Looking for Whitesprings ...

To the north-east of the Darley Dale are a number of Forestry Commission woods that are open to the public. I parked on Flash Lane and walked into one of them, Seventy Acre Wood ... 

 

... and followed a track ...

 

... until I reached Back Lane ...

 

Back Lane is an unclassified road linking Flash Lane and Sydnope Hill. As it gets nearer Sydnope Hill it gets much rougher than it is shown above and local motor cyclists [who like a bit of rough] like it.

I entered Whitesprings Plantation on the other side of Back Lane ...



I followed a track into the woodland ...





Tracks and paths wander here and there in the plantation. One bought me to this line of beech trees which made me wonder if this is an old nursery ...





I followed another path in a vaguely westerly direction which led to a gateway suggesting that there may once have been fields here ...



The path led to the 'upper reaches' of Halldale Brook where it is crossed by a fairly substantial bridge ...





I realised at this stage that I had probably strayed outside the 'open access' land but when I found a squeezer stile I did wonder who it was for ...



Finally I found what I had been looking for, the remains of Whitesprings ...



This old farm was covered in so much ivy I could have walked past it ...





I looked around the ruins trying to work out what was what ... or what had been what ...



I came away thinking about the lives that had been lived there.

Some years ago I met a man called Hopkinson who had lived here as a boy. He died 15 or 20 years ago in his 70s so I suppose he was talking about the early part of the 20th century when the Hopkinsons were here.

  A pretty good path leads away from the old farm ...





I wandered through the plantation and found a pond ...



  ... full of frogspawn ...



 Eventually though all roads head home and I came back to Back Lane ...



 The afternoon walk ended with me photographing this warning notice ...



Some visitors to this area are not so keen on the beauty of the landscape as much as misbehaving with each other ...

This walk was followed on the 19th March 2011
 
Length of walk ~ 3.09 miles *
 
Total mileage walked so far in 2011 ~ 69.66 miles
 
Total mileage between the 1st September 2009 and the 19th March 2011 ~ 597.71 miles
 
17 of 2011
 
* distance calculated on Ordnance Survey's Getamap

Christmas Greetings ... from 1907

In 1907, on Christmas Eve, some of my relatives posted a Christmas postcard to my grandparents ...

As you can see from the back of the postcard ...



 

... my relatives were at "New Closes" [now known as New Close Farm], Over Haddon. Grandad [Charlie Wildgoose] lived at Burley Fields Farm, Darley Dale, just up the hillside from where I am sitting typing this. 

I've blogged about this postcard a number of times before but at this time of year I always think about it being sent 105 years ago this Monday.

Grandfather and grandson ...

The day after I was wandering around the Goyt Valley in the cold I was strolling much nearer home with my grandson, Benjamin.

We parked up on Bent Lane, Darley Dale, and walked past an old stone barn that may very well have been used by my great grandfather a century or more ago [he farmed nearby Burley Fields Farm at the beginning of the 20th century] ...

It's sad to see the barn so dilapidated now. I can remember it when it looked in much better condition.

At the other side of the field we entered Halldale Wood ...

 

This wood is owned by the Woodland Trust and is very dear to my heart. Not only is it local but it's a marvellous wood where you very rarely see anyone ... except grandfathers and grandsons posing for photos ...

 

I don't normally keep my bobble hat or my gloves on for long but that day was cold.

We walked down into the valley bottom where a wooden footbridge crosses the brook.



Time for some more posing ...



I never did this with either of my grandfathers ... go walking. My paternal grandfather had died when I was Benjamin's age and my maternal grandfather ... well, I never got to go for a walk with him, though he did show me his New Zealand White rabbits and his homing pigeons which he always seemed very proud of ... 

If you cross the bridge you come out on the far side of the wood but we wanted to stay on 'our' side so we followed the path as it zigzagged up through an old, overgrown nursery ...

 

Most of the nurseries are now grass fields and in the middle of one of the fields there's an old stone building which I reckon the nurserymen would have used to shelter in. You can see there's a chimney and I dare say on cold days they would have gone in here, mashed a pot of tea and had a natter ...

 

This walk was followed on the 21st January 2011
 
Length of walk stroll ~ 0.95 miles *
 
Total mileage walked so far in 2011 ~ 24.37 miles
 
Total mileage between the 1st September 2009 and the 22nd January 2011 ~ 553.42 miles
 
7 of 2011

 
* distance calculated on Ordnance Survey's Getamap

Who do I think I am ? [12] ~ my paternal grandparents ...

My father's parents were married 105 years ago in the Methodist church less than a mile from where I live.

There are no photographs of the wedding [which is a shame] as it appears that my grandfather's sister, Daisy, forgot to organise the photographer ... or so I have been told.

I didn't know of the existence of this newspaper report until my cousin sent me a copy.

Like so many steps forward in a family tree it results in a step backwards ... or at least sidewards. You see I know of three of the four bridesmaids listed ~ in fact I have photographs of them ~ but "Miss Gertrude Tetlow of Pendleton, sister of the mother of the bride" raises a few questions. The mother of the bride was of course my great grandmother, Agnes Ellen Wagstaffe nee Knowles ... and yet Miss Gertrude Tetlow is her sister. Something doesn't make sense.

In trying to trace my great grandmother's parents, I've been looking for the Knowles family. Is it somehow entwined with the Tetlow family ? Have I got the wrong family ... or is there an error in the newspaper report ? That's something to look into ... and part of the fun of trying to track down your ancestors.

Here's a transcript of the newspaper report forwarded by my cousin, Faye.

I'll tell you what, you don't get report like this in local newspapers nowadays.