Fixing a hole …

On August 16, 2024 By SteveIn People3 Comments

*The Stonebreakers / Gustave Courbet 1858*

Repairing holes in roads must have been one of the worst jobs in the pre-industrial world. Courbet was not the only artist attracted to the subject: his pair of stone breakers represent a class of unskilled labourers never previously regarded as a suitable subject for art, the viewer feels their dusty, sweaty toil . In contrast, John Brett’s The Stone Breaker (also 1858) portrays an almost idyllic scene; lovely weather, a handsome young lad on the job, and his dog amusing itself. The milestone in the corner (London 23) is a reminder that he is also filling in holes, and to do so required stone to be broken into small fragments to create an all-weather surface.

One of the earliest attempts to deal with the problem of road maintenance was made in 1555 when the Statute of Labour was passed, which gave responsibility for this to the parish. They were obliged to choose a Highway Surveyor, who had the unenviable task of getting all householders to work on the roads for four days a year (later increased to six). Farmers with horses and carts were also required to lend these to move stone. Clearly this system was unfair, since if the Great North Road ran through your parish there would be far more wear and tear than if, say, you lived in Bonsall. However, despite the drawbacks, roads were more or less kept open, and people and goods moved around. Even after the main routes were turnpiked from the mid-eighteenth century, unpaid labour was still required. This is shown locally in the diary of Rowsley farmer Mathew Gibbons, who records his father doing roadwork for six days in 1761-2.

Clearly this is not a problem that has gone away. A recent report states that potholes are the biggest worry for drivers today, which will surprise no-one who has tried driving or cycling on our Derbyshire roads in the last few years. Perhaps it’s time to go back to the parish system and get everyone out, once a month, for some DIY patching!

The name of the bridge

On August 9, 2024August 9, 2024 By SteveIn People1 Comment

*The Derwent Hotel at Whatstandwell Bridge, now The Family Tree*

Whatstandwell must be one of the more bizarre place names in Derbyshire, mispelt on some old maps as ‘Hotstandwell’. In fact it commemorates Walter (Wat) Stonewell, who lived near the bridge, built by John de Stepul in 1391, according to records from Darley Abbey. The bridge was rebuilt in the late eighteenth century, and widened more recently. Although the bridge today carries the north/south A6, it was originally constructed for east/west traffic, moving between Crich, Wirksworth and beyond. Building a bridge here would have been a major expense, and John may have paid for it as an act of charity. Clearly the original bridge must have been narrower and more basic, but such an early date suggests the importance of this river crossing, which would have been a ford previously.

*Causey between Whatstandwell and Crich*

On the east side of the bridge there are two main routes which converge on the river crossing. The main road (B5035) climbs steeply over the canal and up towards Crich. This was part of the Nottingham to Newhaven turnpike of 1759, which eased the gradient of the climb up to Crich by adding a loop above Chasecliff farm. The original track can still be followed, climbing directly up the hillside, with a stone causey still visible in places, as shown above. The other route has been obscured by the building of the canal and railway, but can still be followed by taking the Holloway road towards Robin Hood and then taking the first path on the right. This leads up through Duke’s Quarry, named after the owner, the Duke of Devonshire, and this track would have carried stone to either the trains or barges. However, the path is much older than either types of transport, and continues up through pleasant, semi-wooded fields to Wakebridge.

After crossing the Crich/Holloway road (currently closed) the track now runs to the left of Wakebridge Farm and climbs steadily to high ground at about 270 metres. As can be seen on the map, Shuckstone Cross in Shuckstone Field is the meeting point of at least five paths. Only the stone cross base now remains, but this is (possibly) marked with the destinations of the routes. The track from the bridge now continues northwards to meet the road, but can be walked to High Oredish and beyond that, Ashover. Although in practice it’s impossible to date routes such as these, the section from Wakebridge up to Shuckstone is exactly on the boundary of two of the historic Derbyshire hundreds, which suggest that it may have existed before the county was divided in the Saxon period.

