Eyam

EYAM, CALVER, FOOLOW.

Weather: Overcast, later sunny

Distance: 10 Miles.

Difficulty: Easy

Walkers: Colin Davison, Alan Hart, George Dearsley, George Whaites, Julian Ross, Lawrie Fairman

Apologies: Peter Beal (walking in Robin Hood’s Bay), Tom Cunliffe (drinking in Lancaster), John Laverick (fitting a bathroom)

Leader: Davison. Driver: Whaites. Diarist: Dearsley

Starting Point: Car Park of the Miners Arms

Starting Time: 9.50am. Finishing Time: 2.34pm.

After three weeks of rain and mud the Wanderers enjoyed an excellent walk with terrific views, good banter, fine ale…oh and more mud.

We last came this way in April 2011. Apologies but I’m going to reproduce from that day’s diary a bit of historical background to this wonderful village (Eyam).

Eyam is famous worldwide as the village ravaged by the Great Plague, imported from London in 1665. The legend of how the community went into voluntarily quarantine only for residents to develop the grim red skin lesions will forever be remembered in the nursery rhyme Ring a Ring o' Roses. The opening verse is displayed in iron work on the gates of the local primary school. Between September 1665 and October 1666, no fewer than 76 families were stricken and 260 people, around a third of the population, met a painful death.

But the pretty Derbyshire hamlet has another claim to fame: the mining of lead and fluorspar and under the village is a complex honeycomb of mine shafts, steeped in history.

Lead mining in Eyam is believed to have dated from Roman times. Derbyshire lead was exported through the Trent ports at the time of Edward the Confessor. Lead mining reached its height in the mid-eighteenth century, when businessmen sometimes paid tithes in excess of a thousand pounds to the rectors of Eyam. In 1792 800,000 gallons of water per day were pumped through the labyrinth of shafts. And lead mining continued to prosper until the 1880s when lead with more silver content than Derbyshire could produce was imported from Australia.

That should have killed the mining industry. But a brilliant piece of entrepreneurship was to revitalise the local economy. Over the centuries huge spoil heaps of what had been waste minerals from mining dotted the countryside around Eyam.

These contained barytes and fluorspar and once their commercial value had been identified lead became a by-product of these valuable commodities. Barytes was used for making paint. Fluorspar is a key component in the metal industry.

John Robinson had been an employee of Glebe Mine in the centre of the village. But in 1895 he began sending fluorspar to South Wales to the tin smelters. The mixture of waste materials from Eyam was ideal for smelting because it was low in silica. Using a traction engine and 100 horse drawn carts he moved the fluorspar to railheads at Grindleford and Hassop. In 1904 Robinson, together with George G. Blackwell and Sons, shipping agents from Liverpool, started exporting fluorspar from Eyam to the United States for the new basic open hearth furnace, where it was used instead of dolomite as a slagging agent. The operation was so successful that by 1911 the American Senate had put a one dollar per ton tariff on the imports of fluorspar, their own producers being unable to compete. The export business soldiered on until the Americans killed it by quadrupling the tariff in 1922.

In 1938 Yorkshire businessman Henry Ellison heard about the Robinson operation, now run by John’s grandson Frank and came to Eyam. The prescient Ellison calculated war would soon break out and the country would need huge amounts of metal. He asked Frank Robinson if he could design and build a high grade fluorspar producing plant in the village at the site of the old Glebe lead mine. After a week of deliberation Robinson said it was possible so the Tyke handed over £50,000 (around £800,000 by today’s standards) with the exhortation: “Get on with it and the best of luck!”

By 1939 the plant, using a new process known as froth flotation, in which the minerals are removed on a soap bubble, was fully operational. It was to produce seventy per cent of the country's high grade fluorspar which was necessary for the war effort in the production of hydrofluoric acid and also in the making of aluminium. Ellison’s business acumen helped to build the Spitfires for the Battle of Britain and the landing craft for D-Day.  In the 1940s and 1950s around 120 workers toiled at Glebe Mine, 20 underground. They used drill and blast techniques to extract the fluorspar. The work was highly skilled and very dangerous. Today many similar plants worldwide are modelled on the work of Frank Robinson and his mill manager, Frank Bagshawe, at Glebe Mine.

In 1959 demand for fluorspar exploded. There was no room to develop further within the village, so a new plant was built at Cavendish Mill in Stoney Middleton. The extent of the mineral workings was awesome. Some of the vertical shafts were as much as 220 m deep. It is possible to walk the three miles or so through old workings from Stoney Middleton to Great Hucklow.

                                                  On the plus side…it has a new bathroom.

More graves

Colin strides out….

We set off from the pub, passing the Eyam Tea Rooms on our right.

We also passed the Weslyan Reform Chapel on our right, walking through what is known as Burch Place.

