Salt Paths and Saltways

On July 12, 2025 By SteveIn People1 Comment

The film of the book The Salt Path was released in the spring, adding to the fame of its author, who called herself Raynor Winn. This bestseller is the story of how she and her husband, called Moth, lost their Welsh home at the same time as he was diagnosed with a degenerative disease. Remarkably, the couple set off for a 600-mile walk on the South West Coastal Path, which led to massive book sales and a film deal. An inspiring, heart-warming story – until an Observer journalist starting probing some of her claims:

https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/the-real-salt-path-how-the-couple-behind-a-bestseller-left-a-trail-of-debt-and-deceit

Whatever the truth of the claims and counter-claims in this affair, it is clear that many people were deceived, especially the editors at Penguin (‘unflinchingly honest’ – website) and the producers of the film. How could so many smart people fail to ask some pretty basic questions?

*Salters Lane between Matlock and Bonsall*

The book is presumably called The Salt Path because they followed a coastal route, the South West Coastal Path, created in the 1970s, which also offers some stunning scenery for the film. But much older Saltways cross Derbyshire, possibly dating from Roman times, which carried packhorse traffic from the salt pits of the Cheshire ‘wiches’ (such as Northwich) to towns like Chesterfield and Sheffield. Various routes can be followed using place names such as Saltergate, Saltersford and Saltsich; for instance the route from Leek via Hartington, Pikehall, Bonsall, Matlock and Ashover. These names are a reminder of the essential nature of salt in the medieval economy, not only for cooking but also for preserving meat and making ceramics.

*The Peak District Pilgrimage Trail – Ilam to Eyam*

The gullibility of those concerned with The Salt Path fiasco – including readers and viewers – can perhaps be explained by an atavistic faith in the power of pilgrimage, which the Coast Path certainly provided. There is a widespread belief in the benefit, spiritually and health-wise, of stepping out of ordinary life and setting off for a distant goal with few possessions. The most famous example is the Santiago Pilgrimage, now attempted by millions annually, while on a lesser scale the Peak Pilgrimage trail from Ilam to Eyam is a 39-mile (‘soul-healing’) route taking in a selection of historic churches.

Putting Brassington on the map

On May 18, 2025May 18, 2025 By SteveIn People2 Comments

John Ogilby produced the first practical road map of England in 1675; a strip map which showed landmarks to guide the traveller, such as hills and rivers. The map above gives his route from Derby to Manchester, starting with Derby on the top right. In the next strip the section via Hognaston and Brassington can be seen, leading on to the old Roman road, then still in use, past Pikehall (Pikeham on map) and on to Buxton. The first stage of this itinerary became Derbyshire’s first turnpike road, the Shardlow to Brassington turnpike of 1720.

*The Gate today*: *clearly older than the date on the porch*

Today Brassington is a well-kept but rather isolated village, without a shop or cafe, but still having two pubs: The Miners Arms and The Gate. The former is a reminder of the glory days of the eighteenth century when some, at least, grew wealthy on lead mining, the latter must mark the end of the early turnpike; the last tollgate going north, since the Roman road lay on limestone, and was still passable after over 1,500 years! This is confirmed by Tollbar Cottage opposite. However, the Manchester route that Ogilby describes was too hilly for laden coaches, especially in bad weather, and by 1738 a newer, low-level turnpike via Ashbourne was in use, less direct but faster overall. There are other ‘Gate’ pubs in Derbyshire, all presumably marking a turnpike tollgate: for instance at Tansley, Swanwick and Belper.

St James Church must be the oldest building in the village: the tower and parts of the nave are impressively Romanesque. Although Brassington was originally part of Bradbourne parish, there was clearly a sizable congregation here in medieval times. Although it is dangerous to assume that church dedications have remained unchanged, St James is known as Santiago in Spanish, and he was the focus of the main West European pilgrimage routes in the middle ages. Could the dedication at Brassington suggest that the church wanted to be linked to the attraction of the saint’s burial in Galicia?

