There has been a settlement at Peak Forest since the Romans, who came here to extract lead ore and the surrounding hills carry the ancient scars of thier work, now reclaimed and softened by nature. Lead-mining continued well into the 15th and 16th centuries. Peak Forest takes its name from the Royal Forest of the Peak, which covered a large area from Longdendale to Derwent. Royal hunting parties were arranged here to hunt wolves, boar and deer.

King John hunting in the Peak Forest

Peak Forest church was built in the mid-1600s and was dedicated to King Charles the Martyr. The church had the power to grant marriage licences and became very popular with elopers, gaining a reputation as the Gretna green of the Midlands. The present church was rebuilt in the 1870s.

In 1758 a wealthy couple in defiance of thier parents wishes set off to Peak Forest to wed. En-route they called at an Inn at Castleton and were followed from there by a gang of five villains who ambushed and murdered them while passing through Winnats Pass. The bodies, which were hidden by the gang, were not found for weeks.

The first recorded evidence of 2 Chamber Knowle is from the 1770s. The first recorded tennancy of the property was in 1790 when it was leased by one Richard Hill, while an 1855 survey by the Devonshire Estate at Chatsworth shows the cottage in a bad state of repair and '...consisting of a cottage, cowhouse, pigstye, pig croft and garden, and nether pasture ...'. The cottage remained in the Hill family until the 1950s, during which time it was also used as a cobblers shop.