Derbyshire Antiques & Collectibles – Propelling Pencils
At various times over my boyhood, I received a propelling pencil for birthday or Christmas, which, of course, duly got lost at school or somehow broken. Most were plastic bodies and some had different coloured leads. My grandfather had a silver one boasting a dip-pen nib with a propelling pencil hidden beneath the nib’s curve, which could be moved out whilst the nib retracted. Mama, who was a serious bridge player, had a set of four with the suits in colour on the silver bodies and little coloured silky tassels, which lived in a powder blue box and came out when she and her friends sat down to play, along with the gin. Perhaps I should have kept mine, for most propelling pencils or mechanical pencils are collectible and some highly collectible. The modern pencil was born in 16th-century England, where, in Cumbria, a major deposit of graphite was found. The earliest pencils had square solid graphite cores. In 1795, a Frenchman named Nicholas Jacques Conté mixed powdered graphite with clay so that the material could be formed into rods that would be hardened by firing. This allowed pencil makers to vary the quality of the mark made by the rod—the greater the percentage of graphite to clay, the softer the rod and the darker the mark. It also enabled a new type of pencil to be invented in 1822. This was a ‘mechanical’ pencil, the co-creation of English inventors Sampson Mordan and Gabriel Riddle. Mechanical pencils, aided by the user, had a small rod which pushed the graphite rod down a tube of conforming diameter usually with a twist action mechanism via helical drive to the pencil’s point, and held them there. When done writing, the mechanism could be twisted the reverse way. Between 1822 to 1874, more than 160 patents were registered pertaining to a variety of improvements to such pencils. The first spring-loaded mechanical pencil was patented in 1877 and the twist-feed mechanism was developed in 1895. Some of these pencils are simple, some are fancy, with lead-storage compartments, erasers hidden inside the finial, or even finial-mounted engraved jewels; there was something for every income level. But until the early 20th century, they were generally all just plain, propelling pencils. They may be found in a bewildering variety of media: gold, silver, ivory, tortoiseshell, and there are numerous novelties, from guns, parasols, axes, creatures (great and small) and so on. The first major development was the propel-repel pencil. Whereas the previous incarnation of the pencil had the lead freely sliding in and out of a closely-fitted tube, a new innovation approached the problem a little differently. The end of the lead firmly fitted into a socket, and the socket—attached to a shuttle—moved up and down the length of the barrel. Unfortunately, when used up, the lead tended to break off, right at the socket. Then the only solution was to ream out the socket, or discard the pencil and buy a fresh one. Further development was required. This came in the 1930s. Rather than simply wedging the lead into a socket, a propelling rod was placed inside the socket; one which travels only far enough to push remnants of the lead out of the socket, doing so only when the mechanism is at the furthest point of travel along the barrel. This design was truly revolutionary, and is still in use in fine mechanical pencils today. It became eloquently known as the propel-repel-expel pencil. Needless to say, there are numerous variations and combinations of all three varieties. The slide- and screw-mechanism pencils from the early part of the 19th century are highly prized, as are the combination pen-pencils (like Grandpa’s) from later that century. Some had a pencil on one end and a pen on the other. Throughout the nineteenth century and into the 20th, Sampson Mordan and Co. remained the pre-eminent manufacturer in the UK. Miniature mechanical pencils were also popular. They were typically decorated with celluloid or enamel cases. Some telescoped, others were built into pocketknives. In the early 20th century, you could get everything from tricolour pencils to ones with calendars on their cases (these were usually made by Mordan, too). By the 20th century, even high-end retailers like Tiffany and Cartier were commissioning examples, often designed in Art Nouveau or Art-Deco styles. Collectible brands of 20th century pencils include Yard-O-Led (which boasted twelve 3in leads in the barrel, patented in 1934) and Wahl-Eversharp (founded by C R Keenan 1915, but taken over by Wahl 1918), which cased their pencils in metal and hard rubber, while Sheaffer and Waterman used hard colourful Bakelite. Of course, advertisers liked to put their logos and slogans on mechanical pencils too, especially during the 1930s and 1940s and these, even if quite cheaply made, are all the more collectible for it. Victorian pencils are so varied and attractive that many collectors refuse to stray into the following era in their collecting. At Bamford’s we recently sold a lot of three gilt metal ones – one chased, the others engine-turned, one with a seal top and one with a ring on the end for attachment to a châtelaine or similar for marking dance cards – for £22 against an estimate of £15-20. Base metal and non-exotic material ones are not expensive but can be very attractive and, of course, retain their utility as long as you want them to! These can also have amusing refinements, such as a Stanhope – a peephole at the top with a view of some beauty spot, or a portrait of a notable – or a seal end with an engraved armorial, enabling one to track down the original owner. Even in base metal the engine turning or chase-carving can be of respectable quality, and yet £20 will often buy you one at auction, although non-precious metal examples do tend to be sold in groups. Some are not only precious metal, but wonderfully attractive like the Mordan piglet pencil sold recently for £1,695
The Lost Houses of Derbyshire – Glossop Hall