Derby at the crossroads

On July 30, 2024 By SteveIn PeopleLeave a comment

This early plan of the town of Derby, drawn about 1760, shows how small the town was 250 years ago. The central area is framed by the Derwent to the east and Markeaton Brook to the west, at that time still an open stream. The town is divided into five parishes: All Saints (now the cathedral), St Alkmund’s, St Peter’s, St Michael’s and St Werbergh’s. There is only one bridge (St Mary’s, still in use) giving access to the Nottingham road. The Silk Mill is shown, as are other signs of small-scale industry such as a ‘pot works’ and a ‘copper mill’. The urban core is surrounded by what look like orchards, but may be market gardens.

The second map, made at the same time, gives an equally vivid idea of the size of Derby then, when settlements like Chester Green or Darley were well outside the built-up area. The turnpike roads are clearly shown, with numbered miles. The London road runs through Osmaston, the Nottingham road goes past Spondon (or Spoondon), the Chesterfield road via Little Chester, and so on. By the second half of the eighteenth century regular coach services ran from the county town to all the major Midlands towns, and Derby was an important stage on the Manchester- London route, where passengers would spend the night.

Road travel in the eighteenth century was transformed by both the use of steel springs on coaches after 1764, and the growth of the turnpike system. This is shown by the reduction in journey time on the Manchester to London route, from 62 hours (with two overnight stops) to 18 hours by the end of the century. ‘Flying Machines’ were advertised in the Derby Mercury in 1760 starting from Derby’s George Inn at a fare of £1-8 shillings. This is the equivalent of about £237 at modern values; a reminder that coach travel was not only uncomfortable but also very expensive. Among other Derby coaching inns were the Talbot and the Old Bell, the latter apparently the only survivor. Even on relatively smooth turnpikes, horses would soon tire, and would need changing regularly to maintain timing. By 1767 a coach left Derby three times a week at 9 pm and arrived in London by 7 pm the following day. Despite the (relative) speed, it’s easy to imagine the discomfort of this journey with only brief meal stops, and perhaps gain a new perspective on the comforts of travel on Midland Mainline!

Sources:

Burdett, P. (1791) Map of Derbyshire Derbyshire Archaeological Society

Twells, H. (1943) ‘Derby’s Flying Machines and earliest coaches’ DAJ 64: 64-82

All you ever wanted to know about paths

On July 25, 2024 By SteveIn People, Walks and walkers1 Comment

Jack Cornish is Head of Paths at the Ramblers, which must be an excellent qualification to write on the subject. His recent book, The Lost Paths, sets out to be ‘A History of How We Walk from Here to There’. Ambitious in scope, the 19 chapters include such familiar subjects as pilgrim routes and turnpikes, but also cover topics like the growth of railways and the effects of the new post-war towns on traditional paths. Some of his material, such as the enclosures of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, may be familiar to any reader with an interest in history, but other topics, for instance the loss of rights of way due to military requirements during the Second World War, are unusual.

The author has assembled a fascinating range of detail, such as the vogue for ‘pedestrianism’ in the nineteenth century, when large bets were put on improbable feats of walking, such as London to York and back in six days. But his concerns are not only historical, since he discusses the need to make access to the countryside more diverse and welcoming for minority groups. If anything, the reader may feel that he has tried to include too much: it is interesting to know how many bricks were used to build London’s first railway (six million) but not really relevant to the stated theme – there’s a certain loss of focus.

Yet his palette is impressively broad in terms of geography, and Derbyshire readers may enjoy his description of a walk from Cromford to Rowsley via Bonsall Moor, which he undertakes as a recreation of the ‘mystery hikes’ which were apparently popular between the wars – hikers would board a train for an unknown destination:

‘The drama of the landscape hits me quickly. Minutes after stepping off my train, my path takes me along the bottom of a massive cliff face. Trees grow up high, directly out of breaks in the rocks, their leaves rusting and falling to the ground’.

