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Langsett lies on the very edge of the Peak District National Park in the valley of the Little Don or Porter river........
It is here that the influence of the many steelworks that brought prosperity to Sheffield in the industrial era gives way to open moorlands and green valleys. The urban sprawl of Stocksbridge ends abruptly at the dam wall of the Underbank Reservoir.
Langsett’s Name
The name Langsett has evolved from the old name of the area. Langsett meaning a long slope. This comes from the custom of taking the livestock up the lang side or Long Slope to the high summer pastures after their winter grazing on the lower land.
Early Mention
Langsett is not mentioned in Domesday in 1086, although the village of Midhope does appear. Langsett first appears in a charter of 1252 which tells of an agreement, whereby Walter de Houdham granted his whole manor at Langside to Elias de Midhope. Elias de Midhope gradually acquired a great extend of the countryside including Midhope, Langside (Langsett), Ewden, Horderon, Waldershelf (Waldershaigh), Mitcheldene (Mickelden) and Barnside (now just a farm).
We hear later, in 1638 of a dispute between the people of Langsett and the men of Midhope. The Langsett villagers grazed their cattle on Midhope common and paid 20 shillings (£1) per year for this privilege.
However, the Midhope villagers were complaining that the cattle were straying too far and the Langsett men were also cutting turf. We do not know the outcome of this dispute.
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Geology
The area around Langsett is part of what is described as the Dark Peak. This means that the rocks underneath this area are the gritstones (Millstone Grit) and shales which form the highest part of the Peak District National Park.
The gritstones and shales were deposited in the Carboniferous period around 250 to 280 million years ago. At this time the land formed part of a huge river estuary flowing from what is now the highlands of Scotland. The sands washed down by the river formed the gritstones and the mud in the river estuary formed the shales.
The hard gritstone rock has been exposed by wind, rain and river action, to form rock features such as Swinden Rocher and How Rocher. These take their name from the French word for rock “rocher”.
Tributaries of the Little Don often run in deep valleys called cloughs. This is taken from the Old English “cloh” meaning a deep ravine or dell.
Rights of Way
Thickwoods Lane, leading to North America Farm, was used by tanks practising for the 1944 Normandy landings during the Second World War. It was strengthened by using rubble from houses bombarded during the Sheffield blitz.
Cut Gate is an ancient right of way which was used by farmers to get from the Hope, Derwent and Woodlands valleys to Penistone market. Originally it ran down the centre of what is now Langsett Reservoir and had to be re-routed over Brook House Bridge in 1904 when the reservoir was constructed.
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