Civil War in Wigan

On Saturday, while we were in town, we went to watch a display by the Lieutenant-Colonel John Lilburne’s Regiment of Foote, part of the Sealed Knott Society, based around the Battle of Wigan Lane, took place on 25 August 1651, during the third phase of the Civil War. It wasn’t a major battle, but the outcome was significant. The Parliamentarians led by Robert Lilburne, the older brother of John, one of the leaders of the Levellers, defeated a force of Royalists led by the Earl Of Derby. According to the BBC History website:

In August 1651, King Charles II arrived in Worcester with a mostly Scottish army and summoned all royalists to join him against the new republican government of Oliver Cromwell. The Earl of Derby raised about 1,500 royalists in Lancashire and the Isle of Man and set off south.

The Earl was met at Wigan on 25 August by the parliamentarian army of Robert Lilburne, who had about 600 infantry and 60 dragoons, but who was expecting another 3,000 men to arrive very soon……..

……….. The defeat of the royalists at the battle of Wigan Lane cut off the supply of volunteers going to join Charles II at Worcester and ensured that he would be heavily outnumbered when confronted by Cromwell a few days later. And indeed on 3 September Charles was crushingly defeated.

The Earl of Derby was wounded, but escaped. His major General, a member of the local gentry, Sir Thomas Tyldesley, was captured and executed. A monument in his memory was erected on Wigan Lane in 1679, and still stands today on the corner of Monument Road.

So, on Saturday Wigan was “invaded” by a small force of Parliamentarians who occupied the lawns on The Weind

marched behind the drums onto the old Market Place

demonstrated their pike drill

the use of their muskets

(there were even musketeers stationed on top of the tower of the Parish Church)

and mingled with the crowd, answering questions about the Civil War, the troops, their costumes and their weapons.

The event climaxed with a skirmish between a small force of Parliamentarians and a group of Royalists on the piazza in front of the new Wigan Life Centre

The Roundheads, led by Colonel Robert Lilburne,

were victorious, and Sir Thomas Tyldesley was captured

and then executed by firing squad.

The victorious Parliamentary forces then marched off the battlefield

During the Civil War Lancashire was very much a rural backwater under the dominance of the feudal lords who formed the backbone of the King’s supporters. There were some towns, like Bolton, which were Parliamentary strongholds, but Wigan was stoutly Royalist and the town’s motto – “Ancient and Loyal” – was allegedly awarded by the king in recognition of this support. Despite this Wigan was the home town of Gerard Winstanley, leader of the Diggers one of the most radical movements to emerge during the Civil War. Today, the popular sentiment is pro-Royalists, based on a simplistic, romantic admiration of the “Cavaliers”. And that was reflected by some cheers amongst the crowd for the Royalists .

Personally, my sympathies lie unreservedly with the “Roundheads” and the Levellers, the radicals in the New Model Army, led by men like John Lilburne (Robert’s Brother) and Thomas Rainsborough, and the Diggers. No “divine right of kings” for me, where everyone knows their place and thanks God for it. Without the victory of the parliamentary forces, England, and Britain, would have remained a feudal backwater. And the Levellers and Diggers are part of a true radical tradition that laid the foundation of the democratic rights we hold so dear today.

 

"I desire that those that had engaged in it should speak, for really I think that the poorest he that is in England hath a life to live as the greatest he”

Thomas Rainsborough, at the Putney Debates October 1647

 

"Was the earth made to preserve a few covetous, proud men to live at ease, and for them to bag and barn up the treasures of the Earth from others, that these may beg or starve in a fruitful land; or was it made to preserve all her children?"

Gerrard Winstanley The New Law of Righteousness, 1649

Day out in Hebden Bridge

Hebden Bridge is a small village tucked away in a valley between steep hills in the Yorkshire Pennines. It was an industrial town of textile mills which originally developed due to a plentiful supply of running water needed to power the machinery.

Like most textile towns in Lancashire and Yorkshire, its industry declined in the 1960’s and 70’s. However, unlike most of the other cotton and wool communities, it got a new lease of life when it was colonised by artists, writers and “New Age” types in the 1970’s and 80’s. Today it’s a thriving tourist “honey pot” with art galleries, independent shops, cafes and restaurants and a sever lack of parking!

