Derbyshire 149 - Cromford /memories of a man with an umbrella/steam engines and rugby pitches /the police parked up

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Was it 1989 I wondered ? I have a memory of an old man. He was walking along the banks of the Cromford Canal. He leaned on the umbrella he was using as a walking stick . He stopped now and then and talked about steam. About the Industrial Revolution and the way it evolved in this part of Derbyshire. He described the rivers , the damp weather and the site of his factory with its lights blazing well into the night . He talked about the philantrophy of Arkwright who built the village of Cromford. A village that climbs up a hill. The houses of three stories were built of local stone and are still standing . He built an entire community . I don't remember the name of the old man . Professor someone or other . He worked for the Open University and I was in my second year and had chosen the Industrial history as a half credit . My professor spoke of the steam run power stations and stood beneath one . Wonderful structures that no longer grace our landscape apart from in the odd location . He took me into the mines of Cornwall with their dramatic beam engines . As I walked along the Cromford Canal my memories were flooding back to me.

I had woken up at 4.45. it was already hot . I wanted to get out on my walk before the sun rose too high in the sky. By 5.45 I was out walking . Not one person was out and about apart from me. The world was quiet . Most people were still in bed behind closed curtains. I had planned to get out into the open fields . The walk took me through the farmers fields . The first field had been mown . Bales were laid on the ground . The grass was wet and soaked my feet . The second field was uncut . The grass was long . My walk was slow - opening and closing gates . Walking along rock hard ground . Ground that a few weeks ago was wet and muddy. A field was full of horses . A cheery morning emanated from nowhere . It took me a while to find the source of the voice . A young woman tending the ponies and horses . I walked through the cool wood. Green and dark . I could hear the magpies and crows .

My walk back took me the same way only in reverse. I was well into the walk home and looked at my watch. I had five minutes to get home . There was no way I would make it in that time . Back across the long field and home . The wharf normally would be open but Covid 19 had closed that . The mallard ducks just sat there as we walked past them. A mandarin duck ducked and dived in the murky water .

Coffee , breakfast and then a drive to Cromford . The canal is not a long one and in parts it is beginning to become overgrown. We parked up on the road although we could have parked for free on the car parks . Covid 19 has meant car parks in the mean are now free . There was hardly anyone about . We had the towpath all to ourselves and Canadian Geese . Across the fields we could see the road and to the other side over the Rugby Pitches the railway line . The walk was lovely . A change from the usual walks across fields or close to home . We walked under a bridge that crossed the towpath . Built of stone it was a beautiful thing with no function any more . Just a tiny path crossed over it . Yellow Flag Iris grew along the banks . Meadow Sweet fragrant . The final part of our walk took us over the road and through the woods coming out at the rugby pitches and a parked police car . The policeman took no notice of us as we walked past .

The walk had been a real breath of fresh air with memories flooding in. Memories of writing essays on canal building , on the growth of the railway .

Glenn headed back to the car whilst I walked around the church . Closed to worshippers I only had the chance to walk around the outside . The church was originally planned as a chapel for Willersley Castle by Sir Richard Arkwright . I had wondered why there was no graveyard and this was explained by the fact that it was a private chapel . Named St Marys it was completed in five years by 1797. . No mean achievement . I walked past the open cloistered front with a blue sundial on the tower . Signs showed the way to the Arkwright tombs . What I did not know at the time was that Sir Richard was buried in a crypt beneath the chancel . There were Arkwright graves but not the ones I expected .

The church is Georgian in design . I will have to go back when Covid is over .

Freedom - freedom to walk . Freedom to get back to normal . Today did feel a little like that . The walk along the canal took me back over 30 years and brought back some wonderful memories . When I watched the TV programme of the old fashioned professor walking the canal I never once thought I would walk in his steps . It felt almost as if I were on holiday .

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