A large swamp called Leachfield, situate about a mile from Baslow, on the road from that village which leads to Sheffield, is said to be the site of a buried village. Some people say that this buried village once belonged to one man who saw it all go down into the swamp one day as he stood on a hill. I am told that near this fen or swamp are two stone circles and two rows of unmistakeable stone-built barrows.
In Glover’s Derbyshire (vol. ii. p. 86.) the following lines occur about this place:
When Leach-field was a market town,
Chesterfield was gorse and broom;
Now Chesterfield’s a market town,
Leach-field a marsh is grown.I have heard the last two lines repeated thus:
Now Leach-field it is sunken down
And Chesterfield’s a market town.
From ‘Household tales with other traditional remains’ by S O Addy (1895).
Ah, Leash fen, take ya waders if visiting.