Sunday, 24 November 2013

Postscripts from The Peak District (22) - Hassop, Monsal Head, Little Longstone, Great Longstone & Pilsley

Catch-Up 5 - Tuesday 16th July!

Out walking the well-dressings again but built around a cunning 'circular' which took us along the Monsal Trail & through Headstone Tunnel, the only one of the re-opened tunnels we hadn't walked before

Parked at Hassop Station, now a Visitor Centre & a popular place for bike hire for those wishing to travel a little more speedily along the route of the old railway!

Very close to Chatsworth so popped into its Farm Shop at Pilsley on the way home to buy half a pig for the freezer - the freezer was very grateful!


How could you ever tire of this view?  Monsal Dale from Monsal Head & the infamous railway which drew vitriol from John Ruskin! I like it, anyway!
(Postscript 9)

And here we were, back at the 'Stables Bar' again!
Enjoyed a fine pint of Wincle's 'Undertaker'.... again!
 
Remember this picture of Les - keep it in mind for later in the day!
Who needs another photo of the 'Monsal Head Hotel'?
Don't Care! The bar & the view are amongst my very favourites anywhere!
 
Lots of convenient pubs on today's very warm walk... though we only managed to stop at three!
 
 
Little Longstone Congregational Chapel
 
 
Their Flower Festival coincided with the well-dressings
 
 
I've seen much better photos of the Chapel than this - must come back & try a little harder!
 
 
 
100th Anniversary of the Chelsea Flower Show featured in quite a few well-dressings but I, certainly, was not aware of the Peak District connection
 
 
The 'Superintendent' of that first show held in the Hospital Gardens (hence this dressing) was Derbyshire-born Samuel Thomas Wright who began his career as an apprentice gardener in Ashbourne before moving to Brailsford - both of them places where we looked at houses!
 
Walked across the fields to Great Longstone where we heard the sad story behind this dressing
 
Christine, having run the village shop for many years, had died in a road accident (the notorious local 13 bends) just a couple of weeks earlier
 
We passed it on our way out of the village & the sign was still in the window, 'Closed until further notice'


This impressive Jubilee Mosaic in Great Longstone was designed & created by local school-children with the help of artist, Jane Littlefield


Told you to remember that earlier pub stop!
Too many beers or too many hills?
Perhaps it was just the warm weather!
 
 
Actually, Les is in good company.... I understand Roy Hattersley lives here: in the village, that is, & I seem to remember him liking a pint!
 
 
The pub is named after St. Crispin, patron saint of shoemakers &, as a walker, that's always useful to know!

On our way home now, though still quite early in the afternoon
This is Pilsley Village Green, overlooked by a Primary School: a couple of young girls came out & invited us to their afternoon musical concert: unfortunately, I had an appointment with a pig & a barmaid.... though Les wouldn't let me tell them that!




 
Another Everest well-dressing, & we'd seen several of these, but in these lovely surroundings this was one of the best
 
 
A typical 'estate' village, inhabited mostly by estate-workers.... but looking far-too-expensive to live in!
 
 
We went off in search of our pig! An estate pig!
 
 
 
 
Just how many 'Devonshire Arms' are there on the Duke of Devonshire's Chatsworth Estate? Well, I know of 3 within 2 miles of each other & that's only ones that I've walked to & had a beer at!
I felt a degree of sympathy for the Dof E teenagers sheltering in the shade across the road when one of them declared, "The Devonshire Arms! Weren't we here an hour ago?
 
 

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