Passing the pike ...

... not a Victorian parlour game but what I did when taking a walk a couple of years ago in the Derwent Valley, Derbyshire. 

You see there's a pike that lies in the water at the Cromford end of the Cromford Canal that must be over  two feet long ... no, really ... just look at him or her ...

 

I know it would have helped if there had been something else in the water to help you compare but take my word ... this pike is over two feet long.

Sir Richard Arkwright's Cromford Mills were my starting point for a springtime walk in 2011. After passing the pike I walked past this rather attractive old redbrick building set amongst the even older stone-built ones of the Cromford Mills set-up ...



  I passed the old Primitive Methodist Chapel at Scarthin, now a private house, with this engraving above the front door ...



 I have shown this engraving before but I still think it is one of the most poignant ones I have ever seen.

Almost immediately I took the paved path up towards Hillside on my way towards Matlock Bath ...



 ... and, in particular, Upperwood. Isn't it beautiful ?



  The path runs along the private drive hereabouts on the hillside above the busy village of Matlock Bath ...



 ... from where you can get a distant view of Riber Castle across the other side of the valley ...



 The lane up to Upperwood has its drawbacks as you can see but it is a lane open to all vehicles. Imagine driving up here in any sort of car ...



 After a while I took a narrow, overgrown path leading downhill towards Matlock Bath ...







On reaching the main road, the A6, as it passes through Matlock Bath, I turned right back towards the start, passing this trough belonging to the Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association where it stands not so far from the church ...



 Then I was walking beneath another of Arkwright's amazing mills. This time Masson Mill built in 1783 but 'established' in 1769 ...







  A riverside path between the River Derwent on the left and the limestone tor of Scarthin Rock on the right leads to Cromford Church where you can turn right back to the canal ...

 

... and that enormous pike.

This walk was followed on the 27th May 2011
 
Length of walk ~ 2.82 miles *
 
Total mileage walked so far in 2011 ~ 198.98 miles
 
Total mileage between the 1st September 2009 and the 27th May 2011 ~ 720.72 miles

  44 of 2011 [which means in 2011 I was still averaging just over 4.5 miles a walk.]
 
* distance calculated on Ordnance Survey's Getamap

Following the Cromford Canal ~ 8 ... Erewash Meadows and Stoneyford ... or the Remains of the Day.

My eighth walk using the Cromford Canal was perhaps slightly unusual as I didn't see any sign of the canal. Perhaps I need to be more observant ... it was still an interesting walk though.

Parking near to the then deserted Stoneyford Lodge [which according to its sign offered Fine Ales and Good Food] I walked along Boat Lane [a clue perhaps that there had been a canal hereabouts ... once upon a time]. It was the middle of April and the blackthorn was in flower ...

At the T-junction with Castle Lane I turned right and Castle Lane did indeed lead me to a castle, albeit the remains of one ... Codnor Castle to be precise ...



It was built in the 13th century by Henry de Grey ...



... and is rather dilapidated ...



Fortunately the Codnor Castle Heritage Trust is doing its best to try and preserve the site and find out more about it. There's a website here which is worth looking at and includes some photographs of the dovecote that the Heritage Trust reports "was demolished in 1968 by Mr Bernard Swain" as well as the Time Team dig which found a Henry V Gold Noble. This coin was found by a metal detectorist rather than the diggers ! Worth a look.

 My walk continued northward ...



 ... before swinging eastward to follow a path alongside Foxhole Plantation, south of Ironville ...







 I reached Erewash Meadows where I'd left the canal on my seventh walk along it ...



 It was now, as I headed south, that the canal [or signs of the canal] should have been visible. Perhaps I should have been satisfied with the straight path which had presumably originally been the towpath ...



 On it went, through the pleasant grassy fields ...



 ... until I was walking alongside Aldercar Flash Nature Reserve ...



 As I drew nearer civilisation ... things became more uncivilised as is often the case ...



 Poor tree.

I believe that the sort of person who creates this much damage [a person without respect] should be very severely dealt with. If they will do this to a tree what else will they do ?

I reached the River Erewash where once again there were signs of disrespect ...



Before long I was walking below the noisy and busy A610 above me to my left. I gave way to an oncoming tractor and got a wave in return ...



There wasn't much leeway.

On reaching the railway line I turned right and followed a fenced path for some distance ...







This brought me to a bird hide overlooking the marshy ground ...

 

I could hear plenty of birds ... but I couldn't see any ...



As I drove along Boat Lane to return home, something caught my eye on a tree ...



 On closer inspection I could see it was a  fire hydrant sign ...




Incidentally it seems the figure at the top of the sign is the size of the water main that feeds the hydrant in millimetres ~ in this case 75mm ~ and the lower figure relates to the distance from the sign to the hydrant. 9 metres in this case.

As far as I'm aware Stoneyford Lodge is still closed. The Remains of the Day ? Why Codnor Castle, of course.

This walk was followed on the 15th April 2011
 
Length of walk ~ 4.36 miles *
 
Total mileage walked so far in 2011 ~ 110.18 miles
 
Total mileage between the 1st September 2009 and the 15th April 2011 ~ 638.23 miles

  25 of 2011 [which means in 2011 I was still averaging just under 4.41 miles a walk. This from the man who had once walked 56 miles in less than 24 hours ...]
 
* 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 ...

Following the Cromford Canal ~ 7 ... Golden Valley and Erewash Meadows.

My seventh walk following the Cromford Canal was undertaken on a rather dull day nearly two years ago. That is very hard to believe.

There's a car park beside Codnor Park Reservoir ...



... and from there I took a path on the northern side of the reservoir to get back to where I left Cromford Canal on the sixth day ...

  

Once I'd reached the Newlands Inn [or what remains of it] I turned back and walked alongside the old canal once more ...

 Initially the canal was less than impressive, as you can see above, but as I got back towards Codnor Park Reservoir it began to look more like a canal.


  

As I walked along the southern side of the reservoir to my right, on the hill, was the Jessop Monument ...



 At the eastern end of the reservoir is a redundant bridge ...

   

The three mile long Pinxton Arm of the canal used to pass under this. Behind me as I took the above photograph is the canal itself ...

 

It was rather lacking in water.

A little further along, still on the edge of Ironville, you reach the remains of a lock ...

 


  

Some local people seem to believe the section beyond the bridge is a rubbish dump ...

 

  

 

I was heading down to the railway bridge where the canal wasn't so much maltreated as just overgrown ...

 

Passing under the bridge the canal still appeared neglected ...

 

 It's rather different from the canal at the Cromford end isn't it.

Beyond the railway bridge I turned around and looked back ...

 

I was heading almost due south now ... and I was in Nottinghamshire ...

 

 

I could tell I was in Nottinghamshire by the graffiti ...

 

I'd reached the edge of Derbyshire Wildlife Trust's Erewash Meadows Reserve ...



This is where I started to head back after crossing the footbridge over the railway line and walking northwards ...





This walk was followed on the 28th January 2011

  Length of walk ~ 4.12 miles *

 
  Total mileage walked so far in 2011 ~ 31.67 miles

  Total mileage between the 1st September 2009 and the 28th January 2011 ~ 560.72 miles

   9 of 2011

 
* distance calculated on Ordnance Survey's Getamap