Bakewell Peak District 29.08.23

On Tuesday the 29th August 2023 Mel and I drove to Bakewell in the Peak District before going onto our hotel in Matlock Bath. We arrived just after 12 and parked up at Smiths Island Car Park. We walk across The River Wye via a bridge and see huge Brown trout fighting with the geese for the food being thrown in.

We walk alongside the River Wye and up to the Lovelocks Bridge.

Lock locks started to appear on the Wye Bridge in 2012 and were the first to appear in Derbyshire, presently there are many hundreds now attached to the bridge. The love locks may be loved by some and hated by others however it does indicate that there is still some love in the world.

The tradition of love locks fastened to bridges is believed to have begun in Serbia during World War I, after a woman died of heartbreak when her lover deserted her for another woman he met at war. The local women, horrified at befalling the same fate, began to fasten padlocks on the bridge where the two lovers used to meet. Today, love lock bridges can be found all over the world.

Following the river along we reach the Bakewell bridge. 

The Grade I listed five-arched bridge over the River Wye was constructed in the 13th century, and is one of the few surviving remnants of this earlier period. A chalybeate spring was discovered, and a bath house built in 1697. This led to an 18th-century bid to develop Bakewell as a spa town, in the manner of Buxton. The construction of the Lumford Mill by Richard Arkwright in 1777 was followed by the rebuilding of much of the town in the 19th century.

We cross the bridge and walk round down Market Street and into Granby Road to use the toilets there before we walked on into Water Street.

A market was established in 1254, and Bakewell developed as a trading centre.

We pass the Bakewell Pudding Factory but I buy a Bakewell Pudding from Bloomers Bakery, no shortage of businesses cashing in on the Bakewell Pudding theme.

These delicious puddings were first made by accident at a local inn (the then White Horse) around 1860. It seems clear that the recipe was originally something of an accident, the result of a misunderstanding between Mrs Greaves, mistress of the inn and her cook.

Visiting noblemen ordered strawberry tart, but the cook, instead of stirring the egg mixture into the pastry, spread it on top of the jam. The result was so successful that a Mrs Wilson, wife of a tallow chandler who lived in the cottage now known as the Old Original Bakewell Pudding Shop where candles were made, saw the possibility of making the puddings for sale and obtained the so-called recipe and commenced a business of her own.

Bakewell Puddings, still made by hand from the secret recipe, are sent away to many corners of the globe from the world-famous bakery, as well as eaten as a sweet in our famous restaurant as they were meant to be eaten - hot with custard or cream.

We walk on down Bridge Street and up to Rutland Square.

Although there is evidence of earlier settlements in the area, Bakewell itself was probably founded in Anglo Saxontimes, when Bakewell was in the Anglian kingdom of Mercia. The name Bakewell means a spring or stream of a man named Badeca (or Beadeca) and derives from this personal name plus the Old English wella. In 949 it was Badecanwelle and in the 11th century Domesday Book it was Badequelle. Bakewell Parish Church, a Grade I listedbuilding, was founded in 920 and has a 9th-century cross in the churchyard. The present church was constructed in the 12th and 13th centuries but was virtually rebuilt in the 1840s by William Flockton. By Norman times Bakewell had gained some importance: the town and its church (having two priests) being mentioned in the Domesday Book and a motte and bailey castle was constructed in the 12th century.

After turning left up Matlock Street we walk down a alleyway to the Lavender Tea Rooms where we had a Cream Tea.

We walk back down Granby Road and back down Water Street passing Tiroler Stuberl.

Austrian Coffee Shop and Sausage Importer, They also sell Bakewell Puddings!

We walk pass the famous 'The Old Original Bakewell Pudding Shop'. and finally back to the car.

I drive the short distance up the road to Thornbridge Brewery and its taproom.

I love their Cocoa Wonderland Porter and others of theirs I've tried, so looking forward to tasting more.

The Thornbridge story began back in 2005 when the founders Jim Harrison and Simon Webster recruited two young brewers to brew on a second hand 10-barrel kit in the grounds of Thornbridge Hall.

The brewery was originally based in the outbuildings of Thornbridge Hall, surrounded by beautiful gardens within the 100-acre estate. The buildings were renovated in 2004 in preparation for the brewery installation. Jim Harrison and Simon Webster recruited two young brewers, keen to kick-start their brewing career. Their first brew was Lord Marples, a 4% classic bitter, which went on to become a core Thornbridge beer.

Next, they were tasked with brewing something a little different, an IPA which packed a punch in terms of both flavour and ABV. In mid-2005 Jaipur was born. A 5.9% IPA packed with American hops and like nothing else in the beer industry at that time. Following an array of awards and national recognition, Jaipur catapulted Thornbridge into the spotlight, demand outstripped supply and the need for a new Brewery became clear.