We decided to have a day out there on Saturday. Knowing that parking is a problem, and that its not an easy drive down the narrow’ winding roads that run along the Calder valley, we decided to go by train. There’s a station at Hebden Bridge on the line that runs from Manchester to Halifax and beyond, with a regular service with trains from Manchester about every 20 minutes. The train fare from Wigan was about £17, but by booking two tickets, one to the last station on the line in Greater Manchester (Rochdale or Littleborough) and then another one from there to the final destination, we were able to make a substantial saving as the maximum fare between any two stations in Greater Manchester is £3-90. I don’t know why the full “normal” fare can’t reflect the subsidised fare for travel within the county boundary.

Getting off the train at our destination was like stepping back into the past. When the train station at Hebden Bridge was renovated in 1997 the signage was changed to the style used by the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway before the days of British Rail.

We walked the short distance along the Rochdale canal from the train station to the centre of the village and had a wander round the streets lined with old, traditional stone buildings.

The original community was the village of Heptonstall, a steep climb up on the hillside. But a settlement developed in the valley around the old bridge over the River Calder. It has been a major crossing point since medieval times and although there are now two new bridges capable of carrying modern traffic, the old packhorse bridge, built around 1510, is still standing and can be crossed by foot.

It’s only a small town so it doesn’t take too long to explore unless you browse, as we did, in the shops and galleries, of which Hebden Bridge has more than its fair share. Due to the tourist trade it has considerably more shops than most other villages of the same size. It’s more akin to “honeypot” towns in the National Parks such as the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales than the Yorkshire and Lancashire Pennines. Even the old mill in the centre of town has been converted into shops and a cafe.

It was noticeable that other than a branch of Boots, a recently opened Rohan franchise and the main banks, the town was devoid of all the usual chains that dominate the high streets in just about every town in the UK. There were plenty of coffee shops and tea rooms but no branches of Starbucks, Costa Coffee and the like. This must be a deliberate policy, and it’s not a bad one.

After mooching round the shops and galleries and grabbing something to eat we went for a short walk along the Rochdale canal. It’s lines with old mills and other former working buildings, many of which have been converted to new uses.

Having spent a pleasant few hours in the town we headed back to the station and caught the train back to Manchester.

There are a number of potential walks starting from the village and I think I’ll be returning in the near future. Hebden Bridge has been designated as a “Walkers Welcome Town”. As part of this there are way marked trails  and other facilities for walkers. There are a couple of routes I quite fancy following – up to and along Hardcastle Crags and, more strenuous, up Stoodley Pike.

Abbot Hall Gallery, Kendal

On Thursday I took a day off work and we drove up the M6 to Kendal where we’d decided we’d visit the Abbot Hall Art Gallery. It’s an old Georgian house, built in 1759, which is situated in a very pleasant location on the river bank close to the centre of the old market town. The gallery opened 50 years ago after the house, which had been allowed to fall into disrepair, had been renovated by a group of local people who had formed a charitable trust to work to save the building. When the renovation work had been completed they had to decide what to do with the house, and came up with the idea of turning it into an art gallery. The next step was to get hold of some art to show in their gallery! Over the 50 years they’ve accumulated an excellent collection of works from the 18th & 19th Century and Modern and Contemporary artists. Their achievement just shows what can be done with commitment and imagination.

The main reason for our visit was to have a look at an exhibition of watercolours by Turner and other artists – Turner and his Contemporaries: The Hickman Bacon Watercolour Collection. I’d found out about it only a few days before and as it was due to close at the weekend we decided to travel up to the gallery. Its (normally) only an hour’s drive away, but, despite this, we’d never been before.

Downstairs the rooms have been restored and decorated in the Georgian style. The two main rooms are used to display paintings and furniture from the 18th century  so that they can be viewed in an appropriate setting. These included paintings by George Romney (1734 – 1802), a fashionable portrait painter who was born in nearby Dalton in Furness. I’m not particularly keen on art from this period, especially portraits of wealthy people, but I liked some of the works on display, particularly Artist’s Brother James Holding Candle, Study: The Death of General Wolfe at Quebec in 1759 and Emma Hart as Miranda. Emma Hart was the maiden name of Emma Hamilton, who was well known as the mistress of Admiral Nelson. She was something of a muse for Romney as he painted several pictures of her.

Emma Hart as Miranda by Georg Romney Source: Wikipedia

There’s some good information on Romney, Emma Hamilton and their relationship on the Liverpool Walker Gallery website.