The Glossop Hall that was demolished in 1958-59 was an unlovely house of titanic proportions, once set in a spectacular wooded park. Unlovely it may have been, but it had an interesting history and was itself at least the third house on the site, although it probably included portions of the fabric of at least one of its predecessors. The manorial estate of Glossop passed at the Dissolution from the Abbey of Basingwerk to the Talbots, Earls of Shrewsbury & Waterford, of whom George, the 6th Earl had the dubious fortune to have married Bess of Hardwick, who spent much of his fortune building prodigy houses like Worksop Manor and Hardwick. At this stage we have no knowledge if there was a manor house at Glossop, especially as all the families mentioned so far were firmly seated elsewhere. This situation appears to have continued until the death of the 7th Earl of Shrewsbury, who left a crop of daughters but no sons, amongst whom his estates were parcelled out. Much of the Derbyshire land went to Lady Alathea Talbot who in 1606 married Thomas Howard, a grandson of the Attainted 4th Duke of Norfolk, who went by one of his subsidiary titles, the Earl of Arundel, although Charles II made his son Earl of Norfolk, and his grand-son had the Dukedom restored to him by reversal of the Act of Attainder. The couple’s son Henry Frederick Howard, a Catholic, like all his family, was fairly prolific, producing at least five sons, of whom the youngest was Bernard, (1641-1717) who actually lived at Glossop and in all probability built there a new house on rolling parkland west of Old Glossop. From his time there long survived a chimney-piece dated 1672 and a priest’s hole, which survived later rebuilding. His son also Bernard (1674-1713) married a lady with a house situated in a less climatically inclement part of England, and moved out in 1712, settling a lease for life on his cousin Lady Philippa Howard, a daughter of the 6th Duke of Norfolk. This was because her husband, Ralph Standish of Standish, near Wigan, was a younger son and they thus needed a house. Thus the couple with their three sons and three daughters settled at Glossop, but clearly wanted a more modern house, so began to replace or rebuild Bernard Howard’s Jacobean house in 1729-31. Work stopped in the latter year, probably with the house mostly complete, when Lady Philippa died, leaving Ralph with a single surviving child, a daughter, Cecilia, born in 1699 and by this time married to William Towneley of Towneley Hall, near Burnley and living away from home. He continued to live part of the time at the house but on his death in 1755 aged 84, the house and its vast moorland estates reverted to the main Howard line in the person of Henry Howard, (1713-1787) who resumed using the house, but only as a shooting box in the season. At this stage, the house itself bore the name Royle Hall after the ancient name of the pastures west and south of the old village on which it had been built. A sketch of it taken in the later 18th century shows a three bay house with a hipped roof, a single bay extension to the south and another to the north, but much lower and probably the small domestic (Catholic) chapel suggests that the house started off as a simple William-and-Mary (that is, rather old fashioned for its date) house of two storeys and attics. In 1827 the diarist James Butterworth visited the area and wrote: ‘At a small distance from the village stands an ancient building called Royle Hall, but now named Glossop Hall. It serves as a retreat during the shooting season, there being plenty of game here; Round it are planted large firs, and in front a very extensive hill is covered with firs of many years growth, through which are pleasant roads.’ And by the 1780s the house was only permanently inhabited by the rather aristocratic agent Charles Calvert with the estate bailiff Thomas Shaw inhabiting the service wing. Calvert had moved on by 1797, however, when the role was taken over by Matthew Ellison, who first re-named the house Glossop Hall. The Ellisons were a Staffordshire family and Matthew had three sons, one, Francis, adopted, and four daughters. Whilst the eldest, Thomas sired a long line of Glossop solicitors, and Frank founded a mill in the town, later living at Park Hall, Michael succeeded as agent at the Hall and he by his son, Michael Joseph Ellison. Meanwhile, one of the daughters, Mary, had married Joseph Hadfield of Lees Hall nearby and their son was Matthew Ellison Hadfield, of whom more anon. Bernard Edward FitzAlan-Howard was in occasional residence in 1815 when he succeeded a distant cousin as 12th Duke of Norfolk. At first, having inherited the house, he extended and remodelled it to the designs of London based family architect Robert Abraham (1774-1850). This consisted of extending northwards a further five bays, the extension to include a new, grander, staircase, but it was done in matching style, complete with attic dormers and banding between the storeys and of small limestone ashlars with millstone grit dressings. Abraham also provided a fine new pedimented stable block set around a courtyard, to the west of the house, embellished with a Wren-like tower and walling replete with rusticated piers topped with ball finials. On the Duke’s death in 1842, the estate went to his second son, Lord Edward FitzAlan-Howard, later (1869) created 1st Lord Howard of Glossop. Not satisfied with the house his father had created, he decided to embellish the whole starting in 1850, and this time employing his agent’s cousin, Matthew Ellison Hadfield (1812-1885) as architect. Hadfield had been articled to Woodhead and Hurst of Sheffield before working for P F Robinson in London. He returned to Sheffield to set up in practice in 1832, taken John Grey Weightman as
Celebrity Interview – Tommy Cannon
They go together like fish and chips, bread and butter or salt and pepper. But now Cannon and Ball, the comedy duo who at one time pulled in almost 20 million viewers for their weekly television show, are having to undertake solo projects to stay in work. But the pair who have been a double act for 55 years will join up again later in the year. They will both be in Bobby’s play The Dressing Room which will tour for two months before Cannon and Ball spend Christmas in panto, the third successive year they have been signed up to play at Crewe Lyceum. This year’s show is Jack and the Beanstalk. Tommy looks on acting as a challenge, although he admits it’s a bit odd looking around and his old mate Bobby – catchphrase “Rock on Tommy!†– isn’t at his side. “It’s a bit nerve-racking to be honest with you. But sometimes we have to do things separately simply because if we don’t work we don’t earn any money.†Tommy, a likeable northerner with no pretensions, doesn’t hold anything back when he talks about how the world of entertainment has been turned upside down over the past couple of decades. “When you think about what we do, we’ve got nowhere to go and do it. Summer seasons have gone. In the ‘80s we used to do 25 weeks at Bournemouth and 25 weeks in Blackpool, Torquay and all them sorts of places. But they don’t do it any more. “When variety died it were just like somebody had switched the light off. We went ‘where’s all that gone? Where’s the summer seasons gone? Who’s changed that?’