Stand at the north-western end of Fennel Street in Ashford in the Water and opposite The Elms is a house half-hidden by a hedge. If you can peep over the hedge then you may get a glimpse of this ...
... on the front of the building. Now, to me, he looks like a Cavalier but why he's on the front of the house I have no idea. Anyone else know ?
Walk up Vicarage Lane and cross the end of Pennyunk Lane until you can take a path on your right across one field. This enables you to cross the B6465 and follow a path through more fields towards Longstone Lane. This path can get muddy in wintertime ...
Sometimes it gets too sludgy as does the path on the opposite side of Longstone Lane. The good thing about this latter path is that it brings you to the Monsal Trail. The only problem there are the bikes ... but assuming you can avoid them [and they can avoid you] head eastwards until you reach the bridge over Longreave Lane. At this point you can leave the Trail and pass under the bridge to cross the A6020.
Cross the road carefully here because many of the cars hereabouts are hellbent on getting where they're going at least five minutes sooner than they have to be there. Take the private drive [which is also a public footpath] leading towards Churchdale Farm ...
Beyond the hall, which you get a glimpse of to your right, the path descends down one of those banks which is easier to walk up than down ... especially when it's muddy.
Towards the bottom of the bank there used to be an impressive though rather daunting tree looming over all pedestrians ...
Since these photos were taken I believe this old tree has fallen down.
The path rejoins the A6020 and then you're just a few hundred yards along a pavement to reach Ashford in the Water again.
Just the sort of short walk if you're not too sure about how far you feel like walking.
This walk was followed on the 2nd January 2011
Length of walk ~ 3 miles *
Total mileage walked so far in 2011 ~ 5.2 miles
Total mileage between the 1st September 2009 and the 2nd January 2011 ~ 534.25 miles
2 of 2011
* distance calculated on Ordnance Survey's Getamap
Maybe the owners of that house have a cavalier attitude towards house decoration :-))
ReplyDeleteDefinately one for the dedicated walker at that time of year. I prefer it a little less muddy. Impressive old tree, what a a shame it is no more.
I nearly went with 'cavalier attitude' in the heading :-)
DeleteIt was muddy unfortunately. Some of the paths in the Peak District get a lot of hammer.
A nice walk when it's dry but I don't like walking in mud,maybe because there was lot's of mud on our farm.As for the cavalier I believe it used to be a stronghold for them in the civil war around Ashford.Ann
ReplyDeleteI read somewhere that Ashford in the Water was a Cavalier stronghold but I wonder why this 'head' is on a particular house ... and whether it was put there originally.
DeleteLove those old gnarly trees.
ReplyDeleteAs for the fellow's head....I have no idea. But it's nicely quirky.
For such a short walk it was quite interesting really ...
DeleteGnarly trees remind me of old witches' fingers. Maybe I should start recording how far I walk. It might give me the incentive to get out walking again now that we are a little more settled.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you as regards gnarly trees and old witches' fingers ... as for recording how far and when you walk *I* think it's fun ~ if you do it too we can see how you get on.
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