From: "A Topographical Dictionary of England", by Samuel LEWIS, 7th Edition, 1848, Vol 3, p.707:

"ROWLSEY, GREAT, a township, in the parish and union of Bakewell, hundred of High Peak, northern division of the county of Derby, 3 1/2 miles south-east-by-east from Bakewell; containing, with part of the township of Alport, 243 inhabitants [in 1848]. The village is situated near the confluence of the rivers Derwent and Wye. a handsome chapel of ease, to which a school-house is attached, was erected by the Duke of RUTLAND, in 1841."

From 'The Derbyshire Village Book' published by the Derbyshire Federation of Women's Institutes & Countryside Books, 1991:

"Great Rowsley, sitting astride the A6 leading to Bakewell, is one of the gateways to the Peak National Park, as also is Little Rowsley, on the Chatsworth Road.

Great Rowsley has long had strong links with Haddon and with Bakewell. In 1636 Grace, Lady Manners founded a school `for the better instructing of the male children of the inhabitants of Bakewell and Great Rowsley, in good learning and Christian religion', today's Lady Manners School. The people went to the churches at Bakewell and Beeley, and earlier still the chapel at Nether Haddon. Today the village is still in the main part of the Haddon estate, only small portions having been sold for private households.

The village with its turnpike gates (two toll-bar cottages still stand) was on a main stage coach route, then in 1849 the railway arrived. The life of the small farming community must have been rudely disturbed by this intrusion into its midst. A lot of building took place in those years, giving much of the shape of the village today. Not only the railway, with its bridges, viaduct and new station (now gone), but also the school 1840, Wye bridge 1844, the church and vicarage 1855, and a new corn mill. Some of the roads were realigned. In the 1890s came the railway houses, the Midland Cottages, with the Methodist chapel in 1910. The earlier years of this century saw the widening of the old narrow bridge over the Derwent to its present state, the village hall built and the Express Dairy by the station.

The railway, with its extensive marshalling yard - Rowsley sidings and locomotive shed, went under the 'Beeching Plan' in 1967, and shortly afterwards the dairy (although some of the buildings are used today for small industry). Caudwell's Mill has become a popular waterpowered working museum with craft workshops including glass blowing, wood turning and ceramics. But the days when Rowsley had found employment for a wide area around have gone.

Probably the best-known building is the Peacock Hotel, with the inscription above the front door of 'John Stevenson 1652 . It was a one time dower or manor house and farmhouse. In the l9th century Rowsley, 'embosomed in hills', with its thatched houses and two rivers, was the haunt of artists and anglers, who stayed at the Peacock. Mrs Gaskell stayed on a visit to Chatsworth House in September 1857, as did the Emperor Maximilian of Mexico. Equally popular as a roadside hostelry is the Grouse and Claret (formerly the Station Hotel), built around the time of the coming of the railway, and in recent years extensively developed and modernised.

East Lodge nearby is now a country house hotel. Mention must be made of the recreation ground, given to the village by the Duke of Rutland in 1926. The tennis and bowls are no more, leaving football and cricket, the latter celebrating its centenary in 1990 with a new pavilion. There is also a children's play area. Of the numerous small farms of 50 or 100 years ago, four larger ones remain.

Today there is a village shop and post office. At the sawmill (once a fulling mill with a dyeworks nearby in Blue Street) pine furniture is made. The blacksmith's shop has long gone. It was part of one of the two coaching inns, the Nag's Head and the Red Lion, which are said to have stood in the village square. There are two shops in Little Rowsley.

The village fete takes place during the last weekend in June, with a Well Dressing and Flower Festival in the church, at which time opportunity should be taken to view the tomb, in Siena marble, of Lady John (Catherine) Manners, described by one writer in 1893 as `the most exquisite monument I ever saw'."