Hollinsclough is one of the most northerly villages in Staffordshire. Until today I had not been there. But I had been to the top of the limestone peak beyond the village sign. It's called Chrome Hill and millions of years ago it was a coral reef in some primordial ocean.
It was nice to see that the village's Methodist chapel (built 1801) was open to visitors. I went inside where I stood in the pulpit and opened "The Bible" at Isaiah: "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!" My imaginary congregation quivered in their pews.
This is a barn door that caught my eye in Hollinsclough - mostly because of the way it was illuminated:-
And here's another view of Chrome Hill from, I think, the hamlet of Coatestown. I frequently think of our drystone walls as intricate works of art even thiugh they were made by practical men of the land to enclose fields and to keep animals in their place.
To bag one of today's less accessible "Geograph" squares I had to traipse across moorland for half a mile until I came to a tumbledown wall which I then followed north until I reached another wall that runs east. The land belongs to a mixed sheep and cattle farm called Badgers Croft with no public footpaths or roads running through it so I had pre-planned my foray to snap this picture amongst others:-
Back in Sheffield Shirley's Women's Institute were holding a plant sale to raise funds for Sheffield's main food bank. They managed to raise over £1000 partly because a day that had begun chilly and grey gradually became as lovely as the one that I experienced around Hollinsclough.
"I frequently think of our drystone walls as intricate works of art . . ." Absolutely sagacity. I couldn't agree more.
ReplyDeleteLoved your "sermon" from "the Bible"!
I have never been accused of possessing sagacity before!
DeleteDrystone walls are indeed beautiful. Sometimes the most exquisite works of art come from practicality.
ReplyDeleteDo you have secret desire to be a fire and brimstone preacher?
Yes I doth! There is too much wickedness in the world. Repent ye sinners!
DeleteI'm always so interested in what land forms were before we showed up. We have some hills southeast of here that are called the Neutral Hills and I wondered how they were formed, glacial retreat. That stuff just fascinates me, reminds me how short our own time on this earth is, compared to the earth itself.
ReplyDeleteWe cannot contemplate how old the world was before we showed up. On a 24 hour clock we have been here for just a minute and that includes neanderthals.
DeleteGreen fresh looking countryside. I will have to kook up what clough means.
ReplyDeleteNorthern English - a steep valley or ravine.
DeleteDry stone walls ARE a work of art and they certainly endure. I like the barn door.
ReplyDeleteI like the way the bottom section is dropping at a jaunty angle.
DeleteYou chose a good day to access a place that has no public footpath or road go through it. On a wet day it would have probably not been a good idea, or when the field would have been full of cows.
ReplyDeleteThe barn door is a great picture. Will you submit it to Geograph?
Congratulations to Shirley's WI for raising a substantial amount for the food bank!
Yes. I will be submitting that picture to Geograph. It is so simple - not cluttered and it says something of the rural character of Hollinsclough.
DeleteWell I will join the drystone wall society any day. Stone walls look so nicer than sheepwire and fence posts.
ReplyDeleteYou can be the treasurer of the society Dave... Where did you put the money?
DeleteLove the church, and really love the views and the stone wall.
ReplyDeleteEnglish people often take their long history for granted when they should learn to cherish it.
DeleteThe stone for the walls, was cleared from the fields the walls enclose, making the fields better farm or garden space.
ReplyDeleteTHat is certainly true of some of the stone Mr Penguin but some came from quarries or from nearby hill slopes.
DeleteI know I have said this before but I love the stone work the Maya did in Mexico. It too, is art.
ReplyDeleteThose who built in stone in past times were exceedingly patient and respectful of the material they worked with.
DeleteIt looks like your weather was much better than ours. The Bible verse you found is very pertinent nowadays, isn't it? (I suppose it probably always was pertinent, hence its inclusion in the Bible!)
ReplyDeleteThere are lot of good bits and pieces in The Bible and I say that as a staunch atheist.
DeleteI love your barn door photo. I have a blown up photo of the old barn that was beside the house I lived in most of my childhood. A photographer friend of my mother's took the photo and had it framed for our family as a gift. There's something so lovely about old barns...
ReplyDeleteI guess that almost every time you look at your barn image, memories of childhood come flooding back.
DeleteI have a thing for those stone walls and just love seeing them. The care that goes into putting all of those shapes and sizes together is fascinating to me.
ReplyDeleteI also love the barn door photo. Well done, Neil!
Thank you Ellen and I am glad you refer to them as walls and not "fences" as some of your fellow citizens do.
Delete