A Beeley nice walk

Our walk this week saw us skirting Chatsworth from Beeley, visiting the Wellington Monument (both actually and virtually), then returning to our starting point via Baslow and the grounds of Chatsworth.

Steve very ably led, cajoled, and enthused us to complete our 12 mile hike - a world record distance for our group!

We started in Beeley, about a mile and a half due south of Chatsworth House. The proximity of Chatsworth has had a major influence on the character of Beeley and its surrounding landscape ever since Sir William Cavendish bought the Chatsworth Estate on December 31st 1549 - though the village itself remained independent of any Ducal control for another two hundred years until the third Duke of Devonshire purchased Beeley Hill Top in 1747

Prior to the Chatsworth influence, an Anglo-Saxon named Godric cultivated a tiny royal manor at the time of the Norman Conquest, and in 1086 `Begelie' was first recorded in the Domesday Survey, having ninety acres of taxable land - which would have supported a small agricultural community. 

Beeley seems to have retained its `small agricultural community' status for almost 500 years until early in the sixteenth century when Lord Vaux of Harrowden sold the manor to John Greaves (1539 - 1621) - just ten years after Bess of Hardwick and her husband had acquired Chatsworth.

 Some of the local wildlife

  

Swiss Cottage was built between 1839 and 1842 as part of the 6th Duke of Devonshire's many improvements to the Chatsworth Estate. It was designed by Joseph Paxton or his associate John Robertson, as an 'eye-catcher' in the landscape, to be admired on carriage rides or walks around the estate.
It is now a self-catering holiday home.

Swiss Cottage's own lake

 Some debate on where next

Three Ships on Birchen Edge is the name of the rock formation along the top of the edge. These three pieces of exposed and weathered gritstone are named after three ships in Lord Nelson's fleet - "Royal Soverin" (yes, that's how it is carved in the rock), "Defiant" and "Victory". There's also Nelson's Monument which was erected on the top of Birchen Edge to commemorate the great Admiral after his death in 1805. The monument was erected decades before the column in London's Trafalgar Square. It will come as no surprise that many of the climbing routes along Birchen Edge have related names - Nautical Crack, Mast Gulley, Half Nelson, Trafalgar Wall and so on.

 

Our leader for the day

The foot soldiers

Stuart told us about the old tradition of throwing salt over your left shoulder - apparently it is akin to blessing someone after they've sneezed. It's a way of keeping the devil at bay while you're in an especially vulnerable moment

 To while away our time over lunch, we split into two teams and had a staring competition

 

Dave won

Wellington's monument is dedicated to the Duke of Wellington and a celebration of his victory at the battle of Waterloo in 1815. It was erected by a local called Dr Wrench, who as an army man, felt the need to counterbalance the memorial dedicated to Admiral Nelson on nearby Birchen Edge

 

Simon and I scaled the heights to see the monument in all its glory. The rest of the team gathered round Eric's I-phone to look at pictures of the monument from Google

Then down to Baslow. It's church, St Anne’s, is both a beautiful and unusual church. One clock tower has Roman numerals and is dated 1759 and the other has ‘Victoria 1897’ on its face to mark Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. 

Nowadays, the Devonshire Bridge, built shortly after the First World War, carries most of the traffic across the river. But it is the Old Bridge, close to the church built in 1603, which attracts most interest from visitors with its impressive stone arches; it is the only bridge across the Derwent never to have been destroyed by floods.

It replaced a wooden bridge, that all able-bodied men in the village were required to watch on a rota basis, to ensure the weight restrictions were not broken. Anyone caught breaking the rules was fined. The tiny watchman’s hut still remains, no doubt reduced in size by the heightening of the road. At one time it offered a shelter of sorts to Mary Brady, a local beggar, who often slept rough inside.

Then back to Beeley via Chatsworth Park

Walking some 12 miles had given us all a thirst which simply had to be quenched, so we adjourned to the Cricket Inn in Totley for some of Thornbridge's finest ales.