†Tommy appeared in a Christmas special of Lee Mack’s TV sitcom Not Going Out – Bobby plays Lee’s dad – and Tommy also made a guest appearance last year in the soap Doctors. Four years ago he and Bobby toured a farce, Ha Ha Hood!, with Su Pollard – but apart from that he has done little acting. That’s why he’s enjoying Seriously Dead. “I’m a character by the name of Albert Blunderstone who’s a bit of a northern boy, has a bit of a way with the ladies. Me and another guy have done a bank robbery and he’s disappeared. It was £50,000 we stole and I’m trying to find out where it’s gone because I never got any of it.†How did Tommy get the job? “I know Leah Bell who’s the director. She’s written it and is in it as well. I heard that she was after me to do the play. I rang Leah up and she said it would be lovely if I could do it. So I said let’s give it a go. It was as simple as that.†Thomas Derbyshire was born in Oldham on 27 June 1938. He met Robert Harper in the early 1960s while they were working as welders in the same factory. They formed a club act and turned professional in the late 1960s, changing their names to Cannon and Ball. Their primetime Saturday night programme The Cannon and Ball Show was one of London Weekend Television’s most successful series and lasted for 12 years. They recently returned to the small screen in a reality-type show called Last Laugh in Vegas. Nine showbiz legends from the worlds of comedy, music and variety were given a last shot at putting on an act in Las Vegas, the variety capital of the world. Cannon and Ball joined Bernie Clifton, comedian Mick Miller, pianist Bobby Crush, singer Kenny Lynch, pop idol Jess Conrad, singer Anita Harris and Su Pollard for a five-part TV series in which they prepared for the gig of a lifetime. Tommy admits it was fun but it was also challenging. “We didn’t know what we were going to do. All we knew was that we were going to be out there for virtually two weeks. We enjoyed it.†But while they were there a gunman opened fire on a crowd of concertgoers at a music festival on the Vegas Strip, leaving 58 people dead and 851 injured. “Vegas was very special apart from the fact that all them people got killed,†says Tommy. “That was very sad. Typical Americans – the following day they were going down the Strip with banners the size of a garage saying ‘keep your heads high America, we can beat this’. It was fantastic to think they were rallying round so quick.†The programme may lead to new opportunities for the showbiz veterans who went to Vegas, although Tommy is taking nothing for granted. “If anything does happen it would be in the early stages of next year. TV don’t work that quick any more. We’ll have to wait and see. Who knows?†After Seriously Dead Tommy and Bobby will start another tour of The Dressing Room. It features a group of comics having a laugh before Cannon and Ball do 25 minutes of their own material. “It’s variety within a play,†says Tommy. He agrees there is still an outlet for variety but the problem is that the younger generation doesn’t experience it. “It’s 30-odd years since we were on TV, every Saturday, Christmas specials and Easter specials and all that stuff. There’s a whole generation who’ve grown up in that time. They don’t know about us unless they go on YouTube. “The funniest thing of all is when you do pantomime the kids are waiting for an autograph and they say ‘you’re really funny, why aren’t you on telly?’ There’s a new generation out there who don’t know what variety is about.†As well as the good times, Tommy has had a number of bad experiences. When variety died, he found it difficult to get back on his feet. Last year he was made bankrupt but remains stoical about it: “It’s just one of those things in life – it happens to lots of people.†He lives with his second wife
Product Test – Liz Earle
Liz Earle Naturally Active Skincare is a Great British beauty brand, founded in 1995. We are passionate about all that we do and create products that really work on every skin type by harnessing the potent powers of the finest quality naturally active ingredients. Superskin™ Bust & Neck Treatment £36 50ml Packed with kigelia extract and a blend of mangosteen, quince, green algae and white lupin, this light, precious serum visibly plumps and smoothes skin around the bust, décolletage and neck. Rich in omega-3, GLA and antioxidants, this powerful treatment is perfect for skin which has lost elasticity, firmness or is ‘crepey’ due to sun exposure, age, weight change, pregnancy or menopause, making it look and feel rejuvenated. Massage over bust, décolletage and neck daily. Naturally active ingredients include kigelia extract, organic rosehip oil, cranberry seed oil, pomegranate extract and mangosteen extract to visibly plump and smooth. Suitable for all skin types Orange Flower Botanical Body Wash™ 200ml £15 Containing uplifting citrus aromas, this gentle body wash cleanses and refreshes all over, leaving every skin type fresh, soft and smooth. With foaming agents derived from soap bark, corn and coconut plus soothing organic oats, it is suitable for all the family and can be used daily. Contains no sodium lauryl/laureth sulphate. Pour into the hand for a light foam, massage onto the skin and rinse off. Naturally active ingredients include organic oats, natural source vitamin E, plus orange flower water and ten pure essential oils to lift spirits and delicately scent the skin. Suitable for all skin types Nourishing Botanical Body Cream™ £20 200ml This concentrated, hydrating body cream helps the skin retain moisture throughout the day. With shea butter and avocado oil to help soften, and pure orange, lavender and rose-scented geranium essential oils to delicately fragrance the skin. Massage Nourishing Botanical Body Cream sparingly into warm skin after bathing. Naturally active ingredients include shea butter, avocado oil, echinacea and hops extract, plus natural source vitamin E and beta-carotene For more information and to buy online visit www.uk.lizearle.com Tried & Tested Bust and Neck This glides on easily and soaks in fast. I could really tell the difference after a few weeks use. Recommend this product for your late 20s before sun damage occurs. VP      Body Wash This is now my regular choice for showering. Fresh citrus aromas, soothing lather which leaves my skin feeling soft and smooth. I love it. JP Body Cream As directed I used this after showering, rubbing in a small amount all over. Quickly absorbed it soon leaves your skin feeling nourished even after a long drying winter. Perfect summer preparation CB 00
From Picasso to Dahli
