Celebrity Interview – Steve Delaney aka Count Arthur Strong
The voice on the other end of the telephone is confident and assured. It’s soon evident that Steve Delaney is a businessman as much as an entertainer. You hear only occasionally a trace of Steve’s alter ego: the bumbling, pompous, delusional, malapropism-uttering Count Arthur Strong. The character came to light in the early 1980s when Steve was at drama school. But Count Arthur existed only in Steve’s head for the next 15 years until he and a friend started running comedy evenings. Steve opened up the shows as Count Arthur who has been with him ever since. Count Arthur has seven radio series, three television series and more than a dozen tours behind him. He is preparing to take his new show, Count Arthur Strong is Alive and Unplugged, on the road. He will be appearing at Buxton Opera House – “one of my favourite theatres” – for the sixth time as well as Derby Theatre during a three-month trek around the country. It follows previous tours which had more exotic names, such as Somebody Up There Licks Me in 2015 and The Sound of Mucus in 2017. If you haven’t come across him, you won’t know what to expect from the septuagenarian Count Arthur whose trademarks are his trilby hat, bow tie, dark-framed glasses and pencil-thin moustache. Steve reckons it’s hard to explain exactly what one of his shows entails because it unfolds on the night and he doesn’t want to give anything away. “I always find it extremely difficult to comment on live shows. You’ll see all the traits that Arthur’s known for: delusional traits, the notion that he’s always succeeding when he’s actually failing. But I can’t really go into specifics.” He says fans can expect “more of the same” – although that doesn’t mean there won’t be any new material in the show. “Arthur’s Arthur – he couldn’t do anything wildly different. Hopefully it’s the writing that makes each show different.” When I spoke to Steve he was taking the week off to finish his new show. “It’s all pretty much written but some of the words aren’t necessarily in the right order, as Eric Morecambe might say. “I enjoy the craft of writing. It’s quite a challenge reproducing the same thing and giving it a freshness night after night. “I like the discipline of reproducing things pretty much verbatim. I also enjoy being able to pause and go off at a tangent if I want to. But that’s never the modus operandi – that’s just a happy occurrence, really.” Steve Delaney who this year turns 64 was born in Leeds where his father was a foundryman and his mother a seamstress. Steve became a carpenter before he went to the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, graduating in 1982. He appeared in television dramas including Juliet Bravo, Casualty, The Bill and All Creatures Great and Small, returning to carpentry during lean times as an actor. He explains how the idea for Count Arthur came to him while he was at drama school. “It was just for an exercise to show something to the rest of the year, something that everybody had to do. I came up with an oddball five-minute sketch and it was a very embryonic version of Arthur. But it went down very well – a lot of people laughed.” When he resurrected Count Arthur for the comedy evenings, people immediately liked the character. “I got instant feedback and I thought ‘this is better than auditioning’ which I wasn’t really suited for. I didn’t have the right temperament for it. So I packed acting in and just concentrated on bringing Arthur on at my pace.” Five months after Count Arthur Strong was unleashed on the unsuspecting public, Steve took him to the world’s largest arts festival, the Edinburgh Fringe. His Edinburgh shows increased his popularity, although he has not played the festival for several years. “When I went to Edinburgh it was to get people from arts centres along to see the show and book a tour on the back of Edinburgh. Even if you were at a good venue, you still tended to come away with eight or nine thousand pounds worth of debt.” In 2004 Count Arthur Strong was given his own BBC Radio 4 show. Five years later it won the Sony award for best radio comedy. Fifty episodes have now been broadcast including a Christmas special last year. Another special has been recorded which should hit the airwaves in eight months’ time. Almost five years ago Count Arthur’s facial oddities were revealed on the small screen when BBC2 transmitted the first series of a new sitcom. Steve co-wrote it with Graham Linehan who had penned shows such as Father Ted and The IT Crowd. Three series were produced, with the second and third transferring to BBC1. But last year the BBC announced that no more would be made despite the show being voted fourth-best sitcom of the 21st century by the Radio Times. Steve refuses to criticise the Corporation although he admits it was unfortunate that transmission dates and times were moved around. The general election meant two shows in the second series were put back by a fortnight and others were delayed because of tennis at Wimbledon. “The television series was a great bonus. You just have to take the decision and move on. “If you look back and analyse these things, we were shunted around quite a bit for the entire three series. You live and die by the ratings and we just didn’t get enough people watching it. “Graham and I felt that with every series we were almost starting from scratch, which was frustrating. I’m quite philosophical about it – I’m very busy with the rest of the stuff I do with Arthur.” Like many people who work in show business, Steve says his career has had a fair amount of fortune. “I’ve been lucky to be able to perform live, to
Product Test – Regenerate with Dr. Hauschka
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The Lost Houses of Derbyshire – Willesley Hall, Ashby
