Quality streets

Mike Smith explores the quaint and timeless Peak District village of Winster

- Mike Smith

Protruding into the road from the south side of Main Street, Winster’s 17th century Market House consists of a brick-built, gabled upper storey and a stone-built ground floor, whose arches are now blocked-in, but were almost certainly open in former times. This ‘stand-out’ structure was acquired by the National Trust in 1906 as their first property in Derbyshire. It contains an information centre and a model of the village made by members of the local history society.

In the decades following the granting of a market charter, Winster grew rich on proceeds from lead-mining and also became an important stopping place on the turnpike road running from Nottingham to Newhaven. The resulting building boom saw the erection on both sides of Main Street of townhouses designed in the 18th century’s most fashionable architectural styles.

Amongst scores of listed buildings in this superb street, there is an unusual pair of terrace houses where Palladian-style windows located on the ground and first floors look as if they are shared in some unfathomable way by the two properties. The small doorway of a much more modest house at the other end of the street is covered, rather ostentatiously, by a large semicircular hood.