Spain never really appealed to me as a holiday destination, especially the popular tourist areas where they proudly proclaim, ‘Full English Breakfast or English Pub’ I may as well stay at home for that but, we were tempted to dip our toes into Girona in Catalunia and Ronda in the Province of Malaga. These are two contrasting areas and both full of excitingly different experiences for the visitor. On arrival at Girona airport and with not really a clue in which direction to point the hire car we came up with a cunning plan. One member of the party would hire a taxi and let the taxi lead the rest of us to our destination on the outskirts of Sant Esteve. When we showed the non -English speaking taxi driver the map he just shrugged and went to another taxi driver who also shrugged. This wasn’t going well, but he agreed, with a lot of gesturing, to take us if one of us map read for him! The journey of only a few kilometres to the northwest of Girona towards Figueres, in the dark, was quite unique indeed and at times somewhat scary. The villages in this lovely area were exactly what we were looking for – old and traditional. The small village shop sold everything from bread to bikes. On our first day we called in for Pan and was told, by pointing at the clock, to come back in an hour. On doing so we picked up the most beautiful freshly baked loaf. This shop became our source of supplies for the week and we had some excellent food. We wondered what the response would be when we asked for steak, “come back later†was the reply and we duly collected some superb steaks. When we asked for onions the old lady just shouted into the back room and her husband (we think) came out with garden fork in his hand and went across the road and dug up some onions. It just couldn’t get better. Why on earth would you want the hassle of Marbella when this kind of thing is around. One of the villages had a restaurant, not well signposted but the villagers knew it was there. Again no English was spoken but one of our party declared that he had ‘worked with a Spanish waiter’ and knew a bit of Spanish so he ordered the food. ‘No pesce no carne’ he said expecting to receive no fish or meat, however the waiter proudly presented us with huge plates of salads with fish and meat, plus wineskins full of red wine that you poured with accuracy down your throat, a skill that took some mastering but we were determined to succeed. We feared what the bill would be for the eight of us but I’ve never had such an exceptional , unordered(!) meal so cheap in my life. They were so good to us the platters kept coming, so did the bread and wine. The emphasis for our trip was also on seeing Catalunya. Trips up and down the N11 to Girona and Figueres or the C56 West to Banyoles and East to Llafranc from our base were easy. Girona boasts six museums Catalonia-Girona Museum of Archaeology, Girona History Museum, Cinema Museum, Girona Art Museum, Jewish History Museum and Casa Masó. Girona declares “The historic city of Girona invites visitors to trace its more than 2000 years of history through two fortified enclosures, the Força Vella and the Medieval Quarter. The Força Vella dates back to the Roman foundation while the medieval extension of the city walls was carried out during the 14th and 15th centuries. The city’s artistic heritage has been preserved in the numerous monuments that have survived until today. The highlights of Girona are rounded off by the impressive old Jewish Quarter or Call, with its beautiful streets and porticoed squares, and by the exuberant baroque spaces and Noucentisme-style buildings by architect Rafael Masó.†The city’s many restaurants offer a wide variety of food: Catalan, Mediterranean, market and signature cuisine. Girona gastronomy has now become an international model of quality, with Michelin-starred restaurants that include El Celler de Can Roca, proclaimed by the prestigious Restaurant Magazine as the Best Restaurant in the World! We didn’t try that one but opted for the smaller bars where you can pick and choose from a large variety of tapas and a glass of Ratafia, a sweet liqueur made from a local herb, which makes for a very sociable afternoons relaxation. A ride into the Pre Pyrenees Natural park of Sierra ei Cadi, the largest in Catalonia, afforded us the opportunity to film a golden eagle as it walked up the dusty track towards our car whilst we were having a coffee, then took off majestically only 25 yards in front of us. We were transfixed. It is obvious why this mountain range is so popular with hikers. It is also an area the young Pablo Picasso visited. Whilst on the subject of famous artists, a short drive up to Figueres, right on the edge of the Spanish/French border, will offer you the opportunity to visit the Dalà Theatre and Museum which houses the largest collection of Salvador Dali’s work, and he’s buried under the stage too! During 2017 an exhumation order of his tomb was executed due to someone claiming to be a child of his. A short flat walk from the Dalà Theatre brings you to Castell de Sant Ferran the place where Napoleon based his troops and is proclaimed to be the largest castle in Europe. As we took a leisurely stroll through the old town, through its squares, looking at the historic buildings, you realise that it’s a place that you need to explore again. Flights to Girona are from East Midlands, and Birmingham. You can also opt to fly to Barcelona which will give you easy access to the coastal area of Calella de Palafrugell or Llafranc (my favourite). There
Walk Derbyshire – Tideswell, Miller’s Dale and Litton
The history of the Peak District is writ large on this walk. Starting way back in time when volcanoes spewed out their lavas, the walk enters one of the loveliest dales in the White Peak, but it was where orphaned children were unable to enjoy its delights. Climbing out of the dale, the way is across fields whose layout would still be recognised by the medieval farmers who ploughed their furrows with pairs of oxen. Two villages come next, Litton and Tideswell, the latter with its church classed as the ‘Cathedral of the Peak’. From there the way back to the car park follows back roads and footpaths laid out well over a hundred years ago. The volcanic activity mentioned above took place in what is now known as Tideswell Dale. The hillside to your left, on walking down the dale, has some quarried areas of dark coloured rock between layers of limestone. These are the remains of lava flows that spewed out of volcanic vents surrounding a tropical lagoon that once covered what became the White Peak of Derbyshire. At the dale end the path joins the main, or Miller’s Dale down which flows the clear waters of the Derbyshire River Wye. A mile or two downstream the river enters its prettiest section, aptly called ‘Water-cum-Jolly Dale’, but before it reaches this sylvan glade, the river once powered a cotton mill whose young operatives lived a life of hell. This is Litton Mill to which orphaned children were brought from workhouses as far away as London to enter a life of cruel servitude as so-called apprentices. Nowadays the mill having ceased production, has