From a valve tower to a tympanum ...

Back in 2011, in those January days, I was walking little but often. I had gone down to a three day working week but gone up to a three day walking week.

The 24th January 2011 saw me parking at Carsington Water between Wirksworth and Ashbourne on one of those dull Derbyshire days ... it suited my mood.

I set off across the dam wall and it was damn cold. It always is. Even on the sunniest of summer days the wind howls across here. 

 

I reached the valve tower which you may just have spotted on the right hand side of the photograph above ...



I was grateful to get out of the wind and onto the path that links the reservoir with the village of Hognaston ...

 

I was lucky enough to see two or three bullfinches but not lucky enough to photograph them ...



The hawk-eyed amongst you will have noticed the mud. Well, get out of the wind and into the shelter of trees and bushes and mud is what you're likely to encounter ...

 

The mud ended though when I reached a rather fine bridge over the watercourse below the dam wall ...



As I rose up, away from the bridge the path wasn't quite so miserable. In fact it was rather attractive ...



My meandering route led me to St, Bartholomew's Church in Hognaston ...



The short avenue of pollarded trees always catch my eye ...



The most interesting thing abiout this church though it its tympanum [the bit above the door in the porch] ...



It's not always easy to photograph this type of feature but you should be able to make out a figure holding a crook in the middle together with a sheep on the left with a pair of birds above it. On the right is a dog or wolf with a pig perhaps above. There is also something on the far right which doesn't show up well in my photo.

Is this Norman ? Or perhaps Saxon ? Who knows ... but it does appear to be very old. There are certainly much grander tympanum but I like the naivety of this one and the others nearby at Parwich and Tissington.

From the tympanum I walked down Green Lane to the stream in the valley to the north-east of the church ...

 

After crossing the stream I followed Enslet Lane out of the shallow valley ...



It always impresses me that a muddy old track like this has a name.



 This muddy old track may be very ancient too of course, perhaps even older than the church.

In the field beside Enslet Lane I tried to squeeze through a redundant squeezer stile ... 

 

In those days I could do it.

This walk was followed on the 24th January 2011
  Length of walk stroll ~ 3.18 miles *
  Total mileage walked so far in 2011 ~ 27.55 miles
  Total mileage between the 1st September 2009 and the 24th January 2011 ~ 556.60 miles
  8 of 2011

 
* distance calculated on Ordnance Survey's Getamap