New Mills - Governance

Governance

Now almost entirely in Derbyshire, New Mills straddled the historic county boundaries of Derbyshire and Cheshire. The traditional boundary was the River Goyt: Low Leighton, Torr Top and Hidebank were always in Derbyshire, but Torr Vale Road and all of Newtown were in Cheshire. Indeed, today, all the housing to the west of the traffic lights on the Buxton Road remains in the parish of Disley in Cheshire.

The area was part of the Royal Forest of the Peak which passed into the hands of the Duchy of Lancaster in 1372. The ten hamlets, in three groups:

• Great Hamlet, Phoside and Kinder;
• Beard, Ollersett, Thornsett and Whitle;
• Chinley, Bugsworth and Brownside

made up Bowden Middlecale. The new manorial mill or the New Mylne of 1391 was at Beard. In 1713 the hamlets of Beard, Ollersett, Thornsett and Whitle were formed into a township and a new corn mill was built at Ollersett. This was superseded by the New Mills Urban Sanitary Authority in 1876. The New Mills Urban District Council operated from 1894 until 1974, when it was abolished. The town now has a town council, is part of High Peak Council, and Derbyshire County Council.

Andrew Bingham, a Conservative Party member, is the member of Parliament for the High Peak constituency.

On Derbyshire County Council, New Mills is in the New Mills division along with Hayfield and Sett. The seat is held by Beth Atkins for the Liberal Democrats. On High Peak Council, Sett has one councillor, New Mills East has two councillors and New Mills West has two councillors. The New Mills Town Council is chaired by the Liberal Democrats.