Darley Dale is in fact made up of several smaller settlements, namely Churchtown, Darley Bridge or South Darley, Darley Hillside, Northwood and Two Dales.  Set in the lovely Peak District countryside and with many walks on the doorstep, Darley Dale is a perfect place for renting one of the luxury holiday cottages on offer here or in the nearby area. Although a Benedictine Abbey is said to have been built here under the reign of Henry I in the twelfth century nothing of this remains and its more recent claims to fame have been connected with its textile and industrial past.  The town grew in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries around the lead mining and smelting industries and is now a popular commuter town for workers in Matlock where the head offices of Derbyshire County Council are based. Notable buildings in the town include its fourteenth century parish church of St Helens, with a yew tree which is thought to be two thousand years old. The south transept has a stained glass window by Burne-Jones and William Morris. Other attractions include the Peak Rail railway which runs steam trains from Rowsley South to Matlock via Darley Dale railway station. The town boasts a large activity and cultural centre that was built by the town’s most famous benefactor Joseph Whitworth, the inventor and industrialist who spent the last 15 years of his life in Stancliffe Hall, a large house in Darley Dale, which was for many years a boys’ prep school but is now in private ownership again.  Between Darley Dale and Matlock is the Cawdor Quarry which supplied stone for Hyde Park Corner and the Thames Embankment in London. If you are looking for child-friendly luxury holiday cottages in Darley Dale, you will find there is plenty to keep the kids occupied both with the Red House Carriage Museum housing a unique collection of horse-drawn conveyances and the Peak Rail trains. Keen gardeners searching for luxury holiday cottages in Darley Dale are well catered for with two excellent garden centres nearby and if retail therapy is what you are looking for there are many retail outlets in this part of the valley including a popular venue at nearby Rowsley.