Tag: Ambergate

Christmas at Mountain Cottage

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Mountain Cottage, Middleton by Wirksworth, today

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 Midlands he thought he had escaped from years before. Out of work and hard up, having been harassed by officialdom for his wife’s supposed pro-German sympathies, Mountain Cottage offered them a refuge, with the rent paid by his relatively affluent sister, Ada, in Ripley. Refuge maybe, but in those days not a luxurious one. Steep field paths ran downhill to the Via Gellia, Cromford and Matlock Bath, or the road through Middleton would take him to Wirksworth station a couple of miles away. Water had to be fetched from a well in the lower garden, and of course there was no electricity, though this would be normal in rural Derbyshire at that date.

Happier days – Lawrence (right) and Frieda in 1914

On Friday, December 27th, 1918, Lawrence wrote to Katherine Mansfield:

“We got your parcel on Christmas morning. We had started off, and were on the brow of the hill, when the postman loomed round the corner, over the snow … I wish you could have been there on the hill summit – the valley all white and hairy with trees below us, and grey with rocks – and just round us on our side the grey stone fences drawn in a network over the snow, all very clear in the sun. We ate the sweets and slithered downhill, very steep and tottering … at Ambergate my sister had sent a motor-car for us – so we were at Ripley in time for turkey and Christmas pudding”.

Remarkable to discover that the postman delivered on Christmas Day, and even more surprising that they must have walked at least seven miles to Ambergate – unless the trains were also running!

Smouldering passions

Later that winter, on February 9th, he again wrote to Katherine:

“But it is immensely cold – everything frozen solid – milk, mustard, everything …Wonderful it is to see the footmarks in the snow – beautiful ropes of rabbit prints, trailing away over the brows; heavy hare marks, a fox, so sharp and dainty … Pamela is lamenting because the eggs in the pantry have all frozen and burst. I have spent half an hour hacking ice out of the water tub – now I am going out”. (Pamela was his name for another sister).

By spring the Lawrences had moved south, and were soon en route for Italy, which must have been a welcome relief after living above a frozen Via Gellia. But he never forgot this corner of Derbyshire, since he set his novella, The Virgin and the Gypsy in a village clearly based on Cromford, called Papplewick in the story:

“Further on, beyond where the road crosses the stream, were the big old stone cotton mills, once driven by water. The road curved uphill, into the bleak stone streets of the village”.

NB: Mountain Cottage can be seen from the road, on the right descending from Middleton to the Via Gellia. If walking take care as the road is quite narrow, busy, and there is no pavement.

Highways and Byways in Derbyshire – a good read

On By SteveIn People, Places, Walks and walkers2 Comments
My somewhat battered copy

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 be bought quite cheaply from second-hand sources. The volume on Derbyshire was quite early, in 1905, written by JB Firth and illustrated by Nelly Erichsen, who was from a Danish family.

An inviting title page

The author, unusually, writes from the viewpoint of a walker, so that the reader can follow his progress in detail, which is especially interesting if the reader knows an area well. Clearly there are many changes to the scenery 120 years later; for instance at Ambergate then-triangular station: ‘the station becomes simply a hideous deformity, and the adjoining kilns of Bullbridge throw up fleecy masses of white clouded smoke’. In Edwardian fashion there are many digressions in the form of stories of famous folk who have lived locally, and Firth is not afraid of copious quotations of poetry, but these rather add to the book’s charm.

Another value of the book is the recording of otherwise lost data. For example, the footpath that runs uphill from Pentrich mill to Pentrich church (see map above) is today simply a field path. but in the 1900s was clearly more: ‘This broad track used to bear the name of Deadman’s Lane, not from any relics which have been found there but because by this way dead men were borne to their last resting place in Pentrich churchyard‘. Firth also says that higher up, near the church, the line of the Roman road, Ryknild Street, was still marked with hedges.

The Gatekeepers

On By SteveIn Road users, Roadside featuresLeave a comment
Tollhouse near Holbrook

The arrival of turnpike roads in the mid-eighteenth century created a new type of job: tollgate keeper. Because the gates had to be manned day and night, accommodation had to be provided for the keepers, although presumably there was little traffic after dark. Many of these tollhouses, such as the one above on the Derby-Chesterfield turnpike, have survived, their original function indicated by their closeness to the road.

The task of collecting tolls was often auctioned off by the turnpike trusts on an annual basis, but the tollhouses and tollgates would belong to the trusts. Providing these added to the considerable cost of developing the turnpike roads, creating debts which, in many cases, would never be repaid.

The joys of gate keeping at night are vividly suggested by Dickens in his early novel ‘The Pickwick Papers’. Pickwick and Wardle are chasing Mr Jingle’s post chaise after midnight, when they reach a tollgate:

After a lapse of five minutes, consumed in incessant knocking and shouting, an old man in his shirt and trousers emerged from the turnpike-house and opened the gate. ‘How long is it since the post-chaise went through here?’ inquired Mr Wardle.

‘How long?’

‘Ah!’

‘Why, I don’t rightly know. It worn’t a long time ago, not it worn’t a short time ago – just between the two perhaps.’

Although toll gates are not marked on Burdett’s map, some are shown on Sanderson’s 1835 map marked as TB (toll bar). In some cases they gave the name to the settlement that grew up around the gate, notably Ambergate, where the tollhouse was near to the confluence of the River Amber with the Derwent. This may also apply to Bargate near Belper and Codnor Gate on the Cromford and Langley Mill turnpike.

Tollhouse on Steep Turnpike in Matlock

Surviving tollhouses can be a concrete reminder of the route of a turnpike road, which often followed a course which seems strange to us today. The example above at the foot of Steep Turnpike, in Matlock, should be no surprise, given the name of the road (note the walled-up doorway beside the road). But the cottage below, In Hopton, is a reminder that the Oakerthorpe to Ashbourne turnpike ran through the villages of Hopton and Carsington: the road beside Carsington Water is modern. Again, note the bricked-up doorway.

Probable tollhouse at junction with the Dene, Hopton