Postscripts from The Peak District (11) - Consall Forge

Saturday 29th June

We should, really, have been walking yesterday (Friday 28/6) - Kirstie had a day off & had driven over to Ipstones specially for the occasion &, specially for the occasion, it rained for most of the day.... quite heavily!

Much better this morning & in a warm & drying breeze we set off over the fields & through the woods to our 'local' at Consall Forge (see Postscript 1)

On a positive note, this was the last rain we had before the current warm & dry spell began!

Now we wouldn't have seen this yesterday - the Churnet Valley Heritage Railway, under full steam & approaching Consall station

 

Song of the Day : 'The Locomotion' by Little Eva - not quite a locomotive but read that today would have been her 70th birthday.... a good enough excuse! 



Not a huge number of customers today, though we were quite early - just after midday

 

 

'The Black Lion', Consall Forge

Probably destined to become the most featured pub on the Blog!

 

 Beer of the Day : 'A Fist Full of Hops' from Derby's Falstaff Brewery, the pump clip featuring Clint Eastwood!

A very good golden beer with a strong hoppy aftertaste - one to look out for

The Caldon Canal at Consall Forge

The two bridges allow pedestrian-only access to 'The Black Lion' which is just above & behind the building on the left

Back to a bit of industrial heritage!

These lime kilns were built by John Leigh of Consall New Hall, their produce contributing to the huge profits made by the Churnet Valley's iron industry

 

 

The kilns are now owned by the RSPB; they sit in a Nature Reserve & a SSSI & they are a Scheduled Ancient Monument!

Should be here for a few years yet....

Sponsored by JCB & the Nationwide; supported by Lottery Funding, The Countryside Agency & Leek & Moorlands Historic Buildings Trust - I was really impressed that this mosaic, created in 2002, is still in a pretty healthy condition

 

 

Philip Hardaker is a Yorkshireman who has spent much of his artistic career in the Potteries

The children are from the village school just down the road from us - amazing to think that they'll be in Higher Education or working by now!

Postscripts from The Peak District (10) - Youlgrave, Over Haddon & Bakewell

Excellent evening in 'The Swiss Bell' on Monday night (22/7) - good to see everybody again!

Tuesday 25th June

Still blogging several weeks behind myself but it's all this good weather - I don't have the time to sit down at the computer!

More wells to visit &, again, linked to a cross-country walk. Parked in Bakewell, caught a bus to Youlgrave & wandered back via Lathkilldale & Over Haddon

Bakewell has never been one of my favourite Peak District locations - too many walks started or finished here when it's been packed with tourists making it almost impossible to walk along the pavements.... I can say that now I'm no longer really a tourist!

Lovely in this morning's sunshine & we were early enough to be here before the coaches!

 We'd been impressed by Tideswell's dressings but Youlgrave's were even better!

 

 

 

This is the Reading Room Well, located outside All Saints Church but named after the Old Reading Room, its original site, just across the road

 

 

 

 

 

 

'Youlgreave', according to OS, the church & the sign at the entrance to the village but 'Youlgrave' according to villagers & some of the direction-markers

'Giolgrave' in the Domesday Book &, apparently, the village has had more than 60 acceptable spellings so what chance do I have of getting it right?!

I think Zolgrelf is probably my favourite!

 

The magnificent Fountain Well in the centre of the village

Youlgrave has more reason than most to bless its water

The well stands behind this enormous dressing & bears the date 1829 when the village was connected, by pipes, to the nearby Mawstone Springs after a lengthy campaign by 'The Friendly Society of Women'

 

Most homes in the village are still supplied by Youlgreave Water Works Ltd (yes, the spelling is correct!), one of very few private water companies still in existence

 

 

 

 

 

Forgot to do a 'Song of the Day' on the last Postscript but here was an immediate contender for today's

Youlgrave's Holy Well dressing displays the lyrics to Bob Marley's 'One Love, One Heart' on its accompanying poster.... but it didn't quite get the nod!

