Following a planning application by JohnSinclair for the construction of an extension to the Old Town Hall Bakewell, the Peak District National Park Planning Authority required that an archaeological watching brief should be undertaken as a condition of planning consent. ARCUS was appointed by Project Design Associates on behalf of the developer. A Project Design was prepared by ARCUS and approved by Ken Smith, Peak District National Park Authority Archaeology Service Manager. Three cells were found dating from the time when the Old Town Hall was used as a court house in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. These were well preserved surviving to their full height with intact roofs. The cells were constructed of stone with mortared walls while the roofs were built of large stone beams and lintels. A human burial was found beneath and predating the cells. Documentary evidence suggests that there was a chapel on the site prior to 1602, and the burial may have been from a burial yard associated with it.
G. A. O. Davies (Wed,) studied this question.