People

  • Mr Brown’s girls

    By 1878 the painter Ford Madox Brown, at the age of 57, was suffering from severe gout, that classic Victorian ailment. His wife and model Emma had become alcoholic, probably as a result of the cuckoo in their nest, the 37-year-old poet Mathilde Blind, the object of his unresolved passion. It was Mathilde who proposed…

  • The Clarion call

    The invention of the safety bicycle in the late nineteenth century created the possibility of leisure travel for working-class people. Derbyshire and the Peak District, close to the industrial cities of Sheffield, Nottingham and Manchester, were prime destinations for Sunday rides. These early cyclists clearly felt the need to organise themselves into clubs for mutual…

  • Uphill work in the Dale

    The importance of public rights of way – both footpaths and bridleways – in England is shown by the tremendous effort expended on settling disputes when these routes are challenged. A recent example is at Dale, near Ockbrook in the east of Derbyshire, where the Portway runs past the remains of Dale Abbey and the…

  • Canal competition

    For thousands of years goods had to be carried by roads, and a horse and cart could move about a ton of stone or coal. But with industrial growth in the eighteenth century increasing demand for raw materials canals became a feasible mode of transport, a horse-drawn narrowboat could carry 30 tons. From about 1760…

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  • Comfort at the crossroads

    Roman military dominance depended on its well-known road system, which not only allowed troops to move quickly, but also allowed messengers to ride rapidly with news or orders. To accommodate such travellers a kind of guest house, called ‘mansio’ in Latin, was built at regular intervals on the main roads, offering fresh horses as well…