The 19th century saw Bakewell come alive. previous to that it had been a very quiet hamlet.

Bakewell began to prosper as a market town with many fairs and stalls on its streets.

Banks were then built and the farmers started an agricultural show which grew into the Bakewell Show we know today.

Gas lighting in the streets came in and in the 1890s a new Post Office and Town Hall were built.

With the help of the then Midland Railway, tourists began to flood in.
When you visit Bakewell, the one thing that dominates the town is the Rutland Arms, the hotel standing in the centre of Rutland Square.

This was once an elegant Georgian Coaching Inn.

In 1914 there was no traffic to speak of expect the odd horse and cart from local or travelling tradesmen and dogs would freely roam the streets outside.

Outside the hotel were the coaching stables and yard which were unsurpassed in the county.

Hotel guests were collected from here on outings to Chatsworth, Haddon Hall, Monsal Dale and the Matlocks.

Later in the century saw the erection of the war memorial in the centre of the road to honour the war dead of the first World War.

With the arrival of mail coaches and the introduction of the railways, a post office was established at the White horse next to Bath Gardens.

The post office gave symmetry to Rutland Square, balanced with the Rutland Hotel, Victorian buildings began to dominate Bakewell.

Alongside Bath Gardens cattle stalls and markets were held until they were moved in 1826.









In 1923 stood Deacons Bank which became the Royal Bank of Scotland and on the opposite corner stood Ormes' Department Store.

Ormes' became one of the most prestigious purveyors of food and drink in the peak.

By 1930 it had largely phased out its horse drawn vans and had invested in a fleet of vehicles.

Better off customers could telephone their orders and have their goods delivered, not just in the Peak but as far afield as Sheffield and Staffordshire.

Another famous shop in Bakewell is the Old Original Pudding Shop. In the late 17th Century this Bridge Street shop began its life as a chandler's shop.

But the wife of the chandler was soon to realise the business opportunity of the Bakewell Pudding after being given the recipe from the cook at the Rutland Arms who had accidently invented the delicacy in the 1860s.


The bridge at Bakewell is an outstanding example of a five arched bridge, dating back to the 14th century, as is good today, despite being used by heavy traffic.




On the corner of the bridge stands the Castle hotel previously known as the Castle and Commercial Hotel, horse fairs were held here dating back to the middle ages and was recorded probably for the last time around 1910.

With the onset of war, horses were commissioned and the fair became a casualty of war.

Bath Street was so called because the Duke of Rutland's Bath house was situated here, beside the Bath Gardens.

Warm springs once flowed into the bath, but it was destroyed in the 19th Century.

It was this particular spring that contributed to the name Bakewell.
In 1637 it was noted to be a "bathing enclosure for the Manners Family."