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| The dead sheep |
What a lovely week we have had here in the wilds of South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire. Beautiful late September sunshine reminded us of our wonderful summer just gone. Perhaps this week has been the last hurrah before wintertime starts to elbow her way in and warm coats we had forgotten about are rediscovered.
I enjoyed two pleasant rambles this week.
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| Calves near Tinker Brook |
Tuesday found me parking up at the hamlet of Spout above The Ewden Valley. My seven mile walk took in More Hall Reservoir - where I found the delightful HP sauce bottle - as well as the hamlet of Brightholmlee, Swinnock Hall and Glen Howe near Wharncliffe Side.
Kirk Edge Convent from the rear and front
After that I returned to Kirk Edge Convent and walked to the rear of it. Though I could not see any nuns looking wistfully from the windows, I did manage to catch a glimpse of their graveyard. It is in the woods to the west of the main convent site. In my imagination, the convent, nunnery, monastery or whatever you might wish to call it remains a most intriguing place.
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| Bradwell |
Thursday found me riding on the 272 bus to Bradwell - a large Peak District village that owes its existence to historical lead mine and calcite workings. Most of the mining and quarrying ceased long ago but historical evidence of past activity is easy to find in the landscape above the village.
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| Limestone barn above The Hope Valley |
I guess I walked ten miles in a big loop that brought me back to The Limestone Way - a long distance footpath that begins at Rocester in Staffordshire and ends at Castleton in Derbyshire. It led me down Cave Dale within the shadow of Peveril Castle. Along the way I saw a dead sheep - now a temporary feeding and breeding station for hundreds of bluebottle flies.
She looked like she might just be sleeping but there was a gaping hole in her neck and the flies had also made a gruesome cavern in her rear end. I wondered if she had been shot.
At the bus stop in Castleton I met two Chinese tourists. They were probably in their sixties. The husband seemed to know not a single word of English and the wife's English was as good as my schoolboy French - in other words - very poor. They seemed totally flummoxed by the timetable display so I helped them out and gave reassurance. After four nights in Sheffield they have four nights in Oxford and then four nights in London. How brave of them to be travelling independently - especially when you consider their awful English.
In the pub last night, Bert and Steve said I looked like a beetroot. Unsurprising as I had walked for five hours in bright sunshine. Fortunately, today I am more pink blancmange than boiled beetroot.
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| Ruin close to historical lead mine workings |
That is brave indeed, travelling in a foreign country on their own without knowing the language properly. I doubt I'd do the same in China!
ReplyDeletePoor sheep, and lovely calves... let them enjoy their short lives as much as possible.
A ten-mile walk in such good weather and beautiful countryside is pure bliss! You know I like your photos; this time, the one of Bradwell and the last one of the ruined building are my favourites.
Whenever I spot an old ruin I naturally think of you Meike!
DeleteThat poor sheep....it saddens me to see dead or hurt animals.
ReplyDeleteMe too but I was inquisitive about how the bluebottles were exploiting this opportunity.
DeleteSo many questions on your walks!
ReplyDeleteYes - such as why are hawthorn berries Red - why is blood Red and why are books Red?
DeleteBeats me! Try that one!
DeleteYou are often encountering intrepid tourists on your walks. It always surprises me to hear that Asian visitors are out and about beyond the big city sights. As fellow Anglo-Saxons, we're often driven to make pilgrimages to rural England based upon cultural references, think chasing down Bronte country or Constable country or "Vera" country. What brought this couple to Sheffield and Castleton? Tripadvisor?
ReplyDeleteI would have liked to ask those Chinese visitors why they came to Sheffield and Castleton but the English level was so poor that such a question would have been absurd. It was the 272 bus that brought them to Castleton and not TripAdvisor. However, I see what you mean about visitors from Down Under...there are links that in historical terms are quite recent.
DeleteAh, the 272, I should have realised ... I was thinking more that with our staple diet of British telly & Ye Olde English literature at school, some of these more, ahem, out-of-the-way destinations have a siren call, so do wonder what pulls the non-English speaker to spend a portion of their holiday off-piste, so to speak. Although ... in our neck o' the woods, every Country Town has a Country Chinese Restaurant & thus resident Chinese family, so perhaps they were visiting relatives?
DeleteHello again Pip. Sheffield has two big universities and over the last decade the number of Chinese students within them has increased tremendously. It is possible that the couple have a son or daughter or grandson or granddaughter over here.
DeleteIn Britain even the tiniest town seems to have a Chinese takeaway or restaurant. Quietly and without fuss brave Chinese have made new lives for themselves all over the world.
That poor sheep! Some farmer is going to be annoyed at the absence of his livestock. I wonder what happened there?
ReplyDeleteI admire those Chinese tourists! I envy them a bit, too. Sometimes it's an amazing experience to go wandering without a clue!
The sheep may have been attacked by a dog or possibly shot. Upland farmers know they are going to lose a few sheep every season.
DeleteGreat article..I am looking so forward to your blogcomment and
ReplyDeleteI love your page on your post.. That is so pretty..
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