A Farm Journal ~ from the 1st to the 15th September 1868

My great great great uncle John Bayliff Bowman lived at Summer Hill, near Monyash in the County of Derby.

 

The Bowman family, who were Quakers, had three farms, One Ash Grange [which John Bayliff Bowman often referred to as O.A.], Cales and Summer Hill [which he usually referred to as S.Hill or S.H.]

A Farm Journal continues :~

3 - 1st 9 Mo[nth] Fine day lead[in]g manure at Cales sold Large Mountney 11 fat sheep off rape £2 each

4 - 2 Fine & hot self to B[akewe]ll early to join Father Lucy Ann & Co[u]s[in] Eliza to Chest[er]f[iel]d M[onthly] M[eeting] & home even[in]g

5 - 3 Ditto weather  John Kirkam [sic] to look at lambs but not sold - sold 4 fat pigs Jim Harrison - F[ather] & M[other] came to tea & stayed till 7 day even[in]g

6 - 4 Fine & hot F[ather] & I went round the farm in morn[in]g

7 - 5 Ditto Dipped 93 lambs on the rape so pested [sic] with fly dip[pe]d as a protection - the turnips & rape are up but advance slowly frosty nights & hot days - want rain along with the hot weather -

to 3 - 15 Mostly cold N.E. winds filling pudding pie in Willow field & lighted Self to Nott[ingha]m Q[uarterly] M[eeting] and back

The photograph shows Lucy Ann Bowman. She was born on the 19th December 1849 at One Ash Grange. She would have been 18 years of age when she travelled to Chesterfield Monthly Meeting with her grandfather , her Uncle ... and Eliza. 

Ticking away ... Day 892 ~ Send for three and fourpence !

Another month has gone by so today I was due for another follow-up appointment at hospital at 9.30. I was without my right hand man and lucky charmer ... Jamie. He was needed elsewhere. What would I do ? I felt like a football manager without his lucky suit before a crunch game against his biggest rivals.

There was nothing for it ~ I would have to seek reinforcements

So along came a couple of the ladies who are nearest and dearest to me for their first visit to the Cancer Treatment Suite ... I know how to show a woman a good time.

We got there early and I was seen within five or ten minutes. 

I got off to a bad start ~ my blood pressure was 200 over ... something or another ... that was the only bad news actually. My PSA reading had gone down from 22 or 23 to 19 and everything else seemed ok.

Another appointment was arranged for four weeks hence but I have to start taking a beta blocker [Atenolol] as well as having my blood pressure monitored weekly.

As you can imagine the relief I felt was fairly great. I never know what to expect. I hope for the best but fear the worst. There's no wonder my blood pressure is high. Still, let's not dwell on the negative.

We adjourned to the coffee shop, me and the two ladies, and I had my obligatory bacon bap.

Outside a photographic image was captured ...

I look well for a man with Stage IV prostate cancer don't I. It's amazing what our doctors can do ... and it's all on the NHS. It's worth remembering that since its launch in 1948, the NHS has grown to become the world’s largest publicly funded health service.

In other news, Spring is in the air.

Jamie will be back with me in four weeks.

In the evening of the day ...

As we parked at the picnic site at Darley Bridge in the evening of the day, with blossom on the trees, a farmer worked in the field next to the car park ... 

 From the bridge at Darley Bridge a footpath runs directly towards Oaker Hill ...

 

We followed the lanes through South Darley to walk up from the school towards the houses of St. Mary's View ...



 Beyond the houses we turned around to see Oaker Hill from the other side.

 

I write Oaker Hill ~ it is shown as Oker on the OS Map as is the village of Oker itself. I've always spelt it Oaker so I'm sticking to that.

We walked towards Wensley Dale with the sun slanting towards us and with the blackthorn in flower. This was early April ... and the blackthorn was in flower. This is not the case this year.

 

Wensley Dale [there's another one in Yorkshire apparently] looked delightful ...

 

We had turned back on ourselves by now and we could see a hot air balloon flying over Oker Oaker Hill with its trig point ...

 

Crossing the road in Wensley the path runs between gardens for a short way ...

 

The poplar trees planted by Enthovens were just coming into leaf, a lovely, lively green ...



 We followed Oldfield Lane until just before Cowley Knoll we saw that Enthovens had cleared some of the scrub on the south side of the lane ...



 ... and they didn't want anyone going on the land ...



 We turned northward now towards Warren Carr following the old miners' path ...



