The village lies in a hollow, high above fine woodland slopes rising from the lovely valley of the Derwent. With a glorious hill all aglow in rhododendron time, and flowers abounding everywhere, it has views as fair as eye could wish to see in a landscape full of story.
From the surrounding uplands, we see Crich's lighthouse monument, the woods of Lea Hurst, home of Florence Nightingale, and the limestone ravine through which the Derwent flows past Matlock Bath. Less than two miles away to the south-west rises Alport Height, the loftiest ground in the south of the county, over 1,000 feet high and commanding a magnificent prospect. Here the upstanding monolith called the Alport Stone challenges climbers.
The great 18th century house of Alderwasley Hall (now a Roman Catholic School) has been the home of the Lowes and the Hurts. It was Thomas Lowe who built the old church when Henry VIII was king, and Francis Hurt who built the new one in the middle of the last century. A simple building, the Tudor church has a doorway carved in somewhat crazy fashion under a hood-mould with stone heads. Francis Hurt's church of 1850 is just within the gates of the beautiful park. A splendid cedar throws its shadow on the walls,while just below a sparkling stream runs with little waterfalls and clear pools.
