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
Joan Bakewell British Empire (DBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours. In November 2008, Joan Bakewell was appointed a voice for older people by the UK Government. She is Chairman of the theatre company Shared Experience. It was announced in November 2010 that she would be awarded a life peerage, joining the Labour benches. She was created Baroness Bakewell, of Stockport in the County of Greater Manchester, on 21 January 2011, and formally introduced to the House of Lords on 25 January 2011 supported by fellow Labour peers Lord Puttnam and Baroness Kennedy. On 20 July 2011, Bakewell was made an honorary graduate