CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

The Slopes, Buxton

gardens in Buxton, Derbyshire, England, UK

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 5, 2026
Entity authorityQ80961457 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Slopes (formerly known as The Terrace) is a Grade-II-listed public park in Buxton, Derbyshire in England. The area was laid out by landscape architect Jeffry Wyatville in 1811 for William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire, as pleasure grounds for the guests of The Crescent hotel to promenade. The design of The Terrace was modified further by Sir Joseph Paxton in 1859.

The grassed bank of The Slopes lies between the Town Hall and Higher Buxton at the top and St Ann's Well and the Pump Room (into which the Buxton spring mineral waters were piped) at the bottom, facing The Crescent hotel, the Victorian spa baths and the Old Hall Hotel. The terraced area is intersected with numerous footpaths. The Terrace had previously been a bare hillside known as St Ann's Cliff. In 1787 Major Hayman Rooke uncovered a long section of the Roman town wall, which is now beneath the landscaped hillside of The Slopes. At the same time Rooke also documented details of the base of a temple in the same area, overlooking the site of the baths and springs. The temple was dedicated to the water deity Arnemetia. It had a shrine room set on a rectangular podium, with a columned portico at the front.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “The Slopes, Buxton” as gardens in Buxton, Derbyshire, England, UK. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Slopes, Buxton and gardens.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1811, 1859, 1787—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Slopes, Buxton and gardens providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “The Slopes, Buxton”, the useful work is to connect “gardens in Buxton, Derbyshire, England, UK” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q80961457. Authority coordinates are 53.258, -1.914. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1811, 1859 and 1787.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The Slopes, Buxton”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The Slopes, Buxton primary sources, The Slopes, Buxton archive and Slopes research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Slopes, Buxton”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “The Slopes, Buxton” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.