People

  • Watery ways

    When the rains come the streams fill, and we become suddenly aware of the network of waterways that surround us. Normally just half visible, these then threaten to flood the roads and menace our houses. The most fundamental feature of the landscape, brooks and rivers have been flowing in their current courses for over ten…

  • Farey’s footsteps

    John Farey (1766-1826) was a geologist and mathematician who wrote an extensive report on agriculture in Derbyshire, early in the nineteenth century. To research the subject he clearly had to travel widely, and this experience led him to produce a shorter report on the roads of Derbyshire in 1807. Finding his way around was clearly…

  • A cold coming

    The image of a laden stagecoach arriving at a snowy inn has decorated millions of Christmas cards, along with robins and holly. The card above contains all the elements: the rural setting, icy roads, mine host on his doorstep to welcome the travellers, with the postern blowing his horn to announce (unnecessarily) their arrival, while…

  • The mystery of Fin Cop

    Fin Cop lies on the route of the Portway, about two kilometres north of Ashford in the Water. It is perched on a headland high above the sharp curve in the River Wye in Monsal Dale, and consists of a ditch and incomplete ramparts enclosing an area of about ten acres. Pennyunk Lane, which is…

  • Waterloo sunset?

    In an age of instant news, when an election result in the USA is available instantly on our phones, it’s hard to imagine a time when news of events even a hundred miles away could take weeks to reach Derbyshire. Before railways and national newspapers began to shrink distances a frequent source of information was…

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