Also downstairs there was an exhibition of watercolours painted by Edward Wilson who had accompanied Captain Scott on both his expeditions to Antarctica, and was one of the five men, including Scott, who died on that fatal journey in 1912. The paintings are all part of the Abbot’s collection and were being shown for the centenary of his death.

The rooms upstairs had been in a very poor state of repair before the house was renovated and so have not been restored in their original style. Instead they’ve been converted into a more modern gallery space with lower ceilings and plain walls. The main temporary exhibition, Turner and his Contemporaries: The Hickman Bacon Watercolour Collection, was being shown in three of the rooms. More modern art, from the 20th and 21st Centuries  by a range of artists, were displayed in the remaining rooms.

We thought that this was an excellent gallery and really regret not having visited it before. We’ll certainly be going back there again. The entry fee is a little pricey, especially as parking isn’t free, but I guess this is their main source of income and I thought we got good value for our money.

I’m particularly keen to see a couple of forthcoming exhibitions. Abbot Hall at Fifty which is running between 27 April and 9 June 2012 and will feature 50 works from the Gallery’s own collection. They will also be showing an exhibition of works by the Manchester born contemporary painter Hughie O’Donoghue at the end of the year between 28 September – 22 December 2012. I previously saw, and enjoyed, an exhibition of his work in Dublin at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in 2009.

Day out in York

Yesterday we took the train over to York. It takes around 2 1/2 hours via Manchester but its an easier journey than trying to drive over via the M62 (which has a serious outbreaks of cones and 50 mile per hour speed restrictions at the moment) and finding somewhere to park. The journey isn’t too bad – at least the leg from Manchester on a modern train – providing you can find a seat.

York is a lovely city with lots of interesting architecture – particularly the Gothic Minster, some other medieval buildings and Georgian houses.

Our first port of call was Fairfax House, a very fine Georgian town house restored by the York Civic Trust and then after some dinner (as we call the midday meal in the North of England) we went to have a look around the Minster. The entry fee is pretty steep, but by downloading a discount voucher from the Visit York website we were able to knock a £1 each off the £9 entry fee (and that doesn’t include a trip up the tower which incurs an additional charge), but it is valid for 12 months so we won’t have to pay again if we go back before 17 March next year.

When we emerged it was 4 o’clock so we couldn’t visit Clifford’s Tower as planned, as it closes at 4 o’clock during March (opening hours are extended from April to November) so we popped into the National Trust owned Treasurer’s House for a quick look around before they closed.

Then a walk along the walls from Monk Bar back towards the station gave us some commanding views over the Minster.

Our time there seemed to disappear very quickly, but there was plenty more to see and do. We weren’t able to do everything we’d planned. Another visit in the near future will probably be on the cards.

Port Sunlight

Yesterday we decided to drive over to Liverpool and through the Mersey Tunnel over to  the Wirral to visit Port Sunlight, a “model” village built during the late 19th and early 20th Centuries to house workers at the Lever Brothers soap factory. There is still a factory on the site, now art of the Unilever Empire, and the village has been preserved and is run by Port Sunlight Village Trust, an independent charity. I’d been to the factory with work in the past, but had never strayed into the village before.

William Hesketh Lever was born in Bolton and started out working in the family grocery business. One of the products they sold was soap, which, at that time, was poor quality stuff that was cut off a large block in the shop. He hit on the idea of selling a pre-packaged, good quality product. Initially he had it manufactured for him but as demand grew he set up Lever Brothers with his brother James to produce the soap themselves, opening a factory in Warrington. Demand soon out grew the factory’s production capacity and they decided to build a new factory on a greenfield site on the Wirral, where they could construct a dock for importing the palm oil that allowed them to manufacture a high quality product. Needing to accommodate his workers, Lever had the village built on the marshy land nearby, naming it “Port Sunlight” after his main product, Sunlight soap. Building started in 1888.

Lever was a member of the Congregationalist Church a Gladstonian Liberal and was influenced by the ideas of Samuel Smiles, who believed in “self help” as the means to make social progress. When planning his new community, influenced by these ideas, Lever decided that he would build a “model village” following in the footsteps of other “enlightened” employers such as Titus Salt, the founder of Saltaire Village near Bradford some 30 years earlier. However, unlike Salt, who was primarily concerned with providing good living conditions and facilities for his workforce, Lever was influenced by some of the ideas of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement, who looked back to a golden age of “Merrie England” where happy peasants lived and worked in a “green and pleasant land”. Lever’s stated aims were "to socialise and Christianise business relations and get back to that close family brotherhood that existed in the good old days of hand labour". So with Port Sunlight he wanted to create a more rural environment with green spaces and with land available for allotments where his workers would be able to grow their own food.

