Derwent Valley > Swains Greave

The gathering point, or source, of the River Derwent. It is also a monitoring site for water voles

The history information below is for the whole area of Derwent Valley.

People have lived in this harsh landscape for more than 10,000 years, since the Mesolithic era when the glaciers of the last Ice Age were retreating from the region. We know this from the many stone tools discovered here, and the more obvious sights such as burial mounds, one of which forms the high point of the moors at Pike Low.

After the Norman invasion in 1066 it became a summer hunting ground as part of the royal forest and then an important location for charcoal production, feeding the iron-smelting furnaces that fed the industrial revolution in nearby Sheffield.

Discover more about the Peaks past from prehistory to the modern day with our history timeline..

The habitat information below is for the whole area of Derwent Valley.

Above the reservoirs and plantation woodlands, the Upper Derwent Valley contains extensive areas of pasture used for sheep grazing and the production of hay or silage. These are crucial areas for many of the birds that breed on the moorland above, as this is their main feeding area.
The moorland edge includes an intimate jumble of different habitats – hawthorn scrub, bracken, boulder slopes and wet rushy flushes. Birds which breed here include snipe, curlew and redshank. Amongst the boulders look out for what at first sight might appear to be a blackbird a long way from home. This will be the blackbird’s close relative the ring ouzel, distinguished by the broad white crescent across its breast.

Explore these habitats and learn more about the wildlife that inhabit them by selecting the links below:
Moorland   Oak Woodland   

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