 

 

 

 

Bank Top is the largest village well though all the dressings are huge

Designer & creator of 'Daniel in the Lions Den', Phil Smith, says his first attempt at the lions made them look like teddy-bears!

They still look quite friendly to me!

Can you spot the three blind mice?

And the last Youlgrave well, at Coldwell End, appropriately returns to the theme of water

'Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water'

 

Strangely, I wasn't in the least bit tempted by all this water & repaired to 'The George' for a quick cider before setting off for Bakewell!

Crossed the River Lathkill at Conksbury, the site of a medieval village now buried in all of this lush undergrowth

 

It's there in the Domesday Book though, with 35 villagers, 16 smallholders & no fancy spellings!

 

The Lathkill is the only Peak District river to rise & run solely through limestone which, apparently, accounts for its clarity, purity & ability to sustain such a wide variety of wildlife.... despite its once heavy industrial use - a mill here as evidenced by the weir & lead-mining remains further upstream

Charles Cotton, 'Compleat Angler', wrote in 1653 that the river is '... by many degrees, the purest and most transparent stream that I ever saw, either at home or abroad, and breeds, it is said, the reddest and best Trouts in England'

View over Lathkilldale, down there in the trees, from Pub Stop No. 2 at Over Haddon

Speaking of 'bests', this has been described as the best Pub View in Britain.... don't know why, there's not a pub in sight!

Originally 'The Miners Arms',

the pub became 'The Lathkil View Hotel' in 1882 & is now, simply, 'The Lathkil Hotel.... not sure what happened to the abandoned 'l'!

The view above is from these splendid front windows

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Its name means 'Heath Hill' &, above the mining in the valley, this has been a sheep-farming community for thousands of years

Here it gets the 'Watership Down' treatment!

Superbly intricate design

 

 

 

 

 

 

All that remained was the gentle downhill stroll back to Bakewell

Sports Day at one of the local schools & we were accompanied by tannoy announcements & cheers almost all the way to 'The Red Lion'!

 

All Saints Church, Bakewell

Lovely approach to a now much-busier town

 

I enjoyed a final cider outside the 17th century coaching inn while Les went off to buy a couple of Bakewell puddings & a huge tub of clotted cream for tea.... just to keep up the cholesterol levels!

 

Song of the Day : Well, Well, Well by John Lennon.... it had to happen!

Postscripts from The Peak District (9) - Hope, Tideswell & Litton

Monday 24th June

Absolutely horrible yesterday (Sunday 23/6) with strong winds & heavy rain almost all day. Drove to the 'Dog & Partridge' at Swinscoe for Sunday lunch with Ian & Carol, Les' brother & his wife, who'd come up from Bridgnorth for the day.... we had been hoping to go for a walk!

Today's forecast wasn't a great deal better but we wanted to visit the weekend's new well-dressings before they were totally destroyed by the weather!

So, Di, here's a veritable bumper-bundle for you, & we even managed to fit in a walk as well!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Drove to Hope first, where we've walked on many occasions

Like many other villages Carnival Weekend, Well-Dressing & Scarecrows go hand-in-hand

Hope's theme was 'Musicals' &, unsurprisingly considering the weather, there was an abundance of Gene Kellys!

 

 

 

Outside Hope Valley College, an 11-16 comprehensive

After last week's visit to Rocester & the JCB Academy (Postscript 8) I was interested to discover Hope College's House names

They are: Derwent, Ladybower & Howden; the three Upper Derwent Valley dams, just over Win Hill from the village & another area we've been known to go for a stroll!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the Edale Road Well, commemorating the 60th anniversary of Hillary & Tenzing's conquest of Everest

The side panels show Himalayan prayer mats depicting the Lung Ta (Windhorse), as well as rope & ice axes, while the top represents the Himalayan Trust set up by Hillary to support the Sherpa people




Had intended to nominate a 'well-dressing of the day' but today's were just too good!
Settled on a favourite from each village & this is the choice from Hope

 

 

 

 

 

I'll leave the explanation to the people who created it - they can say it far better than me

Drove to Tideswell, another village where we house-hunted enthusiastically!

