Chrome Hill


Chrome Hill is a limestone reef knoll
in Derbyshire, England, in the upper Dove valley beside the border with Staffordshire. It is adjacent to the more distinctive but lower Parkhouse Hill.
Chrome Hill was declared open access land
under the provisions of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000. However, the only access from the north west remains along a concessionary footpath. Chrome Hill contains good exposures of Gigantoproductus fossils; it is part of a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest which makes it an offence for visitors to remove geological samples.
In 1997 the writer Jeff Kent discovered that a double sunset could be seen against Chrome Hill from the southern flank of Parkhouse Hill. Two years later he discovered that a similar event took place from nearby Glutton Bridge, on the upper valley of the River Dove, which was more easily accessible. The phenomenon is visible from Glutton Bridge in good weather for a short period around the summer solstice, when the sun sets just to the southwest of the summit of Chrome Hill, begins to re-emerge almost immediately afterwards from its steep northeastern slope before fully reappearing and later sets for a second and final time at the foot of the hill. The precise event and its location are described in Kent's book The Mysterious Double Sunset.
Chrome Hill has had songs written in its honour by the Norwegian musicians Sigurd Hole and Jonas Howden Sjøvaag. In 2008 the Norwegian jazz quartet Damp changed its name to Chrome Hill.