Quarnford Parish Council

Quarnford is a village and civil parish in the Staffordshire Moorlands district of Staffordshire, England. The name Quarnford was first recorded in 1227 and is derived from Old English cweorn, a quern or millstone. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 244, reducing marginally to 242 at the 2011 census.  
Quarnford is situated in the Peak District National Park and nearby towns include Buxton, Macclesfield and Leek.

The village (as opposed to the parish) is known by the name “Flash” and is the highest village in Britain, being some 1518 ft above sea level. The local church of St. Paul’s was built starting in 1743, its graveyard contains graves dating back to at least 1791.  Many of the gravestones are now unreadable which is a testament to the harsh winter conditions of the area.

Sir George Harpur Crewe (19^th century Conservative politician for South Derbyshire) first visited Quarnford circa 1819 and described it as ‘the very end of the civilized world’, and Flash village was ‘dirty, and bore marks principally of Poverty, Sloth, and Ignorance’.