Name an attraction or town close to home that you still haven’t got around to visiting.
From Google
“Chatsworth, home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire is set in the heart of the Peak District in Derbyshire, on the banks of the river Derwent. Explore the historic house for fascinating stories and one of Europe’s most significant art collections.”
I’ve seen it on TV lots of times but it’s always been just a bit too far to drive, or something else has come up and I never went. Maybe it’s time I did go before it’s too late? Before I get too totally doddery.
I found the picture on WordPress gallery of photos, one of only two. So I hope it is a real image of it.
I know there is meant to be a massive fountain there? I might try and find out its opening times.
My city stands on its own, not really part of a conurbation. It is between Birmingham and Manchester and there are small satellite towns dotted around it.
When I first came to live here, what always struck me, was how close the countryside is. South and East are Staffordshire farmland, West is Shropshires rolling hills and also Cheshire with it’s flat plain and salt mines, North East is Derbyshire with the pennines hilly beginnings and also the Staffordshire moorlands with old industrial buildings hidden in its valleys.
The area is crisscrossed by canals, rivers, train tracks and roads. Alton Towers is a few miles to the North east, further north is the old silk mill towns of Leek and closer to Manchester is Macclesfield.
The Trent and Mersey canal runs through the mile long Harecastle tunnel at Kidsgrove, where the water runs orange (from old iron mine workings?).
There are forests, fields, caves, lakes, walking and cycling routes. Bakewell is reasonably close, home of the Bakewell tart (pastry with raspberry jam and an almond paste topping?). Also famous for food is Market Drayton to our west. I think they make Gingerbread there.
There are National trust properties like Little Moreton Hall and Biddulph Grange. Big garden centres and antique centres. Not forgetting the gem that is the Dorothy Clive garden.
The city is not without its merits, Gladstone and Moorcroft, Middleport and Emma Bridgwater potteries and the potteries museum and art gallery all tell the history of the city.
But I like to get away from the hustle and bustle into quiet surroundings. Not forgetting the coast which is about 80 miles away in Wales.
Stoke on Trent is full of industrial heritage, a lot of it needs rescuing. But I love the place.
Scotlands Tayside region and the surrounding areas are being hit by a massive storm. There is a red warning in place as significant flooding. It means there is a significant threat to life. Three lives have been lost. But in Derbyshire and other areas of Eastern England rivers have risen and people have had to be evacuated. This is in no way a comparison with any other world disasters happening elsewhere. But it’s shocking to see how bad the flooding is. Global warming? I think so.
On 24th April 1931, 500 ramblers climbed over a wall and walked up Kinder Scout, a hill in the Derbyshire peak district. That mass trespass was onto countryside that was exclusively used for hunting and shooting. For those people it was the start of a fight to allow the right to roam.
The trespass led eventually to the first National park in the Derbyshire peak district which was opened on 17th April 1951 almost twenty years later.
There are many more National parks in Britain now, and people have many more freedoms than they had in the past, but there are still restrictions on what you can do. A recent court ruling stopped wild camping on Dartmoor. Worryingly people are using portable barbecues which have set fire to grassland and heathland in recent years. The right to roam has also caused erosion of pathways and peat bogs in places like Kinder Scout and the pathways up the hill had to be restored and widened.
The situation needs to be managed, to allow us to move about more freely, but to also protect the environment. However a large proportion of the land in Britain is owned by the military and or the royal family, so some places like parts of Salisbury plain will continue to be out of bounds.
Beautiful photo by Aaron Burden from unsplash. I don’t normally use other people’s pictures but this is free to use on the Internet.
We have had snow warnings, for Thursday night and for Friday. We have had a lot of snow across the country over the last couple of days, but in the South and the North of the UK. But a low pressure zone is travelling up from the South, and an Arctic blast of cold air is coming from the North. The wet air from the south is due to turn into snow somewhere over the Midlands and Northern England (Staffordshire and Derbyshire). Lower levels are due to be 10 to 20 centimetres, but higher ground might get 40 centimeters. Not sure how much that is in inches but it sounds a lot? I think 12 centimeters is 4.7 inches? So today we got the shopping done. Made sense rather than getting caught out tomorrow or Friday.
Coton in the ElmsThe village that is further from the sea than any other human settlement in the UK is Coton in the Elms, Derbyshire. One kilometre south-east is Church Flatts Farm, which is 113km (70 miles) from the nearest point on the coast, or 72km (45 miles) from the nearest tidal water.
This came up in conversation so I googled it. I’m not sure if anyone’s interested but I thought I would share it.
I recently found a couple of old sketchpads from the 90’s
I had forgotten about them, but I am trying to collect them all together. They may be a resource for ideas for paintings.
The drawings are a mixture of a figure in a landscape. Two drawings of views in Derbyshire, an abstract pattern, and a caricature of a friend.
I do think it’s worth keeping old sketchpads even if you are not sure the art is something you will use. You never know.
I realise the pattern is very similar to what I now draw when creating digital patterns. The figure in the landscape will be turned into a painting, the two wide landscapes inspired me to do a drawing of a cafe in a wider format than I would do normally. I’m not sure if I’m a caricature artist, but the drawing does bring back fun memories .
ideas for paintings.
Mallaband-Brown 