Sources:

Dodd A. & Dodd E., Peakland Roads and Tracks, 1980

Brassington Community Website: https://www.brassington.org.uk/

The woman behind the 95 Ethels

On May 14, 2025May 15, 2025 By SteveIn PeopleLeave a comment

In 1917 the recently married Ethel Ward (1894-1986) became a 23-year-old widow on the death in combat of her husband, Henry Gallimore. She came from a wealthy Sheffield family; her mother was connected to the Bassetts of licorice fame, while her father was successful in the steel industry . The family suggested that Ethel should try to overcome her grief by walking on the nearby moors; a remedy that seems surprisingly modern a century later. This led to Ethel becoming aware of the need to preserve the natural landscape on the western fringes of the city, and in 1924 she helped to establish the Sheffield Association for the Protection of Rural Scenery, which later became part of the Council for the Preservation of Rural England (CPRE).

In 1927 the 750-acre Longshaw estate, owned by the Duke of Rutland, came up for sale, and Ethel campaigned to raise funds for its purchase and protection from development. She was successful, and in 1931 the estate was given to the National Trust, who still run it today. In this decade she also helped to acquire land which became part of Sheffield’s green belt, the first British city to have one. By 1936 Ethel felt that she needed an assistant; her advert was answered by a young Manchester architect, Gerald Haythornthwaite, and they were married within a year.

During and after the second world war Ethel was closely involved with the CPRE and contributed to the creation of the Peak District National Park in 1951, Britain’s first. Today she is sometimes described as a forgotten figure, yet this seems a little exaggerated given that two books have recently been published about her (see below), a wood is named after her, there is a blue plaque near the site of her family home and, most impressively, a collection of 95 Peak District ‘summits’ have been collectively called ‘The Ethels’, similar to (but lower than) Scotland’s Munros. She and Gerald are buried in Crooke’s Cemetery in Sheffield.

Sources:

Ethel: The biography of countryside pioneer Ethel Haythornthwaite, Helen Mort, 2024
Wildly Different, Sarah Lonsdale, 2025

On getting lost

On April 28, 2025 By SteveIn People, Prehistory, Road users, Walks and walkersLeave a comment

It’s difficult to get lost today. Google maps will display every street in the city, and spell out your quickest route, while in the country apps such as OS Maps will tell you exactly where on the path you are standing. The appeal of this technology is obvious – not just saving time, but also removing the fear that you’re heading the wrong way, into the unknown. In Derbyshire and the Peak District, with thousands of miles of footpaths, this reluctance to risk being lost results in crowds of visitors heading for the same honeypots such as Dovedale, Mam Tor, or the Cromford Canal, with predictable results.

It has been argued that the experience of getting lost can be valuable for our development, and we can cope better with that fear if we develop a strong sense of direction. Moreover, research has shown that the more children are allowed to roam freely, the better sense of direction they acquire. Although there must be marked individual variation, it seems that children today are restricted to a much small radius of ‘free movement’ – perhaps a few hundred yards – instead of the miles that children wandered away from home in previous generations. Of course, it can be argued that there is good reason for the restriction, but if children are barely allowed out of sight of their home they have little possibility of feeling lost – and then finding their way back.

How do we get a sense of direction? Moving through a landscape we notice and memorise a series of landmarks, while the position of the sun should provide an additional bearing (provided it’s at least partly visible). To return, the landmarks are revisited. The second time you make the journey, the landmarks are stored in your memory, even after a gap of months or years, as most walkers have found. Our nomadic ancestors, travelling through an unmapped countryside thousands of years ago, must have achieved an advanced ability to find their way, using perceptions unknown to us.

