Lumsdale - Peak District

Yesterday (Saturday) was brewing day; Les & I visiting Nutbrook Brewery in West Hallam, Derby to cook up our own 'original' ale under the tutelage of Dean Richards! All done in his garage.... though they have expanded the business into the outbuildings of a nearby farm

Brilliant day &, as well as being great fun, I learned why many of those LeJog beers taste as they do - now all we have to do is wait, patiently, for the outcome!
Left: carefully adding the calculated & weighed measure of Early Hops






Decided to use cheap labour for the heavy work!
Les taking a break from supervisory duties & photo-taking

In a few weeks we should have 72 bottles of a fine commemorative ale celebrating, amongst other things, Land's End to John o' Groats!

Working 'recipe' board with evidence of all that hard work put in during Wednesday evening's beer-tasting session

Many thanks to Jamie & Andy for an excellent gift - hope ours is as good as 'Monsta Mash'!

Hadn't seen much of Jamie & Andy since our arrival on Wednesday evening, partly because of beer but mostly because we'd been out walking whilst they were at work, so decided to go for a short wander this morning before returning home along a route Jamie found in a 'Pub Walks' book
It's a circular from Tansley; she's walked & enthused about it before & had been trying to get us to do it for some time....

Glorious morning & lots of people out & about in the village: church-goers, gardeners, dog-walkers, strollers & a whole horde of Dads & Sons gearing up for Sunday-morning football

Began by gently winding up & around the wooded Tansley Knoll; lovely views across the Derwent Valley but nothing to even hint at the sights to come!

Tansley's wealth during the Industrial Revolution came from the quarrying of grit mill-stones but that does really feel centuries away until the walk swings down into Lumsdale, passes a row of mill-workers cottages & reaches this old dammed mill-pond: the largest & best-preserved of the 5 which once stepped in series down Bentley Brook to the Derwent

Highlight of the Day: Industrial Heritage gone mad! And I didn't even know they existed!
The Lumsdale Valley mills pre-date their more famous neighbours at Cromford but they owe their spectacular preservation to the Arkwright Society
Above Left: wheel-pit of 1850s grinding mill, immediately below the dammed pond - curiously, the millstone, which can still be seen alongside the building, was quarried in France!
Above Right: Bentley Brook taking the first of its big steps through the mill complex

Remains of Paint Mill: one of the oldest in the valley & variously used for lead smelting, grinding corn & bleaching before being modified to grind barytes for the paint industry
The chimney base links to an underground heating system used for drying the mineral

One of the tail-races which returned 'used' water to the river

And the only real 'survivor'; Bentley Brook continues to rush beteen the rocks on its way into the valley
Absolutely superb - almost unbelievable that something like this can exist & not be widely known

Beer of the Day: finished the morning's adventurous short stroll at 'The Tavern at Tansley' where I sampled a pint of Masham's 'Black Sheep', an increasingly popular beer in the south. Have had this on several occasions & the last couple of times it has been far from impressive. This was spot on!

Only failing of the day: apparently, we were supposed to be picking sloes for sloe gin.....!