Lever was also interested in architecture. So unlike Saltaire, where the housing is built in a fairly uniform style with rows of identical terraced houses, Port Sunlight is a mixture of many different styles of buildings. He employed over 30 architects who were given a reasonably free hand – although he kept overall control to make sure the architecture reflected his own tastes and preference for a “vernacular” English style.

The result was a collection of different types of building set in a pleasant, green environment with faculties such as a school, a cottage hospital, meeting rooms and, of course, a Congregational church. And, despite his own religious convictions, and unlike Salt, he allowed a public house to be built (not far from the church!). The village developed over a number of years, spreading out from his factory, and today there are over 900 dwellings and other buildings. Later additions included a war memorial and the Lady Lever art gallery, opened in 1922, built as a memorial to his wife. It was (and still is) a “garden village” predating and leading the way for the Garden City movement that emerged in the early part of the 20th Century.

Today Port Sunlight is a  pleasant part of the urban sprawl on the Wirral. It’s a calm, green oasis which seems quite separate from the other developments surrounding it. It really does have a village atmosphere. With no through roads there is minimal traffic and the layout of the streets, with wide roads, means that although residents park their cars on the road side, it does not seem as cluttered as most urban housing estates.

Each block and row of houses is different. Although they are very much “historic” in style, with their designs based on traditional English architecture. There are half timbered houses and buildings with gothic elements. Some of them even have elaborate Tudor style chimneys.

Having said that, there are some more modern looking buildings

 

Many of the blocks were not dissimilar in style to the type of house built on council estates in n the 1930’s and 1950’s. So today, perhaps, they don’t look as revolutionary as they were at the time they were built. They have become familiar to us as they have been copied. Green spaces and lawns can also be seen on many of these council estates, but they would have been something very unusual when Port Sunlight was built.

One thing that sets the village apart is the diversity of styles. Most urban housing estates, council and private, have streets of almost identical houses. However, private home owners will extend, adapt and modify their houses. It is rare to see two identical doors on a row of houses. But the Trust that is responsible for running the village enforces quite strict rules on how the buildings must be kept. Each row of houses has uniform doors and windows, with the doors in each block painted the same colour. Individual variation isn’t allowed. There are no visible extensions or other modifications and satellite dishes are carefully hidden out of sight around the back.

The overall design of the village is that there are several blocks of houses that surround a central green area. Originally these greens were intended to be used for allotments. Today they are pleasant communal lawns. All the design elements are on the front of the blocks. The backs are generally very sparse with little, if any, architectural details and look very plain, giving no hint of how the front elevation looks.

The size of the houses varies, with some quite large homes on Bolton Road close to the factory clearly intended for Managers and professional staff. The homes intended for ordinary workers were smaller, but were probably a good size for the time they were built.

There is plenty of green space planted with trees including a very pleasant park that runs along Bolton Road

and “The Diamond” that runs from the war memorial along to the Lady Lever Gallery.

Today the village is still a thriving community, but it is also a popular tourist attraction. The Village Trust encourages visitors and has a small museum and gift shop housed in the former Girl’s club just off the Diamond near to the Lady Lever Gallery.

Village residents must feel like they’re living in a museum and I’ve heard tales of people waking up to find tourists pic-nicking on their front lawn. I felt a tinge of guilt while I was taking photographs. The buildings are people’s homes after all.

By the sea at Sunderland

Mention Sunderland and most people will probably picture a northern industrial town struggling (like most northern towns) to overcome the north-south divide and bias towards the south of England, or a middling Premier League football club with quite a nice stadium. They wouldn’t be wrong. But there’s more to Sunderland than that. Although it’s on the coast, most people are probably not aware that it’s quite a pleasant sea-side town as well with a beautiful sandy bay extending across the Roker and Seaburn districts, which are just north of the city centre.

The bay extends for a mile or so from the old port in the south at the Roker end to the start of the cliffs at the north of the Seaburn stretch of the bay. There’s a promenade extending along the full length of the beach which has a blue flag status. When the tide goes out there’s a large, flat sandy each. I reckon the sea must be pretty cold all year round – it is the North Sea after all – but it’s popular with surfers as well as children who want to splash in the water (and some adults too).

