Bakewell Book and a motte and bailey castle was constructed in the 12th century. A market was established in 1254, and Bakewell developed as a trading centre. The Grade I listed five-arched bridge over the River Wye was constructed in the 13th century, and is one of the few surviving remnants of this earlier period. A chalybeate spring was discovered, and a bath house built in 1697. This led to an 18th-century bid to develop Bakewell as a spa town, in the manner of Buxton. The construction of the Lumford Mill by Richard Arkwright in 1777 was followed by the rebuilding
Cathy Bakewell, Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville the Leader's Office after the 1997 elections. Bakewell was first elected to Somerset County Council in 1993, serving as Leader from 2001 to 2007, standing down in 2013. Bakewell was a member of the 2007 Councillors Commission which investigated the incentives and barriers to serving on Local Authorities. Bakewell has served as a Liberal Democrat District Councillor for the Coker electoral ward in South Somerset since in 2009. On 9 September 2013, Bakewell was created a life peer as Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville, of Hardington Mandeville in the County of Somerset, taking her title for the local village of