December 2022 – The Old Roads of Derbyshire

The yew tree in St Helen’s churchyard at Darley Churchtown is a well-known example of an ancient tree in a sacred setting. Growing near the west church porch, it is 33 feet in girth (which makes it hard to illustrate clearly), and is estimated to be 2,000 years old. Clearly it pre-dates the (twelfth-century) church, suggesting that this was a significant site even possibly in pre-Roman times. Certainly the nearby river crossing at Darley bridge has been part of an important west-east route for thousands of years.

There has been much speculation about churchyard yews, such as the idea that they were grown to provide wood for longbows, but their great age suggests a less prosaic function, as markers of significant sites for travellers.

The Darley yew is not the only ancient one in the county. The yew at St Edmund’s, Allestree may have given the name to the village, suggesting that the tree was already sizable when ‘Adelard’ had his settlement there. There are others at Beeley, Brailsford, Doveridge, Marston Montgomery and Muggington.

Although native, the yew is not a common species in Derbyshire. However, it appears to be quite a common name for pubs and farms: with pubs at Dronfield, South Wingfield, Ednaston and (sadly now closed) Holloway. In some cases there is a yew growing on site – it would be interesting to know which came first, the tree or the pub? Pubs and inns were clearly important for travellers in the past, and before inn signs were displayed inn keepers hung an evergreen bush outside their door – usually holly or yew. This is the origin of the saying ‘A good wine needs no bush’. There are currently five Hollybush pubs in Derbyshire, at Grangemill, Makeney (which claims to be one of the oldest pubs in the county), Ripley, Breedon-on-the Hill and Church Broughton.

The most common pub tree name is the Royal Oak, which is the third most popular pub name in England. However, this is really a Royalist-type name, commemorating the escape of the future Charles II from Parliamentary troops by hiding up an oak. Other ‘tree pubs’, in descending order of popularity, are: Orange, Walnut, Pear, Oak and Cherry. It is notable that Matlock has a good variety of such pubs, all with rather unusual names: Thorn Tree, Laburnum, Sycamore and (until recently) Lime.

Sources

The Sacred Yew, Chetan and Brueton (1994)

The Place-Names of Derbyshire, Cameron (1959)

*View of presumed stone circle on Bilberry Knoll*

Writers of Matlock tourist guides in the nineteenth century described megalithic remains on Riber Hill, above Starkholmes, which are variously labelled dolmen, cromlech and rocking stone, and appear to have been four large stones, one balanced on another. But there was no trace of these a hundred years ago, and they appear to have been broken up, possibly on John Smedley’s orders, as idolatrous pagan survivals. It is easy to forget the role played by religious fanatics in destroying such remains.

However, there seems to have been a stone circle nearby, on the top of Bilberry Knoll, beside Hearthstone Lane, less than a mile south of Riber Castle. This site was explored by a John Simpson around 1905 and described in an article in the Derbyshire Archaeological Journal for 1915. He thought that such circles were evidence of prehistoric sun worship, and claimed that this circle aligned with the Nine Ladies circle on Stanton Moor at sunset on the Summer Solstice. Regrettably he did not draw a plan of the site, or include any useful photos, but estimated that the circle had a diameter of 144 feet.

*The start of the path down through the beeches to Cromford*

Today the site is remarkable for the jumble of stones in one area, although it is difficult to make out the shape of a circle. Some stones may have been broken up for walling. But whatever we may think of Simpson’s theories, two things are clear. Firstly, Bilberry Knoll is a remarkable viewpoint, ideally suited to some kind of monument, and secondly it is near the crossroads of two ancient tracks: Hearthstone Lane which runs from west to east, and another route which Simpson describes, coming from Lea Green, fording the Lea Brook and then climbing past Upper Lees farm to the ridge and down to Cromford bridge, Scarthin, Bonsall, Brightgate, joining the Portway to Robin Hood’s Stride and on to Youlgrave and possibly Arbor Low.

*Field barns near Castletop, Hearthstone Lane above*

Too much speculation, maybe, but Alison Uttley should have the last word. She was brought up in the late nineteenth century at Castletop farm, near the west end of Hearthstone Lane:

“… the old highway, dating from long before any of the roads in the valley. We knew, from family tradition, that the packhorses travelled along it, and that lead from the Roman mines in the hills was once carried on its winding slopes on ponies’ backs.”

Sources: Simpson, J. Megalithic Remains on Bilberry Knoll, Matlock. DAJ Vol 37, 1915

Uttley, A. Ambush of Young Days. Faber and Faber, 1937 p.107

The Old Roads of Derbyshire

Month: December 2022

Traveller’s Tree

Bilberry crumble?