After our trip to Africa we returned to England and spent a few weeks recuperating and enjoying our time in Derbyshire. We did all the usual things that we do in England - curries, fish and chips, meat pies, Park Runs, Marks and Spencers shopping, trips to Sheffield and Manchester, walking in the Peak District. There were a few new things and they are described in this post.
First of all before, we even got to Derbyshire we had a hiccup in picking up our car. I had mistakenly reserved the car for 8:00 pm not the required 8:00 am and being a Bank Holiday weekend there were no available cars for a 30 day rental when we arrived (at 8:00 am). There was a one day rental available so we took that and explored nearby Windsor and Eaton (and visited friends Steve and Yvonne in Thaxted).
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| Queen Victoria outside Windsor Castle |
As mentioned, it was Bank Holiday weekend and the weather was hot, so Windsor was very busy. Crowds of ice cream eating tourists wandering the streets - not a very nice experience to be honest. We viewed the exterior of Windsor Castle and walked down to the Thames and over into Eton.
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| Eton High Street |
In Eton High Street the crowds were less and it was a more pleasant experience. We admired the old shops selling the dated Eton College uniforms. We couldn’t get into Eton College but we did admire it from the exterior.
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| Well Dressing - Ashford |
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| Well Dressing - Cressbrook |
We also had a Well Dressing in Cressbrook but it wasn’t quite up to the high standard of Ashford’s. Cressbrook’s theme was Winnie the Pooh.
We made a trip to the Lake District as Diana had never been there before and, as usual, the Lake District weather was just awful. It rained pretty much all the time, and not just light drizzle but some serious rain. Nevertheless we did get to see a few things.
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| St Martins Church, Windermere |
Our first stop was in Windermere, where we had a quick peek inside the St Martins church. There has been a church on that site since 1203 but little remains of the original building. The interior is quite beautiful. The white washed walls are engraved with decorations and murals. There are impressive stained glass windows at either end.
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| The Blackwell House |
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| The Blackwell House interior |
Whilst in Windermere we saw a sign for an Arts and Crafts house, the Blackwell House. Being big fans of that genre we followed the signs out of town for a few miles to the Blackwell House. I hadn’t heard of this house or of its architect, Baillie Scott, before but what a gem it was. The house was designed and built between1898 and 1900 as a home for the Manchester brewer, Sir Edward Holt. As with many Arts and Craft homes of that period, Baillie Scott designed everything down to the furnishings and even the door handles. It is a thing of great beauty.
It was still pretty inclement weather so all we could really do was to drive around. We drove up to Ambleside and then to Keswick. The rain was pretty continuous.
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| The Forest Side Lodge, Grasmere |
We were staying at a very nice old hotel, the Forest Side Lodge. A beautiful old house that was built in 1853 for a Manchester solicitor and his family.
In the evening, we dined at the hotel which has a Michelin starred restaurant. The food was exceptional, as you would expect for a Michelin starred restaurant. It was a fixed menu and we had the 4 course option (there was an 8 course option). All the courses very tasty and were beautifully presented.
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| St Oswald’s Church, Grasmere |
After our stay in the Forest Side Lodge we went into nearby Grasmere. There was a nice church, St Oswalds, which we explored. Inside there is a memorial to William Wordsworth who attended the church when he lived in Grasmere. He is buried in the graveyard.
Next to the church is the very old and small shop, Sarah Nelson’s Original Celebrated Gingerbread. They sell this rather hard and very strong flavored gingerbread. The lady in the shop is all dressed up in her old world Sarah Nelson garb. In a move with the times, only credit cards are accepted - no cash.
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| Afternoon Tea at Betty’s, Harrogate |
We were driving over to visit my step sister-in-law, Katy, in Filey and we stopped over in Harrogate. Harrogate is a nice old town, with some wonderful old buildings. Unfortunately every one seems to be either a bar, or a tea room, or a restaurant, or a pub. That’s what the tourists want and that is how Harrogate earns its keep these days. We contributed to that by having afternoon tea in Betty’s Tea Room. Betty’s is the most well known tea room and it has been around for a long time. It didn’t disappoint.
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| Betty’s Fat Rascal Scones |
I bought a box of their signature Fat Rascal scones to take to Katy.
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| Bempton Cliffs |
In Filey, the next day, we decided to pay a visit to the Bempton Cliffs, just south of Filey. This is a well known area for watching sea birds on the cliffs. It has become very popular and on this Friday morning there was quite the crowd of people there.
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| Razorbills at Bempton |
The cliffs are populated with large numbers of gannets, razorbills, guillemots and kittiwakes. In addition there are a couple of other species that are less common - the fulmar and the puffin. Everyone wants to see the puffins because they are the most colorful and unusual birds with the giant bills. However, they are quite elusive and there were not many of them. I only managed to briefly spot one at the end of my visit.
