miles (1,438 sq km) and it reaches into five counties: Derbyshire, Cheshire, Staffordshire, Yorkshire and Greater Manchester. It has 1,600 miles of public rights of way (footpaths, bridleways and tracks).
3. The park has 13.25 million visitors every year. The oft repeated “fact” that it is the second-most visited national park in the world after Mount Fuji, however, is not true.
4. Within its boundaries the park has 1,800 farms, 70 quarries, both active and disused (more than there are in all the other UK national parks put together) and 2,900 listed buildings including Chatsworth, Haddon Hall, Peveril Castle (Norman), centuries-old farm-buildings, cottages, Bakewell’s medieval bridge and 34 miles of disused railway tracks.
5. It has the tallest cave shaft in the UK, discovered by local cavers in January 1999. It's located in Castleton, and is 141.5 metres (464 ft) tall. To put it in perspective, that's taller than the London Eye.
6. The southern starting point of the Pennine Way is here. The Pennine Way is Britain’s oldest long-distance national walking trail. It is 268 miles beginning at the Nag’s Head pub in Edale, finishing at the Border Hotel, Kirk Yetholm, Scotland.
7. It's also the home of the Bakewell pudding, a confection with a flaky pastry base and a moist almond and jam filling. Legend has it that it was invented by mistake, by an 18^th century kitchen maid.
8. While surrounded by cities like Manchester, Sheffield, Derby and Nottingham, the park itself is largely rural. 38,000 people live in it, in villages such as Castleton, Eyam, Hathersage (reputed grave-site of Robin Hood’s friend Little John), Tideswell, Ilam, Ashford-in-the-Water, Tissington and Great Hucklow.
9. About 20 million people live within an hour's journey of the park and 50 million within four hours journey.
10. The area has inspired many writers including Jane Austen, Sir Walter Scott, William Wordsworth, Beatrix Potter, Arthur Conan Doyle and Charlotte Bronte. It has been a filming location for adaptations of Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre, films such as Elizabeth, The Princess Bride and The Other Boleyn Girl, and the TV series, Peak Practice.

New!

Closing the Circle

A stable wormhole has been established between Earth and Infinitus. Power Blaster and his friends can finally go home.

Desi Troyes is still at large on Earth - Power Blaster has vowed to bring him to justice. His wedding to Shanna is under threat as the Desperadoes launch an attempt to rescue their leader. 

Someone from Power Blaster's past plays an unexpected and significant role in capturing Troyes.

The return home brings its own challenges. Not everyone can return to the life they left behind, and for some, there is unfinished business to be dealt with before they can start anew.

Ben Cole in particular cannot resume his old life as a surgeon because technology no longer works around him. He plans a new life in Classica, away from technology. Shanna hears there could be a way to reverse his condition and sets out to find it, putting herself in great danger. She doesn't know she is about to uncover the secret of Power Blaster's mysterious past.

Available from:

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Completes The Raiders Trilogy. 

Other books in the series:

Book One

Book Two