Description:The village of Waterfall is situated in the Staffordshire Moorlands, north-west of the town of Ashbourne. It is a very typical Moorland village with its buildings built of stone. The place name is a descriptive one and comes from the fact that the River Hamps falls into a subterranean watercourse between the village of Waterfall and Winkhill.
Waterfall does not appear in the Domesday Book of 1086, but it was clearly a manor by 1115-1125, when it was acquired by the Benedictine Abbey of Burton-upon-Trent. Some historians believe that it existed at the time of the Domesday Survey but was omitted. It is also possible, however, that Waterfall may have been laid waste at this time, owing to the uprisings against William 1 in the north of England in 1070. The manor of Waterfall passed through a number of ownerships in its history. In the 17th century, for example, the ownership of the manor was split between the Cromwells of Throwley Hall in the Manifold Valley and the Dukes of Portland of Welbeck Abbey in Nottinghamshire.
In 1666 46 households, including six in Calton, were assessed in Waterfall for the payment of the hearth tax. Simon Smythe’s house was the largest with four hearths and he was described as a gentleman.
The parish church is dedicated to St James and St Bartholomew. It was built originally during the 12th century and has a surviving Norman chancel arch. The chancel was rebuilt in 1890 using existing stone. Quakers in the village used Machin House, now Green Farm, as a meeting house. Methodism became established in the village in the mid-18th century. A Wesleyan chapel was built in 1798 and was replaced by a new chapel built at Winkhill in 1908. A group of Primitive Methodists met in private houses until a chapel was built for them in about 1830, later to be replaced by a new chapel on the same site in 1905.
The principal occupation in Waterfall in the past was farming. However at Winkhill there was a corn and paper mill, a foundry and a colour manufactory, all recorded in 1851. Three public houses were also recorded at that time, The Royal Oak, The George and The Red Lion.
Transport links to the village were improved when the Manifold Light Railway, a narrow gauge railway, was built in 1904 and a connection built by the North Staffs Railway from Leek to Waterhouses to link with it. This not only improved communications but allowed milk from the local farms to be collected on a daily basis. It also brought large numbers of tourists to the area. The Light Railway closed in 1934 and has now become a footpath.
Education was first recorded in the village in 1715 when William Berrisford, the local schoolmaster, was buried. The first school appears to have been built in Waterhouses in 1807 by local subscription at a cost of £187 10s 0d. A new school was built in 1875 and became known as Waterfall Parochial School, managed locally by the parish. The school struggled to maintain itself financially and was very dependent on local goodwill. The school enjoyed a remarkable period of stability between 1907 and 1947 under the same headmistress, Miss Cecilia Booth. A secondary school opened in Waterhouses in 1957, serving a wider area than the village itself. Both schools have now closed.
Waterfall is notable for the fact that the antiquary, Thomas Mycock, lived there. He had a large collection of coins but also the writing desk of Queen Elizabeth I and the travelling trunk of Richard III.
For more information about Waterfall’s history, see Waterfall of Yesterday, by Frances A Harvey, 1977 (published by Churnet Valley Books).