been converted into apartments and its subordinate cottages are now lived in by locals whose ancestors may well have been those orphans apprenticed to slavery. There were two cotton mills along this section of Miller’s Dale, and depending on fate, any child not destined to the cruelty of Litton Mill might have found itself working at Cressbrook Mill a few yards beyond the delights of Water-cum-Jolly. These children although still used as cheap labour, were by comparison with their brothers and sisters upstream treated more fairly. The place where they worked was called Cressbrook Mill. Like its partner, the mill stopped spinning cotton decades ago and like Litton has been converted into apartments. Climbing out of the main dale, the walk follows Cressbrook Dale where this salad plant was once gathered as a cash crop. Using a woodland path until it reaches open pastures, a side path climbs narrow Tansley Dale to reach Litton village. This village where the locals run a co-operative store selling basic foodstuffs rather like the original self-help founders, has a welcoming pub as well as a tea room attached to the shop. Narrow fields surrounding Litton and its larger neighbour, Tideswell are known as strip fields designed to be ploughed in one day by a team of two oxen. A quiet side road leads from Litton into Tideswell. Once the major town in this part of the Peak, its parish church, aptly called the Cathedral of the Peak, speaks well of Tideswell’s one-time even greater prosperity. Being on what was once a busy cross-country turnpike, it still has pubs that once welcomed travellers on not-so-comfortable mail coaches whose horses could be changed here. Useful Information 6 miles (9.7km) of moderate walking along paved paths, valley bottom woodland ways and limestone upland field paths. 690ft (210m) climb. Muddy sections, especially after winter rain. Recommended Map. Ordnance Survey Outdoor Leisure Map – Sheet 24, the Peak District, White Peak Area. Refreshments: Tea rooms and pubs in Litton, Tideswell and Miller’s Dale. Public transport: Chesterfield/Tideswell service: (Buxton route) – G&J Holmes/Hulleys number 66. Parking. (Pay) is at the head of Tideswell Dale (B6049) The Walk Follow the partly surfaced path down Tideswell Dale from the car park and toilet block. Swop sides at the fork and go over a small wooden bridge, continuing to walk downstream. A side path on the left a hundred yards from the start of the walk leads up to a small quarry where the basaltic lava was spewed millions of years ago. Entering Miller’s the main dale, turn left along the valley-bottom road and follow it to Litton Mill. Go through two imposing gateposts and walk through the mill yard, bearing right on a concessionary path. Continue to your left down the dale. Although the rest of the mill is private, it is still possible to see the pipework of a turbine which powered the working mill in its later years. Look out for birdlife as you follow the River Wye in its twists and turns down the dale. Spend time admiring the view of Water-cum-Jolly Dale. N.b. the path is sometimes flooded at this point, so keep well to your left. Keep to the left of Cressbrook Mill and follow the path as far as the road. Turn left along the valley road and where it begins to climb, take the right fork still going uphill. Leave the road where the road doubles back uphill, and walk forwards along a woodland track. Beyond a group of cottages, continue ahead on a narrow woodland path climbing steadily up Cressbrook Dale. Where the path goes downhill at a clearing, follow it over a narrow footbridge and climb steeply uphill from the far bank of the stream. Reaching a boundary wall at the top of the slope, do not cross the stile but begin to go back downhill in order to cross the dale. At a junction of paths close by the stream, cross the latter by way of stepping stones and begin to climb Tansley Dale. At the head of this dale start to bear slightly right and cross a series of narrow fields, using stiles to keep on course. Bear left on entering a narrow track accessing the fields and follow it for about twenty yards and then go to your right into a field. Walk diagonally left
Gardening – Spring
I wouldn’t say that the Winter has been particularly bad, looking back on my gardening diary we had 7ft snow drifts in 2014 in South Derbyshire but I do think it has been a long one. For the first time in 20 years we had snow early in December so after stop – start with the Gardening we are now getting some clearer, warmer days. This month sees the start of the “grow your own†season, again with many new varieties of vegetables. I can’t wait to start on my own allotment and I’ve already planted my potatoes and onion sets – but I also had great success with carrots so I’m going to try the heritage varieties. I sprayed less insecticide last year because of the companion planting I used (blackpepper mint and basil) to keep away greenfly and whitefly. Also another tip, using white alyssum (the summer bedding plant) planted in containers near plants or vegetables, thrips are attracted to the alyssum and not your plants or veg. Once the alyssum are swamped with thrips simply dispose of them in the green waste wheely bin.Look out for the N.G.S Open Garden booklets. The reason I love the open garden scheme is because these are “real†gardens that easily relate to our own gardens. So pick up a yellow booklet for dates and locations from any good plant nursery or garden centre and also look out for the yellow posters – the open gardens are a great source of inspiration. Allotment or Vegetable Patch: Still a good time to sow green manure Buy vegetable plug plants (approx Easter weekend onwards) Fertilise spring cabbage with a high nitrogen feed Plant new asparagus “crowns†Potatoes, shallots and onion sets should still be available to buy Feed fruit trees and bushes with sulphate of potash Crops to sow directly outside or under cloches are peas, mange tout, mixed salad leaves, radish, cauliflower, turnip, lettuce, carrots, beetroot, cabbage, Brussels, broad beans, leeks, rocket, Swiss chard and spinach. Also sow in your vegetable plot tagetes and poached egg plant to attract beneficial insects. In the Greenhouse: Protect any seedling from cold Water any seedling trays or pots with copper fungicide to help prevent damping off disease. Remember to increase ventilation on warm days If too hot, put up shading to protect plants Buy plug plants to grow on for pots, bedding displays and baskets. Sow French and runner beans in pots. Sow melons, cucumbers, marrows and courgettes in a heated propagator Check plants regularly for signs of pests or disease Plant tomatoes in grow bags or large pots. General Garden Maintenance: Repair or sow new lawns with grass