It's a while since I've made a post, so this one will make up - I hope - for my lapse. A lot has happened in the month or so since Brain and Daphne drove from Plymouth to the Peak District, a part of Britain I knew little about. I was there for five days or so and the experience proved delightful in many ways. As you will see from these images a couple of well-known identities put in many appearances!
The pictures that follow chronicle the various towns and buildings that we visited, many of which are very attractive and have a long history. Here goes, with the locations appearing in alphabetical order We start with Ashbourne, which we visited en route from Longnor where we were staying to Derby - my departure point for Oxford. As these three images show, it's a pretty market town full of old buildings. Note the well-known identities on the second image.
And now we're in Bakewell, which lent it name unsurprisingly to well-known tart (of the edible variety). Again, note the well kept gardens, narrow streets lined with old buildings, and in Bakewell's case a bridge where newly married couples celebrate that event by tying a padlock to a brid(g)e.
And on to Buxton, a larger historic and fashionable town where royalty once stayed - and probably should have stayed!
As befits a classy location, Buxton has an opera house, lovely conservatories with flower beds and a variety of trees and shrubs, beautiful parks and gardens to match, with interesting sculptures, many fine houses, interesting churches, and expensive looking hotels. Nice place.
At Cromford, an industrial town, we came across one of the critical sights of the 18th century industrial revolution that catapulted Britain to world leadership. Canals were built to ferry raw cotton in for processing and presumably yarn out.
And here's the piece de resistance: the piece of machinery that propelled the industrial revolution: Arkwright's spinning jenny that radically transformed the processing of cotton thread. Before helping to invent this machinery he was a whig-maker, a dead-end occupation in an age when they were going out of fashion. Now, in 1771, he became hugely wealthy and built huge multi-storeyed factories like those shown by the following images. And many of this and similar developments in the Derwent Valley are now World Heritage listed.
And so to one of the saddest spots on the planet. I'm not referring to the stocks, which were common in many places and might used again in the 21st century! Eyam Village on the edge of the beautiful moorland of the Peak District was devastated during the black death as some of the images show. Whole families were wiped out by the plague that rampaged through in the mid 1660s! Note the instantly recognisable couple walking down the main street.
No we come to one of Britain's great stately homes, Haddon Hall. I'll let you Google this lovely places to find out who lives there and its extensive history. The images speak for themselves: frescoes, wood-carvings, engravings, grand panelled rooms,one with dining chairs, court-yards, a long gallery that might have been the inspiration for the hall of mirrors at Versailles (the dude there is me), attractive gardens,
Now we come to Longnor, a very small market town in one of the remoter parts of the Peak District. And this was where I stayed for 5 nights - a solid house in local stone that was beautifully restored inside. My bedroom had the small window at the top. The little town was an attractive spot to stay, though a little down on its luck as several pubs had closed. There were plenty of lanes nearby for long morning walks and it was reasonably accessible to most of the district's sights.
The well-known couple again.
Lastly we come to Whaley Bridge - a communications hub in the canal age. The canal still works and pleasure craft full of tourists now slide past.
AS
The pictures that follow chronicle the various towns and buildings that we visited, many of which are very attractive and have a long history. Here goes, with the locations appearing in alphabetical order We start with Ashbourne, which we visited en route from Longnor where we were staying to Derby - my departure point for Oxford. As these three images show, it's a pretty market town full of old buildings. Note the well-known identities on the second image.
And now we're in Bakewell, which lent it name unsurprisingly to well-known tart (of the edible variety). Again, note the well kept gardens, narrow streets lined with old buildings, and in Bakewell's case a bridge where newly married couples celebrate that event by tying a padlock to a brid(g)e.
And on to Buxton, a larger historic and fashionable town where royalty once stayed - and probably should have stayed!
As befits a classy location, Buxton has an opera house, lovely conservatories with flower beds and a variety of trees and shrubs, beautiful parks and gardens to match, with interesting sculptures, many fine houses, interesting churches, and expensive looking hotels. Nice place.
At Cromford, an industrial town, we came across one of the critical sights of the 18th century industrial revolution that catapulted Britain to world leadership. Canals were built to ferry raw cotton in for processing and presumably yarn out.
And here's the piece de resistance: the piece of machinery that propelled the industrial revolution: Arkwright's spinning jenny that radically transformed the processing of cotton thread. Before helping to invent this machinery he was a whig-maker, a dead-end occupation in an age when they were going out of fashion. Now, in 1771, he became hugely wealthy and built huge multi-storeyed factories like those shown by the following images. And many of this and similar developments in the Derwent Valley are now World Heritage listed.
And so to one of the saddest spots on the planet. I'm not referring to the stocks, which were common in many places and might used again in the 21st century! Eyam Village on the edge of the beautiful moorland of the Peak District was devastated during the black death as some of the images show. Whole families were wiped out by the plague that rampaged through in the mid 1660s! Note the instantly recognisable couple walking down the main street.
No we come to one of Britain's great stately homes, Haddon Hall. I'll let you Google this lovely places to find out who lives there and its extensive history. The images speak for themselves: frescoes, wood-carvings, engravings, grand panelled rooms,one with dining chairs, court-yards, a long gallery that might have been the inspiration for the hall of mirrors at Versailles (the dude there is me), attractive gardens,
Now we come to Longnor, a very small market town in one of the remoter parts of the Peak District. And this was where I stayed for 5 nights - a solid house in local stone that was beautifully restored inside. My bedroom had the small window at the top. The little town was an attractive spot to stay, though a little down on its luck as several pubs had closed. There were plenty of lanes nearby for long morning walks and it was reasonably accessible to most of the district's sights.
The well-known couple again.
Lastly we come to Whaley Bridge - a communications hub in the canal age. The canal still works and pleasure craft full of tourists now slide past.
AS
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