Leek
Leek is the principal town of the Staffordshire Moorlands and the most important centre on the south western edge of the Peak District. Locally it is called 'The Queen of the Moorlands' and stands on a hill in a large bend in the River Churnet.
The town was mentioned in the Domesday Book as 'Lec', but there was certainly a settlement here well before that because the churchyard contains two crosses – one, a Mercian style cross of the 10th century, is damaged, but the other is a magnificent almost perfect 11th-century Norse style cross.
The Normans gave this area to the Earls of Chester and Ranulf the 6th Earl founded Dieu la Cres Abbey here in 1210. Until its dissolution in 1537 the abbey was the major economic and cultural centre of the area. The ruins lie across the Churnet 2km north of the town centre.
Little of interest happened in Leek for the next few hundred years, though Bonny Prince Charlie passed through in 1745, and James Brindley (the builder of the Bridgwater Canal) built a water mill here in 1750 – this is now a fine museum.
But in the late 18th and 19th centuries the town changed from a sleepy market town to a centre of silk weaving and several large mills were built, one of which can be seen above the road to Macclesfield. Leek gained national fame for its shawls, buttons, ribbons and sewing silks, and the population multiplied. The town attracted artists and designers working with silks and William Morris lived and worked here between 1875 and 1878.
The town also gained some fine buildings during this period, notably the work of William Sugden and his son Larner. The most famous of these is the Nicholson Institute, now part of Leek College.
However, nothing now remains of the silk industry in Leek except the shells of the mills, and some fine public buildings. The town is now overshadowed by its near neighbour, Stoke. Modern Leek houses the headquarters of the Britannia Building Society and its other main industry is Adams Foods. It is also a noted centre for antiques and pine furniture.
Leek is a fine centre from which to explore the south and west of the Peak, with some of the finest countryside only a few miles away. There is a market every Wednesday and an antiques market on Saturdays.
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