seed. Apply moss killer to lawns – or sulphate of iron which is the active ingredient in moss killers. Rake out any dead grass from lawns. Start to feed the lawn with a suitable lawn fertiliser. Prune out any green shoots (reversion) off any variegated shrubs. Check that stakes are not rubbing against trees or tree ties are not too tight. Cut away any “suckers†growing around the base of trees and shrubs. Last month’s top shrubs forsythia and ribes (flowering currants) prune back after flowers have finished. Sprinkle a handful of sulphate of potash around tulips to improve flowering Sow sweet peas outside around the base of cane supports, obelisks or even try a hanging basket for them to trail down. Give camelias, rhododendrons, azaleas and pieris a good handful of ericaceous (acidic) fertiliser. Now is the ideal time to start to spray roses as a preventive for mildew, rust and blackspot. Keep topiary in check by giving a light clip now. Look out for new varieties of trees and shrubs this month but here are some that are old favourites. Japanese Maples: My most favourite of all shrubs, these stunning shrubs / trees are ideal in containers and make a great feature plant in the garden. The choice of varieties is vast, with red or green, finely cut or palmate leaf. Pick a variety like Acer Palmatum Sango Kaku and you also get colourful stems in winter. Acers like a moist but well drained, neutral to acid soil in a non exposed windy position. Despite what you read in some books, Acers with sensible care are easy to grow. My personal favourites are … Acer Palmatum `Sango Kaku` (coloured stems) , Acer Palmatum `Bloodgood` (the best upright red leaf maple) Acer Palmatum Dissectum `Greenlace` (very finely cut, green leaf maple), Acer Palmatum Dissectum `Garnet` (very finely cut, red leaf maple) and Acer Shirasawanum `Aureum` (bright yellow leafed maple). Spiraea x cinerea `Grefsheim`: or “bridal wreath†currently mine at home is full of flower bud so this will look fantastic at this time of year, long flower racemes of pure white hang down almost weeping. Very easy to grow it likes most soils in full sun to part shade. I wouldn’t recommend this for a pot but planted in a border or a informal hedge makes a good feature. The R.H.S has given this plant the Award of Garden Merit. Cercis chinensis `Avondale`: Might be a bit hard to find this one but worth hunting it out. This is a beautiful species which is native to China, Cercis chinensis ‘Avondale’ has bare stems which are studded with pretty, rich purple-pink flowers in late April or early May before the foliage emerges. This variety is grown mainly for it’s striking flowers but there is also Cercis canadensis `Forest Pansy`which has beautiful deep plum red leaves and new this year Cercis canadensis `Hearts of Gold` which has large bright yellow leaves. 00
Derbyshire Walk – Tissington
I had visions of Michael Fish, the man whose forecast about there being no danger of hurricanes, went as his Scots forebears would have put it; ‘gone aft a’gley’. In my case it was a completely wrong interpretation of the forecast. According to a weather map in the Guardian a day or so before the planned walk, the weekend weather should have been dull at first, then sunny. Perfect I thought but after the first hour’s walking, instead of sunshine, we had snow, not much, but enough to make us wonder if we had done the right thing, but by then we were well into the walk, and had to plod on regardless. This walk rather than be between two grand houses, aims for just one, Tissington Hall as its high point. Starting from the little known village of Parwich, the way is across the valley of Bletch Brook, then by way of a short length of the Tissington Trail to the estate village of Tissington. The return follows a more northerly route, across fields and then over Bletch Brook once more. It then travels back to Parwich where Robinsons’ a renowned Stockport brewery supplies the Sycamore – their ‘Old Tom’ was a warming respite at the end of a bitterly cold and damp walk. The two villages visited on this walk are built on ancient foundations. Parwich can almost be classed as a hidden outpost. Its secluded stone-built cottages sit around a pleasant village green filling a sunny hollow and can claim to be one of the least known Peakland villages. The church is built on Saxon and Norman foundations, but like many of its kind was ‘improved’ during the Victorian zeal for modernisation. Its hall though dating from 1747 is not built from the plentiful local stone, but from bricks that were made on site in temporary kilns. Standing on a south-facing terrace overlooking the village, the house and its gardens are only opened to the public on advertised days. To the south on the opposite side of Bletch Brook valley, Tissington is an estate village clustered around its Jacobean hall. Both have been owned by the Fitzherbert family since Elizabethan times. Although not on the route of this walk, the village is entered by a side road off the Buxton/Ashbourne highway, along an imposing avenue of lime trees. With its attractive duck pond at its centre, Tissington is popular with visitors throughout the year. Some may come just to sight-see, or picnic beside the pond; others seeking more energetic pursuits make for the old station car park on the Tissington Trail in order to cycle or walk along the all-weather track. Whatever it is that brings visitors to Tissington, the majority will be arriving in May around Ascension Day when Tissington is the first Peakland village to dress its wells. Tissington Hall is open to the public at advertised times and fulfils everyone’s idea of how an ancient house can still be a pleasant family home. Cream teas are usually on offer and the rose garden is a must throughout the summer months. The Walk : From the village green in Parwich, follow a side lane southwards towards rising ground. Look out for a shallow cave on your right and go through an awkward squeezer stile next to a farm house. Follow the line of a hedge, down to the slopes leading into Bletch Brook valley. Walk down four fields into the valley bottom where it can be muddy. Cross the stream by a footbridge. Climb uphill, following the route indicated by a Limestone Way signpost, crossing stiles in the walls of three fields until you reach a farm lane. Cross the railway bridge and, on its far side, turn sharp left and go down to the track bed of Tissington Trail. Turn right and follow the all-weather trail. Tissington Trail follows the Ashbourne/Parsley Hay stretch of the old railway from Uttoxeter to Buxton via Ashbourne. Never economical, it was closed following the Beeching report. Walk along the trail for about ¾ mile (1.2km), as far as Tissington Station car park and picnic site. From the