The Village
The church of All Saint's, at just 26 by 25 feet, is probably one of the smallest in the country. It shares a roof with an adjoining farmhouse. Dating from the mid-12th century, it was altered in 1480. It contains a pulpit from 1634. The adjoining farmhouse may have been used as an infirmary for the Abbey. For some time before 1820 it was used as a pub called the Blue Bell, the bar being used as a vestry, with a door into the aisle. It was rebuilt in 1883. '...it is said the village inn was anciently under the same roof, and there was a door in the wall leading from the gallery into the house, through which the worshippers were accustomed to steal to refresh themselves.' 'The clergyman used to dress in the bar of the Blue Bell inn and enter the church through a now-blocked door'
Behind the church is an area of woodland. In the wood is Hermit Cave, hewn out of the sandstone cliff by a 12th-century Derby baker who wished to live a life as a recluse. It is well preserved, measuring 6 yards by 3 with a doorway, two windows, a peephole and a niche for a light.
The Carpenters' Arms opened in 1880 and the Methodist Chapel opened in 1902.
Read more about this topic: Dale Abbey
Famous quotes containing the word village:
“Let us have a good many maples and hickories and scarlet oaks, then, I say. Blaze away! Shall that dirty roll of bunting in the gun-house be all the colors a village can display? A village is not complete, unless it have these trees to mark the season in it. They are important, like the town clock. A village that has them not will not be found to work well. It has a screw loose, an essential part is wanting.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The village had institutionalized all human functions in forms of low intensity.... Participation was high and organization was low. This is the formula for stability.”
—Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)