Until the local government reforms of 1888-1889 Derbyshire did not sit inside a single boundary; it has detached ‘islands’, mainly to its south, created in the Saxon period by assarting – clearing of woodland by men of Derbyshire in un-adopted regions. The settlements so created, once the County system had become established in the mid-10th century, tended to become detached parts of the area (county) of the people who had initially created them. Several counties had them. Derbyshire itself boasted Appleby Parva, Chilcote, Clifton Camville, Donisthorpe, Edingale, Measham, Oakthorpe, Ravenstone (the most southerly), Stretton-en-le-Field – and Willesley. Since 1889 they have been divided amongst Leicestershire and Staffordshire. Several of these ‘islands’ had substantial country houses, and indeed most of them have vanished, some almost without trace. Willesley was probably the grandest though. The place itself was one of those granted by the Mercian grandee Wulfric Spott to the Abbey of Burton in his will, but post-Conquest it was divided between the de Ferrers Earls of Derby (later the Duchy of Lancaster) and the Abbey. The manorial estate was initially tenanted under them by the de Willesley family who built a chapel, before passing it on to the Ingwardby family and then, also by inheritance, to the Abneys of Ingleby, who eventually united the estate. These families had few properties outside Willesley, so it is likely that there was an historic manor house, probably on the site of the house that was demolished in 1953. Unfortunately, nothing is known of its early appearance. The later house, which formed the core of the later one, was described by William Woolley in his History of Derbyshire (1713) as ‘a good seat’, with the Lysons’ brothers (1817) adding ‘The manor house which is in the form of a letter H, appears to have been built in or about the time of Charles I’ – that is the period 1625-1649. It was taxed on 16 hearths in 1670 suggesting that it was a substantial building. The earliest picture is an engraving of 1820, showing a substantial brick house of two stories and attics, with an eleven bay façade, the projecting cross-wings at each end of the main block being of three bays. The gables were elaborately shaped, rather similar to those of contemporary Thrumpton Hall, on the County’s Nottinghamshire border, and these may well be original to c. 1630, suggesting its builder was George Abney or his son James. However, the late Professor Andor Gomme, looking at the heavily stone-clad rusticated façade with its Ionic pilasters enclosing a swagger pedimented doorcase, was confident in attributing these later features to a fairly drastic 1720s rebuilding by Francis Smith of Warwick, architect of Sutton Scarsdale, a house which it closely resembles in these details. Smith, judging from some later accounts, also opened out the interior to create a double height hall and installed a fine timber staircase behind it, whilst at the same time endowing the gables with slim Baroque urn finials. The windows were deepened, sashed and given stone key-blocks. The rhythm of the façade has much in common with another work by Smith, Stanford Hall on the Leicestershire-Northamptonshire border, just off the M1. The rustication probably owes its inspiration to another Northamptonshire house, Lamport Hall, where a similar treatment was meted out to an earlier house by Wren’s follower, John Webb from 1655. A landscaped park of 155 acres was created, including a modest lake, and this may have been later and attributable to William Emes (1729-1803), a locally based follower of Capability Brown. The man who commissioned these works was probably not Sir Edward Abney (died 1728), a senior retired judge, who has been blind for the last twenty years of his life, but his son, Sir Thomas (1691-1750). And so matters rested until 1791 then Thomas Abney of Willesley, the last of his direct line, died, leaving an only daughter, Parnell, married to a member of an illustrious neighbouring family, Maj. Charles Hastings, a French-born natural son of Francis, 10th Earl of Huntingdon, whose chief seat was then Ashby Castle. Thomas, who had a distinguished military and diplomatic career was raised to a baronetcy in 1806, assuming the surname and arms of Abney-Hastings by Royal Licence. During the Napoleonic Wars he entertained at Willesley numerous officers of the French navy and Grand Armée with whom he felt to a degree at home, being a fluent French speaker and the son of a Parisian actress. He was also a prominent Freemason, as trait he shared with many of them. His younger son, Francis (born at Willesley in 1794) was a distinguished naval architect and commander. He was recruited by the Greek insurgents, financed by the Byzantine grandee and banker Prince Paul Rhodokanakis-Doukas, to oversee the building and to command the Karteria, the first steam powered warship ever to see action. At her helm, he effectively reduced the threat of the Ottoman navy and, despite being carried off by disease, like his friend Byron, at Missolonghi in 1828, made a considerable contribution to the liberation of Greece. His bust in bronze may still be seen there. Unfortunately Sir Thomas shot himself in 1823, and the estate passed to his elder son, the 2nd baronet. He later set about enlarging the house. The south front acquired a pair of small gables over the bays flanking the entrance and a coat-of-arms above an inscribed tablet was placed between them. The formerly plain west side was much extended, with similar gables, but largely lower and irregular, extending back to the small stone chapel, founded by Michael de Willesley before 1270, but later clad in stone and embattled some years before. But the changes did not stop there. A medium sized manor house was about to become a major seat, for the north side, where there was previously a re-entrant courtyard, was replaced by a three storey square plan diapered brick tower ending in four ogee topped pinnacles at the angles, all joined by a pierced stone balustrade,