There are the usual typical features of the English seaside with a stretch of cafes, restaurants and fish and chip shops, and a small funfair. The buildings on the promenade at the southern Roker end are mainly hotels and guest houses while the north end of Seaburn is a little more up market, dominated by housing.

The painter L S Lowry, who hailed from Manchester, used to come up to Seaburn for holidays in the Seaburn hotel – now long gone and replaced by a block of flats -  and there are a number of his paintings and drawings featuring the sea and promenade. Some examples can be seen here.

Pencil drawing by L S Lowry “A Promenade” (1960) Source here

We were up there earlier this week visiting family and, as we usually do when we travel up to Sunderland, we found some time to have a walk along the promenade and on the beach. It was a cold day with a grey sky, but it’s always nice to take in some sea air. The sea was fairly rough and there were a number of surfers  riding the waves. We also saw three very hardy children dressed in their swimming costumes braving the cold water.

We’ve walked along the promenade and beach a few times during previous visits during the spring and summer where I’d taken a number of photos.

Roker beach during the summer

Looking out to sea from Seaburn promenade

Looking towards the promenade from the end of the pier on a summer evening.

Fishermen on the pier at sunset on a summer evening

After eating some fish and chips for our dinner (or lunch if you’re from the south) we drove a mile further north along the coast, past Whitburn up to Souter Lighthouse where we parked up and went for a walk along the cliffs. The land along the coast from Whitburn up to South Shields is now owned by the National Trust and has been preserved from development, creating a coastal park making it possible to walk all along the coast from the old port at Sunderland to South Shields.

At one time much of this land was industrial with Souter lighthouse sandwiched between the Marsden pit to the south and Marsden Village, built to house the miners, to the north. All of this is long gone. The pit was closed in the late sixties and it was demolished son after along with the village.

Today there’s a pleasant walk along the cliffs from which there are some stunning views of the rocky coastline and out to sea.

The sky was grey and dramatic and the sun kept breaking through the clouds lighting up the crests of the waves and creating some interesting effects.

Fort George

(image from www.cairngormmountain.co.uk)

During my second visit to Inverness a few weeks ago I took some time out to visit Fort George, a Georgian military fortress which is still used as an army barracks but which is also open to the public care of Historic Scotland, the Scottish equivalent of English Heritage.

The Fort was built just after the battle of Culloden, when the Government forces defeated “Bonnie Prince Charlie’s” army of Jacobin rebels, to replace the original Fort George in inverness. It formed the eastern end of the triad of forts built along the Great Glen to help keep control over the Highlands (Fort William and Fort Augustus being the other two). By the time it was finished in 1769 it was already a “white elephant” as the expected threat from the Highlands never materialised as the Scots settled into being part of the British Empire. So rather than being a bulwark against the savage Highland clans ended up being used as a garrison and training post for Scottish regiments. It’s still used for that purpose today.

It would be a pretty grim place to be based. Miles away from anywhere, stuck out on a peninsula projecting out into the Moray Firth so that its surrounded on three sides by water. However, it’s a very interesting, completely intact18th century military structure, which, never having seen a shot fired in anger, is in excellent condition. It reminded me of the town walls of Berwick upon Tweed which we visited last year. Although the Berwick defences were originally Elizabethan, the same principles of construction and design were applied to the walls and fortifications of Fort George. The Fort was designed by William Skinner and the construction was supervised by William Adam, the father of the well known architects John and Robert Adam. The defences surrounding the garrison are typical of the period and consist of complex ramparts, massive bastions, ditches and firing steps.

To get into the Fort you first have to pass through a series of outworks before passing over a drawbridge, built over a deep ditch, overlooked by gun ports located in projecting bastions to both sides.

Once through the main gate the garrison had the appearance of a model Georgian new town, only with the rows of buildings surrounding parade grounds rather than elegant squares. The larger houses, build for the officers, looked like typical grand Georgian town houses.

One thing that fascinated me about the buildings was the unusual way the walls were constructed. They were build from irregular stone blocks with rows of smaller stones used to fill the gaps.

During the visit I got talking with a couple of local Scout leaders, who were there to help supervise a gathering of Beavers being held at the fort. They told me that the stone used to construct the fort was recycled or “robbed” from the original Fort George in Inverness and from other local buildings. I think that explains this unusual style as rather than redress the stone to size (which would waste material and require addition stone) they used the original blocks, infilling with the smaller pieces.

