Local industrial heritage walk

Coronavirus lockdown is with us again so we are enjoying our local walks. The fields are extremely soggy so started walking today down the lane from the barns to the village. This proved to be another unexpected hazard as we had a tree down on the lane preventing any cars to and from the barns. Fortunately the tree was cleared first thing Monday morning so not an inconvenience for long. We walked around the village for a circuit and then headed towards Butterley Reservoir. It’s a first for us to see a paddleboarder on the reservoir.

It was also a first on this little local walk to see some alpaca in a paddock where we usually see horses.

It can get very busy with walkers so decided to follow the old coach road for a while before heading on towards the Midland Railway Centre ‘Swanwick Junction’ and then skirting around the Butterley Pit Head, across the railway lines and back up the fields and home.

The coach road is at the site of the entrance to our local industrial heritage with the Butterley Works blast furnaces, canal tunnel and underground wharf listed as a scheduled monument on the Historic England register. We had to take a bit of a detour at one stile on the path as it was almost completely under water. The photo’s below show it a week earlier covered in ice and then on this walk under more water.

Our impromptu footpath detour took us past the Derbyshire Fire Station training centre where some unorthodox parking was in evidence.

After rejoining the footpath we walked past the former Butterley station house and railway cottages which form a little settlement seemingly in the middle of nowhere

Our next heritage site was the Brittain Pit head where some of my ancestors worked. The footpaths outside our barns form part of the network of paths walked by miners and workers to the mining, blast furnace and engineering sites.

After the pit head we crossed the railway tracks and back up the hill to the barns. It’s a really nice circular walk with a bit of heritage spotting along the way.

Mam Tor National Trust Walk

We decided we wanted to walk on Mam Tor during the holidays and after consulting the weather forecast decided on Tuesday. However, the best laid plans etc and we ended up changing it to Monday. I didn’t realise it was a bank holiday because, well, my brain is on holiday too, but decided to go anyway but try and get there early. We set off at 8:00 and it takes just over an hour to get there and it was cold at -1 and what was worse was that it was foggy. I am trying to only walk up hills if there is a view at the top and in fog it was going to be unlikely. Oh well, we were psyched up for it so carried on. In fact it wasn’t too bad. The fog lifted to allow some views and we started off before the multitude arrived after finding space to park in the national trust car park at Mam Nick. Even with a gps device we managed to take the wrong route but which actually turned out better because the paved path to the top of Mam Tor was icy and there was definitely fog up there. We ended up skirting around Mam Tor and apart from some very slippery sticky mud in one bit we had a nice walk. It wasn’t far, but was enough for a cold and dreary day. It was really nice to get back after lunch and have a hot bath, a hot cup of tea and come down to the log burner glowing away. The National Trust walk details and map can be found here

Hooray for Sparkler Writing

Bonfire night time of year again! This year it was a bit of a damp squib from a bonfire perspective as the rain was to heavy to prepare the bonfire. But we still had bonfire food, sparkler writing and the magnificent Midland Railway firework display to watch from our garden :)

Littondale - Yorkshire Dales

It probably seems that all we do is go on holiday, but this is really not the case. Sadly. Our most recent jolly jape was to Littondale in the Yorkshire Dales. We arrived after a week of relentless rain, driving through floods and marvelling at the impromptu rivers running down the hills. We, however, had a pretty dry week and managed some walking and sightseeing. Plus a healthy amount of sampling at the local hostelries. The photo’s below are of Littondale and the local pub ‘The Queens Arms’ (we recommend for beer and food!). We stayed at Stonelands Farm Cottages and had a great week.

Our first foray out of the village was to Grassington where we rather confused by the shop fronts until we found out that it had been set up for filming a new adaptation of James Herriot’s book ‘All Creatures Great and Small’. So Darrowby/Grassington will be on the tv at Christmas we believe.

Our warm up walk was from Kettlewell to Starbotton along the river one side and back along the other side. It was a bit of a grey day but a lovely leg stretcher with a beer at each end!

A follow up walk took us from our doorstep along the river to Arncliffe and then up the hill where there should have been a magnificent view of Wharfedale on one side and Littondale on the other. Sadly, we just had a view of the inside of a cloud but it didn’t rain and we didn’t get lost on the moor so it was not all bad. The especially good bit was the pub at the end and then a swim and sauna before a lovely meal at the holiday cottage. There were a few moments of hilarity when we had to negotiate a farm track that thought it was a river, but we didn’t get wet feet so it all ended well.

Another memorable day out was to Malham Cove. The limestone pavement is where Harry Potter was filmed. It is such a busy spot normally, but we were on holiday outside of the school holidays and walked mid week so it was relatively quiet. We did a lovely circular walk, walking up to the limestone pavement and then around to Malham Tarn, followed by the Janets Foss waterfall. The waterfall had a good flow of water as had the Wharfe when we went to Grassington.

We had a day off from the walking boots and had a trip to Skipton. We could have spent loads of time there and gone to the castle and looked at the shops, but quite frankly we were a bit tired. Instead took a walk (!) along the canal and found the Castle Wood walk which was absolutely beautiful in all the autumnal colours. We ended up back at the wharfe where the canal joined onto the Liverpool-Leeds canal. I did find a quirky little fabric shop where I couldn’t resist some fabric for a bedroom blind, and also some that I just want to fix onto a frame and put on the wall - it might work, it might not, but I’m going to give it a go…..one day.

For our final day in Yorkshire we stopped off at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. It’s not too far from where we live but we have not yet found time to go so took the opportunity as we had plenty of time on the way home. It’s lovely in autumn, but I guess it would be fantastic any time of year as long as it’s not raining! The sculptures didn’t disappoint and since we only allowed a couple of hours we didn’t really do it justice. Of course that means we will have to go again!

End of a holiday era - Farewell to Sutton on Sea

After some 45 years of caravan holidays my parents have finally called it a day. Our last seaside holiday at their Sutton on Sea caravan was in August. A bitter sweet holiday.

Caravan

Sutton Springs Holiday Estate

Sutton on Sea

Saltfleet Haven

Gibraltar Point - looking out to sea

Gibraltar Point Bird Reserve

Crochet Bride and Groom

Dan the digger married earlier this year. Dan and his trusty (and a bit rusty ) digger have been involved in all the groundwork and landscaping on our barn conversion for the last 4 years so we wanted to give him a memorable present. Hopefully memorable for the right reasons! So, wielding my crochet needles I hooked a happy couple. I had a single photo to work from so had to guess the brides hairstyle but came up with something that looks ‘bridal’ so even if not accurate it will be in keeping with the occasion. Our real bridal couple didn’t actually get married on the beach but the little people were finished off during a very restful seaside holiday.

The basic pattern is from Toft Uk.

This rather colourful crochet giraffe also was not at the wedding but again was a ‘finisher’ job on holiday. Wow what wild holidays I have (lol). This chappy is destined for Santa so has been well hidden.

The pattern is from Cr.ochet Club magazine 44

Crochet Pumpkin for Halloween

I’ve had a busy and varied crochet summer - Hah, some things never change! I still have to organise most of the photo’s but my latest triumph is this super cute pumpkin. I was just getting to the point where I could start to think about making something for myself when my daughter requested a crochet pumpkin. Pinterest really has a lot to answer for! She found a pattern at https://www.mjsoffthehookdesigns.com/how-to-crochet-rustic-farmhouse-pumpkins/ , bought some wool from Aldi of all places and left me to it! I really need to set up some more crochet lessons, but at least she had done all the legwork. It turned out beautifully and is a great pattern

I think I might keep it for myself.