Feet together/poles apart ...

Having taken Abiraterone for two weeks now I can report that I feel better generally but I still have some discomfort in my groin ... so I bought myself some walking poles to make walking easier.

They were just £15, hardly top of the range, but they should take some pressure off my hips and pelvis etc.

In the event, just this afternoon, I walked for just 45 minutes, quite slowly from Alport up to the packhorse bridge near Youlgreave ...


 

I'm not a big fan of walking poles but at least they enabled me to get out into the countryside. This may be as good as it gets unless my pelvis improves ... somehow.

We'll see.

The other news is that the Abiraterone hasn't affected my kidneys or potassium levels etc. The pharmacist declared yesterday that the results of Tuesday's bloodtest were "absolutely fine".

Finally my compact digital camera has gone kaput so I'm going to have to replace it or stick with my SLR which is bigger and more cumbersome. The two photos above were taken with my phone !

It will be interesting to see how my groin/pelvis feels during the night and in the morning. It is surprising how you don't realise as you turn over in bed how your body 'corkscrews' on your pelvis  ... until you have a problem with your pelvis. Ouch.

Mirror's Edge In Real Life with Tim Shieff - Flow POV (Ep.2) | Flow

Free running in Derby ... this is quite a scary video and not for those who suffer from vertigo ...

 

Eight hours earlier ...

I have a minor grumble ...

I get more than irritated when I'm watching the start of a TV programme ... perhaps there's someone mopping up a lot of spilt red wine ... it could be blood ... and onscreen you see the words "Eight hours earlier ..." and you're whisked back eight hours and you know that some time later you're going to be seeing that red wine or blood being mopped up.

It might be "three days earlier" of course ... or "twenty four hours earlier" ... you get the idea.

Once this device was a novelty but of late it seems to have become overused and in the current season of Southland every episode starts with "X hours earlier ..."

As the Americans would say [apparently] enough already. 

 

A Farm Journal ~ from the 16th to the 28th February 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 frosty morn[in]g

2 - 17 Fine morn[in]g - wet aft[ernoo]n

3 - 18 Fine day at Cales W[illia]m & I doing cake breaker &

2 mo[nth] 4 day 19 Very wet morn[in]g - winnow[e]d oats at Cales for bro' Joseph 13d p[e]r stone

5 - 20 Fine frosty morn[in]g - wet aft[ernoo]n oats to B[akewell] weighed & pack[e]d wool 58 3/4 tod [?] 247 fleeces @ 35/- 4 1/2 tod locks 17/6 - weighed very well sold to J.Halliwell for Geo. Watkinson & Son Halifax - 

2 Mo[nth] 17 Sarah Gauntley died at Bakewell aged 88 & was buried on 6th day the 21st - she was quite childish towards the last & was looking over her workbox & leaned back in her chair dead

7 - 22 very wet aft[ernoo]n & stormy

1 - 23 Fine

2 - 24 Very fine springlike to Rowsley for Fisons Manure for corn £6 - calf from Jos. Evans up bo[ugh]t one of W.Garratt Alport

3 - 25 Fine ditto S[arah] A[nn] & I & boy & Ann to Nott[ingha]m - Mother A[rmitage] has been very poorly but found her a good deal better

4 - 26 Ditto self home

5 - 27 Very fine springlike garden[in]g etc Walling - Peter Bonsall & W[illia]m Needham doing East & South walls of Bottom Close Cales rid & find stone extra 3/- p[e]r rood

6 - 28 Fine & mild harrow[in]g Kiln close S.H. for drilling

7 - 29 Very wet day W.S.W. gr[oun]d cake etc. Thrash[e]d at Cales - uncomfortable day - All things doing pretty well 10 cows milking at Cales - have 14 calves there - 2 calved S.H. "Febrewary come & gone snow conna lieuf a conde ston"

An interesting fortnight's entries. First Sarah Gauntley died; then his mother-in-law was ill; and finally at the end of the month he quotes something ... though I have no idea what it was/means ... and he did write "Febrewary ..." !  

According to the National Probate Calendar Sarah Gauntley had "Effects under £1000". She was a Spinster and her Will was proved by "the affirmations of James Wall of Sheffield in the County of York and Mary Anne Bowman of Bakewell ... Spinster the Executors." Most personal representatives [Executors and Administrators] swear an oath on the Holy Bible. Quakers do not. They usually 'affirm' that what they have said or written is true. Their word is their bond in short. Sarah Gauntley was born in Grantham, Nottinghamshire and was the brother of William Gauntley.   

Holly Wood, a melanic deer ... and the Duke of York Stone.

There are a number of places you can park in Rowsley ... though don't use the Caudwell Mill car park. Only patrons can park there !