In 2009 a brand new state of the art brewery was built at Riverside, Bakewell to meet with demand and allow Thornbridge to develop their range of beers. Brewing still takes place today on the original kit which has been moved to beside the Taproom at Riverside, which allows us to experiment with new brews, create bespoke Hall brews, collaborations and assist the main brewery in Bakewell.

I had a flight of Wild Swan (Pale Ale), Green Mountain (IPA Session) and a Chula Vista (Lemon and Seasalt Sour). All very nice.

We left the brewery and drove to our hotel in Matlock Bath, The New Bath Hotel.

The hotel has a Open Air Pool that is a natural geo-thermal spring feed enters the shallow end at a constant 19.8 degrees Celsius (around 68 degrees F). The feed is a continuous flow and therefore holds a good temperature throughout the pool but due to exposure to air temperature, the main body of water varies between 15 degrees C in the depth of winter and 23 degrees C on a very hot Summers day. The most typical range though is 17-19 degrees.

Nothing added and nothing taken away. The spring water from exiting the ground is very simply gravity fed toward the shallow end and continuously flows through the pool and is then routed to the River Derwent. The perfect quality, purity and balance of the mineral rich water has been recently proven by a Doctor in Hydrogeology.

Originally constructed in 1934 with imperial measurements, the pool measures Forty yards in length by Fourteen yards in width. Length equates to approx. 36.5metres.

I had a swim the next day,  I'm used to wild swimming but it was a tad cold even for me !

We had the outside annexe rooms, they were a little tired but still great value for the price paid.

We walked down into Matlock Bath in the evening.

Originally built at the head of a dead-end dirt road running along the valley of the River Derwent from Matlock, the settlement developed in the 19th century as residential and a spa town which remains a tourist destination. The steep hillside restricts development with most buildings on one side of the valley and only footbridges across the river. The road was upgraded, becoming a through-way, now designated A6, avoiding the previous coaching road approach to Matlock from Cromford over very steep hills near to the Riber plateau area.

In 1698, warm springs were discovered and a bath house was built. As the waters became better known, access was improved by building the bridge into Old Matlock and in 1783, the opening of a new entrance at the south of the valley. Princess Victoria of Kent's royal visit in 1832 confirmed Matlock as a society venue of the time. Victoria's party visited a pair of museums and a petrifying well. John Ruskin and Lord Byron were visitors, Byron comparing it with alpine Switzerland, leading to a nickname of Little Switzerland. Erasmus Darwin recommended the area to Josiah Wedgwood I for its beauty and soothing waters, and members of the families vacationed and settled there. Edward Levett Darwin, son of Francis Sacheverel Darwin, lived at Dale House in Matlock Bath, where he was a solicitor.

When the North Midland Railway opened in 1840, carriages plied for hire from Ambergate station. The Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway ran a number of excursions, taking the passengers onward from Ambergate by the Cromford Canal.

Matlock Bath is a designated conservation area with an Article 4 direction in relation to properties, predominantly along North and South Parade.

Matlock Bath is dubbed the Seaside resort a hundred miles from the sea. It is full of chip shops, amusement arcades and candy floss.

The thermal springs were said to cure a variety of ailments and when the Old Bath Hotel opened in 1698 (on the site of what is now the Grand Pavilion’s car park), Matlock Bath became a renowned spa resort. ‘My maternal great grandfather was mad for curative waters,’ Smith says. ‘He was a self-taught chemist and built up a successful paintworks company. Using his paint-gotten gains he invested in a hydro, a spa hotel, in Matlock. My dad remembers swimming there as a boy before the war.’

Besides ‘taking the waters’ many visitors took to the scenery. From Derwent Gardens the trail climbs the steep tree-lined valley. Peering down from the summit, the pastel-coloured houses and shops line the bottom like sweets in a bag. Ahead is the vast limestone crag of High Tor. At 300 feet, it’s one of England’s tallest inland cliffs. High Tor creates a dramatic, almost alpine setting. Matlock Bath’s Victorian nickname was ‘Little Switzerland’. Today, there is even a cable car, which takes visitors to the Heights of Abraham country park.

Matlock Bath’s sightseers included Lord Byron, Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne and the then Princess Victoria. Another was Mary Shelley. Her 1818 novel Frankenstein includes a comment on the landscape: ‘The country in the neighbourhood of this village resembles Switzerland; but everything is on a lower scale.’

We stop in The Fishpond pub where I have a pint to Abbeydale Heathen (Pale Ale-American), the brewery is in Sheffield not too far away.

We had a delicious burger here, before a stroll along the River Derwent and back to the Hotel.

Cromford and Cromford Mills Derbyshire 31.08.23

On Thursday the 31st August 2023 Mel and I drove up the road to Cromford Mills in Cromford Derbyshire. I learnt about this place in history lessons at school and about Richard Arkwright and his water frame and the start of the Industrial Revolution.