The Farley Moor megalith

On April 4, 2025 By SteveIn PeopleLeave a comment

*The two metre-high gritstone on Farley Moor*

A recent Time Team programme reports an excavation on Farley Moor north of Matlock, where a single standing stone is thought to have possibly been part of a larger Bronze Age site. The researchers were able to date the site to 3,700 years ago, on the strength of radio carbon dating of charcoal fragments. But what is not clear is whether other stones in the vicinity were part of the monument or just erratic boulders. The stone is in a recent clearing in the Forestry Commission’s Farley Wood, which was planted about 50 years ago. One significant discovery was that below the stone there is a natural spring, so that the stone could have been a marker of this useful source, which might have been more significant when the water table was higher.

Although a good number of stone circles have survived in the Peak District, there is evidence that others have been lost, either through stone robbery or deliberate destruction by landowners who felt they were pagan symbols. However, it does not follow that every standing stone was part of a circle. Others were simply waymarks, such as the stone above Wirksworth on the route of the Portway. It is difficult to imagine the landscape in this area before the conifers were planted, but the ‘Moor’ name suggests an open and fairly treeless area in which a waymark would have been valued, especially if it also marked a spring. There was an ancient route which crossed the Derwent at Darley Bridge and headed up the hillside towards Chesterfield – was this connected?

Despite centuries of speculation we really have no idea of the purpose or use of stone circles. Theories range from astronomical temples to assertions of tribal land ownership. Whether the Farley Moor stone is a circle or a solitary waymark, it is curious that in the vicinity are other named stones, such as The Cuckoo Stone on Matlock golf course or the Wire Stone half a mile to the north. While these both appear to be natural rock outcrops, the fact that they are named suggests that traditionally they were important landscapes features.

See: Youtube/ Time team/ Farley Moor

Rambling with Ewan

On March 12, 2025March 13, 2025 By SteveIn People4 Comments

The Mass Trespass at Kinder Scout in 1932 is commonly described as the impetus to the subsequent access movement. Yet this mythical event, involving perhaps 400 people and organised by the Young Communists, must be seen against the long history of defending walkers’ rights against bullying landowners, going back to the early 1800s. The subsequent fame of the event may be due to the harsh prison sentences handed out to a few protesters. But one definite outcome was to inspire Ewan MacColl to write his first successful song, The Manchester Rambler:

I’m a rambler, I’m a rambler from Manchester way
I get all me pleasure the hard moorland way
I may be a wageslave on Monday
But I am a free man on Sunday

Since then the song has become part of the folk repertoire; covered by many musicians such as the Dubliners. Part of its success may be down to the light-hearted approach:

I once loved a maid, a spot welder by trade
She was fair as the Rowan in bloom
And the bloom of her eye watched the blue Moreland sky
I wooed her from April to June
On the day that we should have been married
I went for a ramble instead
For sooner than part from the mountains
I think I would rather be dead

Whatever the truth about the Trespass, this was not the Duke of Devonshire’s finest hour. The owner of tens of thousands of acres of Derbyshire, and these grouse moors in particular, he appears to have encouraged his gamekeepers to rough up the walkers: hardly in keeping with the Cavendish family’s liberal traditions.

MacColl went on to have a remarkable life, heavily involved in theatre workshops, and marrying Joan Littlewood the theatre director first and later Peggy Seeger, the half-sister of Pete, and had a close working relationship with both. His songs include The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face and Dirty Old Town.

Listen to The Manchester Rambler:

The Coldwall bridges

On February 20, 2025 By SteveIn PeopleLeave a comment

Only a mile from the honeypot of Dovedale are the impressive arches of Coldwall Bridge, a relic of a forgotten turnpike set up in 1762 linking Thorpe with Blythe Marsh. This fine stone structure is today only navigable by farm machinery, though only fifty years ago it was used by cars, a reminder of how quickly a route can become disused. Now it is part of the Limestone Way path, and crosses the River Dove, linking Derbyshire, to the east, with Staffordshire.