From the village, on the western side of the River Derwent, a footpath follows a 'private road' towards Stanton Woodhouse ...

 

This path gives a great view of Peak Tor on the right ...

 

On the other side of the tor are some earthworks but nothing is particularly obvious on this side.

A little further on the path passes through Holly Wood ...

 

Since this photo was taken the mature but untidy trees in the wood have been felled and the ground replanted.

We were getting near to Stanton Woodhouse now ...



 

Stanton Woodhouse is a farm and a couple [perhaps three] houses, though it's hard to tell.

We passed through without incident though I did once have an encounter with a gentleman who obviously thought he was someone special the way he spoke to me. I was explaining that the map wasn't very clear as to where the path went at the time. We parted on less than friendly terms.

On the far side of the houses we climbed up through the fields ...



Looking back you get a good view of the Derwent valley ...

 

We passed disused Endcliffe Quarry and turned right along the lane towards Stanton-in-Peak and Pilhough ...



Where the lane forked, we took the left fork for Stanton-in-Peak, and heard something rummaging in the trees on our left. 

It was a melanic fallow deer ...

 

There's a whole herd of them in this area. The story goes that they escaped from nearby Stanton Hall some years ago and now wander around the area. I once saw five or six of them in the mist jumping a wall on Bonsall Moor, not far from Slaley. [This won't mean a lot to some of you but to local people it might ...]

We took the first path on the left that leads to Stanton Moor and which passes through a wood on its way. 





To the left of the path, where it levels out, there's a large rock [there may be more than one] and on the far side there's an impressive stone carving ...

 

As I say the path is to the left of the rock in the photo above. When you get close to the carving you can see it's a fine piece of work but at the time of the walk I had no idea as to its significance ...



 A 'Y' and the date '1826' below a crown ... well just this afternoon, after some scrambling around on the internet, I've discovered that it is known as the Duke of York Stone.
  
On reaching the Nine Ladies stone circle ...

of

... we turned sharp right and headed back towards the lane we'd left a little earlier. On the opposite of the lane a concessionary path leads towards Pilhough ...





Though a concessionary path it was obviously well used ...

 

We reached a couple of walls which looked more like the entrance to an ancient stone fort than a quarry ...



We descended the hill away from the disused quarry ...

 

and reached Pilhough. 'Pilhough' according to Louis McMeeken's enlightening Place Names of the Peak District means "place where the oats were grown".

From Pilhough you can get another view of Peak Tor, from above ...



From the lane between Pilhough and Rowsley we could see the houses of Northwood ...

 

We had our last look at Peak Tor from this lane too ...

 

This walk was followed on the 13th March 2011
 
Length of walk ~ 4.15 miles *
 
Total mileage walked so far in 2011 ~ 54.25 miles
 
Total mileage between the 1st September 2009 and the 13th March 2011 ~ 582.30 miles
 
14 of 2011
 
* distance calculated on Ordnance Survey's Getamap

 

Who do I think I am ? [13 ~ Part 2] ~ the family at 151 Coggins Row, Hodthorpe ...

Following on from yesterday's blog here are details of who sat on the front row in the photo below. Most of the information in italics came from a deceased uncle [and I apologise if what he says seems inappropriate. He was a straight speaking man] ...

 

NANCY [on the left at the front] ~ "skivvying all her life - spinster until she was 60, then she married Joe Colclough. She was always a bit slow" [I told you he could be straight speaking but what do I do for the sake of family history ? Fudge it ... or report what he told me ?] Nancy doesn't appear in the 1911 Census Return with the rest of the family.

LILY [second from the left] ~ "the domineering one ~ bright girl ~ worked at the George Inn, Whitwell, then head housekeeper at Epsom College, Epsom. Didn't marry. Lived at Whitwell ~ her and Nancy fought like mad. Wordly, intelligent, a bit of a snob ~ died 1975 [ish]" According to the 1911 Census Return Lily [or Lilian as she is called in the Census] was single, aged 26, and a Cook's assistant at a hotel in Chollerford, Northumberland. Her birthplace was given as 'Yorks. Harthill'.

HENRY [third from the left and my great grandfather] ~ "went to work on a farm at Belph Grange [part of the Welbeck Estate] when he was 10. In the 1871 census [when he was 14] he was an Indoor Domestic Servant at Belph Grange - as soon as he could get away from Belph [he was "tied" there] - he went to Wraighton Farm the other side of Worksop [where he worked for the Mellish family and others]. He subsequently became the farm bailiff at Hall Leys Farm, Hodthorpe [where my grandad was born]. [My late uncle also made some mention of Sammy Booth at Bonder Farm ~ did Henry work for him too ?] Henry was a very strong character. He was 96 when he died in 1947 [or thereabouts]. He worked into his 70s. For many years he wouldn't speak to his mother. He was brought up by David F......" There's a mystery as regards Henry ~ who were his mother and father ? In the 1861 Census Return his parents are named as David [61] and Sarah [62]. Henry was only 4 at the time so this would have meant his parents would have been in their late 50s when he was born ... Henry is named as their son. More likely their grandson I suspect.

