Our History

From Turnpike Inn to Peak District Landmark

By the mid-18th century, the site was known as New Inn, New Inns, or New Inns Farm. Positioned on a key north-south route, it would have served a steady flow of packhorse carriers, agricultural traffic, and market-bound travellers crossing Derbyshire and Staffordshire. Its origins are closely linked to the turnpiking of the Ashbourne-Buxton road, when toll gates and inns often developed side by side.

A Place Built for the Road

By the mid-18th century, the site was known as New Inn, New Inns, or New Inns Farm. Positioned on a key north-south route, it would have served a steady flow of packhorse carriers, agricultural traffic, and market-bound travellers crossing Derbyshire and Staffordshire. Its origins are closely linked to the turnpiking of the Ashbourne-Buxton road, when toll gates and inns often developed side by side.

From Working Inn to Rural Retreat

In the mid-19th century, New Inns was a family-run establishment. Census records from 1851 and 1861 show the Allsop family living and working here, likely combining innkeeping with small-scale farming - a familiar pattern for remote Peak District hostelries of the time. Even as coaching traffic declined, the inn remained an important stop for farmers, drovers, labourers, and local travellers.

By the 1880s, the surrounding Peak District was beginning to attract leisure visitors from nearby industrial towns. With scenic destinations such as Dovedale growing in popularity, roadside inns like New Inns increasingly welcomed walkers, cyclists, and tourists as well as working travellers.