Blog archive

Here you will find the archive of all my published blogs.

  • The next station stop is Duffield … and then Duffield

    Today’s tech tycoons play with their spacecraft, but 150 years ago a wealthy Victorian built his own railway in his garden at Duffield Bank, complete with several tunnels and six…

  • Christmas at Mountain Cottage

    In summer 1918, near the end of the First World War, DH Lawrence and his wife Frieda were forced to move from the south of England to Derbyshire, in the…

  • Celestial journeys

    The Pilgrim’s Progress, from this World to that Which is to Come must be one of the most influential books ever published in English. Today it has become common to…

  • That elusive cromlech at Riber

    Cromlechs are ancient megalithic structures, thought to pre-date stone circles, so possibly over 6,000 years old. Welsh examples consist of a flat cap stone supported by several upright stones, as…

  • Beating the bounds

    This stone, partly broken, can be found lurking in the hedge of the minor road that links Fritchley with Wingfield. Although partly broken, one side still reads ‘Winfiel(d)’ and the…

  • Going round in circles?

    Doll Tor, near Birchover There are over a thousand stone circles in Britain and France, and Derbyshire has its share, ranging in size from Arbor Low (up to 50 metres…

  • The books of the road

    The last, unfinished novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, St Ives, is the exciting story of an escaped French prisoner of war in the Napoleonic period. After breaking out of prison…

  • A Derbyshire walk with DH Lawrence 120 years ago

    ‘But it’s real England – the hard pith of England’, Lawrence wrote to Rolf Gardiner in 1926. He was referring to the hill country of the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire border,…

  • Brailsford byways

    Despite being close to the busy A52 Derby to Ashbourne road, Brailsford church, All Saints, is unusually isolated, west of the village, and nearer to Ednaston. But the map shows…

  • Cross purposes?

    Derbyshire has plenty of stone, as shown by its characteristic dry-stone walls, and walkers may find pillars of stone, like the example above, set in the landscape for no apparent…

  • A very short history of Minninglow

    The double ring of beech trees that mark Minninglow hilltop (at about 370 metres above sea level) form a distinctive landmark that can be recognised from far away. Today it…

  • Salt Paths and Saltways

    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…

  • Putting Brassington on the map

    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…

  • The woman behind the 95 Ethels

    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…

  • On getting lost

    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…

  • The Farley Moor megalith

    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…

  • Rambling with Ewan

    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 Coldwall bridges

    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.…

  • Our romantic royal captive?

    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…

  • Mystery stone

    Any offers? Walkers in the Peak District come across standing stones of various types. The banal gatepost often remains after a wall or hedge has disappeared, and can be identified…

  • Lord Byng pays a visit

    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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…