Roadside features

  • Tolls, riots and Rebeccas

    Many toll houses survive in Derbyshire (see previous blogs) but the only surviving ensemble of cottage, gate and board of charges is found at the National Museum of Wales, near Cardiff. This was moved to the Museum from its original location near Aberystwith. The list of charges (see below) gives a fascinating insight into the…

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  • The Waters of Life and Death

    It is easy to forget the significance of a good water supply for both residents and travellers, something which is taken for granted today. But less than a century ago, up to 1940, the village of Elton was dependent for its water on Burycliffe Troughs, half a mile away, water which had to be laboriously…

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  • Stagecoach

    The romantic image of the stagecoach, as seen on hundreds of Christmas cards, portrays the coach’s arrival at a snowy inn, horns being blown to warn the landlord to make ready for the hungry passengers. But the real experience must have been less glamorous: unheated and crowded. Travel by stagecoach became quicker and somewhat more…

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  • The secrets of Shuckstone

    Starting from Whatstandwell Bridge, if you follow the track from the hamlet of Robin Hood up through the quarry and wood to Wakebridge, and then on past Wakebridge Farm up to the top of the hill, the route finally levels off and you come to Shuckstone Fields, behind Holly Grange Farm and above Lea. This…

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  • The style of stiles

    Since the nineteenth century stiles have been a familiar feature of the rural landscape, providing a bucolic focus for pictures of simple country folk or lovers’ trysts. Before the enclosure of moors and commons stiles weren’t needed, but with the arrival of hedges and dry stone walls access was needed for pedestrians. ‘Stile’ comes from…

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