Al Fresco & Wild · Stoney Middleton, Derbyshire
Lover's Leap, Stoney Middleton
Stoney Middleton's Lover's Leap has something most cliffs with that name lack: a woman traceable in the parish record, a reported fall, and a story that ends in survival rather than romantic invention.
The story
In local tradition Hannah Baddeley leapt from this limestone cliff in 1762 after being jilted and survived when her clothing and the vegetation broke the fall. Unlike most Lover's Leap stories, this one has a woman who can be followed in parish records. That does not authenticate every picturesque detail, but it makes Stoney Middleton the strongest anchor for a national family of legends usually attached to dramatic scenery after the fact.
More stories at this spot
Sources
- Stoney Middleton Heritage Centre Community Group, Lover's Leap
- Great British Life, How Lover's Leap got its name
Nearby on the map
For some 25 years the celebrity duchess Georgiana shared her marriage and her home with her husband and her best friend Bess Foster in the most famous ménage à trois of the age; Georgiana's own affair with the future PM Charles Grey produced a secret daughter.
Documented historyQueer HeritageMillthorpe (Edward Carpenter & George Merrill)Millthorpe, Derbyshire · EnglandThe market-garden home where the socialist philosopher Edward Carpenter lived openly with George Merrill decades before decriminalisation — sandal-making, vegetarianism and 'the intermediate sex' in the Derbyshire hills. A touch on the backside from Merrill, E.M
Documented historyAl Fresco & WildLover's Leap, Ashwood DaleBuxton, Derbyshire · EnglandAshwood Dale's Lover's Leap carried an elopement story and helped sell Buxton's picturesque landscape—the named place is historic, but the lovers belong to folklore.
LegendSpotted an error, or hold a better source? Write to marquis@marquisdemayfair.com — corrections are made, never defended. Our methodology.