car park, go left into the village, then right opposite the duck pond. Go past the café and then Tissington Hall on your left. The attractive Hall Well on your right opposite the hall entrance, is just one of the Tissington wells dressed each year. Turn right at a road junction and a group of cottages beyond the hall at the far end of the village. Turn left by the last cottage and follow a signposted, waymarked field path across five fields, crossing walls by stiles, or go through field gates. Low ridges in the fields crossed by this section of the walk are the remains of medieval field systems when ploughs were hauled by teams of oxen. Keeping to the right of Crakelow Farm, cross a railway bridge over the Tissington Trail. Keeping slightly to the right, walk downhill into the valley by a pathless route crossing four fields. Keep to the right of an old field barn. Cross Bletch Brook (muddy on either side) and climb the hillside by following a boundary hedge. Cross two more field boundaries along the way. Drop into and follow a sunken track. Go through a squeezer stile, moving away from the sunken track and over a field. Aim to the right of a ruined barn, then climb over another stile in a boundary hedge. Walk downhill towards the bottom corner of a field. Go through two gates and then join a minor road. Turn right and follow the road back into Parwich village. Useful Information 3¾ miles (6km) of moderate field path walking. Gentle climbs on either side of the Bletch Brook valley. Some muddy sections in the valley bottom. Recommended map: Ordnance Survey: 1:25,000 scale Outdoor Leisure Sheet 24, the White Peak. Refreshments: Tissington café. Sycamore Inn, Parwich. Public transport. Although the Derbyshire Connect service could be used; telephone bookings, (01332)
Darley Dale ‘Out and About’
Despite sharing the same DE4 post code, most of Darley Dale’s inhabitants prefer to think of themselves as living separate from neighbouring Matlock. Attempts to build on the small ‘green belt’ next to the DFS warehouse on the A6 between the two are met with furious objections. Darley Dale is, to them, still as it always has been, an independent village in its own right. Nowadays, the village is mainly a residential enclave on the border of the Peak District National Park, dominated by three large housing estates, where at least one them has a high proportion of bungalows popular with those preferring to live on the flat rather than hilly Matlock. Those estates and adjoining smaller developments link a chain of little hamlets strung along the spring-line on the eastern side of the Derwent valley – Hackney, Farley, Two Dales (formerly the less attractive sounding Toadhole), Hillside and Northwood. These together with Churchtown in the valley bottom make up what has become to be known as Darley Dale. The oldest remaining dwellings linking the past to the present are in those one-time hamlets. Dating from the 12th century, St Helen’s the parish church and spiritual focus to the area, stands oddly enough, just above the flood plain of the Derwent. It is probably the oldest building in the district, but the yew tree standing close to the church door is probably older still, making links to a pagan pre-Christian era. Although nothing remains other than the name of nearby Abbey Farm, it is likely that the church began as an oratory of a nearby small abbey whose monks preached beneath the yew’s spreading branches. South-west facing Hillside once had a number of specialist nurseries, although they no longer grow plants for sale – there is even a Darley Dale heather developed by one of them. Changing gardening fashions led to their demise and nowadays, domestic gardeners in the area buy their plants from Forest Nurseries, a perfect link between old and new. A rarity amongst garden centres, it is one of the few places where experienced advice can be given in answer to an amateur’s problem. The old pack horse way across the valley came by way of the river crossing at Darley Bridge below Wensley, and then climbed steep Sydnope Hill beyond Two Dales, or Toadhole as it then was, over the moors along Jagger’s Lane to Chesterfield. The old school for the district is on this road just before it reaches the original houses of Two Dales. With high windows to prevent wandering eyes, where pupils once had the ‘3 Rs’ hammered into their minds, the school has since been a bakery but is currently being converted into a house. ‘Jaggers’, or packhorse drovers, would have stopped for refreshment at the Plough Inn that stands on what is now a side road. Some carriers thankful at not having to climb the hill, would have turned off along Ladygrove Road towards the village mill. In the sixteenth century it became a flax-spinning factory powered by three reservoirs further up the narrow valley. Owned by the Dakeyne family, a dynasty of bankers and engineering inventors, it prospered for at least two centuries. In 1793 Daniel Dakeyne patented a machine known as the equilibrium, which he used in the mill as a more efficient way for preparing and spinning flax. Later, his brothers Edward and James, patented a hydraulic engine. An early version of a turbine engine, there is no record of its success, so one must assume that this innovative machine, though ahead of its time, was a failure. When the mill stopped spinning flax, it was taken over by S and E Johnson (East) Ltd for the preparation of animal feedstuffs, but since its closure, parts of the mill have been used by a variety of small industries, such as one making timber furniture. High grade pink gritstone was quarried by the Stancliffe Stone Company in Hall Dale Quarry on the hillside above Two Dales and carried by a narrow-gauge railway into the valley bottom. Most of the stone used to build the grand houses that sprang up along the valley sides and the A6 came from there. During Matlock’s hey-day as a Victorian spa, it became popular for businessmen to build their homes nearby, handily convenient to the numerous mini-spas that followed those started by John Smedley. With the demise of the fashion for immersion in cold water, one of them became a minor public school for daughters of the clergy. Known as St Elphin’s it moved to Darley Dale from its original site in Warrington to escape a cholera epidemic. One of its pupils (although she had left before the school moved to Matlock) was Richmal Compton, author of the famous Just William stories. Since the sudden and unexpected closure of the school in March 2005, the building has been steadily expanded into a high class retirement home. One of the businessmen who made Darley Dale his home was Sir Joseph Whitworth, engineer, inventor and philanthropist. He came to the area in 1854 when he bought Stancliffe Hall.  By this time he was well established as an engineer based on his company in Manchester, specialising in making machine tools. One of his many inventions and innovations was to advocate a standard and uniform screw thread – until then every implement and machine had its own uniquely threaded screws. He also designed a measuring device that was accurate to a millionth of an inch – a bass relief of this machine is featured on Sir Joseph Whitworth’s memorial in Darley Dale Park. His philanthropy covered such things as a scholarship for graduate engineers studying at Manchester University, but he also helped the village where he had made his home. The Whitworth Hotel and adjacent Institute are the most tangible effect of his caring nature. Probably the biggest ‘village hall’ in the country, it provides space for public meetings, conference and lecture halls, theatrical events, indoor