Cornish’s own involvement in the walking he writes about is clear, and he effectively balances these personal reports with the more historical details. He is also good at recounting disputes with landowners over rights of way, and sets the inevitable Kinder trespass story in the wider context of the long-standing struggles for access all over this country.

I would certainly recommend The Lost Paths to all fellow walkers, though with a couple of caveats. The title doesn’t really do justice to the scope of the book, which is much broader than it suggests, and the illustrations – small black and white engravings – add little beyond decoration.

What’s in a name?

On May 17, 2024 By SteveIn PeopleLeave a comment

There are several ‘portways’ in England, such as the route over the Long Mynd in Shropshire, but the Derbyshire Portway seems to be the longest and the best-researched. The route in Derbyshire was first suggested by Cockerton, an historian from Bakewell in the 1930s, who based his idea of a long-distance route on a string of ‘port’ place names such as Alport and Alport Height, which can be linked together in a roughly north-south alignment by existing tracks and paths. These place names are reinforced by references to a ‘Portwaye’ in some medieval documents and two Portway lead mines. Cockerton discussed the origin of the name ‘Portway’ at length, without coming to a definite conclusion. But it seems clear that the word is Anglo-Saxon, and was applied by them to pre-existing, non-Roman routes. Some have suggested an origin linked to ‘porter’, that is someone who carries, but then all roads are for carrying goods. The common Anglo-Saxon word for road was ‘way’, except for the old Roman roads which were ‘streets’. So a ‘portway’ was something special.

*The line of the Portway running south from Cratcliffe Rocks, turnpike road to left*

A ‘port’ suggests a place of safety and shelter, so I think a portway was a a long-distance route which had ‘ports’ for travellers at intervals of roughly ten miles. These might have been similar to the caravanserai found in the Middle East – defensive sites where wayfarers could sleep, cook and graze their animals overnight. In Derbyshire these are likely to have been on high ground for defence, and a string of probable sites can be identified, from north to south: Mam Tor, Fin Cop, Cratcliff Rocks, Harborough Rocks, Alport Height, Arbour Hill at Dale and Arbour Hill in Wollaton Park. It is noteworthy that three of these have a similar ‘arbour’ component, and a harbour of course is similar to a port.

*Harborough Rocks, between Wirksworth and Brassington*

Several of these sites, including Mam Tor, Fin Cop and Harborough, have been excavated and evidence of occupation, such as pottery, has been found. But permanent settlement in such high and waterless places seems unlikely, while the designation ‘hill fort’ is too vague. Far more likely that they served to protect tired travellers, and thus answered a question too rarely asked by pre-historians – how did merchants, drovers, priests, soldiers and pilgrims make lengthy journeys before the arrival of inns?

Romantic Buxton?

On May 6, 2024 By SteveIn People1 Comment

Arnold Bennett’s masterpiece, The Old Wives’ Tale, published in 1908, is set in the mid-nineteenth century, and tells the contrasting stories of two sisters, Sophia and Constance. The latter spends her life running the family drapers’ shop in Stoke on Trent, while her sister has a more adventurous life in Paris. When Constance marries, Buxton is chosen for their honeymoon, a relatively short ride on the then North Staffordshire Railway:

“They had a way of saying: ‘Yes, we always go to Buxton. We went there for our honeymoon, you know.” They had become confirmed Buxtonites, with views concerning St Anne’s Terrace, the Broad Walk and Peel’s Cavern. They could not dream of deserting their Buxton. It was the sole possible resort. Was it not the highest town in England? Well, then!

Bennett, who was a francophile and had lived in France since 1903, was clearly being satirical at the expense of these provincial folk:

“They always stayed at the same lodgings, and grew to be special favourites of the landlady, who whispered of them to all her other guests as having come to her house for their honeymoon, and as never missing a year, and as being most respectable, superior people in quite a large way of business. Each year they walked out of Buxton station behind their luggage on a truck, full of joy and pride because they knew all the landmarks, and the lie of all the streets, and which were the best shops.”

