Jobs in Buxton

Buxton is a spa town of around 20,000 people in the High Peak, the highest market town in England at roughly 1,000 feet above sea level, sitting on the Manchester side of Derbyshire. Its job market runs on three largely separate things: the limestone quarries that ring the town, the Nestlé Waters bottling operation, and a steady base of tourism, hospitality and care work tied to being a Peak District spa town. Vacancies skew towards production, plant and HGV roles on the industrial side, plus seasonal and front-of-house work in the hotels and around the Crescent and the Opera House.

Quarrying and the lime trade are the defining local industries. Tarmac runs Hindlow Quarry, with its lime plant, on the A515 south of town; Breedon operates the Dowlow Quarry and asphalt plant nearby at Sterndale Moor; and Aggregate Industries, now trading as Holcim UK, runs Topley Pike Quarry on Buxton Road. Between them they account for a large share of the skilled industrial jobs, from process operators to weighbridge and transport roles. Nestlé Waters bottles Buxton mineral water at its Waterswallows site off Waterswallows Road (SK17 7JD) on the north-east edge of town, which carries production, warehouse and distribution work. The University of Derby's Centre for Mineral Products, based at the Devonshire Dome, trains people for those quarrying firms on the doorstep, though degree teaching has moved to Derby and the Buxton site is now mainly further education. Buxton Hospital on London Road (SK17 9NJ) runs an urgent treatment centre, and the local care homes add health and social care roles. Most light-industrial and trade units sit on Harpur Hill Business Park (SK17 9JL) to the south and Waterswallows Industrial Park to the north.

Transport is the main constraint. Buxton station is the terminus of the Buxton line, an hourly Northern service to Manchester Piccadilly taking around an hour via Stockport, with no eastward rail link, so commuting towards Derby or Sheffield is by road. The A6 is the main artery to Stockport and Manchester; the A515 runs south towards Ashbourne. Postcodes are all SK17, with sectors SK17 6, 7 and 9 covering the town and its surrounding villages.