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| Cottage in Belph |
Belph? Has any blogpost in blogging history ever had that title? I very much doubt it. Belph is the easternmost settlement in Derbyshire - very close to the Nottinghamshire border. Wikipedia says that there are around thirty houses in Belph but I counted ten.
I left Clint there and set off on a pleasant country walk in good weather. The weather people got it right. It was the nicest day we have had in several days. After Belph I walked to a village called Hodthorpe that owes its existence entirely to coal mining. The mines have gone but places like Hodthorpe remain like post-industrial flotsam washed up on the shore of a new world. Did men really go down into the bowels of The Earth to bring up coal?
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| Hodthorpe Community Socila Club |
Soon I was in farmland and woods that are part of the Worksop Manor Estate and then on to the Welbeck Abbey Estate - the home seat of the Dukes of Portland. Even today, much secrecy still surrounds this estate and it is policed by gamekeepers and farm workers with CCTV cameras in strategic places. At its heart is Welbeck Abbey itself - only rarely open to the public.
I came across two ladies sitting on logs in a sunny spot. They were enjoying their packed lunches and I stopped to chat with them for a few minutes. I would estimate that the older woman was in her mid to late eighties and the younger woman was way past seventy. They were the only other walkers I encountered in four hours of tramping.
It was a nice walk and afterwards I treated myself to a rare McDonalds meal. There's touch screen ordering now and you pay through a terminal. Then I took a plastic number stand to my table and one of the lowly paid employees brought along my tray. I can't say I enjoy this process but I enjoyed my Big Mac and fries with a latte before driving home.
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| Iron boss on security gates at Welbeck Abbey |
Have just read about how contaminated with bad germs those touch screens are !! On principle I refuse to use self checkouts of any kind . Anywhere. Supermarkets here are really pushing them but I line up at the manned checkouts with my few purchases and when they try to direct me elsewhere I tell them I am trying to save their jobs !!I know they just shake their heads behind my back and roll their eyes at another old fossil !
ReplyDeleteI am just the same when it comes to self-checkouts Helen. It's a step too far as far as I can see.
DeleteMy mind is in full story mode today, and I see potential stories in every photo. The house in the first one: Such a place would be just the right size for OK and myself (dream on!).
ReplyDelete#2: What happened to the curved wall surrounding the outdoor table? Did someone bump into it with a car, or is this a result of the ground moving underneath after all the mining in the area?
# 3: Thoughts slipping away at what, for me, is a calming sight.
# 4: All sorts of stuff comes to mind! Too much for outlining it here.
# 5: What caused the iron boss to have a slightly misaligned front and back side? Did someone rattle those gates in frustration or anger about not being let in?
You have a vivid imagination Meike. You could buy a three bedroom terraced house in Hodthope for £80,000 or 90,000 euros. I would estimate that the house in the picture would sell for £180,000 or 202,000 euros.
DeleteI have googled Welbeck Abbey and I must admit it's a little early in the morning for me to dig deeply into that sort of thing but it appears to be impressively old and historical!
ReplyDeleteWhat a contrast between that and McDonalds although the Big Mac has been around long enough to make it a historical sandwich. I went to a McDonalds to get an iced tea in the past year and I could not believe the ridiculous way things are being handled there now. The one thing you could count on at McDonalds was getting one of their menu items in minutes if not seconds. Not any more.
I don't mind a McDonald's once in a while as long as that big clown guy doesn't bother me.
DeleteI've never seen a private tree before.
ReplyDeleteYou have never lived Sue!
DeleteOne wonders why some of these little villages are still there in some form. Haven't they heard of rezoning. Here very little of my village Esk, remains. It has been rezoned as farmland.
ReplyDelete"Rezoned" is not a word that figures in English over here. Both Belph and Hodthorpe are close to bigger places like Worksop and Whitwell and Market Warsop.
DeleteIt's been a nice, leisurely, energy-free stroll I taken with you, Yorkie.
ReplyDeleteIt's far too hot here lately to go walking anywhere. And it's predicted today is going to be a real stinker, too - record-breaking heat is the prediction for today. Relief won't arrive until around Wednesday.
A wide area of Queensland is suffering devastating, soul-destroying, property-destroying bush fires, and have been for the past week or so...poor beggars. Touch wood...we're okay here on the mountain. We had gale-force winds, no rain...on Wednesday last. The cyclonic-style wind was horrendous...and across the mountain power was lost for 24 hours or so.
I'm expending as little energy possible...and make no apologies to anyone for being a sloth. They're too busy being sloths themselves to care, I guess!!
You're being a sloth? Please don't fall from that tree Lee!
DeleteI love the picture of the log ends. People say that I am weird for a reason, you know. I detest McDonalds and the like. Sometimes one has to partake of fast food, but for me, it is less than seldom.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the people in that village should ask Donald how he is going to reinvigorate all the coal mines to produce "clean" coal. That's a real laugh, my friend!
Clean coal? Perhaps they'll have to brush each lump of coal till it's shiny white. Have you had a McDonnaburger? Delicious!
DeleteAnother wonderful series of photos, YP.
ReplyDeleteBut I keep pronouncing Belph like belch in my head and it has made the reading experience somewhat strange!
Belch is near Burp which is next to Trump and Baarf!
DeleteI wonder what on earth people in Belph do for a living? That's a pretty nice-looking house. McDonald's would honestly have to pay ME to eat there.
ReplyDeleteI guess that people in Belph work in farming or quarrying unless of course they are retired.
DeleteLovely photos and that sky is the most beautiful blue!
ReplyDeleteThat blue made a nice change from the grey we have been enduring recently Bonnie.
DeleteAm I on the right blog Adrian ?! yorkshire pudding sounds funny !
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Mcdonalds meal are good in your country because here
not !
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