Like Berwick, the defensive walls of the fort were constructed of earth with a stone outer facing, the earth being better able to absorb the impact of any projectiles that hit the walls. It was possible to make a complete circuit, which gave good views over the garrison buildings and out over the Moray Firth, across to Inverness, the Black Isle and the mountains beyond.

There were a number of artillery pieces located around the walls, including cannon and mortars. None were originally from the fort but were typical examples of armaments that would have been used in the fort that had been brought in from elsewhere by Historic Scotland.

The small chapel at the north end of the garrison was fairly simple in style, both in terms of its architecture and interior fittings and decoration.

One interesting feature was the angel playing the bagpipes which formed one of the panels in one of the stain glass windows behind the altar.

I ended up staying about 3 1/2 hours exploring the fort, much longer than I’d expected.

Bronze Age copper mine on the Great Orme

During a trip to Llandudno last week we took the tramway up the Great Orme. Just a short walk from the Halfway tramway station there is a large hole in the ground which is the entry to a prehistoric copper mine.

The entry to the site appeared to be a former pub. We bought our tickets at what seemed to be the bar. We then went through to a room where we watched a couple of short films – one a news item featuring the mine from News at Ten and the second from a Channel Four programme. Afterwards we picked up a safety helmet and went down to the mine entrance accessing the underground tunnels via a narrow entry in the rock face.

Visitors get to explore two levels of underground passageways hewn out by the Bronze Age miners using stones and primitive tools fashioned from animal bone. Unlike in a modern mine, the miners followed the seams, extracting the ore as they went along. This left irregular, winding passages of varying height and depth and it some became obvious why visitors needed to be issued with safety helmets. Fire was also used to soften the rock and make it easier to extract the ore. Some of the tunnels are so small they could only have been worked by children. But at one point there was a massive crater – so large that it was hard to believe that it had been excavated by hand using basic tools. This was at a point where several seams came together and where the rock was very rich in ore.

The mine was a massive undertaking. It’s reckoned that about 1800 tonnes of copper were extracted, considerably more than would have been needed for local needs, so there would clearly have been traded, probably across Europe, access to the sea being very close There must have been a relatively sophisticated social structure to organise the work and trade.After emerging from underground the tour took us along a path to look at the opencast pit that was the fist part of the mine to be exploited. The ore would have been discovered here, near the surface. After it had been extracted the miners would have started to follow the seams deeper underground

It was a fascinating visit. There are 7 more levels (so nine in all) and other passages that haven’t been excavated yet. There is continuing archeological excavations and studies at the site and probably plenty more discoveries to be made.

Mam Tor and Peveril Castle

Mam Tor from the Vale of Edale

It was a beautiful sunny day on Saturday so although there’s loads of work needs doing on the house, it was too nice to stay indoors working so I took the opportunity to get out for a walk. I talked my son into coming out with me, by promising him he’d see an Iron Age hill fort and a Norman castle. So we set off and caught the train over to Edale in the Peak District.

Alighting from the train we were welcomed by a brilliant view sky and clear views of the Castleton Ridge to the south and Kinder Plateau to the north. Our plan was to climb Mam Tor – the “Mother hill” – at the western end of the ridge. We made our way along the road for a short while until we hit the path that would take us over the fields towards Hollins Cross where the path between Edale and Castleton is crossed by the path that traverses the length of the ridge. Reaching the top we stopped to take in the views and grab a bite to eat.

We followed the path along the ridge towards the summit of Mam Tor. The route along the ridge from Lose Hill to Mam Tor  (which I’ve walked before) is one of the most popular in the Peak District and there were plenty of other walkers heading in both directions.

Looking along the Ridge towards Lose Hill

The summit of Mam Tor is 517 metres high. and it was pretty windy at the top. Formed of shale which is unstable, it is also known as the Shivering Mountain. A large landslide, which it is believed started 4,00 years ago is clearly visible on it’s southern flank and the road below this, which was built in the early 1800’s was closed in 1979 when the Local Authority finally decided they’d had enough of continually repairing it due to damage caused by the landslip.

Mam Tor from the south west

Mam Tor is also the site of a prehistoric hill fort, and remnants of the fortifications – ditches and ramparts – are clearly visible running around the summit. There are also remains of two gateways on the paths leading from Mam Nick and from Hollins Cross.

