Mayfield
Mayfield is a Saxon village dating back over a thousand years and is listed in the Domesday Book. The first Norman church was probably built about 1125 during the reign of Henry 1, the present parish church dedicated to St. John the Baptist illustrates the progressive styles of architecture since that date.
It was a village, too, known to that great ballad writer Thomas Moore who lived for a time in the village. Tom Moore's Cottage still stands to this day. Here he composed such well-known works as 'Lalla Rookh' and 'Those Evening Bells', the latter being inspired by the sound of the pealing bells of Ashbourne Church just across the river.
Mayfield can also claim a small niche in history, for it was here, on December 7th, 1745 that the army of Bonnie Prince Charlie passed on its retreat from Derby and terrorised the local population. Many of the villagers took refuge in the church, locking themselves in behind the west door. The Scottish soldiers fired shots through the door and their bullet holes can still be seen in the woodwork. Legend has it that many of the Scottish rebels were caught, tried for their misdeeds and hung from gibbets erected on the old bridge.
There is. however a road out of the village, leading to the main Leek highway marked on the Ordnance Survey map as 'Gallowstree Lane', and it is supposed that those to be hung went their way via the bridge and Gallowstree Lane to Gallowstree Hill. Today, it is a pleasant walk rewarded by a lovely view down the Dove Valley.
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