Description: Mayfield is a large, sprawling village on the Staffordshire side of the River Dove, close to Ashbourne. The village has three sections (at least!) - Upper Mayfield, which has some lovely 17th and 18th century houses, Lower Mayfield, down by the river, where the church and the yarn mill are situated, and main part of the village in the middle. Mayfield is an old village with a lovely church, but since the end of the 18th century it has mostly made it living through the cotton mills situated along the River Dove. One is still active - a rarity nowadays. Another point of interest is that Mayfield was the home of Thomas Moore - a close friend of the poet Byron, who visited regularly. In fact, one of Byrons young daughters is buried in the churchyard - she died whilst on a visit here. Mayfield has a well-dressing in mid-June. It's one of the few places outside Derbyshire which has one. Mayfield can also rightly claim a small niche in history, for it was here, on 7 December 1745 that the army of Bonnie Prince Charlie passed on its retreat from Derby and terrorised the local population. Some of the Young Pretender's troops shot the innkeeper at Hanging Bridge as well as a certain Mr Humphrey Brown who refused to hand over his horse to them. Many of the villagers took refuge in the church, locking themselves in behind the west door. The Scottish soldiers contented themselves by firing shots through the door and their bullet holes can still be seen in the woodwork. In those days there was an old packhorse bridge over the River Dove and although the original structure was widened and eventually rebuilt in 1937, the 500-year-old grey stone arches of the original bridge can still be seen. Legend has it that many of the Scottish rebels were caught, tried for their misdeeds and hung from gibbets erected on the old bridge. There is however a road out of the village, leading to the main Leek highway marked on the Ordnance Survey map as 'Gallowstree Lane', suggesting that those to be hung went their way via the bridge and Gallowstree Lane to Gallowstree Hill.