Whaley Bridge () is a town and civil parish in the High Peak district of Derbyshire, England. It is situated on the River Goyt, south-east of Manchester, north of Buxton, north-east of Macclesfield and west of Sheffield. It had a population of 6,455 at the 2011 census, including Furness Vale, Horwich End, Bridgemont, Fernilee, Stoneheads and Taxal. History There is evidence of prehistoric activity in the area, including early Bronze Age standing stones, burial sites and the remains of a stone circle. A bronze-age axe head was discovered in 2005. There has long been speculation that the 'Roosdyche', a complex of banks and ditches on the eastern side of the town, is of prehistoric human origin, but investigations in 1962 concluded that it was formed by glacial meltwater. The name of Weyley or Weylegh appears in many 13th-century documents and is derived from the Anglo Saxon weg lēah, meaning 'a clearing by the road'. In 1351, the lands of Weyley and Yeardsley were granted to William Joddrell for his faithful service to Edward, the Black Prince. In the 14th century, it housed the residence of William Jauderell and his descendants; their name also spelt 'Jodrell', who gave their name to the modern Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire. The Jodrells continued to call their lands Yeardsley Whaley for centuries and, when the first local government board was formed in 1863 and the area became an urban district, the town adopted its popular name of Whaley Bridge; the town has been called so ever since. Parish records from the 1820s refer to Horridge rather than Horwich. The River Goyt formed the historical boundary between Derbyshire and Cheshire. The present town of Whaley Bridge was divided into smaller towns in both counties. Historical records show that, in 1316, on the Cheshire side there were Taxal, Yeardsley and Whaley; the last two were combined into one district of Yeardsley-cum-Whaley. The Derbyshire side consisted only of Fernilee, which included the villages of Shallcross and Horwich. This side was in the parish of Hope and was part of the Forest of High Peak, while the Cheshire side was part of the Forest of Macclesfield. From 1796, Taxal and Yeardsley were effectively joined in that the Jodrell family was the main landowner in both towns, although the administration of these remained separate until 1936. Until the late 19th century, the population of the area grew slowly. For