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  • Peak Tor: Mound of mystery

    Peak Tor is a steep, tree-crowned hill between Rowsley and Stanton. It is best seen from the north side of the Wye valley, on the old road to Bakewell, from where the ditch and bank earthworks are clearly visible. I walked the site on a chilly April morning, when geese were honking on the river…

  • ‘Forgive us our …’

    The fear of being caught ‘trespassing’ is still common, which is perhaps why towpaths and ex-railway trails are so crowded with walkers. But defining exactly what trespassing means in law is difficult, and in most cases it is only a civil offence, meaning that few landowners would bother to prosecute. But the fear of being…

  • Acrostic Anthonie of the Frith

    St Alkmund’s, Duffield church, seems to have a curious location. It’s right by the River Derwent and near the confluence with the Ecclesbourne, a position which has led to repeated flooding over the years, though the village was mainly built on higher ground. Yet the church is also on what was the main turnpike route…

  • Trinity mysteries

    The evocatively-named Coldharbour Lane runs along a ridge to High Oredish, and then becomes a holloway, dropping and twisting down to Brackenfield village. The views to the east are spectacluar, with Ogston Reservoir in the middle distance. Before the lane loses height, a public footpath is signed leading downhill though fields, then into a pine…

  • The (very) old roads

    Just how old are the ‘old roads’? How were the first roads developed? These questions are difficult to answer, but worth a try! The last ice age ended about 10,000 years ago, and the landscape of Britain must have gradually become more wooded as temperatures rose. Mammals would have arrived via the land bridge to…