Spent a week here over Easter 2008 when I walked the Peak District Inn Way - more about Tideswell in future postscripts as, I have no doubt, we'll be back!


Several dressings in the village - these are our favourites


Created by the 1st Tideswell Scout Group as part of their fund-raising efforts to send village Mogul Skier, Ellie Koyander, to the 2014 Winter Olympics
The crossed skis represent one of the jumps, involving a 360 degree flip with the skis crossed like this!

 

 

One of two dressings outside the Church of St John the Baptist, 'the cathedral of the Peaks'

 

Tideswell's Community Well Dressing

All the villagers are invited to take part in this project which helps to fund things like the attractive flower troughs scattered about all over the place!

Other community activities are depicted in the side panels - pleased to see that beer & cricket appear to be high on their agenda!

 

Our favourite Tideswell dressing, The Village Well Dressing on Fountain Square

Looking back over recent years cathedrals & local churches have been a common theme with St John's featuring in 2003

This year's is a celebration of the Wiltshire countryside: from white horses, crop circles & Stonehenge to Henry Edmunds, named as 'the UK's most wildlife-friendly farmer' by the RSPB in 2012

 

 

So, time for a walk

Clouds still threatening but not enough to prevent us from enjoying a beer outside 'The Red Lion' in Litton, barely a mile from Tideswell!

 

 

Beer of the Day : 'Absolution', another from Sheffield's Abbeydale Brewery

Bit wary after their 'Deception' (Postscript 7) but this is very good - light & fruity, I couldn't believe it's 5.3%!

I'll be looking for this one again

 

 

 

This is the Children's Well-Dressing, outside the village Primary School

When we passed they were setting up to give a lunchtime musical concert

Our favourite from Litton

Using the theme 'things people like doing', quite a few of the pictures are based on poems written by village well-dresser, Joyce Battey, who died earlier this year

Another cricket fan though it looks as if she preferred tea or champagne to beer!

 

On with the walk!

 

First time I'd come across a way-marker for the Peak District walk created by my favourite walking magazine

Launched just over a year ago while I was busy fussing with my knees but, at 27 miles spread over 3 days, I could probably just about manage it now!

Watch this space!

 

 

Heading down Tansley Dale & Les obviously still a little concerned about the weather!

 

 

Last time I walked here was in snow & the path was buried

Cressbrook Dale from the south

Tansley Dale is the valley climbing away about half-way up the picture to the left

And, having climbed all the way up here, we were heading back down to Ravensdale & Litton Mill!

 

 

Looking up Monsal Dale to Monsal Head with its hotel, from the top of Cressbrook village

Those clouds are the reason that Les was still clinging to her waterproof!

The magnificently named Water-cum-Jolly Dale

The curve of the old Manchester-Midlands rail line, now the Monsal Trail, can be seen in the centre

More on all of these places in future Postscripts when I don't have well-dressings to go on about!

 

 

Lone chimney above Miller's Dale & Litton Mill, presumably built with a tunnel to avoid the need for a ridiculously tall chimney to climb above the limestone cliffs

Found a friend to help me tackle the 27 miles of the White-to-Dark Peak Trail!

Located about half-way up Tideswell Dale where there used to be fine wooden carvings of an owl & a sheep

 

This dear lady was here the last time I visited, overseeing the entrance to Tideswell Dale car-park; though, with respect, she did look a little younger in those days!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finished the day back in Tideswell village & here we were with the scarecrows again

Didn't look too scary & thought I might wander over for a chat with this young lady.... until I realised the error of my ways & repaired to 'The Horse & Jockey'!

Postscripts from The Peak District (8) - Rocester

Friday 21st June

Another lovely day & off we went to the other end of the River Churnet. On Tuesday we'd walked close to its source, near Flash (Postscript 7); today we walked from the village of Rocester, close to the Churnet's confluence with the Dove, just south of our Fathers Day outing (Postscript 6)

Never heard of Rocester before our house-hunting exploits: now I know it to be the site of a Roman fort & settlement, home to the country's first University Technical College (opened in 2010) &, most overwhelmingly, World Headquarters of JCB! Look at the map, though; it's still only a small village!