Lost Houses of Derbyshire – Spondon House
Spondon House was a fine Georgian mansion, in reality a secondary seat on the Locko estate of the Drury Lowes. Yet it was not without presence, and its history not without interest. All accounts of the house, the building records for which are absent from the Drury-Lowe archive at the University of Nottingham Library, aver that it was built as a dower house, and its plain, well-proportioned appearance suggest that this event took place in the last quarter of the 18th century. The house itself, as built, was of brick, a single pile with three bays and two and a half storeys, gable ended with prominent kneelers, with a central arched entrance under a broken pediment, standing in landscaped grounds. By the time of the first known illustration of it – a lithograph of c. 1840 – the ground floor windows flanking this door had been modified with canted bays under perfunctory hipped roofs, part of a Regency makeover which included the addition of a lower, two bay matching wing on the SE angle, still of two and a half storeys. The north side, too, apart from (probably) two ground floor tripartite windows, was quite devoid of fenestration. In the mid-Victorian period, the house was extended yet again by a two storey wing with service accommodation on the NE side. This included the provision of the second staircase and the moving of the main entrance from the centre of the original range to the angle of that and the Regency SE addition, making way for a conservatory, very like that of Spondon Hall, along the south front. The new staircase was lit by an octagonal, conical top-light with a shallow roof topped by a jaunty ball finial, sitting a little awkwardly on a flat section of roof where the two additional ranges met, at the east end of the main range. The first Lowe of Locko, was John (1704-1771), eldest of the four sons of Vincent Lowe of Denby by Theodosia, a daughter of John Marriott of Alscot, Gloucestershire. John married his mother’s niece, Sydney Marriott, herself the sole heiress of the family’s Gloucestershire estate, but they had no issue. His next brother, Vincent, had pre-deceased him unmarried, whilst the next, Stead Lowe, migrated to America, leaving a son, Stead. The youngest brother, Richard (1716-1785) therefore succeeded John at Locko in 1771. Most genealogies sanitise the family history at this point, having him die unmarried but, late in life, he did marry, his bride being his long-standing maîtresse en titre, Ellen Leyton, previously mother by him of three daughters. On Richard’s death, however, the estate reverted, not to the American Stead Lowe, junior, as one might expect, but to William Drury, a Nottingham-born London merchant, whose grandmother had been Vincent Lowe’s sister, and in 1790 he assumed the additional surname and arms of Lowe by Royal Sign Manual. He then set about greatly enlarging the reasonably modest provincial Baroque Smith of Warwick Locko Hall, but died in July 1827 leaving only a daughter and heiress, Mary Anne, who had run away to get married at Gretna Green in August 1800. Why the skulduggery – which drew down the displeasure of her parents – is unclear, because her swain was entirely suitable: Robert Holden of Nuthall Temple and Darley Hall (1765-1844). Indeed, the Holdens were of rather more distinguished lineage than the Drurys, and just as well off! Spondon House, being so plain and simple, was probably built for the widowed Ellen Lowe and her three daughters, which would suggest a building date of 1785, which looks entirely right. Possibly William Drury wanted nothing much to do with poor Ellen, and Spondon House would have been provided with the minimum of ornament and a lowish cost, probably built by the Locko estate foreman using a plan and elevations from one of the many well-illustrated builders’ manuals then available. The rooms inside, according to a late friend who was educated there, were quite plain and the staircase (albeit moved, as noted above) was typical of the period, being timber with mahogany rail and stick balusters. It is not clear when Ellen Lowe died but, by 1801, runaway Mary Anne and Robert Holden were in residence, and they not only re-named it Aston Lodge (after the Aston-on-Trent estate from which these Holdens sprang) but set about enlarging it. They appear to have put in the windows either side of the entrance and also added the substantial, but slightly lower range to the right of the entrance. However, by 1814, Aston Lodge, as it now was, became vacant yet again, which must suggest that, with the then recent improvements wrought to Locko by John Dodds and William Lees of Derby, there was room for two households there. Thus in that year Spondon House was let to Miss Edwards who founded an ‘Academy for Young Ladies’ which flourished there until 1844. That was the year Robert Holden died, and Miss Edwards was obliged to re-locate to Derby, so that his widow Mary Anne could move in, her son William Drury Holden (thereafter Lowe) having succeeded to Locko. For her, without doubt, was the NE extension built, resulting in the new entrance, conservatory and moved staircase with the accompanying strange roof arrangements at the east end of the house. Yet in the event, she died only five years later, in 1849, leaving Spondon House (as it was once more) vacant. In 1854 a new lease was acquired by Revd. Thomas Gascoigne, who founded a prep school called ‘Spondon House School for the sons of Gentlemen’ there. He was joined in 1874 by Revd. Edward Priestland, who married his daughter and later took over as proprietor and headmaster of what, under his enthusiastic guidance, was to become one of the best schools of its type in the area; the Australians even played their cricket team in 1898! So much so, that following Priestland’s retirement, and under his successor, C. H. T. Hayman, it amalgamated with Winchester
