Discovering Britain

Grand Pavilion and the Derwent River Gardens

13th June 2019 by

Our trail begins with our back to the main road. To our left along the high street is the row of shops that epitomise Matlock Bath’s tourism today, But look ahead towards the river and its banks and we can find out how Matlock’s visitor appeal all began.

You can’t miss the pink tones and dome of the now slightly tired looking ‘Grand’ Pavilion. The building seems at odds with the natural backdrop behind it. But the two are actually closely related. The Grand Pavilion once stood proud among hundreds of bustling day trippers, searching for shelter and entertainment. But what brought them all here?

Built in 1905 by a team of German contractors, the Pavilion was originally called The Kursaal, a German name which literally means the ‘cure room’. This translation is a hint, but venture behind the Pavilion and the full picture begins to emerge…

The Dew Pond

13th June 2019 by

The fencing is somewhat ironic, as this old dew pond was put here in the first place to provide water for farm animals. But why go to the bother, (and it must have taken some real hard graft) of constructing a pond at all? We are in a dale so you would expect to find a stream at least, but there’s no evidence of it here.

The answer is down to the underlying rock. The limestone plateau all around us is extremely porous; any rain that falls quickly disappears underground to emerge, as we shall see, much later in our journey.

Monyash’s five natural meres, sitting in thick pockets of impervious clay, would have been an extremely rare and valuable resource to ancient peoples in a dry landscape; a good, and no doubt sacred place to site a village.

[Read more…] about The Dew Pond

Many Waters

13th June 2019 by

A short watery walk in Derbyshire’s White Peak

Lathkill Dale has its beginnings behind Monyash village, around three hundred metres above sea level. The name Monyash is thought to come from the Anglo-Saxon many and the Celtic word aesc meaning waters.

There is only one big mere (shallow lake) left in the village today, but there were five until they were filled in quite recently to provide the village with local amenities.

The five ponds must have been vital during the sixth century AD, when the Angles were starting to arrive, settle and learn about the area from the native British.

But why were these natural ponds so important? A walk down the upper half of Lathkill Dale reveals the full story of a landscape shaped and governed by the presence, or absence of water.

From the car park, cross the road and through the gate, following the public footpath sign. Head towards the dew pond in the field before you.

[Read more…] about Many Waters

View from the Sand Pits

13th June 2019 by

The view back up to Minninglow from here provides a layer-cake scene through the historical use of this landscape. On the hill’s summit the prehistoric burial site; below that the natural outcrops of limestone (which provided the slabs for those tombs); then stone walls dating back to the enclosure acts of the late eighteenth century; finally the magnificent railway embankment of 1831.

The view of Minninglow Hill © Simon Corble

But what are these huge earthworks in the foreground all about? A clue lies in the track surface we have just walked over. You may have noticed that, unlike the rest of the route, it was very sandy back there. By a happy accident, a large pocket of very valuable silica sand was discovered just below the surface of the soil and right next to the railway line.

It is part of series of such deposits, stretching in a line between here and Brassington, to the south east. The silica deposits were laid down in the hollows of the limestone by some long vanished river, during the late Miocene Era – around 10 million years ago.

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.

Minninglow Hill summit

13th June 2019 by

Surrounded by a magical ring of beech trees, the hilltop is littered with strange slabs of pale limestone; they could be teeth extracted from some stone giant. Take a closer look and you will see that they are not like the random blocks we passed on our way up here, but deliberate human constructions.

These are Neolithic tombs, dating from around 3,000 BC. They developed in a growing complex, which eventually became one big circular mound during the Bronze Age (1,200 to 700 BC). The hilltops or ‘lows’ of the White Peak were sacred places to its prehistoric inhabitants. After much looting and destruction this is a desecrated scene today, but many of the tombs retain their distinctive form. Take a peek under the slabs.

Discovering Britain

A short watery walk in Derbyshire’s White Peak

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