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Standing at the height of over 800 feet, on a ridge of the Pennines which separates the headwaters of the Rother, Holmesfield looks far over Derbyshire to Hardwick Hall, the ruins of Bolsover Castle, and the crooked spire of Chesterfield, while to the north are the hills round Sheffield.
Holmesfield has commanding views over the surrounding countryside which includes Ramsley and Totely Moors, and the beautiful Cordwell Valley with its banks of rhododendrons. Numerous ancient earthworks are to be found on the high ground and Ramsley Moor is famous for the large number of Bronze Age cairns that still survive.
Where the road along the ridge begins to drop from Holmesfield into the Cordwell valley is a low weather-beaten house of about 1600 with many gables, some panelled rooms, mysterious recesses,fine carvings and beautifully moulded ceilings. This is Cartledge Hall, home of the Wolstenholmes.
One of their sons, Sir John, was a most energetic merchant adventurer, a founder of the Virginia Company. He helped to fit out the ill-fated expedition of Henry Hudson, and his name is preserved by Baffin in his map of the inhospitable region of Wolstenholme Island.
In this ancient hall lived Robert Murray Gilchrist, the Derbyshire novelist, who wrote and died in 1917 and was born in Sheffield in 1868. From boyhood he was a writer, and he wrote a dozen or more novels illustrating either modern types of character or 18th century romance and fashion.
He had a natural gift for friendship, and not a few writers of his day visited him at the old hall on the hilltop, and with him traversed the dales and moors of the Pennines Derbyshire fringe. He was a huge man, full of humour, who could rattle off anything on a piano and surprise the stranger with the sweetness of a tenor voice coming from his massive frame. He died suddenly in his prime and had a great funeral, including a contingent of Belgian refugees to whom he had been kind, and who had found their way to this remote upland village.
He was buried in Holmesfield churchyard, on the edge of the hill country he peopled with fancy. There is a memorial to him in the church.
Old Horsleygate Hall, where the original John Wolstenholme was living when he built Cartledge, seems to have been rebuilt as an L-shaped house in the 17th century, according to Pevsner, though the 16th century has been suggested by some. It retains its mullioned windows as do some of the outbuildings which seem to be contemporary with the house. The original Fanshawegate Hall was demolished in 1636 leaving only two pairs of fine 16th century gateposts, and a charming dovecote, but the smaller farmhouse that replaced it is a delightful house, evidently built of materials from its predecessor.
In fact some material from the old Fanshawegate Hall is said to have been used in the building of Woodthorpe Hall, another L-shaped apparently 17th century house, though it has seen many alterations over the years. Its roof is said to be made up of cut-down cruck trusses.
Holmesfield was held by the Deincourts from the conquest until the 15th century.
The Old Hall near the church, though now a farmhouse, is still adorned with a great shield of some of its owners. A mile below, in the Cordwell valley, is the hamlet of Millthorpe where Edward Carpenter, the Socialist poet, lived the simple life and evolved his philosophic theories.
Holmesfield to many must appear to be a drinker's paradise, for it has the parish's seven pubs strung out along the main street, sometimes facing one another across the road. Statistically it must work out at one pub for every 120 inhabitants or so!. In practice though it is more likely that the majority of the pubs customers are travellers who have crossed, or about to cross, the thirst-making 'pub-less' expanse of Ramsley Moor, or Big Moot.
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