A Tour of the Peak: Leisure, Culture and Tourism in Derbyshire, c.1700-1850

Drawing upon a wide range of historical research upon leisure, culture, domestic travel and urban history, the thesis investigates the influence of wider trends in leisure, culture and tourism in the development of Derbyshire and the resorts of Buxton and Matlock Bath as tourist destinations during the period 1700 to 1850. Contemporary travel literature and personal accounts of journeys are utilised to explore the dynamic and culturally diverse activity of tourism. The case study of Derbyshire and the resorts towns of Buxton, Matlock Bath, Bakewell and the village of Castleton suggests that a multiplicity of factors outside the understood characteristics of spa development – health and commercialised urban leisure – affected their growth and that a greater role for relationship between culture and the unique portfolio of the tourist attractions of the Peak must be taken into account. Leisure and luxury retailing hierarchies are utilised for the purpose of comparative analysis between the towns and models of urban competition and co-operation provide the basis for the examination of the tourist centres intra-urban relationship. It is argued that the relative success and failure of Buxton, Matlock Bath, Bakewell and the village of Castleton as tourist destinations is explicable through a combination of health and commercialised leisure, the wider tourist itinerary of the Peak, the creation of niche identities and the nature of their interdependent relationship.