Decided it was a bit low-lying for us to live here, particularly bearing in mind the River Dove's recent watery misdeeds, but it did make for some gentle, mostly-level wandering after the knee-challenging valleys of Tuesday

 

Rocester's JCB Academy

Love this picture of the JCB sponsored new-build alongside Arkwright's 18th century mill!

 

 

 

 

Arkwright arrived here about 10 years after his revolutionary work with water-power in Cromford, bought an old corn-mill & set up a business which continued in Rocester until 1985

Unsurprisingly, the Academy's specialism is Engineering & Business but I'm far more taken by its House names:  Bamford, after Joseph Cyril Bamford (it's in the initials!), Arkwright & Royce, after Henry Royce who had a mate called Rolls!

 

 

 

Took a slightly ambitious route across fields, initially to Roston & then on to Norbury - ambitious as the few footpath signs we found couldn't be relied upon to be pointing in the right direction!

Roston's pub, known as 'The Shant' was due to close, forever, the day after our visit.... but it wasn't open today either!

 

 

'Collected' this well-dressing in the lane outside Norbury Primary School which, in keeping with the signposts, appeared to be in the village of Roston!

 

Expected the return to Rocester to be much more straightforward as we picked up the Limestone Way here at Lower Ellastone

Might be a recognised long-distance bridleway, clearly marked on the OS map with bright red triangles, but all I can say is that it's a good thing we knew we were following the River Dove! 

Les merging into the undergrowth!

Not somebody's garden, simply bushes & wildflowers growing beside the track as we climbed away from the Dove at Riverside Doveleys

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

St. Michael's Church, Rocester

 

Apparently there are visible remains of a wall close to the church which once formed part of the Roman Fort.... we couldn't find them!

 

 

 

 

Totally invisible, except for a few grassy mounds, are the remains of a 12th century Augustinian Abbey which once stood here

A curiously-deserted village centre showing Rocester's Buttercross & 'The Red Lion'
No interesting beers so basked in the sunshine with a cider!





Just as Arkwright's mill & the cotton industry began to decline another major employer arrived in Rocester
The original Bamfords factory was built in the 1950s; its replacement & now JCB World Headquarters was opened on the same site in 1970 - it would have been churlish not to explore their attractive landscaped grounds!

'Opus' by Mark Delf
Depicting men digging, shovelling & moving earth - this is the theme JCB asked for, presumably to remind us all how much easier they've made it!

'Startled Horse'
Local artist Delf's first sculpture for JCB: completed while a student at Stoke's Sir Henry Doulton School of Sculpture & unveiled in 1990, two years before 'Opus', it was this piece that earned him the second commission





'Sumo' by Allen Jones
Fashioned from Corten steel
According to Sir Anthony Bamford,  "Just like JCB machines, Sumo represents power and strength."
Well, he is the chairman!

Wandered around the large lake where a fishing-match was just about to get underway

We'd seen loads of huge carp sunbathing on the far side of the lake's island but there didn't seem to be any round this side


 A fact confirmed by one of the anglers we spoke to: he said they weren't allowed to match-fish around there!
Song of the Day : Fisherman's Blues by The Waterboys
(Perhaps those big birds had scared them all away!)

'The Fosser' by Walenty Pytel
This was the largest steel sculpture in Europe when it was created in 1979 from JCB digger parts
(Fosser means 'digger' in Latin!)
Quite dramatic, it looks like some gigantic Earth-threatening insect from a black & white science-fiction film!


Probably wouldn't look quite so scary if it was bright yellow!

Finished our afternoon jaunt by walking back into the village by the river & past the 'other' Rocester Mill: this, too, has had the JCB makeover & now houses the company's financial offices

Fascinating walk.... I can find industrial archaeology almost anywhere!