The Holy Moor’s Quiet Star
The Holy Moor's Quiet Star
How a village pub on the edge of the Peak District became one of Derbyshire's finest tables
There are villages you drive through and villages you slow down for. Holymoorside, two miles west of Chesterfield and pressed against the edge of the Peak District, is firmly the second sort. The River Hipper runs through it, the moor rises above it, and Chatsworth sits seven miles west. It looks as though nothing much has happened here in a century, which is exactly where something quietly remarkable can take root.
A moor with a long memory
The name gives the game away. Before its current spelling the village was Holymore, the holy moor, its story reaching back to the twelfth century. Two nearby farms, Harewood Grange and Chander Hill, hold records as far back as 1207, and the oldest surviving building, Hipper Hall, is an early seventeenth century farmhouse with a tithe barn older still.
For all its calm, the village worked hard for its living. A cotton thread mill employed some two hundred people at its peak, mostly the women and girls, while the men and boys went down the tin mine. It closed in 1902 and barely a trace remains, though the mill pond survives and the custom of well dressing is still kept each August. It is a village that knows the genuine article from the passing fad, which may be why it took to Mark Aisthorpe so readily.
A pub with five previous owners and one clear future
The Bull's Head dates back to 1881, when Holymoorside had four pubs. Only two remain, and this is now the reason people travel here rather than simply pass through. It was not always so. When Mark Aisthorpe came to view it in 2016 the pub was closed, having run through five owners in two years. Standing in the empty rooms, he thought a pub in a setting this lovely deserved good food. He had viewed twenty or thirty premises and nearly signed elsewhere, but the kitchen here suited him and he loved the building's quiet character. He took it on, and the transformation began.
The chef, and the kitchens that shaped him
Aisthorpe grew up in Rotherham, where his mother Mavis ran a cake shop. The colours and smells of her wedding cakes lodged in his memory, along with lessons in timing and presentation that still show in his cooking. He trained at Castle College, then in kitchens with one and two Michelin stars, including Marcus Wareing's two-star Petrus and the Gordon Ramsay stable. That classical French grounding runs through his food. In 2022 he reached the regional final of the BBC's Great British Menu, bringing new attention to the pub.
Food that barely travels before it reaches the plate
His cooking is modern British built on French technique, and unapologetically hyper-seasonal, drawn from a small patch of ground: herbs and vegetables from the restaurant's garden, game from the surrounding moors, some of which he hunts himself, and the rest from neighbouring farms, fishermen and foragers. The menus change daily.
The dishes read like a map of that thinking. Jerusalem artichoke with truffle, hazelnut and twenty-four-month Montgomery cheddar; BBQ hand-dived king scallop; Cornish lobster with heritage carrot. His playful Ham, Egg 2.0 nods to Sheffield's beloved Henderson's Relish. Among the mains, Ruby Red Devon beef arrives as fillet and short rib, alongside Cornish sea bass, hogget several ways, and a vegetarian pithivier of truffle, Tunworth and cauliflower that is no afterthought. Pastry runs to a banana souffle with maple, coconut, lime and rum.
Diners choose from two tasting menus, an a la carte at £58 for two courses and £65 for three, and a considered Sunday lunch. Every bottle has been chosen by Mark, who doubles as sommelier and built the wine room himself. The restaurant is a certified Sustainably Run Restaurant, and Mark shares his methods through the pub's cookery school and foraging classes. The results speak plainly: three AA Rosettes, a place in the Michelin Guide, a 2023 Great British Pub Awards finalist for Best Pub for Food, and 'one to watch' in the 2024 Estrella Top 50 Gastropub Awards.
Rooms worth staying for
The reason to book the night rather than the drive home sits directly above the restaurant. Renovated in 2021 and 2022, the three bedrooms earned five AA stars, and they are quietly stunning. Rather than strip the building back to something anonymous, the work drew out its original beams and stonework and set modern comforts within them. Each room has a solid wooden bed and furniture by a local craftsman, and two bathrooms have copper baths. Downstairs, the bar is warm and traditional, the place to fall into an armchair after a day on the moor, dinner only a staircase away.
Practical Information
Booking
- The Bull's Head, New Road, Holymoorside, Chesterfield S42 7EW.
- 01246 569999 · bullsheadholymoorside.co.uk · bookings@bullsheadholymoorside.co.uk
- Tables for up to six can be booked online; larger parties by phone, with a deposit and menu choices confirmed in advance.
- The tasting menu runs Thursday to Saturday, at lunch and in the evening, and must be chosen by the whole table, so flag it when booking. Lunchtimes and midweek evenings are pre-booking only.
- The restaurant serves the tasting and a la carte menus; the separate bar menu is served in the bar, where dogs are welcome.
- Weekend breakfast is served from 9.30 to 11 for diners and residents.
Getting there
- Holymoorside sits two miles west of Chesterfield, on the edge of the Peak District and about fifteen minutes from Baslow and the Chatsworth estate.
- Nearest station: Chesterfield, roughly three and a half miles away on the Midland Main Line, then a short taxi or drive to the village.
- There is parking at the inn, and the bedrooms sit directly above the restaurant for anyone staying over.
High-end cooking and genuine hospitality that earned their reputation the hard way, on a quiet moor with a long memory, in a village that always deserved a table this good.
