Blog archive

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

  • Rain

    It’s easy to assume that every extreme weather event – heatwave, drought or flood – must be the product of global warming. However, the storm that hit Derbyshire almost exactly…

  • Dalesway

    I’ve just walked the Dalesway, an 80-mile route from Ilkley in Yorkshire to Bowness-on-Windermere in Cumbria. It took Rene and me seven days to walk the Way, averaging about 11…

  • Love in the slow lane

    Before the mid-twentieth century many homes were overcrowded, with a lack of privacy that would surprise younger people today. Furthermore, parents were often inclined to supervise their children’s indoor behaviour,…

  • Church paths and coffin paths

    In medieval England many parishes, especially in upland areas. were larger than they are now, and parish churches consequently were more dispersed. Although not everyone attended church regularly, for most…

  • Signposting the Peaks and Paths

    Many progressive social movements, such as the Cooperative Society, started in the Manchester area, and in 1894 this was the birthplace of one of Britain’s oldest footpath protection clubs, the…

  • 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…

  • 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,…

  • Bridge building

    In the current dry weather it’s quite easy to climb down and inspect the underside of the arches of Matlock bridge, a structure thought to date from the fifteenth century.…

  • What’s going on at Wingfield?

    The ruins of Wingfield Manor are an impressive sight, on a hill overlooking the River Amber and above the village of South Wingfield. The manor was only a mile west…

  • Surprising Bradbourne

    Halfway between Brassington and Tissington is the small village of Bradbourne, with a population of just over a hundred. Yet the substantial church was once part of a priory, and…

  • The two Williams

    Diaries can be a useful source in studying travel patterns in the past. William Hodkin was a farmer and general dealer at Beeley, on the Chatsworth estate in the mid-nineteenth…

  • Defoe’s Derbyshire tour

    Few people living in Derbyshire in the eighteenth century have left an account of their travels; clearly they didn’t feel any need to describe their everyday experiences. Therefore it is…

  • The Stonehenge of the north?

    Between Buxton and Youlgreave, high up above the Derbyshire dales, Arbor Low is the largest henge monument in the north of England. The November morning I visited was bleak and…

  • A life on the road

    Tramps on the roadside in Victorian times In contrast with the rich and powerful, whose historical journeys were often recorded, we know very little about the thousands of people in…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • The lost fords of the Derwent – 2

    The road layout south of Belper has changed hugely in the past 230 years. Before the Strutts built Milford bridge in about 1790 there were no bridges between Belper bridge…

  • The Darley Mystery

    Darley Churchtown is a small part of the large village of Darley Dale. Today it is easily by-passed as it lies off the A6, although it was on the line…

  • The lost fords of the Derwent – 1

    River crossings have always been critical points on the road network, and originally these would have been fords, passable for riders in normal conditions, and possibly having stepping stones for…

  • A walk on the Portway

    This walk, which can stand alone or be incorporated into a longer route, gives a taste of one of Derbyshire’s oldest roads, and incorporates many features of historic (or even…

  • 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…

  • Lea Road: A sorry, soggy story

    The tendency of Derbyshire roads, over time, has been a shift from high-level routes to more convenient ways in the valleys, with gentler gradients. A good example is the road…

  • Saints and sinners

    This figure from Youlgrave church is thought to represent a pilgrim, with his (or her) staff and waist-hung satchel. We often think of pilgrimage in terms of the great medieval…

  • The story of the lane

    It is rare to find a historic written description of a Derbyshire road: most literate people in the past took the state of the roads for granted. Therefore it’s especially…