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Peak District Towns and Villages: Flash

An index to Peak District towns and villages including Flash, Ashbourne, Bakewell, Buxton, Chapel-en-le-Frith, Leek, Matlock, Macclesfield and Wirksworth in Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire, England, UK.
Slideshow

Flash

Local Services:

B & B

Self Catering

Food and Drink

Local Geography:
Area Map

Nearby Villages

Local Attractions

Flash has the distinction of being the highest village in England, at 1514 feet above sea level. What this means in terms of climate can be easily imagined - in winter this is a wet and windy spot which is frequently snow-bound.

The main part of the village clings to the hillside just below its brow, clustered around the church; but there are many far-flung farms hereabouts, where a hard living is scraped from sheep farming on the sparsely populated moorland which surrounds Flash.

Flash Bar View
Flash Bar View
In olden times Flash was known as the resort of 'badgers' or hawkers who squatted on the open land here and travelled from fair to fair selling their wares. They were rough characters, like the landscape, and Flash had a reputation as a wild place where counterfeit money was made and outlawed practises were continued. Prize fighting was one such, which was still held at Flash for some years after it had been made illegal. The village's proximity to three county boundaries helped - when the police came, the ring was simply moved to another county!

Three Shire Heads
Three Shire Heads
The River Dane passes to the west of Flash, and there is some lovely scenery around here. One particularly popular spot is Three Shire Heads, where the counties of Staffordshire, Cheshire and Derbyshire meet and there is a fine old packhorse bridge across the river. The area around is also notable for the weirdly shaped outcrops of gritstone which occur - Ball Stones, Gib Torr and Ball Stone Rock, for example.

Flash itself has a pub, the New Inn, but no other amenities. Pony trekking is available from Northfield Farm. Just outside the village at Flash Bar on the A53, there is Flash Bar stores - possibly the highest shop in England - and another pub, the Traveller's Rest..

Nearby Places of Interest

Lud's ChurchLud's Church is natural rock cleft near Gradbach, Staffordshire. It was once a worshipping place for Lollards and inspired the poem 'Gawain and the Green Knight'
The RoachesThe Roaches, Hen Cloud and Ramshaw Rocks, are Staffordshire gritstone crags not far from the town of Leek.
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