Tideswell

If you have never been to, or even heard of Tideswell before then please stick around, I’ll give you an overview that you won’t find anywhere else on the web.

Tideswell is a large village in the part of the Derbyshire Dales known as the White Peak.  The village is quite large but doesn’t appear oversized when driving through.

Tidza Sawyeds

Local people across the Peak District know Tideswell as ‘Tidza’ also occasionally Tidsa’. Local people are affectionately known by the inhabitants of other villages as “Saw Yeds”, due to a local legend about a farmer who is said to have come across one of his cow’s with its head stuck in the bars of a gate.  Instead of cutting the bars to free the beast, he sawd the cow’s head off.

You might be tempted to think, having heard such a tale, that Tideswell people are as thick as two short planks, but if you look a little deeper, you might be able to find a more rational explanation.

Perhaps the cow was old, and the gate brand new?   Any Tidza person knows that a Tidza Farmer is keen with his cash, so he ‘appen thought the gate was worth more money than an old cow, that had given her last drops of milk.

So perhaps he had its head off and made the daft beast into burgers and sold them at Tidza Wakes?  Thus making a pretty penny and saving himself the labour of fixing the gate. Could almost be sensible, if a bit gruesome.

Cathedral of the Peak

Tideswell is home to the largest Church in the Peak District. Whilst the average travel and tourism guidebook will marvel on the splendour of the church, I ask you to question, as many who live in the village do “Why such a big church, in such a small place”? Yes, Tideswell, was in the King’s Larder, and yes, the Church was financed from Wool owned by the Diocese of Lichfield.  There is some talk, that the Church holds a secret crypt of someone important. Yet, there is no proof of such a crypt.

I do love a good conspiracy theory, and Tideswell has more than one.

Hidden Tunnels under Tideswell

I have always heard talk about hidden tunnels under Tideswell, it’s just something you hear as a kid growing up. No one ever produces any concrete proof though. Last year (2012) I into the subject. I did a little digging made a series of posts about the subject of a number of Tunnels under the village.

A lot has been written about Tideswell, but I can assure you that there is much more to be written.