We have breakfast in the café here, two amazing Sausage cobs. Cobs is what they call rolls in this part of the country.

Cromford Mill is the world's first water-powered cotton spinning mill, developed by Richard Arkwright in 1771 in Cromford, Derbyshire, England. The mill structure is classified as a Grade I listed building. It is now the centrepiece of the Derwent Valley Mills UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is a multi-use visitor centre with shops, galleries, restaurants and cafes.

Following the invention of the flying shuttle for weaving cotton in 1733, the demand for spun cotton increased enormously in England. Machines for carding and spinning had already been developed but were inefficient. Spun cotton was also produced by means of the spinning jenny but was insufficiently strong to form the warp of a fabric, for which it was the practice to use linen thread, producing a type of cloth known as fustian. In 1769, Richard Arkwright patented a water frame to use the extra power of a water mill after he had set up a horse-powered mill in Nottingham.

He chose the site at Cromford because it had year-round supply of warm water from the Cromford Sough which drained water from nearby Wirksworth lead mines, together with Bonsall Brook. Here he built a five-storey mill, with the backing of Jedediah Strutt (whom he met in a Nottingham bank via Ichabod Wright), Samuel Need and John Smalley. Starting from 1772, he ran the mills day and night with two twelve-hour shifts.

He started with 200 workers, more than the locality could provide, so he built housing for them nearby, one of the first manufacturers to do so. Most of the employees were women and children, the youngest being only seven years old. Later, the minimum age was raised to ten and the children were given six hours of education a week, so that they could do the record-keeping that their illiterate parents could not.

A large part of the village was built to house the mill workers. Stuart Fisher states that these are now considered to be "the first factory housing development in the world". Employees were provided with shops, pubs, chapels and a school.

The gate to Cromford Mill was shut at precisely 6 am and 6 pm every day, and any worker who failed to get through it not only lost a day's pay but also was fined another day's pay.

The cotton mill ceased operation in the 19th century and the buildings were used for other purposes, finally a dyeing plant. In 1979, the Grade I listed site was bought by the Arkwright Society, who began the long task of restoring it to its original state.

The importance of this site is not that it was the first but that it was the first successful cotton spinning factory. It showed unequivocally the way ahead and was widely emulated.

The sluice in the mill yard used to control the water supply.

We leave the Mills and walk pass St Marys Church down by the River Derwent.

We cross the road and walk over to the Cromford Canal.

The Cromford Canal ran 14.5 miles (23.3 kilometres) from Cromford to the Erewash Canal in Derbyshire, England with a branch to Pinxton. Built by William Jessop with the assistance of Benjamin Outram, its alignment included four tunnels and 14 locks.

From Cromford it ran south following the 275-foot (84 m) contour line along the east side of the valley of the Derwent to Ambergate, where it turned eastwards along the Amber valley. It turned sharply to cross the valley, crossing the river and the Ambergate to Nottingham road, by means of an aqueduct at Bullbridge, before turning towards Ripley. From there the Butterley Tunnel took it through to the Erewash Valley.

From the tunnel it continued to Ironville, the junction for the branch to Pinxton, and then descended through fourteen locks to meet the Erewash Canal at Langley Mill. The Pinxton Branch became important as a route for Nottinghamshire coal, via the Erewash, to the River Trent and Leicester and was a terminus of the Mansfield and Pinxton Railway.

A 6-mile (9.7 km) long section of the Cromford canal between Cromford and Ambergate is listed as a Biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and a Local Nature Reserve.

In addition to purely canal traffic, there was a lively freight interchange with the Cromford and High Peak Railway, which traversed the plateau of the Peak District from Whaley Bridge in the north west, and which descended to the canal at High Peak Junction by means of an inclined plane.

We start to walk along the canal, but it doesn't look aspiring so we decide to drive to Dovedale for a walk.

Dovedale to Milldale Peak District walk 31.08.23

GPX File Here

Mel and I park in the National Trust Car Park here for free as I'm a member else its £7 for the day. We leave the car and walk down alongside The River Dove.

We passed the Izaak Walton Hotel, named after the author of the book The Compleat Angler. He fished the River Dove in the mid 17th century. Bunster Hill is on our left and Thorpe Cloud is ahead of us, with the flat top.

Dovedale is a valley in the Peak District of England. The land is owned by the National Trust, and annually attracts a million visitors. The valley was cut by the River Dove and runs for just over 3 miles (5 km) between Milldale in the north and a wooded ravine near Thorpe Cloud and Bunster Hill in the south. In the wooded ravine, a set of stepping stones cross the river, and there are two caves known as the Dove Holes.

