Wednesday 3rd July (a.m!)
Today's plan had been to wander around Whaley Bridge & Bugsworth (Buxworth) Basin, reliving one of the best bits of LeJog but this was delayed until the afternoon when I discovered that Mellor's well-dressing was also this week!
Never heard of Mellor but, discovering it to be above the River Goyt & not too far from New Mills, I was immediately interested. I already have walks pencilled in for the Goyt & Sett valleys & this was a good opportunity to investigate the terrain! Curiously, New Mills had been on my original LeJog route until I read of the attractions of Bugsworth!
Early heavy cloud was a hangover from some fierce overnight rain but the air was much clearer after the heat of recent days
Looking towards Mellor Moor where coal was mined during the Industrial Revolution
Only a giant's stone-throw away from Stockport & Manchester, close to old industrial areas I knew (Marple Bridge & New Mills), I didn't expect to be greeted by views like this! What a gem!
Biggest surprise, though, is the on-going Mellor Archaeological Trust Project investigating the village's history, the major part of which seems to have been conducted in the garden of the Old Vicarage!
Stone Age flint tools, Iron Age roundhouse ditches, Roman pottery, post-holes from a Medieval Hall.... & all of this before Industry reared its ugly head!
Above are the two parts of Christopher Rose-Innes' sculpture, 'BC - AD'
Roundhouse reconstruction in the meadow below the church & Old Vicarage
Song of the Day : time for a rewrite of that dreadful Jimmie Rodgers song, 'In an English Country Garden'!
Not only preoccupied with the area's distant past, the Trust works with a team of volunteers who have been excavating & clearing Samuel Oldknow's Mellor Mill site
They're hoping, eventually, to be able to open the whole site to the public.... I'll be there!
Oldknows was also a driving force behind the construction of the Peak Forest Canal & Tramway (we'll be there this afternoon!) & the Trust's recent bid for restoration funding was made jointly with the Canal & River Trust
Perhaps that was the inspiration behind Mellor's intricate well-dressing
More on this when we come back to look at the Mill.... whatever the outcome of the bid
View over the Goyt Valley from St Thomas Church & graveyard
Met the vicar as we admired the view - she has just moved here from Chester & can't believe her luck!
Discovered, later, that there are a couple of unique features inside the church; something else to take in next time, but the clouds were lifting & it was time to be moving on....
No comments:
Post a Comment