Skip to main content

Cake, canal and cotton: A walk near Cromford

Just before Easter, Graham and the boys received an invitation to join some friends on a canal boat for a couple of days. That gave me the chance to have a rare day out walking - and fortunately the weather cooperated with some beautiful warm sunshine. This excursion fitted all my criteria for a good walk: well-marked paths, beautiful views, interesting things to see, very few people, and even a decent cup of coffee along the way!

I parked at the High Peak Junction car park near Cromford, and started by climbing up through spring-flowered woods, with views across the Derwent valley.


When I came out onto a lane, I discovered a farm with a blue plaque saying that Alison Uttley was born there. On my bookshelf there is a very battered yellow paperback called Magic in my Pocket, a collection of some of Alison Uttley's short stories. They contain some beautifully evocative descriptions of sledging down snowy slopes and walking across moonlit meadows, but I had never connected her with the Peak District. Of course I had to dig out the book when I got home, and re-read the stories in a new context!


I continued up the hill (more stunning views), then dropped down through sheep fields and across stepping stones to reach the village of Lea.

View of Cromford


Lea Gardens was a place I'd been wanting to visit for a while. I was just a little early for rhododendron season, which is the garden's chief attraction. There were a few splashes of colour around, though, and some stately trees. Plus a cafe which served me a delicious slice of lime and pistachio cake and a proper bucket-sized cup of coffee. I'd recommend the place for the cafe alone.




 

 Suitably fortified, I continued across grassy fields, accompanied by skylarks, and along a track from which I could see the end of the tramline at the Crich Tramway Museum. As I watched, a tram nosed its way through the trees and paused to drop off its load of passengers.

From then on it was mostly downhill to the Cromford Canal, passing some old quarries in the woods on the way.

 

I found a bench by the canal to eat my lunch. A couple of ducks came up looking hopeful, but plopped into the water again when nothing was forthcoming. The canal path was nice and flat, and I was tempted to follow it back to High Peak Junction. Instead I went through a tunnel and then branched off uphill to walk past Lea Hurst, the family home of Florence Nightingale. The house is quite secluded, so I couldn't see much of it, but the parkland was pretty.


The final interesting sight was the Smedley Mill on the outskirts of Holloway village. Amazingly enough, it is still a working business producing knitted clothing today. It's been manufacturing in the same premises since 1784. The buildings are that mix of practical and historical, renovated and bashed around, that you get when a place is still being used, instead of just a museum piece.



I finished off with a much-needed cold drink at the High Peak Junction cafe. Then I had a phone call saying Toby had been sick, and could I come and pick him up off the canal boat? Oh well, I'd had my day out, and a very nice one it was too.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Greece is the word! Part 2: Epidaurus

For the first part of our Greek holiday, see here . Day 4 - continued After much waiting around, we acquired a hire car and set off for the second part of our holiday. I am so glad that Graham can get into a strange car in a foreign country and drive away with no problems. I would be a nervous wreck. Even Graham was a little spooked by the Athens traffic - very narrow lanes crowded with cars and buses, and mopeds zipping in and out of every available gap. I had left Google Maps set to "avoid tolls", which meant that we stayed off the fancy new highway and took the old road towards Corinth instead. There was practically no traffic, so although it was slower, it felt very relaxed. We passed hills, hotels and oil refineries. Along the way, we stopped at a supermarket for supplies and drank Green Cola at the beach over the road. Crossing the Corinth Canal at Isthmia, we started heading south through the mountains of the Peloponnese. The sky had been growing darker and darker, and...

Derwent Valley: Derby City and the Derwent Pilgrimage

It was 8 am and I was already hayfeverish, headachey and hot. Why on earth was I setting out to walk through the middle of Derby, when I could be up in the hills of the Peak District? No one was forcing me to do this section. I could skip it entirely. But I knew I wouldn't, because this was the next part of the Derwent Valley Heritage Way. And besides, I had a suspicion that it would be better than it looked. Alvaston Park was certainly a good start. It's a wide sweep of green grass and mature trees. I used to come here quite often when the boys were small. I was glad to see some of the planets were still there - although Mars has had a lot of feet standing on it, I think. Here's a tiny Toby in 2013 with Mars... ... and a more battered Mars today. Alvaston Park I kept off the roads for a while by following a cycle route. Even when I joined the traffic, it wasn't bad. The factories and office blocks had roses outside. This road, now the A5194, used to be the A6 coming in...

Greece is the word! Part 1: Athens

The last few times we have been on holiday, my family has asked, "Mum, are you going to blog about this one?" It's felt like an overwhelming task. For a start, we now have FOUR phones with photos on, rather than one digital camera. Also, I regularly write quite long blog posts about three-hour walks. How on earth will I summarise a full week's holiday? But this time, I thought I should try. It's one of the most enjoyable holidays we've had in a while, and I've definitely done too many Peak District posts recently. Everyone needs a change of scenery. So here we go, jetting off to Athens. Day 1 We landed at Athens airport in a looming thunderstorm, but the worst of the rain held off until we'd made it safely to our apartment. Graham had earmarked a nice little restaurant called Lolos for dinner - eating shell-on prawns in tomato sauce was a deliciously messy experience - and we went to bed early after our 3am start. Day 2 Next day we climbed Philopappos ...