Wednesday 6 September 2017
We could have a leisurely start to the day and Haddock
Hideway doesn’t include breakfast so didn’t need to be up for a set breakfast
time. These two factors of not having to
wake up early guaranteed that we did!
Lay in bed though and eventually Larry was gently encouraged to walk
down the street to the general store to buy coffee and croissants which were
then also consumed in bed.
Eventually got up and ready and headed off down the road to
explore the Peaks District. Although the
weather forecast suggest an overcast but mostly dry it tended to drizzle/rain
for most of the morning so our plans of going for walks were somewhat
curtailed. We ended up heading for Eyam
and after visiting their very good little museum became more knowledgable on
their part in the history of the plague.
Basically a box containing cloth came from London in 1665. When the box
was opened the cloth was found to be damp and was hung in front of the fire to
dry out. Out jumped the plague carrying
fleas and within a year 80% of the village was dead. Once the village people realised the plague
had reached their town, they eventually decided to quarantine their village so
that it did not spread to other areas.
There is still a stone up on a hill called the boundary stone which has
little holes in it where the village would go to collect food from nearby
villages and leave their coin in the little holes which were filled with
vinegar.
We walked up a nearby hill where Elizabeth Hancock buried
five of her children plus her husband who all died of plague. Even though their farm was a fair distance
from the village the plague still reached them and poor Elizabeth would wrap
her children/husband in a sheet and drag them up the hill to bury them. It was a fair hike up and I breathlessly told
Larry he would have had to make do with a grave at the bottom!! Elizabeth and one son survived the plague and
eventually moved to Sheffield once the plague had passed a couple of years
later. I wouldn’t have wanted to stay
either. What a terrible tragedy.
By this time it was around midday so we drove on down the
pretty country roads of the area and eventually reached Bakewell. Parked in yet another pay and display carpark
and walked into the town centre which was very chocolate box touristy and
filled with tea shops selling bakewell pudding and/or fudge. We went to the original bakewell pudding shop
and had sausage rolls and milk shakes but also a small bakewell tart just
because.
Back to the car and we tossed up whether to go to Chatsworth
or Haddon Hall but really, for me, it had to be Chatsworth. It’s a much bigger estate than I realised so
after passing the Chatsworth farm and farmshop and the Chatsworth village and
the Chatsworth church etc we eventually turned into the long driveway up to the
house itself. Well it certainly is palatial
but unfortunately clad in a lot of scaffolding etc at the moment which kind of
reduces its splendour a bit. In
addition, they are setting up for a ‘Sculptures by the Castle’ kind of event so
there were a lot of bits of ‘art’ plonked around which also kind of reduced the
impact of the Capability Brown vistas.
We bit the bullet and paid to enter the house and gardens
(they certainly see you and your wallet coming by making you also pay to park
your car and leave your bag etc) and then wandered around the gardens while the
weather was fine. The most amazing part
is where the maze now sits and you can see a big wall around the perimeter of
it which used to be the foundations of a giant glasshouse. It fell into disrepair during the first world
war as all the gardeners etc were off fighting and was dismantled but by the
size of the foundations is must have been a fabulous sight
.
We eventually went into the house but, once again, an
exhibition of clothes and costumes worn by various generations of Cavendishes
and relations had taken over so that all the rooms were in darkness with
curtains drawn so you could look at the displays. Although it was all very interesting (even
now one of the granddaughters models for Dior etc) I prefer to walk through
these grand houses pretending I am a guest there and deciding which bedroom I
would be given or else pretending I am the Duchess herself and looking out the
windows at my domain and none of that was possible. The most enjoyable bit was the oak staircase
and chatting to the guide who explained that one Christmas they had done a Jack
and the Beanstalk pantomime and even had a giant beanstalk reaching from the
ground floor all the way up to the third and up to the skylight (which has only
in the last 30 years been renovated to its former glory after a previous
Duchess had covered it up with a false ceiling).
By this time it was mid afternoon so we decided to head back
to Castleton. On the way, we stopped off
at Thornhill Dairy which we had seen on the way and advertised farm fresh
icecreams. We bumped up a windy farm
track and parked up basically right next to the milking shed where the milking
was in full swing. There were a few pens
of very young calves nearby mooing in consternation and soon a young man came
out of the shed with a big vat of fresh milk and poured it into a set of
feeding teats and they soon set to with tails wagging away. We then noticed two pigs in a nearby pen also
going mental and they got fresh milk too although the bloke pretty much had to
pour it on their heads as they had both popped into the trough ready for their
tucker. Talk about eating like
pigs! Larry and I were much more gentile
as we ate our raspberry and clotted cream icecreams with little spoons as we
watched.
Back to Castleton and a little wander around the shops and I
splashed out and bought a Blue John ring.
Back to our little home for a while to put the feet up and eventually we
wandered back down to the main road for dinner at the Castle pub. Not the best meal we’ve had but not the worst
either - let’s just say I don’t think rump steak in Britain is the same cut as
you get in Australia. Home to watch some
telly before bed.
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