Taking a Peek at the Peak District.
For the last three and a half months, my travels have taken me to some of Europe’s grandest cities, replete with majestic cathedrals, wide, bustling boulevards, museums and art galleries, bursting like overripe grapes with their priceless treasures.
It was brilliant!
So, it was a complete about-face when, leaving Amsterdam and, within a couple of hours finding oneself in ‘rural’ Northern Derbyshire in the United Kingdom. The advent of low-cost airlines now allows one to seemingly dash about the continent like demented bumblebees.
An hours drive from Manchester airport and there it was, a 16th century stone house in the Peak District, replete with a quintessential English garden in full bloom.
Now, there were a few things that would ensure that the six days we were to stay in this dramatic countryside would be perfect. Number one on the list was that the U.K has been enjoying the best (and hottest) summer since 1976 ensuring that we would see the Southern Pennines in all their glory.
To those not familiar with this part of rural England, the Peak District is an upland area at the southern end of the Pennines and covers most of Northern Derbyshire, including parts of the counties of Cheshire, Greater Manchester and West and South Yorkshire.
The entire area, now known as the Peak National Park was the first of its kind to be incorporated as a national treasure in 1951 and since its inception has attracted millions of visitors each year who descend on this piece of paradise to ‘ramble’ for days across its rolling hills.
The park itself is large, covering an area of some 555sq miles ( 1440 sq. Km)
However, unlike most national parks around the world, this one is unique in that there are hundreds of tenant farmers who still work the land tending large flocks of sheep and cattle. Evidence of farming here stretches all the way back to the Bronze Age when the first of the hundreds of meandering dry stone walls were erected. Within the boundaries of the park is the sizeable 13C medieval market town of Bakewell notable for its five stone, arched bridges that span the river Wye. Also included are the smaller villages of Edale, Leek, Hope and Eyam, which add a magical sense of history for any first time visitor.
During the terrible ravages caused by the Black Death the tiny village of Eyam survived by quarantining itself, allowing no passers-by in or out of the village itself and cutting itself off completely until the threat of plague had disappeared. Consequently, no deaths were recorded in this tiny hamlet during the worst of the plague’s silent assault on the population of Europe and Northern England.
The surrounding terrain of the park is pleasing to the eye replete as it is with rolling hills divided into neat squares and rectangles by ancient dry stone walls which mark the boundaries of each farm. I spent quite a bit of my time here examining these walls that have stood for thousands of years, snaking, as they do up steep hills and across the tops of peaks then meandering for miles in all directions.
My companions, full of energy insisted that we remain ‘active ‘ during our stay and so ramble we did with my reward being that there are numerous quaint pubs along the way where food, beverage and wonderful hospitality ensuring that these long walks became a leisurely ‘ramble’. Apart from the many historic sites within the park, one of the highlights was a cycle ride like no other I have ever done.
After tracking down the operators of the Blackwell Mill Cycle Hire I was issued with a sturdy and perfectly maintained mountain bike after filling out the required forms, I mounted my trusty steed and was off on the famous Monsal Trail.
The trail itself runs along the former Midland Railway line for 8.5 miles between Blackwell Mill, in Chee Dale and Coombs Road, at Bakewell. After the tracks were removed It became a traffic-free route for cyclists as well as walkers, through some of the Peak District's most spectacular limestone dales.
Until the mid-1960s this was a regional railway line which used to wend its way through the district via a spectacular viaduct and a series of long tunnels carved through the limestone. The four railway tunnels - Headstone Tunnel, Cressbrook Tunnel, Litton Tunnel, Chee Tor Tunnel and the Rusher Cutting have been opened to cyclists and walkers alike. Each tunnel is about 400 metres long, all lit during normal daylight hours.
The public can now experience the full length of the former railway route at their own pace and see breathtaking views at places like Water-cum-Jolly Dale that have remained hidden since the railway closed in 1968.
The Monsal Trail tunnels offer one of the most spectacular leisure routes in Britain for cycling, walking and horse riding. It’s a gentle ride (thank God) and one can virtually coast all the way to Bakewell which is really my preferred way of cycling.
Along the way, one passes the sprawling 18C buildings that once housed the cotton mills owned by the industrialist Richard Arkwright who built his fortune on the backs of young children. The fast flowing soft water, so abundant in the district was perfect for powering the cotton gins that spun the raw cotton into commercial bales. A shortage of labour meant that Mr Arkwright looked to the orphanages of London from which he ‘recruited’ young children, some as young as four years old, to supposedly be housed in the country away from the appalling conditions in the city.
The reality was that little fingers were perfect for separating the cotton threads and therefore his charges worked up to fourteen hours a day in conditions that were not much different from the orphanages that they were supposedly ‘rescued’ from! Today, the long-abandoned buildings have been converted into swanky and expensive apartments used as holiday bolt holes for the rich folk of the surrounding cities.
Ironic really.
The six days in this wonderful corner of England here allowed me to explore a little of the countryside of my birth and perhaps even stirred the ‘Englishman’ buried deep inside me even though its been years since I have lived in the land of my birth.
It did, however, convince me to endeavour to revisit England on a more regular basis.
THE PEAK DISTRICT U.K. 2018
Photography Copyright. Paul v Walters & Annie Spatt