However, any holiday would be a luxury for working people in the 1870s, and ten days in Buxton would demonstrate that Mr and Mrs Povey were prosperous folk. The spa waters of the town have attracted visitors since Roman times (and probably earlier), though tourists in the eighteenth century frequently complained of the quality of accommodation. It was not until the Dukes of Devonshire made serious investments, such as building The Crescent, and the arrival of the railway in 1863, that large number of visitors began arriving. Today a rejuvenated town still attracts holidaymakers, although unfortunately the excellent Museum and Art Gallery has been closed indefinitely due to the discovery of dry rot.

Peripatetic post people!

On April 22, 2024April 22, 2024 By SteveIn People, Road usersLeave a comment

In the age of electronic messaging it is easy to forget the revolution in communication caused by the introduction of the penny post in 1840. This novel system of using stamps to pre-pay letters to anywhere in the country allowed working people, for the first time, to keep in touch with friends and relations, at a reasonable price. There was a huge increase in mail, and consequently post offices were opened in rural areas to organise the collection and delivery of letters. At this time country districts were more densely populated than today, and letters had to be delivered to widely scattered cottages and farms. Consequently, rural postmen (and women) were recruited, with routes of up to 15 miles, to be walked in all weathers for the delivery and collection of mail.

When the new system was introduced the postmen tried to reduce their ‘walks’ by finding short cuts between the scattered houses, thereby opening up new paths in places. However, today there is little record of their remarkable work, although some posties were still delivering mail on foot up to the 1970s, despite the general introduction of bikes and later, vans. Derbyshire must have had dozens of such forgotten postmen, while in Cumbria Alan Cleaver has been collecting memories of their lives, as recently featured on BBC Radio 4 in ‘Open Country’.

It’s hard to imagine anyone opting for a job today that involved a daily walk of 15 miles. Not only were letters delivered and collected daily, but the arrival of the post broke the intense isolation of much country life 150 years ago – there were cases of people sending letters to themselves, in order to have the postman call! Postmen were known to read letters out for folk who were illiterate, as well as bringing news from neighbours. Deliveries were even made on Christmas Day, as DH Lawrence recorded when living at Middleton by Wirksworth in 1918. Another notable change is the soaring cost of a stamp – compared with the Penny Black at one old penny, a modern second class stamp costs 85 new pence – 204 times more expensive!

See: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-64452468

Millstoned

On April 14, 2024 By SteveIn People, Places, Rivers and bridges1 Comment

The stone I found in my local woods recently is typical of the thousand-odd millstones scattered around the Peak District – and are used as a symbol for the National Park. Clearly fashioned from the gritstone of the ‘edge’ behind me, this example raises some intriguing questions: who made it? why was it abandoned? how was it transported?

Both wind and water mills used pairs of millstones to grind grain between them; the stones were about 1.8 metres wide and each weighed nearly 2.5 tons. Millstone grit from North Derbyshire was considered the best material for these, and in the late seventeenth century a pair would cost about nine or ten pounds, reflecting the skill and effort required to make them. Most production seems to have been small-scale; perhaps providing winter work for farmers, and may have been concentrated in the Hathersage area and along the ‘edges’, but there is also documentary evidence of manufacture at Alderwasley, Crich and Holloway. However, in the eighteenth century, with rising standards of living, demand for white flour increased and milling this needed finer chert millstones. Quite suddenly, the traditional stones were unwanted, and this may account for the numbers that were abandoned – although some may have cracked or had other defects.

One minor mystery is how such heavy, valuable objects were transported, given that they were sold all over England and exported to the Continent. The sites of the quarries were often remote from the nearest road, so they may have been rolled in pairs, fitted with a wooden axle, until they could be craned onto a cart. In 1676 a miller at North Elmshall paid seven shillings and sixpence for carrying his new stones 22 miles. At Baslow there were complaints about loads of millstones weakening the bridge over the Derwent, and fines for offenders, which suggests fairly heavy traffic. As with lead, Bawtry was the main inland port for shipping millstones, both for export and to other English regions. But perhaps the biggest mystery is how the semi-amateur masons were able to produce such precisely cut stones with the crudest of tools.