Over The Sea to Capri … And The Villa San Michelle
The breathtaking view from this enchanted spot creates the feeling that time has ceased to exist. Exiting Amalfi harbour for our trip to Capri was made tricky due to the fact that I wanted to film it all as it happened. I admit that I’m not the worlds most happy person on a boat especially as it swayed a bit to avoid a yacht entering the harbour. Fortunately we could still see the bottom of the bay through the crystal clear water. With twenty people on board on what I considered a small boat for this epic journey along the Amalfi coast the captain, driver or whatever he called himself dressed in shorts and t-shirt, rather than a proper uniform of epaulettes, an ornamental shoulder piece displaying various stripes, colours and emblems, got the boat up to speed. He didn’t even have a captains table that we could dine together at. Maybe I got the wrong idea of this cruise. As the sea spray lifted beautifully into the air we marvelled as the dramatic coastline revealed its small coves and caves. Occasionally a dolphin appeared, something I hadn’t been prepared for here. With the village of Positano, which we visited many years ago, over to our right (or is that starboard?), we ploughed on. Positano was a former poor fishing village and port and has grown in the last 70 years into a major tourist attraction. Peach and terracotta houses that impossibly cling to the hillsides drop down to the beach where famous people have walked including Mick Jagger, Franco Zaffirelli and little me! Capri was our destination which people kept telling me was famous for Gracie Fields living there. Why did she sing about Bluebirds in Dover when she lived on Capri? I suppose it didn’t rhyme! I was however more interested in Swedish-born physician Axel Munthe; born 1857 and died 1949, author of the book ‘The Story of San Michele’ published in 1926 and a best seller in numerous languages, reprinted constantly over the years. He spoke English, German, French, Italian and possibly a few more. In 1892, he was appointed physician to the Swedish royal family and served as the personal physician of the Crown Princess, Victoria of Baden, continuing when she became Queen consort until her death in 1930. His life as a doctor was tinged with sadness, tragedy and happiness and this is reflected in the book which he pointed out isn’t an autobiography. You can laugh and cry as you read his life’s experiences. Villa San Michele is on Capri if you’re wondering where I was going with the above. It was lovingly restored by Munthe and is a must see on a visit to Anacapri. The island of Capri was for many years strewn with remains of marble columns and Roman remains which Munthe used to build Villa San Michele on the site of a once Imperial Roman Villa and a medieval Chapel. The climb up to the villa from Marina Grande meanders through the shops, cafes and numerous tourists. The villa features according to their web site villasanmichele.eu. Two thousand year-old sculptures, replicas of ancient masterpieces of art, Roman tombstones mixed with 18th-century furniture – everything arranged in a fanciful way in rooms and loggias where the sunlight plays on the polychromatic marble floors. Above all you will find a romantic garden with cypresses, myrtle and exotic flowers, filled with birdsong and sweet scents. In the remotest corner by the chapel the sphinx awaits you. Day after day it keeps perfectly still on the balustrade, watching the world spinning round. The breathtaking view from this enchanted spot creates the feeling that time has ceased to exist.” None of the above is an exaggeration, this is a truly spectacular place to visit and being perched on the edge of the cliff affords outstanding views. You could lose yourself in this setting for hours on end. Hour long walks are arranged every day from April to October. Munthe also acquired the mountainside in order to stop the locals spreading nets to catch the birds and sell them off, so he created a sanctuary for migratory birds. I had to smile at the selling technique for Mount Solaro “Soaring 589 metres above sea level”. Wow only yesterday we were up Vesuvius at 1200 meters above sea level. However, I have to say that when you are that high on a small island looking out at a short stretch of land and shimmering sea it seems higher than Vesuvius and more picturesque to boot. From this vantage point we had a snapshot of our journeys over the years, The bay of Naples, the Amalfi coastline and over to the mountains in Calabria. If visiting natural caverns floats your boat you can join the queue along with people from around the world to visit the Blue Grotto. The cavern is 25 meters wide and 60 meters long, with a tiny one metre entrance. Lying on your back in a wooden rowing boat is the only way in! Inside the dark cavern you will enjoy the breathtaking deep blue ocean. Floating here is an experience that should definitely be on your personal bucket list. A short walk from the harbour are the Augustus Gardens from which you can view the dramatic Faraglioni, three towering rock formations which jut out from the Mediterranean just off the coast. Food on Capri is simple the most popular dish being ravioli capresi . The pasta is light and filled with marjoram, parmesan and aged ricotta cheese, all tossed together with a fresh tomato and basil sauce. The beauty of this is that there is not a lettuce leaf in sight. Perfect. Freshly caught shrimps are also extremely popular and sometimes served sautéed or raw! So much of this food is served with pasta and I can handle that plus of course a customary glass of wine. What better way to enjoy this than by sitting outside in the sun watching the
Derbyshire Antiques & Collectibles – Railway Locomotive Name Plates