  SARAH ANN [nee White] [fourth from the left and my great grandmother] ~ "came from Barlborough and St. Helens [or even Wigan]. Sarah was a servant girl at Springfield Farm [owned by Mellish]. Her father before working in the pit was a clogmaker. Died about 1926."  Did she have some connection with Hebden Bridge ? My grandad, Albert had two aunts there ~ one had a pie shop where the millworkers bought their pies. One of Fred's daughters lived there on an isolated farm ... back in the 1980s/1990s this was.

 ALICE [second from the right] ~ "married Bill Atkins from Whitwell She was [had been ?] in service and had four sons by Bill Atkins but left him and supported herself. Bill Atkins wouldn't work." According to my late uncle Bill Atkins wasn't very pleasant. I apologise for any descendants of Bill Atkins who read this !

Finally, RUTH [on the right] ~ "lived in Sheffield. Went to work the other side of Sheffield. Met and married Edwin Smith ~ he wouldn't work either. She had six children and was always on the breadline."  ]. According to the 1911 Census Return Ruth was Anice Ruth ...

Some of the women in the family don't seem to have fared quite as well as the men ... or was it always thus ? Or was it my uncle who had some fairly jaundiced views ?

I could have posted this a few hours ago but I kept looking up different things. Once you start ...

A Farm Journal ~ from the 1st to the 15th February 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 :~

7 - 1st 2 Mo[nth] - very Stormy wet & windy night & day tremendous wind - Flower cow cast calf at Cales

3 - 4 rather stormy morn[in]g - finish[e]d plough[in]g 

4 - 5 Windy but fair M[onthly] M[eeting] at Matlock bank met at Clara J. Stevens - nice meet[in]g - Tho[ma]s Hartras there & several Irish friends visitors - home with F[ather] & M[other] in their carriage - began to rebuild wall dale side of Lit[tle] Lamb pasture

7 - 8 Stormy morn[in]g N.E. with snow at times

1 - 9 Fine

2 -10 Ditto walling in Lamb Pasture

5 - 13 Fine day thrash[e]d & gr[oun]d mung etc W[illia]m at Cales doing cake breaker

6 - 14 Fine spring like day S[arah] A[nn Armitage] & Baby & I to Ashford J[ohn] A[rmitage] & Maria R.A.B[rayshaw ?] & children there

7 - 15 Rather colder north wind with hail at times get[tin]g stone lamb pasture

 

Who do I think I am ? [13] ~ a photograph taken circa 1913 ...

Whilst my father's family originally come from Over Haddon in what is now the Peak District my mother's family were [at least at the beginning of the 20th century] living at 151 Coggins Row, Hodthorpe, near Whitwell, on the other side of Derbyshire.

Here they are, my grandfather, his parents and his siblings. 

 

That's my grandad, Albert, on the back row.

My grandparents, Henry [seated] and Sarah Ann, the matriarch, next to him. Henry would have been about 53 in his photo and Sarah Ann five years younger. I always think Henry looks less than healthy in the photos I see of him but as I understand it he lived into his 90s. Sarah Ann fared less well, dying in 1929 aged 65 or so.

This photo dates from the year 1913 or thereabouts.

According to the 1911 census return Henry was "cartering coal". He was born at Belph a hamlet near Hodthorpe. Sarah Ann was born Sarah Ann White in "St. Elones" [corrected to St. Helens, Lancashire, subsequently]. They had been married for 29 years in 1911 and 12 children "had been born alive" though 2 of them had died by 1911.

It looks like a couple of them on the back row may have been to a wedding ~ they are wearing buttonholes.

To say the photo is a century old we know quite a bit about this family.

HARRY WHITE [on the left at the back] was "born out of wedlock to Sarah Ann  and probably not the son of Henry. He was a brass bandsman and played trombone ..." 

FRED [second from the left] was the eldest son. "He was in the army and had fought in the Khyber Pass and right through the First World War. He was a standard bearer for the Old Comrades [Sherwood Foresters] and went annually to the memorial service at Crich Stand near Crich, Matlock."

JOHN WILLIAM [third from the left] "was called Jack and was probably in the army during the First World War. Later he worked down the pit at both Whitwell and Manton ..." He was referred to in the 1911 Census Return as follows "Pit Boy Collier Pony Driver Below".