The remains of a ditch and ramparts from the hill fort

We descended down to Mam Nick and then took the path heading south west across the fields until we eventually hit the Limestone way. We followed the path towards Castleton, which took us down Cave Dale.

Cave Dale

This dry limestone dale,was probably originally created by glacial meltwater, being deepened later due to the collapse of underground caverns.

Peveril Castle from Cave Dale

The lower reaches of the Dale are dominated by Peveril castle, which is perched on the cliffs on the northern side. Accessed via the small village of Castleton, which today is one of the Peak District’s “honeypots”, it has a commanding view over the Dale and Hope Valley. It was built soon after the Norman invasion by William Peveril, a Norman knight who was gifted lands in Nottinghamshire and northern Derbyshire. Unusually, it was constructed from stone, probably due to the scarcity of other building materials in the vicinity.

Due to bad decisions on who to support during the various squabbles amongst the feudal ruling class, the Peveril family lost control of their estates and the castle was restored to the Crown under Henry II. He strengthened the castle and was responsible for the construction of the impressive keep

Castleton and the Hope Valley are not in a strategic position from a national perspective. This part of Derbyshire was (and still is, to be honest) something of a backwater. The main purpose of the castle would have been to dominate and intimidate the local population and to act as an administrative centre, controlling revenues from mining and hunting rights in the Peak Forest.

Today it’s main feature is the keep. It’s been largely stripped of the smooth outer stone facing, but it still looks impressive, particularly when viewed from Cave Dale. There are stunning views across the Hope Valley over to the Mam Tor, Black Tor, Lose Hill and Win Hill, which were all clearly visible on a sunny afternoon.

Having looked round the castle, although I could have done with a cup of tea, we decided to head on to Hope so that we could catch the 16:39 train to manchester. Otherwise it would have been after 8 p.m. before we’d have got home. We made our way along the pleasant path over the fields beside the little river towards Hope. It was an easy, pleasant walk in the afternoon sunshine and we made it to Hope station in good time  for the train.

Inverness–a walk along the river to the Ness Islands

I visited Inverness last week on a business trip, but went a day early so I could have a look around as I hadn’t been in this part of Scotland before. The town centre is quite small and isn’t particularly attractive – although there were some attractive old buildings, such as the gothic “Town House” and the castle. But it was a lovely day, so I decided to take a walk along the river. There are quiet roads along both banks and its crossed by several bridges, including a number of footbridges. The river is quite wide and fast flowing with some turbulence and on a sunny afternoon looked very attractive.

Crossing over to the north bank I started to head west. Near the Cathedral (a 19th Century gothic revival style church) I spotted a noticeboard that gave some information about walks around the town. One of the routes went west along the river towards the Ness Islands, a group of small islands in the river, so I decided to follow it.

I walked along the north bank, past the cathedral and the Eden Court Theatre – a good sized theatre, cinema and arts venue. Although quite a small town, being the main centre in the Highlands it seems to be quite well served with arts and entertainment.  Shortly afterwards, carrying along the path along the river bank, I came to Bright Park and the start of the islands. There was a fly fisherman standing in the river – I don’t know whether he was managing to catch anything!

I decided to carry on along the river bank past the islands and through another park (Whin Park) where there were children’s playground and sports fields, including rugby pitches where a match was taking place. I stopped to watch if for a short while before doubling back, crossing over the footbridge that took me on to the islands.

There are several small, wooded islands all connected with footbridges. It was a pleasant walk along the paths through the woods. There were strings of lights above the paths and I later found out that they are lit up at night and was told that it is quite safe to walk along the route at night.

Crossing over to the south shore, I followed the path back towards the town centre, passing several large stone houses, probably Victorian, on the road alongside the river. They were solidly built and had a definite Scottish look to them.

Reaching the town centre I climbed up the hill to the Castle. The site dominates the river and is an obvious place for a fortress. The original fortress from 1057 is long gone and was succeeded by other castles.  The current building, from 1836, was constructed as a courthouse and jail and the castle like features are only decorative. Today it houses Sherriff’s Court. Standing on the terrace at the front and north side of the castle provides a good view along the river and over the town towards the sea.

I walked back down the hill and then east along the river, crossing over the next footbridge. Half way across I noticed a distinct wobble!

It was getting close to 5 o’clock and after a very sunny afternoon the sun had gone behind some clouds. So I headed back to the town centre and caught the bus back to my hotel on the outskirts of town.