Last year we had a whole bunch of railwayana through Bamfords, mainly authentic relics of the great age of travel, but amongst them the nameplate of a locomotive built by the Southern Railway just after the Second World War and known to enthusiasts (in my time at least) as a ‘spam can’. These were large mixed traffic semi-streamlined engines, partly called after places in the West Country (where they were intended to serve) and partly after matters connected with the Battle of Britain and destined for service in Kent. The particular item was Battle of Britain Winston Churchill – the very locomotive which had pulled the late prime minister’s funeral train to Bladon, Oxfordshire, where he was buried. I am old enough to recall seeing it (despite poor reception in mountainous North Wales) on a black-and-white TV that January day in 1965. Such was the fame of this relatively short-lived machine that I knew that what we had was a full sized replica, and it duly sold for a couple of hundred pounds (non-replica) money, as it were. There are plenty of these around, although a new replica can cost you quite a bit more. Look out for one of the initial locomotive of the ‘Lord Nelson’ class (SR again) and you’ll have to shell out £790 for a solid brass copy in full size. But it got me thinking. If you can pay nearly £800 for a replica of a nameplate of a famous – say an ‘iconic’ – locomotive, what might the cost of an original be? Locomotives have borne names ever since Rocket and its rivals vied for supremacy at the Rainhill trials in 1829, so there are nominally a lot around. Yet 19th century survivals are fantastically rare most, sadly, were scrapped with the time-expired bearers of the name. Nearly everything now available for sale comes from the last generation of steam locomotives (I leave aside nameplates from diesel and electric locomotives: they are less sought after, usually of less good quality materials and commoner, despite still making relatively good money). Most engines with names were express passenger ones of various sizes. The handsomest were those on the locomotives of the old Great Western, cast in brass on heavy plates, often curved to fit over a wheel splasher. Modest Cobham Hall fetched £5,800 in 2010. Other companies used steel ones, usually smaller, although the Southern Railway did brass ones until the war. Rarity is often an indicator of price, so one works out the number of a particular class of engines built and multiplies the total by two (there being a name plate on either side of the engine). Thus Derbyshire-born Sir Nigel Gresley designed the not particularly memorable ‘Hunt’ & ‘Shire’ class of 4-4-0 locomotives in the 1920s. The LNER built forty two of them, meaning there must have been 84 nameplates, mainly counties but also names of particular Hunts. I recall sitting with my father around 1961 when we learnt from his newspaper that British Railways were scrapping these engines and, by applying to BR one could acquire a nameplate of one’s choice for about £75 – scrap value plus cartage. As one of these machines had been called The Craven, I urged Papa to put in an offer for it, but when they told him the price (which in retrospect he could well have afforded) he demurred. Yet it would have made a splendid investment today, 57 years later, for one sold not so long ago for £15,100! Another reason for them being scarcer than they are is that many were presented by BR to the institutions after which the engine had taken its name. Thus many ‘Battle of Britain’ class engines had their squadron number nameplates with their accompanying badges, enamelled onto a large attached oval, were presented to the relevant squadron HQs. Football clubs whose names had adorned LNER B17 class engines were presented with the relevant plates, and to all sort of stately homes received plates from Great Western Railway ‘Castle’, ‘Hall’, ‘Manor’ and ‘Grange’ class locomotives.. But to acquire these wonderful items, one requires fantastically deep pockets. Top price to date was a sister engine of world speed record breaking Mallard, called Golden Fleece. One plate alone went for £60,000 in December 2014, whilst another from its sister engine Golden Eagle fetched £31,000 two years ago. Mind you, less romantic names suffer price-wise: Another Mallard sister, prosaically named after a director of the company, Sir Murrough Wilson, only made a paltry £19,600! The nameplates from the equivalent top-link locomotives on the rival LMS also make similar money, although neither are much to look at compared with one from a ‘spam can’ or a GWR engine: ‘Princess Coronation’ class Pacific City of Liverpool made £36,900 (place loyalty, no doubt!) whereas Queen Elizabeth from a similar engine, but from its days as a streamliner, made £51,500. More affordable are brass nameplates of the Southern’s likeable but modest ‘King Arthur’ class engines, retailing at around £8,000 at present, although the obscure Malorian Sir Durnore made £8,600 not long ago, so heaven knows what King Arthur himself might command! In other words, it is fame and popularity which makes the big money. Take the sister engines of Flying Scotsman. Most were named after racehorses which had won classics in the forty years or so before the engines were named. This in itself resulted in some oddities, like Dandy Dinmont (survivor of a serious collision before the war), Call Boy and Galopin (geddit?). Thus, Minoru has recently sold for a very modest £7,000, but one of the more famous members of the class could add a nought easily – or very nearly. Industrial locos also often carried names. They were usually simple little engines and accordingly had simple names, like Jane, Mersey, Powerful, Diamond or Colliery No. 1. These plates can actually be affordable, and start at something in the order of £250 rising to £1,250 for better known ones. The added pleasure
Celebrity Interview – Kay Mellor