ALBERT [third from the right] [my grandad]. "He was aged 18 or 19 in this photo and was in the Navy, mainly on destroyers and minesweepers. He was a leading stoker. When he left the Navy he went back down the pit where he was an underground enginewright eventually [in charge of the underground machinery etc.]" In the 1911 Census Return Grandad was living at home [aged 15]. He was a Pit Boy Pony Driver (Below).

HAROLD [second from the right] ~ "he was also in the pit. His wife was from Huddersfield so eventually they moved there and he worked for the Corporation and the Electricity Board before returning to the pit at Whitwell ..."

LEN [on the right] ~ "farmer and collier. He grew a moustache because of scarring due to a bad accident. After the accident he was an engine driver and on-setter [the man underground sorting out the cage]." He was still living at home in 1911 [aged 21] and at that time he was described as a Collier Below Ground (Hewer). He was born at Belph.

 The information about the family members referred to above comes from an uncle [now deceased].

If this proves to be of sufficient interest to people I will post information about the six people on the front row. 

Benjamin and I head to Grindleford ...

I need to catch up with my walking blogs ...

So back to early 2011 and Benjamin and I drove ten miles or so up the Derwent Valley to Grindleford Station. We resisted the temptation to have a bacon butty at the cafe and walked along the path leading to Padley Mill ...

Before that though we had to cross the bridge over Burbage Brook ...

 

As we got near to Padley Chapel one of the locals came out to make my acquaintance ...



My new found friend then took me for a tour of the old stones of Padley Manor behind Padley Chapel ...



He [or is it she] even opened his eyes ...

 

As soon as we'd got past the last of the houses Benjamin started clambering on some of the large rocks ...

 

We left the main and more popular path here and walked through Rough Wood ...







Near Kettle House the view opens out towards Hathersage with Win Hill rising beyond ...



We passed under the railway line ...



Just beyond a watercourse pours out of the hillside ...

 

One of the great things about walking with your grandson is that you realise you've probably become a bit jaded in your outlook. I see old carved stones and wonder where they came from ... Benjamin sees them as a something to jump from ...

 

I've asked it before and I may ask it again, where are these stones from ? The stones that lie on the ground near Harper Lees ...



  

As we left the stones behind to follow the River Derwent southwards I looked back towards Harper Lees and Hathersage ...

 

The spring sunshine sparkled on the River Derwent as we walked south ...



... into the wood ...

 

Part way through the wood we forked left uphill to retrace our steps back to the car. On the way we passed Padley Chapel. No cat this time ...

 

Could those old stones a mile or so away come from Padley Manor, the ruins behind the chapel shown above ?

This walk was followed on the 6th March 2011
 
Length of walk ~ 3.13 miles *
 
Total mileage walked so far in 2011 ~ 50.1 miles
 
Total mileage between the 1st September 2009 and the 6th March 2011 ~ 578.15 miles
 
13 of 2011
 
* distance calculated on Ordnance Survey's Getamap

 

On Instagram ...

Sign on one of the buildings at the Cromford end of the Cromford Canal posted on Instagram earlier today ...

The church at Thorpe Salvin ...

I mentioned that I would come back to Thorpe Salvin church as there were a number of features that I wanted to show you.

The church dates back as far as the 12th century...

The church porch is quite striking with its half-timbered frame ... 



Inside the porch is this staggering doorway which I have seen described as Saxon ...

 

Here's a closer look at the stonework ...


 

You may have noticed in the top photo a stone feature in front of the porch. There is a different face on each side ...



 

 

Is it a sundial ? On the photo below you can see that something has been affixed in time gone by ...



... and perhaps those marks in the stone were part of a sundial.

Finally a couple of gravestones ... this one in memory of 17 year old Charles Bradley ...



The wording beneath Charles Bradley's name reads :

BE WARNED BY MY SUDDEN CALL
AND STRAIGHT FOR DEATH PREPARE
YE KNOW NOT WHEN THE LORD MAY COME
IN MANNER, HOW, OR WHERE


Finally the stone marking the passing of Charles Battersby ...

 

The wording reads :~

IN LOVING MEMORY OF CHARLES,
THE BELOVED SON OF
GEORGE & KATHERINE BATTERSBY,
WHO DIED NOV 19TH, 1899
AGED 6 YEARS AND 3 MONTHS;

WE MISS THEE HERE, WE MISS
THEE THERE,
DEAR CHILD : WE MISS THEE
EVERYWHERE

Inside the church there's a 12th century font showing the four seasons. Unfortunately the churchdoor was locked when I visited. Click heritage inspired to see a photograph of the font and learn a little more about the church.