STONEY MIDDLETON, township, chapelry, and village, 5 miles N. by E. from Bakewell, contains 1,124A. 3R. 17P. of land, and in 1861 had 608 inhabitants. Rateable value, £1,618 18s. 6d. The Duke of Devonshire and Lord Denman are the principal owners; the former is lord of the manor. Mr. Thomas Hinch, with several others, have also estates here. The Church (St. Martin) is a small stone edifice, with a low square tower, in which are three bells. It has an octagon body, added in 1759, which consists of a nave, chancel, centre aisle, and gallery. The living is a perpetual curacy, value £100, It is annexed to the vicarage of Hathersage. Rev. Urban Smith, M.A., incumbent. A National School was erected in 1835, and enlarged in 1845. Feast, Sunday before Old Michaelmas day. Immediately on passing the last house in the village, to the west, a deep ravine opens its marble jaws, the entrance to Middleton Dale. The crags that form the right side of Middleton Dale are boldly featured. A little nearer the foreground is Eyam Dale, one side of which is strongly characterised with castellated rock; the other is crested with fine fir and ash. Directly opposite this dale, another branches out on the left; the whole scene presenting a singular combination of rocks, hills, and deep ravines. The wild scenery of Middleton Dale is often greatly improved in picturesque effect, by the fires of the lime kilns; the smoke which rises from them curling about the rocks, and occasionally obscuring their summits, gives to the whole scene a character of great sublimity.

Immediately on entering the dale from the village, on the right hand, is a high perpendicular rock, called “The Lover's Leap”. From the summit of this precipice, about the year 1760, a love-stricken maiden, of the name of Baddeley, threw herself into the chasm below, and, incredible as it may appear, she sustained but little injury. Near this rock is a cavern, in which the skeleton of a Scotch pedlar was found upwards of fifty years ago, It is supposed that he was murdered by some parties whom he had legally stopped from vending their wares at Eyam wakes. In the dale are two cupolas for smelting lead ore, a manufactory of barytes, and several lime kilns. On the right of the road from Bakewell, at the entrance of the village, is an ancient stone mansion with pointed gables, delightfully situated in the meadows, a little east of the Church, the seat and property of the Right Hon. Thomas Lord Denman. Here is an excellent inn and posting-house, "The Moon", kept by Mr. Robert Heginbotham, where visitors and tourists will find superior accommodation, and the most polite attention. Here are several lead mines in the immediate neighbourhood. A great Barmote Court is held annually in April, alternately at the Moon Inn, and at the Bull's Head, Eyam, for the Liberty of Stoney Middleton and Eyam, of which the Duke of Devonshire, the Marquis of Chandos, and Sir Richard Tufton Bart., are the lords. Joseph Hall, Esq., of Castleton, is the steward. The poor have several small benefactions.