Kay Mellor can hardly contain her excitement. The scriptwriter and director who was behind such gripping television dramas as Band of Gold, Playing the Field and The Syndicate has come up with her first musical which will visit Nottingham on a huge tour – and she can barely stop herself from attending every night. She’s teamed up with Andrew Lloyd Webber’s son Nick to write Fat Friends the Musical. The popular characters from her TV series Fat Friends, which aired for five years from 2000 are back, but are now living in a world of mobile phones and social media. Kay says the themes featured in the work are even more relevant now. “The diet industry is absolutely booming and people are feeling really bad about their body image. Magazines are showing super-skinny people and saying ‘you need to look like this to be of any worth to anybody’. And I’m trying to challenge that.” The cast includes Jodie Prenger as Kelly Stevenson, a bride-to-be who works in her father’s fish and chip shop; former cricketer Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff as her fiancé Kevin; The X Factor winner Sam Bailey as Kelly’s mother Betty; former Coronation Street actor Kevin Kennedy as Kelly’s dad Fergus; and ex-Atomic Kitten singer Natasha Hamilton as slimming guru Julia Fleshman. Originally Flintoff was not going to take to the stage in Nottingham because of other commitments. Now he will be in the show from Monday until Thursday, with Joel Montague sharing the role on Friday and Saturday. “Freddie loves this musical. You can see when he’s on stage how much he loves it,” says Kay. “Joel is fantastic so nobody’s seeing something second best if they come at the end of the week. He’s amazing and has the voice of an angel.” Kay says everyone she approached to be in Fat Friends the Musical agreed straight away. “I’ve got a dream cast. I didn’t know whether Sam Bailey could act. She came to audition for me and I knew within five seconds of her saying her lines that she could play this part – she’s amazing.” She pays tribute to composer Nick Lloyd Webber for being very careful about who he chose for the ensemble. “He had a sound in his head that he wanted for the chorus. Sometimes I’d say about a singer ‘they’ve got a lovely voice’ and he’d say ‘it’s not quite what I want’. When the ensemble sing it’s incredible. It just fills the auditorium.” Lloyd Webber also wrote the music for Loves, Lies and Records, Kay’s 2017 TV series which was set in a register office. “He gets my work and that’s not always easy. You could turn it into a dirge or it could be too poppy. But Nick understands it. He’s got an understanding of character. I think he’s a really smart man.” So what’s the difference between writing a stage play and writing a musical? “It’s different inasmuch as you have to think where the songs will come in. A song has to tell you something different from what the dialogue says – it either needs to let you in on a thought that you’re not privy to or it needs to move the plot on. “It was very difficult because I didn’t know the language of musical theatre. I’d sat in many auditoriums watching musicals and loving them but I didn’t know how to go about it. “A song’s a poem with a melody going on in my head. And Nick would say ‘well, just sing it’. I’ve got the most terrible singing voice to be honest with you, so I croaked down the phone what would be in my head. I’m sure he had a good few laughs but it gave us an idea. And then he’d come up with something absolutely stunning.” Kay Mellor OBE was born Kay Daniel on 11 May 1951 in Leeds to a Catholic father George and a Jewish mother Dinah. She has an older brother, Robert. Her parents divorced when she was young and she was brought up by her mother. She trained as an actress and secured parts in the soap opera Albion Market and the TV series All Creatures Great and Small. Her writing career began in the 1980s with Granada Television. She worked on Coronation Street and also wrote for Albion Market. She then penned seven episodes of the Channel 4 drama Brookside. Bosses at Granada spotted her talent and broadcast her first major series, Band of Gold. Starring Geraldine James, Cathy Tyson, Barbara Dickson and Samantha Morton, the programme revolved around the lives of a group of sex workers in Bradford’s red-light district. She also branched out into theatre. Her play A Passionate Woman featuring Derby-born Gwen Taylor had a run at the old Derby Playhouse in 1995 and a later version was seen in Nottingham. “I missed it in Derby but I did see it in Nottingham,” says Kay. “It went down so well there. Sometimes people immediately get my work and it seemed that the Nottingham audience did. “Gwen is a fabulous actress and I love her to bits. She’s a wonderful woman.” Kay was awarded the BAFTA Dennis Potter Award in 1997 for outstanding writing for television. She was appointed an OBE in the 2009 birthday honours and in 2014 she was awarded the Writers’ Guild Award for outstanding contribution to writing. Kay is hoping to have a holiday after Fat Friends the Musical finishes its tour. She has had a really busy time, penning two television series as well as the musical. After Loves, Lies and Records, she wrote and directed Girlfriends, a series about three middle-aged women. They have been friends since their teenage years and get into all sorts of scrapes. It starred Miranda Richardson, Phyllis Logan and Zoë Wanamaker. Kay says she couldn’t believe her luck to get such great actresses for the six-part series. Girlfriends also featured Rachel Dale who trained at the University of Derby and
Travelling Through History – Where our Forebears Trod 2
