Sticky Toffee has found the last few days in northern England rather frustrating because of the inclement weather and he has struggled to get out in the countryside - to indulge in his current favourite hobbies - map reading, walking and photography. However, on Sunday afternoon he spotted a window of opportunity and drove to the hamlet of Sugworth, a few miles west of Sheffield for a nice long ramble.
In 1927, during The Great Depression, wealthy civil engineer and road builder Charles Boot had this tower constructed just to keep a gang of his men occupied. It is known as Boot's Folly and popular with sheltering sheep. The wooden staircase inside is ruined and you'd need a helicopter or extremely long stilts to get to the viewing platform on the top:-
Like me, Sticky Toffee is also drawn to ruins. There something melancholic about a lonely ruin and if you stop to listen carefully you can hear the echoes of long deceased occupants. This is on Ughill Moors above the hamlet of Moscar:-
Sugworth Hall is a very old manor house on the edge of the moors and round about it there are lots of rhododendron bushes. In fact, at one point the public footpath goes through what you might call a rhododendron tunnel and when you emerge you see this:-
Here in Blogland I sometimes dream of country walks I went on in the past. England offers an infinite number of wonderful, varied paths and if you study maps you can often devise circular routes that are rarely trodden. In Blogland it's hot and when I do walk, it's mostly to the social club or down to the beach. Sticky Toffee's pictures make me feel nostalgic and not a little envious. What I'd give to pull on a pair of walking boots, grab a map and simply stroll along singing:-
I love to go a-wandering,
Along the mountain track,
And as I go, I love to sing,
My knapsack on my back.
Val-deri,Val-dera,
Val-deri,
Val-dera-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha
Val-deri,Val-dera.
My knapsack on my back.
Ach! Der fröhliche Vonderer! Do you wear leather trousers and slap your thighs too?
ReplyDeleteMany years ago I was in a rambling group. Work and life caused an interruption and now I am wishing I still 'rambled'..and not just in my mind. A stroll around the neighbourhood in the evening with the mister (who was pinged with a pellet gun by a child last night!)isn't really as enjoyable as getting out into the countryside. Your photos are lovely and make me see our countryside anew.
ReplyDeleteKATHERINE Achtung fraulein! Yes I do wear short leather trousers and slap my thighs but only when I venture out to the local pub.
ReplyDeleteLIBBY I am so pleased you enjoy my walking blogposts and I hope you are inspired enough to get a map and plan a countryside route or two with your "mister". Walking is free and every walk can be an adventure. Sorry to hear your "mister" was pinged last night. I am not prepared to make light of something like that because it must have been distressing to say the least.
Three possible responses to your post:
ReplyDelete1. Nigel, I fear you are finally beginning to lose it.
2. Even Paradise has its drawbacks.
3. Anybody who wears short leather trousers deserves to have his thighs slapped.
In the end, I decided not to respond at all because silence, as we all know, is golden.
RHYMING COUPLET Who is this Nigel fellow? Why not purchase some lederhosen yourself? Mrs Brague would find the outfit very sexy - especially as lederhosen never need washing.
ReplyDeleteThe pinging was surprising and my main concern, because we think we have identified where it came from, was trying to stop the mister, who was furious, from getting into trouble with parents who know no better...his temper is not abating much as he gets older.
ReplyDeletethe "rhodies" are positively rampant around these parts at the moment.... quite spectacular and apart from the usual "pinks", I've spotted some lovely deep crimson ones this time.
ReplyDeleteinteresting fact about the Tower being a project for the local unemployed.
ReplyDeleteOur Memorial hall that was built in 1908 was constructed under similar circumstances.
and who IS nigel???????
It's not surprising that the wooden stairs in Boot's Folly are ruined if it had sheltering sheep clattering up and down them, treading in the mud and other stuff that sheep do.
ReplyDeleteNigel is a figment of my overworked imagination. I don't recall the circumstances exactly, but I distinctly remember telling His Lordship Yorkie-poo Puddingbottom that since he wouldn't divulge his name (even though he had divulged his wife's name, his son's name, and his daughter's name) I would henceforth refer to him as Nigel Higgins. We careful readers of his blog have in fact discovered His Lordship's real moniker. But I persist with the Nigel subterfuge, but only occasionally.
ReplyDelete