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.
