A view across Middleton by Wirksworth, showing Main Street and The Lanes. Middleton by Wirksworth is a small village with extensive quarries, just north of the lead mining town of Wirksworth. D H Lawrence lived here for a year in a small house called Mountain Cottage, overlooking the Via Gellia. The village featured in his book 'The Virgin and the Gypsy' where it was called 'Woodlinkin'.