It is difficult to date bridges, since they have often been repeatedly modified, either due to flood damage or increased traffic. This bridge may have been a wooden structure in the sixteenth century, but was probably rebuilt in stone in about 1726 and later widened to its present form when it was incorporated into the turnpike system.

The bridge can be the focus of a circular walk, starting from the car park near Lady Low, then on the road to Blore, turning left at Blore Hall, and taking the field path to the left. From here there’s a steady descent to the bridge, which looks most impressive from above. At the bridge the walker can either follow the Manifold Trail to Ilam, staying on the Staffordshire side of the river, or for a longer walk, cross the bridge and follow the river path up to Dovedale, then behind the Izaak Walton Hotel to Ilam.

Our romantic royal captive?

On February 12, 2025 By SteveIn People1 Comment

When Mary, Queen of Scots escaped from the rebellious Scottish lords in 1568 to find shelter in England, she could not have imagined that she would spend the next 18 years as a prisoner of her first cousin once removed, Queen Elizabeth. The Earl of Shrewsbury had the misfortune to be chosen as her jailer, and he found himself caught between Mary’s complaints about the quality of her prisons and Elizabeth’s (justified) suspicions of her cousin’s intentions. For most of her imprisonment she was kept at his houses and castles in Sheffield, Hardwick, Chatsworth, and Wingfield, with regular visits to Buxton, but initially she was confined in Tutbury Castle, just over the River Dove in Staffordshire.

Tutbury was seen as a suitable site, being sufficiently remote from both Scotland and the coast, and she arrived there in February 1569. She didn’t travel light, being accompanied by an entourage of 60, including doctors, ladies in waiting, chaplains and cooks, travelling from Yorkshire via Chesterfield and South Wingfield. You wonder how a small village was able to accommodate and feed so many, although it was common at the time to carry household items like sheets, pillows, and cooking utensils in carts from house to house. Shrewsbury was only allowed £45 a week to feed everyone, which added to his difficulties. In addition to complaining about the cold and the draughts, she also plotted with fellow Catholics to escape either to the Continent or Scotland, so he must have been relieved when he found reasons to cut back her followers and take her to the more convenient Chatsworth.

*Wingfield Manor, looking into Nottinghamshire*

Mary was moved from place to place during her confinement, including Wingfield Manor, until the exposure of the Babington Plot led to her trial and execution at Fotheringay Castle in 1586. The stress of being her gaoler may have contributed to the breakdown of the marriage of Bess of Hardwick with the Earl of Shrewsbury. Today Mary is still often portrayed as a romantic heroine, but it was her scheming that led to the brutal killing of her fellow plotters. Coincidentally, both Tutbury Castle, managed by the Duchy of Lancaster, and Wingfield, run by English Heritage, are both currently closed to the public on rather flimsy excuses, despite their importance in the national narrative.

Lord Byng pays a visit

On January 26, 2025January 30, 2025 By SteveIn People1 Comment

John Byng (1743-1813) was born into a family of soldiers and sailors, the younger son of the 3rd Viscount Torrington. He bought his commission in the Grenadier Guards when he left Westminster School, and retired as Colonel of the Regiment in 1780. Having no landed estate to look after, he decided to spend his early retirement travelling, and between 1780 and 1791 he rode thousands of miles around England, keeping an extensive record of his travels in a series of diaries. He had married, at the age of 24, Bridget Forrest, the daughter of an admiral, who went on to have 14 children with him, all but one of whom (unusually) survived infancy. Presumably Bridget was accustomed to having a semi-absent husband from his military years?

There is clearly a sarcastic element of class consciousness in Byng’s comments on Richard Arkwright’s Willersley Castle when he visited Derbyshire in 1779:

‘Went to where Sr R.A. is building for himself a grand house in the same castellated stile (sic) as one sees at Clapham, and really he has made a happy choice of ground, for by sticking it up on an unsafe bank, he contrives to overlook, not see, the beauties of the river, and the surrounding scenery. It is the house of an overseer surveying the works, not of a gentleman …’.

