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One of the gateways to Lathkill Dale, this quiet place on the limestone uplands, with memories of busy days as a market-town and a lead-mining centre of the Peak, has old stone houses and a 17th century inn gathered round a small green with the shaft of an old cross.
By way of the gaunt ravine of Ricklow Dale, with its old marble quarries, we come to the delightful Lathkill Dale, a deep secluded valley of wooded slopes, steep cliff, and grassy paths, whose crystal stream was said by Izaak Walton's angling friend Charles Cotton to be the purest he had seen and to have the best trout in England.
Not far from the head of the Dale is an old farmhouse known as One Ash Grange, said to be the site of a place of confinement for unruly monks. John Gratton, the famous Quaker who lived in Monyash for many years, used to visit the house in the time of the Bowmans, who were among the last of the Quakers here.
A rock at the head of the Dale, near where the Lathkill comes to life, has been known as Parson’s Tor since Robert Lomas fell over it to his death in 1776. He was vicar of Monyash, and is said to have planted the fine limes in the churchyard, where there is also a shapely yew.
The stone-roofed church has seen many changes since being built about 1200. The nave arcades are of the 14th century; the chancel, the spire, and much more have been made new in the present century. Three fine stone seats and a piscina and the chancel arch are as old as the church, and some of the tower is of the 13th century.
A great treasure of the church is a fine old chest 10 feet long, with bands of wrought iron every few inches. Worm-eaten and white with age, it was used for the altar plate and the priest's robes perhaps more than 700 years ago. There is a memorial to Thomas Cheney of 1723, a descendant of John Cheney who was struck down by Richard III at Bosworth Field and left for dead. His helmet being broken, he covered his head with the scalp of a bullock which lay near, and from this incident came the crest of a bull's scalp. He lived to see the Tudor Dynasty and to be given a peerage and the Garter by Henry VII.
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