UK ‘seaside town’ 70 miles from coast only spoiled by rude tourists | UK | News

“I’ve worked in Matlock Bath since I was 18, that’s why I have no soul left anymore,” Jenny Kirk, 39, a member of staff at the Bank Note Café says. “It’s got worse. I thought lockdown would have made people more polite. It’s not; it’s made them ruder.” The Peak District tourist hotspot in Derbyshire is thought of as having the character of a classic British seaside town, complete with chippies, arcades, ice cream shops and a cable car at the Heights of Abraham, even though it is around 70 miles away from the nearest coastline.

People sit eating fish and chips from shops down the road on the Bank Note’s outside tables, Ms Kirk tells the Express, who she has to move on. She adds: “We’ve been sworn at. They give you a bad review, and they’ve not even been in.”

Visitors also saunter into the café to use its toilet, even though they have not bought anything. Ms Kirk says: “The amount of abuse you get. You do get nice people, and regular visitors that come back year after year, but the majority of it is not nice people.” This is exacerbated by a lack of parking spaces, Ms Kirk adds. She explains: “Everyone’s in a bad mood by the time they walk around. They’ve been stuck in traffic for so long, or there’s nowhere to park.”

The café worker mentions that temporary traffic lights have been in place “for God knows how many weeks”, which has proven to be a “major problem” at the top of the village, causing a build up. “In their infinite wisdom, they like to do it around the Easter holidays,” Ms Kirk says. “Every break we get, they pop up somewhere.”

There have also been travellers in the railway station car park, which stopped coaches and other day trippers from visiting. “People drive in, see that, and then drive out again,” Ms Kirk says. She adds that a “hell of a lot” of custom has been lost as a result.

As regards the area’s seaside vibe, she says some people get “quite confused”. “I’ve been asked before whereabouts the beach is, but we’re about as far away as you can get,” Ms Kirk says.

Not all were so downbeat about the area. Catherine Swindells, 61, from the village of Chisworth, owns The Old Apothecary Shop, which she has written a book about. The store retains much of its original late-19th century character. The former Lloyds Bank finance specialist says: “Me and my husband came to Matlock Bath for a day out, and this was for sale.

“We ended up buying it, just because we fell in love with it. I thought, ‘I’ve spent all my working life advising businesses, surely I can do something myself?’ I had a vision. I could see it as something like this, and it’s worked.”

Also behind the counter is Sharon Jones, 64, orginally from Lancashire. “You need to come on a weekend to see it,” she says, adding that it gets incredibly busy.

But the former machinist then mentions a trade off, namely that the beauty spot is visited by loads of bikers, who can be a bit loud.

She explains: “You only need four or five revving their engines, spoiling it for everyone else. There are older people and children.”

The owner of Charles Restaurant, which specialises in fish and chips and pies, for 20 years, Anthony Clark, says the parade is “lovely”, and has resembled a beachfront for “donkey’s years”. “You’ve got the Heights of Abraham, there’s Gulliver’s Kingdom behind you, up there, and then you’ve got the bikers down.”

He adds: “It’s a weird place, an unusual place, where everybody comes to. It’s always the same, it don’t change.

“Obviously, we had the lockdown. But since we could reopen, it’s back to normal. The only thing at the moment with everything that’s going on in the world around us… is people don’t have the money like they used to have. Their own cost of living is higher, food, electric, mortgages.”

This has resulted in a dip in customers of around 20%, he adds.

Mark Forder, 55, a decorator, and his wife, Theresa, 52, from Norwich are visiting Matlock Bath. Theresa says: “It’s my first time, we’ve literally just arrived. It’s really scenic, it has that seaside town look a bit.”

Her husband says: “It’s out of season a bit. The last time I was here [later in the summer], it was chock a block.”

The couple have also been to Ashbourne, a handsome nearby town just as beloved by Peak District tourists. But they observed that a lot of places there were shut on the Monday they visited. “They must have Mondays off, long weekends,” Mr Forder says.

Darien Cook, 67, a clothing and jewellery desginer, and Mark Perfect, 71, were also in he area having travelled up from London. “We’ve come up for a few days to see the industrial archeology and do a little bit of pottering about,” the latter says.

The former chief executive of the Youth Justice Board of England and Wales adds: “The cliffs are refreshingly different. It’s 3D compared to south east England.”

Darien, who grew up in South Africa, says: “The terrain’s different to what you’d normally see. English villages are pretty.” But she mentions that there had been a power cut at the Mining Museum, and they were unable to look around.

Derbyshire Dales District Council tell the Express that the travellers mentioned by Ms Kirk left the car park last year, and that there have been no further issues in Matlock Bath in 2025.

A spokesperson for Derbyshire County Council adds: “We do understand the issues with the roadworks in Matlock Bath being inconvenient for those who visited the village and travelled through the area.

“We had no choice but to do this essential work to the retaining wall. Without this work the wall, which holds up the A6, was at a significant risk of collapse.

“We did remove the traffic lights over the Easter bank holiday weekend, and for subsequent weekends after that and this work finished well in time for the summer season.”