 The steps were slippery so we walked beside them ...



 Judging by the amount of wear and tear the steps have been well used ... more so in the past than now probably.



 From Warren Carr we followed the lane back towards Darley Bridge passing the Enthoven works on our right. On our left we noticed this sign ...



 We don't think this stopped some of the local kids using those bumps on their mountain bikes ...

As we walked through Darley Bridge I glanced at this date stone on one of the cottages [as I always do] ....



 The walk was over but let me finish with this photo taken earlier in the day when I went to Peak Village with my daughter and grandson. It shows a pair of Mandarin Ducks that were wandering around the car park with a large flock of mallards ...



 This walk was followed on the 8th April 2011
 
Length of walk ~ 3.94 miles *
 
Total mileage walked so far in 2011 ~ 101.43 miles
 
Total mileage between the 1st September 2009 and the 8th April 2011 ~ 629.48 miles

  23 of 2011 [which means in 2011 I was averaging just 4.41 miles a walk.]
 
* distance calculated on Ordnance Survey's Getamap

Darley Dale Wildlife: Another Osprey at Rowsley

It's amazing what there is about ... who would have thought it ? An osprey less that three miles away.

Darley Dale Wildlife: Another Osprey at Rowsley: Ken Smith found another Osprey this afternoon, initially hunting over the short stretch of canal that feeds Caudwells Mill at Rowsley before...

A Farm Journal ~ from the 16th to the 31st August 1868

My great great great uncle John Bayliff Bowman lived at Summer Hill, near Monyash in the County of Derby.

 

The Bowman family, who were Quakers, had three farms, One Ash Grange [which John Bayliff Bowman often referred to as O.A.], Cales and Summer Hill [which he usually referred to as S.Hill or S.H.]

A Farm Journal continues :~

 

1 - 16 Fine

 

2 - 17 Fine day lead all at S.H. part Ridge piece to Cales

 

3 - 18 Misty no drying seed[e]d down Winkerley S.H.

 

4 - 19 Wet day cold E[ast] wind

 

5 - 20 Fine day Mother A[rmitage] & Mary came

 

6 - 21 Ditto lead 1/2 of Pewet Knobs corn & thrash[e]d

 

7 - 22 Very wet winnow[e]d oats etc

 

1 - 23 Showery

 

2 - 24 Ditto winnow[e]d up & sent 22 sacks oats to Jos[eph] B[rantingham] B[owman]

 

3 - 25 finish[e]d sow[in]g Rape

 

4 - 26 Fine morn[in]g - Showery aft[ernoo]n B[akewe]ll Fair Cheese brisk 70/- very scarce beef & mutton looked after lambs 20/- lead corn

 

5 - 27 Fine day lead manure morn[in]g corn aft[ernoo]n showery

 

6 - 28 Finish[e]d lead[in]g corn Thrash[e]d rem[ainde]r out Pewet Knobs

 

7 - 29 Fine fin[ishe]d Thatch[in]g lead slack to Willow field Kiln to burn lime

 

1 - 30 Fine

 

2 - 31 Fine day B[akewe]ll market took 2 fat heifers to Hulley of Ashford bo[ugh]t 4 Norfolk sows £2 each 

Two years ago yesterday ... I was in Ilam

Monday, the 4th April 2011, and I was down at Ilam for a walk that started off in Staffordshire before crossing the River Dove into Derbyshire and heading back to the National Trust property of Ilam Hall.

I was working just three days a week by this date and making the most of the remaining four days ...

How many times have I posted a photo of the church at Ilam with Thorpe Cloud looming up behind ? Well add one more ...

  From the garden of Ilam Hall, you can see St. Bertram's Bridge over the River Manifold ...



 Oh dear, here's another photo of the Church of the Holy Cross ... with Thorpe Cloud ...



 Talking of St. Bertram, here's his tomb inside the church ...



Bertram was a King of Mercia in the 9th century ~ click here to learn a lot more about him. You can see some requests for prayers from visitors on the tomb above.

Also in the church is a memorial to Robert Meverell and his wife Elizabeth ...



Above their memorial is one to their daughter Elizabeth and her four children ...



The most striking memorial is the one in respect of David Pike Watts who died in 1816. Francis Chantrey was commissioned to complete the memorial at a cost of £6000. An octagonal chapel had to be added to the old church to incorporate the memorial. Some think the memorial is excessive ...



  Back to mundane matters ... and you can't get more mundane than the problems some dog owners cause in the countryside (here I go again). Here's a sign the National Trust were putting up at the time ...



