Flash Bar Stores and Coffee Shop
Groceries,
News, Ices,
Local Produce,
Crafts,
Hardware
Macclesfield Motorhome Hire
New Extended
Opening Hours
Mon - Sat:
7.30am - 6pm
Sun: 8.30am - 4pm
Craft Centre
Now Open
Forecast
Harpur Hill
Weather
Station
Check your email over a coffee.
The A53 webcam updates every 30 seconds 
BBC Travel News
for Derbyshire and Cheshire
(The updates are frequent and time-stamped.
Check both pages because they are updated at different times).
Contact:
Flash Bar Stores, A53, Quarnford, Buxton, Derbyshire. SK17 0TF.
Tel: 01298 22763
Email: mail@flashbarstores.co.uk
How to find us
Flash Bar Stores' new coffee shop, offering tea, coffee, sandwiches, snacks, internet access, and webcam, are the most recent innovations in its long history.
A tollgate called Flash Bar and a tollhouse were built in 1771 at the junction with a road to Longnor north-east of Flash, according to an extensive history of the village at British History Online (which also casts doubt on stories of counterfeiting money at Flash in the past).
Claiming to be the highest village in England at over 1500ft, Flash is at the southern end of Axe Edge 4 miles from Buxton in the Peak District, on the main A53 road to Leek.
Nearby is Three Shires Head, where the counties of Cheshire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire meet. It a popular picnic and bathing spot for walkers, where the river falls into Panniers Pool .
REWLACH History of Flash
There is an excellent little history booklet available in the parish church,
(St. Paul's, Quarnford) . From this we learn of the silk mill at Gradbach (less than 2 miles west ) from 1640 to 1840, with silk weaving and button making as cottage industries throughout the Parish. In the 18th century, a gang used button presses to make counterfeit coins (hence the name "Flash Money") but some were hanged at Chester after a servant girl gave them away.
"During the first half of the C19th the population was around 700; it had been reduced to half this by the end of the 1800's.
In 1851 there were 40 agricultural labourers, about the same number of silk worker (spinners, spreaders, reelers and button makers), and almost as many colliers.
There were also stonemasons, dress makers, blacksmiths and cordwainers, and a shoemaker, errand boy, wheelwright, game-keeper, grocer, peddler and tailor, as well as a number of house servants, 275 young people and 50 scholars. At one time 29 families (78 individuals) were receiving weekly relief and 23 families (87 individuals) occasional relief, nearly a quarter of the population."
"The first record of coal mining in Flash comes from 1401 when Thomas Smith took a year's lease on the 'vein coal' of Black Brook, near Upper Hulme (probably at Blue Hills). There were a large number of coal pits in the Flash area (including Orchard Common, Blackclough, Hope, Goldsitch and Knotbury) which were worked throughout the C18th and C19th, and some into the early C20th, for both commercial and domestic use."
The A53 Buxton - Leek Webcam
This webcam was installed in August 2009 and looks south down the A53 towards Leek. At an alttitude of 460 metres, the webcam is just 40 metres lower than the summit of the road where it traverses Axe Edge. On the right side of the web cam picture is Oliver Hill and just out of view on the left is the Traveller's Rest public house.