Blogs from Derbyshire, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 18

This morning we set the SatNav for the spa town of Buxton. After heading out of Stalybridge in the same direction as the last two mornings we turned south towards the A57 instead of making our way east on the A628. Siri took us on an interesting B road route over a hill and into Glossop where we picked up the A624. The journey was going really smoothly until we reached the point where we needed to navigate between the A624 and the A6 (South). Siri wanted us to turn left and then almost immediately take the third exit on the roundabout. Oops, the left turn instruction sort of got stuck in our heads and we went left and then left onto the A6 which was the first exit, not the third! This had us rocketing ... read more

Mam Tor Wednesday was still a glorious mid 20’s sunny day with very little wind. Mam Tor is a famous landmark in the Peak district only about 20 minutes drive from Buxton. The hills here suffer from frequent extensive landslips so Mam Tor derives its name from mother hill. We walked up to the top of the tor and along the ridges and saddles between the hills. There were many hang gliders on the top, launching into the updraughts. Strange seeing them just fill their sail like a kite and lift off. In the evening we saw Idomineo, Mozart’s opera seria. Again very well produced with a well matched cast of singers. Before each of the operas in this festival there is a talk by the director and usually the conductor to give some insights into ... read more

"Are we there yet ?" Morning had barely broken as we heard plaintive cry from our travelling companion Sion . He continued over breakfast . "Are we there yet? Are we starting out?" At the best of times he is not the most patient of company when he gets going. Today he was worse than usual . Between each toast mouthful he mumbled "Isn't it time to go yet?" " We will be late" How could we break it to him that it was only 45 minutes to Derby city centre and we were not meeting Jo , Zoe and his best friend Woolly Mammoth until 11.00 Plenty of time but we could see he was getting very impatient pacing the floor , tut tutting and looking at his watch. I almost thought to get a ... read more

Buxton Friday 6thJuly Our drive from Manchester to Buxton included a couple of family history stops. The first was Glossop, in the hills just east of Manchester. The parish church we were looking for appeared to have been converted to a private mansion. Alison had people married and christened there but we were unable to find anything. My memory of Glossop will be the seemingly unending traffic crawl. There was a good little market hall. From Glossop we re-joined the crawling queue to get out of the town then headed over the hills on skinny, hedged lanes to the hamlet of Rowarth. There was only a post-box , not even a pub at Rowarth but interestingly there was a row of ten mill workers cottages dating from the early eighteen hundreds when Alison’s people were here. ... read more

Woolly says - Many opportunities come into my world and none are better than being able to catch up with my bestie Sion, combined with visiting a new place, what's not to enjoy! As the car wheels lapped up the miles and the sun streamed into the car I thought it was time to fill the women in our our destination. Derby gained city status in 1977, a former home to the Romans who called the then town, Derventio, it was a place that grew rapidly in the industrial era and with the advent of the railway system it became a centre of the British rail industry. To make the most of our time we had decided to arrive the night before, having found our lodgings and left the car safely parked I put Zoe in ... read more