Having looked at a pre-historic thoroughfare last month I thought it opportune to look at some of the roads imposed upon the landscape by the Romans. The Romans, of course, are famous for the straightness of their roads, and much ink has been spilt on the surveying methods used to achieve this. Essentially, sightings were made from one high point to another, and the points joined in as direct a manner as possible, although detours and links were often necessary as the relief – slopes, streams and declivities demanded. Ryknield Street was the road from the north-east to the south west, ultimately from York (Eburacum) via Templeborough and Chesterfield to Gloucester (Glevum) in the south-west via Wall-by-Lichfield (Letocetum), Droitwich (Salinae) and Worcester (Vertis). It crossed the Derwent at its lowest possible bridging point to join another road that ran south-east towards Ermine Street (the modern A1) and west to Chesterton (Staffs.). Within a very few years of the Roman arrival, a fort had been constructed on the ridge overlooking this crossing (footings of the bridge were discovered through the efforts of a local sub-aqua club in the late 1980s) and, by the AD 80s, this fort had been replaced by a more ambitious one beside the crossing itself, which rapidly developed into a small town called Derventio, today’s Little Chester. The ancient name for this NE to SW Roman road, which went from Gloucester (Glevum) in the SW to Doncaster (Danum) in the NE. via Derventio was Rykneild Street. William Woolley, writing in around 1713 added that, ‘. . . it is plainly seen in the meadows from this place [Little Chester] at the latter end of Summer.’ It was named as Ricning Street on William Stukeley’s map of Little Chester from his Itinerarium Curiosum of 1721. In c. 1200 it was rendered Ykenild, and the name is of post-Conquest origin. The alignment from Little Chester northwards was excavated in 1926 by Deputy Borough Surveyor, C. B. Sherwin. As Rykneild Street the road was first named as we now have it with an ‘r’ in front of Ykenild in Ralph Higdon’s Polychronicon of 1344, but the origin of the name is a puzzle, even the late Professor Eilert Ekwall writing that the ‘. . . etymology. . . has not been found’ followed by Professor Cameron who suspects the name was borrowed from the Ickneild Way, in the home Counties. One might think it more likely that they developed in parallel from a similar (or the same) source. The course of the road south from Little Chester is not wholly understood as it passes through the built-up part of Derby, but from Little Chester the route seems to have crossed the river about a quarter of a mile below the Roman small town, where there was a bridge, all vestiges of which have been destroyed by water erosion and distinct from the original crossing noted above, to which we will return on a future occasion. The road probably followed the alignment of the lower portion of Belper Road where it approaches Five Lamps, then down West Avenue (or on an alignment very close to it, then along a modern housing estate pedestrian path called Nuns’ Green and then along Nuns’ Street, Brick Street and across the Friar Gate-Ashbourne Road intersection into Uttoxeter Old Road. The oldest known borough boundary also followed the line here and, in the absence of archaeological data, it is the course of this early boundary that seems also to determine the course of the road. Unfortunately, by the time Lt. Creighton drew his map of Derby c. 1823 (which I have included, with the course of Ryneild Street shown in red) the Improvement Commissioners had expanded the boundary well to the north, although in the SW part of the borough, it still followed the Roman alignment from what is now Rowditch to Rowditch Gate. From Uttoxeter Old Road, the alignment ran to Rowditch, but was slewed in 1876 to accommodate a long bridge over the newly built Great Northern Railway, the line surviving in the hedge line which now marks the NW ends of the gardens/yards of the cottages along the later alignment. The road crossed the new turnpike Uttoxeter Road and ran more or less up the drive to Bemrose school, proceeding under the school itself to meet Constable Lane, Littleover at a boundary called Rowditch Gate, where once stood a toll cottage and the borough boundary veered sharply to the SE.. Today Constable Lane after about 450 yards straight, turns sharply left, but here the Roman road proceeded straight on its course marked by a bosky thoroughfare with a few individual houses on it called Owler’s Lane. After a while, the relief demanded a change of direction and the alignment went left, up the slope and onto a new alignment which took it along the old southern boundary of the City Hospital. When the present Royal Hospital was mooted, I was still at the Museum. Knowing the agger of the road (the raised hump which often marks the course of Roman Roads over flattish ground) was still visible there, we tried to have English Heritage (as it then was) declared a scheduled ancient monument, but to little avail. Hospitals outrank antiquities, especially when they are the pet project of a group of councilors supporting the government of the day! Needless to say it was soon ploughed out. From thence it rose up the hill further to cross Chain Lane and join the surviving alignment near the bottom of Pastures Hill. What used to be thought of as a well-preserved piece of agger beside the old Crest Motel turned out, on excavation, to have been a medieval baulked headland surviving from Littleover’s three field ridge and furrow. The actual road was slightly further to the north. Although the complexities of the junction of the old Burton Road with the new A38, which has obliterated part of the alignment, the modern A38 follows the Roman
Eating Out – Kinara, Willington