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| Gannets at Bempton |
The big gannets are quite beautiful with their yellow heads and their graceful necks.
The next day, a Saturday, there was a Park Run in nearby Bridlington, so off I went for a little exercise while everyone else slept. It was quite windy and cold but it was a beautiful run from Sowerby Hall along the cliff tops to Bridlington and back.
Back in Filey it was the Filey Food Festival. Such festivals are increasingly common in the UK now, a gathering of stalls selling just about anything that you can eat. We indulged in the purchase of pork pies, samosas, pastel de nata and cinnamon buns.
We then went to Emma and Neil’s house to take a look at the progress of their renovations. Yes they have made progress and they now have a kitchen but there is a long, long way to go.
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| The craftsman at work |
Emma is hoping to open a pottery studio so we both had a go at throwing a pot. It was really difficult but really fun. We both created a tumbler style vase that actually looked pretty good. We would like to do more of this.
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| Chatsworth House |
Back in Derbyshire we paid a visit to Chatsworth House Gardens. As with everything at Chatsworth it is quite expensive but it is good quality and well presented. £6 for parking, £20 each for entry just to the garden, never mind the house.
On a wet Friday morning, we drove over to Manchester. We parked near the center just off Deansgate and visited the John Rylands Library. This is a magnificent building built to house the collection of books of John Rylands and his wife Enriqueta. Rylands was the head of the largest textile manufacturer in Manchester and Manchester’s first multi-millionaire. He married the Cuban born Enriqueta when he was in his 70’s and she was in her 30’s.
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| John Ryland’s Library |
The library, built by Enriqueta after John’s death, is a true work of art. There are wood and stone carvings everywhere, high vaulted ceilings with beautiful stained glass windows and, of course, it is filled with beautiful old leather bound books.
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| The Manchester Baby - the first real computer |
We moved on to the Museum of Science and Industry. This houses examples of contributions that have been made to science and to industry in the city of Manchester. There is the Manchester Baby, built in the late 1940’s was the first computer to have all the elements of a modern day computer. It had a 1024 bit memory.
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| Cotton Spinning Machine |
There were some impressive examples of machinery from the cotton trade. Raw cotton carding machines, massive spinning machines, mechanically complex looms.
Then there were examples of the large scale mechanical power generation equipment that powered the factories of the Industrial Revolution and, of course, steam locomotives. Steam engines were exported around the world and there was both an Indian steam engine and a South African engine in the exhibition hall.
Our final Manchester stop was the Whitworth Art Gallery. This is a little ways out from the center in a nice park setting. It houses a small permanent collection - Hockney, Hirst, Freud and a special exhibit of Japanese prints.
The Japanese prints were all examples of the Ukiyo-e style of woodblock prints. These were popular in Japan in the 17th-19th centuries. They were colorful, mass produced and relatively cheap in their day. Not so much anymore.
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| Under the Great Wave - Hokusai |
The most well known example of this form is the print Under the Great Wave by Hokusai.
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| One of the Fuji Paintings - Hishoge |
Hishoge was another artist of that time and there were many examples of his series of prints of different views of Mount Fuji.
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| The Major Oak, Sherwood Forest |
On Saturday, we had lunch with my step sister and her husband in Askham, at the old Duke William, a pub that I went to so many times with my mum. We were nearby Sherwood Forest and all news in the UK was that the famous oak tree, the Major Oak, was now dead. This over 1,000 year old tree. famous for its association with Robin Hood, had not produced any shoots or leaves this year. It is a huge tree and it has been propped up and had its cracked plastered over for many years but it had finally given up on life. All the attention its death had been getting lately meant that the forest was quite busy. A nice walk was had through the old woods.
Well Dressing - Over Haddon
It was Well Dressing Season and there were a few more to see while we were there. We visited Over Haddon, a most beautiful of villages overlooking Lathkill Dale. They had an exceptional well dressing, a candidate for the best of season.
We moved over to the other side of Lathkill Dale and Youlgreave which is another nice town with a lot of history. There were 5 well dressing displays there. We had exceptional coffee in the old and impressive Coop building - once a store, now a YHA and a coffee shop/restaurant. Sadly there was no food because “the chef was ill’.
The church and churchyard were also interesting. A service was going on that Sunday morning so we didn’t go in but we heard the hymns being sung inside and we heard the church bells pealing.
The final well dressing for the day was in nearby Litton, the next village to Cressbrook. There they were “blessing” the well so there were a lot of people around. A brass band was playing, a vicar was trying to bless the wells but his microphone wasn’t working, a children’s choir was singing and they later on did a bit of dancing.
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| Steam Engine in Litton |
Most impressive of all was the steam engine that belonged to someone in nearby Foolow. It was parked outside the pub. As we admired it a dirty, grimy and greasy couple came out of the pub and drove it off up the road. What a beautiful piece of machinery. It trundled off down the road with a grand toot of its whistle.
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