Search Results for: farmers

6. Farmers

29th October 2017 by

The long, broad embankment here is called a headland. This is where the oxen were turned around at the end of ploughing the common field.

Just below, there used to be a barn, in what was once called ‘barnfield’. It is known to have been used by the Slack family who lived in the house with the cellar in 1845.

Archaeologists discovered wall foundations, nails, parts of a plough and stone cobbling.

There is a hollow-way to the left that crosses the River Dove.

Why is the barn no longer here and where did the stones from its walls go? Look around. Are there other buildings the stones may have been re-used in?

Imagine this quiet valley dotted with houses, the smoke of hearths drifting into the sky. The fields are busy with farmers tending crops and livestock. Depending on the time of year, you would see farming families sowing corn, weeding the growing crops or harvesting oats and root crops. The terraces cut into the slope, like 3 fingers, (see right) were created by farmers in the Middle Ages needing deeper soils and flatter land to grow their crops on.

Look across and down the valley to your right for the remains of Norman Pilsbury Castle (see illustration, left). It was built by the Ferrers family to stamp their authority on this part of their estate. The Ferrers were barons, granted land for fighting alongside William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings.

A field rustles, pt 2

17th June 2019 by

Out of events we created for the BM125 project, grew poems that we are sharing here. This is the second half of a poem that began in “A Field rustles…”

When you visit Arbor Low or Minning Low or walk along an old road, look at the fields around you as well as at the ancient monuments themselves. Our haymeadows hold their own stories

Poems are often best read out loud, so pause and share this with a friend. or if you are on your own, speak it to the wind and the flowers themselves

The rhythm of a scythe echoes across centuries
They walked where we walk,
Those old farmers on a summer day,
The slice and hiss of a blade and
The whetstone that hones the edge,
Finding shade under these same trees,
Cutting the waving grass from the same sward.

Harebell and cranesbill
Selfheal and tormentil,
Scabious and burnet,
The names are an enchantment
A spell for a meadow,
Whispered on a dusty wind
Colour, scent, pollen and promise,
Foxtail, cocksfoot,
Fescue, vernal and bent,
The rooted and the free,
Meadow brown and large white,
Ringlet and tortoiseshell,
Prayers blown between earth and sky.

Part 3 follows

Sheepwash Bridge

13th June 2019 by

As its name suggests, the bridge spans a pool once used by local farmers to wash their sheep’s fleeces. Now it is a haven for ducks, water voles, dippers, grey wagtails and many other birds which come to drink among the boulders and aquatic plants like meadowsweet, watercress and watermint. A bubbling and vibrant reminder of how precious water is to all forms of life.

In very dry years, the water is absent even at this point and young fish have to be rescued and moved further downstream. Some of this is due to centuries-old mine workings, the drains from which have deprived the Lathkill River of much of its former flow. Plans are now in place to block the biggest of these drains, to the great benefit of all this local wildlife.

[Read more…] about Sheepwash Bridge

The Old Lane towards Minninglow Grange

13th June 2019 by

The trackways of prehistory and the Industrial Revolution are both behind us now as we descend toward Minninglow Grange, the farm directly ahead. But this rough track is no less a significant marker in the history of White Peak crossings.

The approach to Minninglow Grange © Simon Corble

The word ‘grange’ usually means that a farm was worked in the Middle Ages by monks from a great monastery, often many miles distant. This lane is thought to mark the boundary of the monastic farmland, as well as being an important route carrying away its produce.

Castleton’s Iron Age Stone Head

11th April 2018 by

*Head on display in Castleton Museum at the Visitor Centre*

You are standing near the place where this stone head was found in a garden wall in the 1970s. Although it is not possible to be sure that this head dates from the Iron Age, it has many features associated with Iron Age stone heads including a simple form, flat face and nose, lentoid eyes, abstract features and a lack of facial expression. Another characteristic is the flattened head, possibly for the placement of votive offerings.

*Head found set into a garden wall in 1970s (S. Hampton)*

The Russet Well, which is in a private garden nearby, produces clear spring water that discharges into Peaks Hole Water. Our stone head may have formed part of a shrine where Iron Age farmers made offerings and sacrifices, perhaps as part of a springtime ritual. The Hope Valley is known to have been settled and farmed in the Iron Age, probably much earlier, and the imposing hillfort at Mam Tor originated in the late Bronze Age, around 1100 BC.