Love it or loath it you can not ignore the fact that the A38, when it’s on form, has reduced journey times in our part of the county. We had a table booked at the Kinara in Willington and on a chilly Tuesday evening the relaxed drive from Ripley to the restaurant, situated on The Castle Way in the centre of the village, was less than 40 minutes. The night was getting colder as we hurried through the restaurant entrance in to the reception area and bar. After a warm and friendly greeting we cast our eyes over the well stocked bar which boasted an impressive selection of beers and spirits that included a dozen or more varieties of gin. With the introductions over, we were shown to our table in the spacious dining area. The interior has been decorated with a light and thoughtful touch using a reduced colour palate on everything from the accent wall finish to the linen napkins. In Hindi, Kinara means at the edge and is usually used to mean the edge of water and this is emphasised in one of the large pieces of wall art in the restaurant. The unobtrusive background music is classical Indian that has been given a Bollywood twist. This further enhanced the relaxed atmosphere. We ordered poppadoms and the mixed pickle tray to pick at while we read through the menu. The poppadoms were warm, fresh, crisp and melted in the mouth. The accompanying variety of pickles and dips was so tasty and different that we took our time to nibble while we decided what to order. The Kinara is an authentic Indian restaurant and this is reflected in the number of fish and vegetarian dishes that are available. After a lot of deliberation Susan chose the prawn puri as her starter. This was pan fried prawns who’s delicate flavour was not overwhelmed by the blended spices they were cooked in. The dish was finished with fresh lemon juice and fresh green coriander. It was served on a puri; an unleavened, deep-fried bread. I selected one of the vegetarian dishes: 3 medallions of aloo tikki. This is Indian snack food. Mashed potato is blended with spices, coated with spiced gram flour and carefully pan fried until golden. The warmth of the spices was tempered by a cool salad of green peas, chickpeas and spinach accompanied by a smooth yoghurt and tamarind dressing. The lamb saagwala, a house special, was Susan’s main dish. This was a generous portion of a traditional home cooked dish full of authentic but mild, flavours; made with fresh spinach, onions, tomatoes and green chillies. The lamb was tender and the spinach, added at the last minute, retained its flavour and colour. The final ingredient, yoghurt, made this saagwala smooth and creamy. A Peshwari naan, rich with coconut, was the perfect partner for this dish. My selection was the butter chicken. The tender pieces of locally farmed chicken had been marinated and cooked in a charcoal tandoor oven. Then further cooked in, and served with, a slightly sweet and spicy tomato sauce made smooth with powdered cashew nuts. The sweetness was offset by a smokey, citrus note of, I think, fenugreek and lemon. Finished with a dash of cream and garnished with fresh coriander this was another generous portion I didn’t want to leave. Unable to resist kulfies, especially when flavoured with pistachio, we completed the evening by sharing 2 scoops of the delicious, milk rich, pale green, frozen desert. Everything about the Kinara reflects the owners’ passion to give the diner an enjoyable and memorable experience. The restaurant has a reputation of supporting local producers and takes great pride in its use of fresh ingredients. Everything is cooked to order so you can dictate the level of spice in your chosen dish. They even filter their own still and sparkling table water, presented in impressive proprietary bottles. The Kinara is a place where we will return, with friends, and spend the evening in a relaxed atmosphere enjoying superb Indian cuisine. 00
Walk Derbyshire – A Walk over 2 Dales
The dales this walk covers are within a mile or two of each other and even though they join later, both are entirely different in character. Their names are the Manifold and the Dove. Their character is mostly determined by the rocks over which their rivers flow; gritstone shales for the Manifold and carboniferous limestone for the Dove’s bedrock. Limestone being the main underlying rock of this part of the White Peak, manages to take over lower down the manifold where the river disappears temporarily through cavernous systems carved millennia ago. Starting in Longnor, an attractive one-time market town, the walk follows the broad, middle section of the Manifold before crossing over an airy grassy ridge in order to drop down into the valley of the River Dove. In this dale the scenery is entirely different; to the north beyond Crowdecote, dramatic limestone hills point skywards, looking for all the world like a row of shark’s teeth. In ancient geological times they marked the sea-washed edge of a tropical lagoon and, as a result are technically known as reef knolls. Longnor stands at the boundary of the Dark and White Peak and is also where several pack horse and drove roads meet. Until the beginning of the twentieth century it was an important meeting place for local farmers who came to this upland village in order to sell their produce and animals. The original owners of the village and lands round about, the Harpur Crewe family from Calke Abbey, built the market hall and cobbled its frontage. With the coming of efficient road transport, markets are no longer held there and cars park where cattle pens once stood, but it is easy to imagine the bustle and noise of a busy market. A list of tolls levied against animals sold there stands proudly above the entrance to the market hall. Where farmers’ wives once sold freshly plucked chickens and geese, cheese and eggs, it is now possible to buy light refreshments, or admire the work of local artists in an adjoining studio. There are still pubs where for centuries farmers met their friends and neighbours. Directly opposite the market hall, the Crewe and Harpur Inn was once where it was customary for those farmers to pay their rent to the estate. Further up the road, the Cheshire Cheese, a pub still renowned for its excellent cuisine, takes its name from its origins in 