The village, mentioned in the Domesday Book and of probable Saxon origin, is situated close to several prehistoric monuments, including Doll Tor and Nine Ladies Bronze Age stone circles and numerous Bronze Age burial cairns on Stanton Moor. They have no connection to Druids, who were an Iron Age culture. There is also the Earl Grey Tower, raised as a monument to the passing of the 1832 Electoral Reform Act and much evidence of ancient and modern sandstone quarrying. C19 lead mines are evident lower down the village. There is also a school on School Lane (Victorian).