Saturday 27 October 2012

Derbyshire Dales

Well, we're back after an excellent time in Edinburgh seeing friends and family. On the drive down to Portsmouth to catch the ferry we decided to stay overnight in the Peak distirct, an area we don't really know.
View over Chelmorton, Derbyshire Dales
We'd picked--at random after an internet search-- the Church Inn in Chelmorton, a small village outside Buxton. It was a horrible misty and murky day which made driving down from Edinburgh less than fun and we arrived in the dark. However, we found we'd struck lucky--the inn was friendly, did lovely home cooked food and gave us a very comfortable room for the night.
The inn, an excellent place to stay
Next moring the weather was still not great, being grey and overcast, but at least the misty murk had gone so we could take some photographs. The village still preserves its original medieval strip farming field pattern in its dry stone walls.
View of strip fields enclosed by dry stone wals
Chelmorton church from which the inn takes its name
Sadly the church had been rather comprehensively 'Victorianised' inside, but its location, tucked into the lee of a hill with a slightly overgrown graveyard was quite atmospheric.

you can click on the photos to enlarge them


12 comments:

Jean said...

Crikey, you were just a few miles from us, chez nous in Derbyshire!! (25 miles according to Google, I have just checked.)

If I had been better organised we could have arranged to meet up, wouldn't that have been great, but as usual, life's chaos has got in the way - I have only just been catching up on blogs so didn't realise you were only a stone's throw away. (And in any case our house is literally strewn with mountains of washing, boxes of wine, bags of goodies and all the other detritous from our holiday which I have not had time to sort out yet, otherwise we could have put you up !!)

Next time, perhaps. I'm glad you liked the Peak District anyway. We tend to take it for granted because we live just on the doorstep. Have a safe trip home !!

the fly in the web said...

Was it the strips which attracted you...or was that lucky chance?

Susan said...

Those strip fields are a remarkable survival, aren't they?

Niall & Antoinette said...

@Jean - Wow that is close..we had no idea! It would have been great to meet up--maybe next time; it forms a good 1/2 point for us. We spent Thursday morning having a quick look round Buxton and then Bakewell before carrying on to Porysmouth.

Niall & Antoinette said...

@Fly - more lucky chance. It came up on a site where we found out more about Chelmorton:- spotted a photo.... once we'd booked.

Niall & Antoinette said...

@Susan - pretty much so. Normally you see the 'ribbed effect' from centuries of ploughing in what are now pasture fields.

GaynorB said...

Not too far from us. We often walk in Derbyshire. Time it right and you could meet up with us and Jean and Nick! Parts of Derbyshire are beautiful but I've not been to Chelmorton.

Niall & Antoinette said...

@Gaynor - oh that would be good. We hope to go over again somewhere around April/May; it will all depend on the University timetable.

Vera said...

Lovely part of the world. Used to visit Derbyshire a lot when living in the UK. Hope you enjoy your next visit there, and hope you get to meet up with fellow blogging friends.

Niall & Antoinette said...

@Vera- it was indeed lovely so we'll certainly go back. It would be good to meet our blogger friends over there; normally we get to see them when they're over here as both aren't that far away.

Perpetua said...

Not an area I know well, despite it not being very far from where I grew up in Lancashire. I love the strip field stone walls, but what a shame you had the grey weather we've had so much of recently.

Niall & Antoinette said...

@Perpetua - Well, we can't be lucky all the time. The previous visits in April and last October we had lovely weather.