1464 when it was used as a cheese store. Being at the junction of so many ancient paths and trackways makes Longnor a popular venue for walkers and cyclists. In a village where many of its houses were built at least two centuries ago, narrow alleys lead towards the church, which although being ‘improved’ in Victorian times, is built on Saxon foundations. If one of the gravestones is anything to go by, Longnor is a place of longevity. William Billings who died aged 112, was born in a cornfield and became a soldier who took part in the capture of Gibraltar in 1704; he saw action at the Battle of Ramillies in 1706 and fought against the Stuarts in the Jacobite Risings of 1715 and 1745. Another hint of Longnor’s age can be seen by the number of narrow fields’ to the left and close to the paths used soon after the start of the walk beyond Longnor. Known as ‘strip system fields’, they are the width a plough hauled by a pair of oxen could cover in a day. No longer commercially viable for modern farming, they are still marked out by not quite so ancient stone walls, and are preserved for their historical importance. Useful Information 4 miles (6.4km) of moderate walking on field paths and farm tracks. Two moderate climbs and one descent. Muddy sections beyond the second crossing of the River Dove. Recommended map: Ordnance Survey Outdoor Leisure Sheet 24, The Peak District – White Peak Area. Public Transport: High Peak 442 service running daily every two hours between Ashbourne and Buxton calls at Longnor. Car parking in market place or roadside in Longnor village. Refreshments – village pubs and a café in Longnor where there is also a fish and chip café, but be warned – muddy boots and dogs are not welcome! The Pack Horse pub in Crowdicote makes an ideal stopping place half way round the walk. The Walk : Follow the road east for about 150yards away from the market place in Longnor. Turn right along the signposted farm lane to Folds End Farm. Go left through the farmyard and the climb over a stone stile. Turn half left beyond the stile and then right at a path junction to follow a grassy path downhill to the River Manifold. Follow the Manifold’s left bank, downstream. Go forwards where a wider track bears left and then cross three fields. At a four-way path junction, turn left and climb up to Over Boothlow Farm. Keep left through the farmyard and then right along a concrete track. Through a gate the track becomes rougher, follow it uphill to the ridge-top road. Pause on the way up to the road and admire the view. Longnor is to your right beyond the narrow strips of its Saxon fields. The wide basin of the Manifold was once considered suitable for flooding as a shallow reservoir, but as this would leave an ugly muddy scar during periods of drought, the plan was dropped in favour of the much more attractive Carsington Water. Turn right along the road for about 500yds (460m) and then cross a stone stile. Turn sharp left and begin to go steeply downhill across three fields. Turn right on joining the track down to Under Whitle Farm. Pause again to admire the view, this time along the valley of the River Dove. In the valley bottom, to your right, grassy mounds mark the motte and bailey of Pilsbury Castle. In its time it was a wooden-staked fortification built by the Norman overlords
Product Test – Paul Mitchell
Repair Your colour with Paul Mitchell Ultimate Color Repair Shampoo 250ml £17.95 The Paul Mitchell® Ultimate Color Repair® Shampoo works gently to cleanse and protect color-treated hair. Nourishing ingredients such as Quinoa Color Repair, sugar cane and lemon peel extract add shine and manageability while powerful antioxidants help prevent damage for results that are soft, healthy and gorgeous. When using the system of shampoo, conditioner and mask, as compared to untreated hair. Products were tested by an established, independent third-party laboratory. Ultimate Color Repair Triple Rescue 150ml £18.50 The Ultimate Color Repair® Triple Rescue® Thermal Protection from Paul Mitchell® works beautifully to protect against heat that can damage color-treated hair causing a dull, lifeless appearance. The top phase helps against excessive heat while the bottom phase conditions hair with nourishing ingredients including Quinoa Color Repair complex, so hair looks healthy, shiny and vibrant. Ultimate Color Repair Conditioner 200ml £18.50 Color treated hair needs a special conditioner. The Ultimate Color Repair® Conditioner works to both hydrate and detangle with Quinoa Color Repair complex that utilizes the high protein of quinoa to lock in hair color and repair each hair strand. Shea butter, jojoba and soybean oil leave hair feeling and looking soft, shiny and healthy while vitamins work to nourish and moisturize. Ultimate Color Repair Mask 150ml £21.95 A hair repair mask specifically formulated for color- treated hair is the perfect way to keep hair vibrant and moisturized. The Ultimate Color Repair® Mask includes nourishing ingredients such as Color Repair complex, shea butter, jojoba and soybean to make hair soft and shiny for gorgeous, touchable hair. These powerful ingredients help prevent color from fading and further damage from everyday causes. Tried & Tested REPAIR TRIPLE RESCUE Using a hairdryer regularly definitely does dry your hair. I found that this product did combat that well. Unfortunately, it seemed to create a lot of static too. JP REPAIR MASK This is a very intense, nourishing hair mask. You only need a small amount! Great product but slightly to heavy for my fine hair type. VP REPAIR SHAMPOO AND CONDITIONER I found the product left my hair looking healthy but it also left it feeling rather sticky, one good side of this is that it gave it lots of volume – but personally the products didn’t work for me. I have however used it on my daughters hair that is finer and more curly and it suited her type of hair a lot more. 00
