Hope (Derbyshire)
	OS Grid Ref: SK 17255 83445 53º20’51.38”N 001º44’32.20”W

The Hope Valley is one of the most picturesque parts of the northern Peak District, and is understandably popular with tourists, who flock in high season to Castleton to visit the Blue John mines and Edale for the walking. Hope, just over a mile east of Castleton, often seems to be overlooked, just passed through on the way to one of the other more popular destinations, yet in the Middle Ages, Hope was definitely the major settlement in the area.

St. Peter's Church was the mother church for a large parish. The landscape is very hilly - not for nothing being called the High Peak - and in those days, people from some of the outlying districts would have found it quite a difficult journey to get to their parish church. (At Chapel-en-le-Frith, for example, the natives solved this problem during the 1220's by building themselves a completely new church, but not everyone could afford to do that.)

St. Peter's Church is surrounded by a substantial graveyard, 
and carefully-manicured trees line the path that leads from the gate to the south porch,
outside which stands a Saxon cross shaft. October 2000.

The mediaeval building of St. Peter's church is festooned with gargoyles and many elaborate finials and other decorative carvings - clearly the masons who worked on it enjoyed expressing themselves in the stonework. A similar amount of care seems to be given these days to the grounds in which the church is set. A Saxon cross shaft stands just to the east of the south porch, reassembled on a modern base.

West	North	East	South
This cross shaft has suffered damage in several places, having been broken in pieces and lost its head, as well as the north-east and south-west corners, but for all that, the carving is still reasonably well-preserved. The carving is inventive on all four faces, being plainest on the south face, which is made up of plaits and knots. The west face has in addition a panel containing two figures - see below, as does the east face, though here again there is an extra feature in that the carving on the lower part of this face represents foliage, possibly of a vine, with alternate leaves springing from the left and right sides of the design. The north face has an extensive plait design, which is surmounted by a panel containing a number of snakes, two of which appear to be fighting with each other - see below. This cross has similar patterning on it to one at Bakewell. (October 2000 and January 2001)

	In the close-up (left) of the top of the west face of the shaft, two of the fighting serpents have been highlighted in red and blue (in my photograph, not in reality - though of course many of these crosses were originally painted!) to make them easier to identify. The head of a third is visible below the red one, whilst the tail of a fourth is visible above the blue one. This adds to the interest of this cross. Although overall, it is an Anglian-style cross, these serpents might suggest a certain amount of Danish influence. (October 2000)
	There are, on the east and west faces of the cross shaft, panels each containing a pair of figures. The close up on the right is from the west face of the cross, and appears to show the figures embracing - though the feet of the right hand figure are problematic for this interpretation. The panel on the east face has the figures standing either side of a tree. (October 2000)

A second ancient cross shaft stands in St. Peter's churchyard.  This is the "Eccles Cross", which is located just outside the north door of the church. As can be seen in the photograph (right), this cross shaft is much less spectacular than the one described above, being both rather shorter and much more worn. (January 2001) To complete the collection of assorted cross-shafts, there is another stepped cross-base on the south side of the church (not pictured on this page), which is surmounted by a much more recent shaft. This last one is a plain cylinder, which has in the past supported a sundial.

The A 625 road makes a very clear deviation round St. Peter's Church in the centre of Hope Village.
There is room for a couple of cars to park outside the gate at the east end of the church grounds,
but you may need to make other arrangements in the summer, because of the influx of tourists.

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