 I crossed the River Manifold and went down to the water's edge ...

 

I walked downstream until the Manifold joined the Dove ...

Across the far side of the River Dove, Thorpe Cloud rises above the surrounding countryside ...






   

 The sheep are very friendly in these parts. I think they thought I'd got some food. They were disappointed ...



They're good looking sheep though.

I crossed the early 18th century Coldwall Bridge into Derbyshire ...



Once I was in Derbyshire I looked back into Staffordshire ...



I was getting nearer to Thorpe Cloud ...






  In Dovedale, another notice for dog owners. Why do they pick up their dog's mess, put it in a plastic bag and then sling it ?



 I walked a few hundred yards upstream between the River Dove on my left and Thorpe Cloud looming above me on my right. 

I reached the stepping stones ... and stepped across them ...



From the other side of the Dove, whilst now walking downstream, Thorpe Cloud, no longer flat on top, rises steeply above the river ...



 I'm not sure whether it's the river washing the grass away or people scree walking ... but there's some erosion ...



  I passed the first two of three Peak & Northern footpath signs ...






  I'd left the river behind by now and was walking across the fields behind the Izaak Walton Hotel ... but did sneak a peek back towards Thorpe Cloud ... and do you know what, it was flat on top again ...



I was nearly back in Ilam ... and what a picture it was ...



The bench on the right in the photo above reads ...



Just in case you can't read it ~  "IN MEMORY OF BILL HUDSON WHO FARMED THIS LAND FOR ALMOST FIFTY YEARS".

The third and final Peak & Northern footpath sign is the oldest of the three and nearly as old as me ...



Back then the society was known as the Peak District and Northern Counties Footpaths Preservation Society ~ a bit of a mouthful. I used to be a footpath inspector for them. 

I was now back to the bridge in Ilam that crosses the River Manifold ...



 Look ! Two years ago the daffodils were flowering !

I passed the gatehouse to get back into the grounds of Ilam Hall and was back ...



This walk was followed on the 4th April 2011
 
Length of walk ~ 4.40 miles *
 
Total mileage walked so far in 2011 ~ 97.49 miles
 
Total mileage between the 1st September 2009 and the 4th April 2011 ~ 625.54 miles

  22 of 2011 [which means in 2011 I was averaging just 4.43 miles a walk.]
 
* distance calculated on Ordnance Survey's Getamap

Ticking away ... Day 884 ~ Charles Wildhouse ?

I'd not been to hospital for three weeks or so ... so another visit was on the cards today. I was off to Derby for a follow-up appointment ... not about the life limiting illness this time but the one that causes me so much inconvenience ~ my mallet finger.

Having a bath/shower ~ what a pain. OK I can wear a plastic bag on my left hand taped to my wrist with selotape but unless I leave my hand higher than my elbow then some water will get onto the plaster on my hand. I can cover quite a lot of ground with the soap in my right hand but when it comes to washing your right arm ... or your right armpit ... well, you try it sometime. I have to get help ... fortunately help is available and there is something so deliciously decadent about someone washing you.

Of course washing the pots is right out.

So, there we were in the Pulvertaft Hand Centre within the Royal Derby Hospital [to give it its correct title] just before 10.30am when my appointment was due. Various therapists and physios came in and called out a name as that name left the waiting area for attention.

Then a young woman came in with a clipboard. She was over my left shoulder and I heard her say quite softly "Charles Wildhouse ..." ~ I only really heard the 'Charles' ... but she repeated the name a little louder this time "Charles Wild ..." [she looked at her clipboard hesitantly] "... house'.

I piped up 'Wildgoose' ? She looked at the clipboard ... "Oh, yes ..." so then we were off to the treatment room.  

I never got round to asking her why she didn't come out with it and say "Wildgoose ...".

As usual I have gone on too long [as is the norm]. Longish story short[ish] ... I got a new split. My washerwoman Beloved had to put the plaster on too, in front of the professional to see how she was doing ... she nearly got full marks which pleased you know who ...

I got to choose a new colour for the splint ... even more shocking than the red one ...

How's the finger doing ? OK apparently ... well as far as they can tell. It can't be bent for another four weeks but it looks ok.  

This isn't the first time that my surname has been so badly treated. I have been called 'Wildgorse', 'Wildgrove', 'Goose' and many more. Worst of all is those damned computer messages that are left on my phone. I am always referred to as 'Charles Wiljus' by them.