Dovedale's other attractions include rock pillars such as Ilam Rock, Viator's Bridge, and the limestone features Lovers' Leap and Reynard's Cave.

A look back to where we walked up.

The river marks the boundary between Derbyshire and Staffordshire.

We reach the Stepping stones across the River Dove, it's a lot busier than when I visited in January 2019.

Put in place in the middle of the 19th century, the stones have long been a magnet for visitors to the area. There are lots of fossils in the stones, you can spot them as you cross them.

The River Dove is a famous trout stream. Charles Cotton's Fishing House, the inspiration for Izaak Walton's The Compleat Angler, stands in the woods by the river. From Hartington to its confluence with the River Manifold at Ilam the River Dove flows through the scenic limestone valley known as Dove Valley, or Dovedale. From Hartington south to Ilam, a distance of eight miles (13 km), the Dove flows through Beresford Dale, Wolfscote Dale, Milldale, and then Dovedale.

View back to the Stepping Stones with Thorpe Cloud looming above.

We now follow The River Dove towards Milldale.

I can't help but marvel at the sight of the Limestone gorge, its rock formations, the babbling river and the silence of it all! Heaven!

I told Mel its all nice and flat, I forgot about this steep uphill section!

We got to the top and stop for a breather and take on some water.

Dovedale is of special ecological interest for its plant life, particularly the calcareous ash woods, which are considered among the best in England.There are unusual plants such as Solomon's seal, lily of the valley, Paris quadrifolia and small and large-leaved lime trees.

A large number of Ash trees have been cut down after Ash dieback disease has hit here.

The gorge towering overhead reminds me of a cartoon where Wile E Coyote throws a rock on an unsuspecting roadrunner.

We reach the bridge that leads over to Ilam Rock.

The limestone rock that forms parts of Dovedale is the fossilised remains of sea creatures that lived in a shallow, tropical lagoon about 350 million years ago. During the two ice ages, the limestone was cut into craggy shapes. Dovedale is famous for its numerous limestone rock formations. Ilam rock pictured here is one of the most spectacular, standing at about 25 metres high.

It's another mile and a quarter to Milldale, We stop for a rest on the bridge while Mel makes up her mind if she wants to turn back or crack on to Milldale.

Mel decides she'll walk on, so we walk on towards Milldale.

We now reach Dove Holes, that resemble cave mouths.

Dove Holes Caves are in the valley of Dovedale in the Peak District of England. The valley was carved by the two Ice Ages and subsequently the River Dove; and stretches for just over 5 km (3 mi). These dry caves were once used by hunters as shelters around 13,000 BCE and later, (4,500 years ago) as tombs by Neolithic farmers.

The caves lie beside a bend in the river Dove near Nab Dale in what is part of the Dovedale National Nature Reserve, designated in 2006 because of its diverse plant life and natural rock formations. Their oval forms were probably created by swirling meltwaters when massive glaciers filled the valley.

Dove Holes Caves are very accessible to walkers passing by on the path alongside the River Dove. The larger cave has a somewhat steep rocky entrance; the smaller is somewhat shallower. However, though they are impressive to look at, they are quite shallow with no deep passages leading off to explore.

We walk on following the River Dove towards Milldale.

It seems a lot longer than I remember. I just want Milldale to appear as I feel for Mel as this is a bog walk for her.

Eventually Milldale appears and we walk across the Viator Bridge and to the shelter.

The ancient, narrow packhorse bridge at Milldale originally had no side walls so that horses with panniers could cross the bridge without being impeded. Izaak Walton, who refers to himself as "Viator", which is Latin for "traveller", wrote about it in The Compleat Angler:

"What’s here, the sign of a bridge? Do you travel in wheelbarrows in this country? This bridge was made for nothing else – why a mouse can hardly go over it, tis not two fingers broad!"

From this the bridge acquired the name Viator's Bridge.

The bridge has been in use since the medieval period, for packhorses transporting silks and flax from nearby Wetton and Alstonefield. It is listed as an ancient monument.

Milldale is a village of stone cottages at the northern end of Dovedale and the main access point to the dale from the north. A corn mill existed until the mid-19th century, its stables are now used as an information hut by the National Trust.

Viator Bridge

We walk over to get an Ice Cream at £4 each but they are huge. Mel has Chocolate and a Cream and Raspberry ripple for me.

As we sat by the river with our ice creams, it begins to rain. We stick our coats on and start the walk back.

We walk back the way we came and the rain stops and starts several times, but its not heavy so all is okay.

Still a way to go and the climb back up that hill.

Never got why people hammer coins into logs, anyway there are two here.

We make it back to the stepping stones, a lot quieter now that the rain has chased away the day trippers.

We cross over and walk back to he car. A 6,5 mile walk, possibly the longest walk Mel has walked.