Two blogposts for the price of one. True Yorkshiremen and women always want value for money. Thus we return to Tuesday's walking territory. Take two. Here are six more pictures with brief commentaries.
Above: Can you see the name of the cobbled path in Broadbottom? It's called Gibble Gabble - surely one of the most unusual names for a path or lane in all of England.
Below: The site of a Roman fort known as either Melandra Castle or Ardotalia. Its initial construction commenced in 78AD and the strategically important fort remained in use for a further hundred years protecting the Pennine track that leads east to The Hope Valley.
Above: Nineteenth century dye vats near the River Etherow - associated with the booming cotton industry and the great cotton mill at Broadbottom - later demolished. In its heyday it employed up to 1500 workers.
Below: On Hague Road near Pear Tree Farm. It was like emerging from a tunnel into the light as I pressed on to Melandra Castle near the social housing estate at Gamesley.
Above: A secret door by the cobbled lane that leads up to Mottram's parish church. The stone plaque above the door bears the date - 1769.
Below: Just after I crossed the railway west of Broadbottom, I spotted this bench as I headed down to Hodgefold. Arresting me, it seemed simply beautiful, caught as it was in that glorious June sunshine in the middle of The North of England. Who would not want to sit there for a while, contemplating this curious life?
As always, excellent photos YP, - England at it's best in the sunshine. Gibble Gabble, how fantastic - imagine living in a house on a lane with such an unusual name! Interesting to see the old dye vats, and it's good they have been preserved - a reminder of the days when everything was done by manual labour.
ReplyDeleteA couple of centuries hence, do you think an Amazon warehouse will be similarly retained? If one is, I wonder what it's history will be?
Its history will be one of paid slavery before the machines and the robots took over completely. The stone cottages to the top right do have Gibble Gabble as their address. Gibble Gabble sounds like something that the local Women's Institute do when they get together.
DeleteWhat does gibble gabble mean? I've heard of bibble babble, which is nonsense talk. Wouldn't it be fun to walk down Gibble Gabble Path having a bit of a bibble babble about the Vicar of Dibley in the dappled sunlight?
ReplyDeleteHa-ha! that would indeed be fun you silly billy! I think that "gibble gabble" is a local name for an alleyway between houses. In Sheffield they are called gennels and there are plenty of other local names for them.
DeleteDon't talk your gibble gabble to me.
ReplyDeleteI think you should take a shovel and revisit Melandra Castle and start digging to show us what it was like. Just a couple of hours work I think.
"Digger"? Isn't that what Aussie soldiers were called in wartime? You and R can fly over with your spades and get cracking. I will supervise.
DeleteTom thinks I should live in a lane called Gibble Gabble because I do a lot of that, lol
ReplyDeleteBriony
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Tom is right. Most women are better at gibble gabble than men.
DeleteNothing is more humbling than standing in or next to a building that is older than the entire country I'm from.
ReplyDeleteTry telling Native Americans that Ed!
DeleteYou got me there!
DeleteArdotalia: A legendary name out of an ancient saga.
ReplyDeleteNovelist Ross Leckie should venture from Carthage to Melandra: Roman Britain.
Every cobbled lane should have a Secret Door like the one in Mottram.
The rustic bench near Hodgefold is perfect: Bauhaus could not have improved it.
Gibble gabble all ye like, Laddie.
Your only rival is Tasker, when he's not romancing after that witch Rebecca.
Yours etc. Hamel(d)
P.S. Come the cold days, you'll want a drop of French apple brandy in your hip flask. I am sure ye can sing *J'irai revoir ma Normandie* (YouTube) as lustily as that charlatan Haggerty.
I believe that that charlatan has a falsetto singing voice like Tiny Tim.
DeleteWhat a beautiful path to take with the greenery and ancient buildings. It is like walking back in history and expecting to meet knights on horses round the corner.
ReplyDeleteIf not knights then at least cotton mill workers in their clogs and shawls.
DeleteYou are so very, very lucky to live in such a beautiful place where you have access to walking paths that are absolutely enchanting. The idea of public access is certainly not one that we brought with us here from the mother land. And let me just say this- men are absolutely just as good at gibble-gabble as women. If not better.
ReplyDeleteI think that there have been scientific studies of the amount of daily talk produced by the average woman compared with the average man. Women are by far the winners.
DeleteMelandra Castle must have been an ancestor of Barbara, the great protector of all kinds of later things.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget Barbara's brother - Roy Castle. I think he was a chess piece.
DeleteWhat lovely photos. I don't imagine the Romans who built that fort ever imagined a time when only a stone would be left behind to mark their passing.
ReplyDeleteYou are very right. At that time they would never have guessed that the great Roman Empire would crumble.
DeleteI love to see photos of interesting doors and gates. With a date like that above it, I can't help but wonder about those folks who've passed through it over the years.
ReplyDeleteAll of them have now passed away - into history but we might still feel their presence.
DeleteFor me 'gabble' has alwsys been senseless talk. All of the definitions for Gibble Gabble that I can find seem to use both words together with that meaning.
ReplyDeleteFrom "The Glossop Cabinet of Curiosities":..."it is suggested that Gibble Gabble (and thus Giggle Gaggle) is a localised (Mottram, Broadbottom, Glossop) dialect name for what is known elsewhere as a ‘ginnel’ (a track that wends its way between houses and land)"
DeleteNice post using the comparison of now and a way back yesterday
ReplyDeleteGlad to have received the Kline seal of approval.
DeleteI love these photos, and saved the second one as my current computer background. I alternate between photos taken by you and by Meike.
ReplyDeleteThat is a lovely thing to do Jennifer and I am honoured to be in Meike's company.
DeleteThank you for telling us, Jennifer! I, too, feel honoured that my photos are deemed good enough to be on a par with Neil's.
Delete"Gibble Gabble" lol, such a fun name to say.
ReplyDeleteI want that last picture as my desktop wallpaper. :D
You may have it Wistful Dreamer! Free of charge.
DeleteGibble Gabble is indeed an unusual street name. Of course you know "Argument Yard" in Whitby, a popular photo subject. There is a funny street name in Ripon which I can not remember right now - a sure sign that it's been way too long since my last visit there!
ReplyDeleteHere in Ludwigsbug, my favourite street name is Fröhliche Morgensonne, cheerful morning sun. I like to imagine the residents of that street being of a cheerful nature, hopping out of bed with a smile on their faces every morning, especially when the sun shines.
Love the bench and would not mind having my sandwich there, or just sit and ponder.
A great street name in York is Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma Gate and over in Hull there is The Land of Green Ginger. I love the name Fröhliche Morgensonne.
DeleteP.S. Enjoy your work day!
Gibble Gabble is indeed a good name. I'd love to know the source of that one. Why is that door a secret? Does anyone else know about it, or just you?
ReplyDelete