Byng’s tone must be connected with his position as the younger son: he had inherited no castles, and in the aristocratic world of this period anyone who had actually worked for their fortune was worth a sneer.

*Cromford Mills as were. Note the distant tower on Crich Stand, the predecessor of the war memorial*

Needless to say, John Byng was equally unimpressed by the nearby mill: ‘Every rural sound is sunk in the clamour of cotton works, and the simple peasant is changed into the impudent artisan’. The fact that the ‘simple peasant’ had chosen to work in the mill, as a welcome alternative to lead mining or worse, may not have crossed his mind. But Byng’s reaction was typical of the many tourists who were beginning to scour the Peak District for the romance of wild scenery and Gothic views. His diaries, however, do give the flavour of travel 250 years ago: his servant often rode ahead to reserve rooms at an inn, and would carry a set of sheets so that his master didn’t have to sleep on the damp or dirty bedding often provided by the house!

Watery ways

On January 13, 2025 By SteveIn People1 Comment

*The Derwent Valley* – *backbone of the county*

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 thousand years since the last ice age, and have had a dominant influence on our history, as water sources, barriers and boundaries, and also as liquid energy.

The meanings of river names are remarkably impenetrable: unlike most village names many seem to be pre-Saxon, and some even hint at a pre-Celtic language. Kenneth Cameron[i] had a hard time explaining Amber, Dove, Wye, Noe, Lathkill, Derwent and Ecclesbourne (this one of the few ‘bournes’ in the county). Of course there are several River Derwents in England, and it appears to mean something like ‘oak river’. But when does a brook become upgraded to river? And when does the tiny sic (pronounced ‘sitch’) gain the status of a brook?

Due to their permanence, rivers have historically been used as convenient boundary markers, as with the Dove as the Staffordshire border or the Erewash marking part of the Nottinghamshire boundary. Within the county, streams may also mark parish or hundred (wapentake) limits. In lowland counties rivers were often navigable, yet in Derbyshire most were barriers rather than aids to travel. In wet winters larger rivers were often impassable, except where rare and expensive bridges had been built, such as at Cromford or Whatstandwell. Early routes avoided river crossings where possible and kept to ridgeways, above the thickest woods on the river banks. Seasonal flooding was so bad in the lower Dove valley when Daniel Defoe visited in the 1720’s that he abandoned trying to reach Ashbourne from Derby.

*The River Amber floods South Wingfield church – again*

It is believed that in pagan times water spirits (or gods or whatever) were worshipped; water being seen as the source of life. There is substantial archaeological evidence of votive offerings (such as money or jewellery) being found at sites of wells or springs. So this may explain a Derbyshire mystery: why were some medieval churches built so close to frequently flooding rivers? All Saints at South Wingfield is regularly swamped by the Amber, and is well away from the main village, and the same goes for Duffield’s St. Alkmund’s, built right on the banks of the Derwent, as is, further upstream, St. Helen’s at Darley Churchtown. Were these built on ancient sacred sites, or were these locations convenient for baptisms – or both?

*Well and spring below St John the Baptist’s church at Matlock Bath*

Watermills were common before the Normans arrived, but it is noticeable that many in Derbyshire were located on minor rivers rather than on the Derwent. Presumably the large rise and fall of the Derwent made it more difficult to harness the river’s power. Some of the sites, for example on the Lea Brook at Smedley’s in Lea, seem today to have too little flow to power a mill wheel, but most had millponds to provide reserves of water during dry spells. When Arkwright built his first mill at Cromford he used the water from the Bonsall Brook rather than the nearby river. Later mills (e.g. at Milford and Darley Abbey) which did use the river required massive engineering works to create their weirs and leats.

[i] Cameron, K. (1959) The Place Names of Derbyshire Vol. 1

The Old Roads of Derbyshire

Category: People