Places

  • Leashaw: A road to nowhere?

    Road building in Derbyshire can be fraught, especially on steep-sided valleys. At times roads become too expensive to maintain, as happened with the road below Mam Tor, which was abandoned in the 1970s after frequent landslips due to the unstable geology. Following the exceptionally wet autumn and winter of 2023-4 several routes are currently closed,…

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  • Down Ashover way

    These unusually colorful figures on the Babington tomb at Ashover are a reminder of a long-distance packhorse route that can be traced as far as Wirksworth to the west. Ashover parish used to be much larger, and included Holloway, Lea and Dethick, the home of the Babingtons. St John’s church at Dethick was built as…

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  • Reading the stone

    The Wirksworth Stone must be one of the most remarkable examples of sculpture from the Saxon era in England. Discovered in 1820 face down, buried under the church floor, it is thought to have been the lid of a sarcophagus belonging to an early saint, possibly Betti. It dates from about 700 CE, and displays…

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  • Highways and Byways in Derbyshire – a good read

    Macmillan published the first book in their Highways and Byways series in 1898 and, remarkably, the last in 1948; a total of nearly 40 titles covering most of Britain. All are detailed guides with plentiful illustrations by respected illustrators. Well-bound in hard covers with gilt lettering, the series must have been popular as copies can still…

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  • Foul deeds in the wild Winnats

    Travel has always been seen as a risky undertaking, the dangers ranging from dirty sheets and greedy innkeepers to wild animal attacks and highway robbery. Poor roads were (and still are) probably more of a threat to life and limb than highwaymen, but some of these became notorious in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries,…

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