Come back, Blind Jack

On April 3, 2024 By SteveIn PeopleLeave a comment

*John Metcalfe relaxing in Knaresborough*

John Metcalf, known as ‘Jack’, was a pioneer road builder in Yorkshire and Derbyshire, despite being blind from the age of six. His remarkable career began in 1717, when he was born to a poor family in Knaresborough. He was given fiddle lessons as a source of future financial support, and at age 15 became fiddler at the Queen’s Head in Harrogate. Horse trading, swimming and diving were other occupations, while his detailed local knowledge gave him employment as a guide. Among other achievements he ran a carrier business, using a stagecoach which he drove himself.

His career as a road builder began in 1765 when he tendered to build a section of turnpike road between Harrogate and Boroughbridge. Presumably his work as a carrier had given him insight into the problems of road maintenance, and his road engineering was based on the need for effective drainage, via a convex surface, into adequate culverts at the road side. He was also the first to find a way of laying a route through bogs, using floating rafts of ling and gorse as foundations. But his success must have also been down to effective calculation of costs when bidding for contracts, plus his man-management skills, such as being on site at 6 a.m. In total he was responsible for 180 miles of new or improved roads, mainly in Yorkshire but also in north Derbyshire, especially the roads around Buxton.

Today Jack is remembered in his home town by a seated statue (top) outside the pub that bears his name. His road-building contemporaries, Thomas Telford and John MacAdam, are better-known, but his triumph over disability is quite remarkable. In old age he lived with one of his daughters, and at the age of 77 walked to York and told his life story to a publisher, who produced this volume (below).

Given the current state of Derbyshire roads, we might wish for Jack to get off his bench and come back to show us how to fill in the potholes …

Rambling around Ryknild

On March 26, 2024 By SteveIn Places, Road users, Walks and walkersLeave a comment

Ryknild Street was the only long-distance Roman road that crossed Derbyshire, coming from Lichfield to the camp at Little Chester and then on to Chesterfield. Part of its route is still used today, notably the A61 from Higham through Stretton and Clay Cross to Chesterfield. There is little trace of the first part, through Breadsall and up to Brackley Gate, but then the route is picked up by Golden Valley and runs very straight to Smithy Houses and Street Lane. This last name, of course, and the village of Stretton, are reminders that Roman roads were always ‘streets’. Ryknild Street is the name given on the OS map, but there are many variations of the spelling, and this name was almost certainly not used by the Romans. The map above, of the area around Pentrich, is one place where public footpaths give access to the line of the road.

The footpath due west from Pentrich Church crosses the line of the old road at the top of a rise, and the raised platform for the road (known as an ‘agar’) can be just made out in the grass. Following this line north you come to another section of path which runs alongside a hedge – this is one of the few places Ryknild Street can actually be followed (see lower photo). On the other side of Riley Lane there is no trace of the road as it runs through ploughed fields east of Coneygrey Farm. However, just west of the road’s course, on Castle Hill, is what the OS map calls a ‘Roman Fortlet’.

Roughly half-way between Little Chester and Chesterfield, this fort might have offered some shelter to road users but was unlikely to be manned regularly. It can be reached by climbing the quite steep bank from the Oakerthorpe road, but the view from the top is brilliant, and shows that the road builders were keeping to high ground, well away from the Amber floodplain to the west. Possibly they were just upgrading an older route which followed the ridge?

One obvious question is why such well-built roads as the Romans constructed were allowed to go out of use? Of course, in places they were maintained and improved, such as the modern A38 from Lichfield to Derby but other areas such as this may have preferred older routes, or have been unable to organise maintenance, for instance when trees were blown down or drains and culverts became blocked.

For a detailed report on the fortlet see:

https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=f222bde9-7683-4e90-a7e0-16414ecf2cc2&resourceID=19191

The Old Roads of Derbyshire

Author: Steve