But the Wanderers had gone not 200 yards when Mr Fairman pointed out an error.

We were going the wrong way. So we retraced our steps and at the Tea Rooms (now on our left) we turned left.

We followed a sign pointing to “Stoney Middleton”.

                                         

                                  Stone where plague hit villagers put their money in holes full of vinegar

Soon we passed a bizarre stone (see photo above) that looked like a giant, odd-shaped 10-pin bowling ball.

Turns out the plague-hit villagers put coins in the holes (which were filled with vinegar as a form of disinfectant) for neighbours to collect and go and buy food for them.

A forerunner of the modern idea of getting money from the "hole in the wall".

Unusually for the Wanderers this walk also began with a descent. (Yes that’s right, we actually went down).

We went through the picturesque village of Stoney Middleton, where we turned left just before we reached the main road.

In front of us was a strange church, half church, half Roman Catholic Basilica (see below)..

Alan photo-bombing again

Originally the church of St Martin in Stoney Middleton was built by Joan Eyre in thanksgiving for the safe return of her husband, Robert, from the 1415 Battle of Agincourt.

Much of the church was pulled down in 1759 after a devastating fire and all that remains on the original fifteenth century church is the square tower.

Subsequently the main body of the church was rebuilt, in the same year, with an unusual octagonal nave.

The architect also designed the stables of Chatsworth House and those behind The Crescent at Buxton, Eyam Rectory and Stoke Hall near Grindleford.

A century ago church historian, Dr. Charles Cox, grumbled that the architect would have ‘been better to confine his talents exclusively to secular work’.

The interior is of interest, as all the pews face the centre.

We passed the church on our right and took a path to the right.

Here, some roofers exchanged good humoured banter.

We reached a road and turned right.

Soon we found ourselves on the outskirts of Calver.

At the traffic-lights (with the Eyre Arms on our left) we took the B6001 road to Bakewell, here called Hassop Road.

Sir William Hill was on our right. Not a person, a hill.

Mr Fairman couldn’t quite remember whether the escarpment was named after a man called Sir William, or Sir William Hill.

Having scoured Google I’m none the wiser.

But the clue was in the name.

We took a path to the right and began a steady (and quite strenuous) climb.

Near the top we took a path to the left.

Pie Time was declared at 10.55am.

With no Tom Cunliffe to badger us…a full 11 minutes of gourmandising was enjoyed.

We reached a metalled track and soon came upon some heavy machinery engaged in the mining of calcium fluoride, as every schoolboy knows an inorganic compound with the formula CaF2.

We crossed a muddy area where excavators and earth moving equipment had been and we went through a gate on the left.

We took a path on the right and went up a hill before turning left onto a muddy track.

We negotiated a five-bar gate and found ourselves on yet another muddy path.

We passed a herd of cows and here (at 11.45am) the sun came out.

The views to our left were quite spectacular.

Spectacular view

Discussing the route.

There was a slight delay as Mr Davison and Mr Fairman compared possible routes.

The option was: take the moor and arrive at the pub in 75 minutes or take the road and get there 30 minutes sooner.

You don't need to "phone a friend" to see which we went for.

Colin, who could find a hill in Holland, led us up another hill. There was what looked like a lake on our right but it was actually water being pumped out from underground mine workings.

Here we left the road for a path on the right.

This would take us like an arrow to the village of Foolow.

We passed Brosterfield Farm on our left and reached the Bull’s Head in Foolow at 12.46pm.

Bull's Head

Unfortunately a few minutes earlier a pelaton of cyclists from Sheffield had dismounted and were all round the bar like a crowd of Lance Armstrongs at a cut-price steroid sale.

Mr Davison (62 on February 21^st)  gamely offered to buy birthday ale…but it was a full 11 minutes before he could get served. Bombardier was £3.30, as was Black Sheep.

As if that wasn’t enough of a pleasant surprise Mr Ross then opted to buy a second round to celebrate his 53^rd birthday on February 20^th.

It transpires that these two very generous Wanderers share the same birth sign….Pisces. Key characteristics of Pisceans are that they are loving, sensitive, intuitive, spiritual and idealistic…(do we need a second look at their birth certificates? Ed)

Pisceans, however, are also victimised and moody.

Their lucky days apparently are… Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. That fits because clearly Wednesday proved an “unlucky” day as their pocket money duly disappeared over the bar. Fine fellows, both.

Colin....and a lot of bull

We left the pub just before the Yorkshire peddlers at 1.39pm.

We turned left and after 100 yards or so took a path on the right.

Effectively you are walking parallel to the road but over fields.

Paraglider

To our left we spotted two paragliders.

We stopped for lunch at 2.01 pm and after masticating for eight minutes we returned to our walk.

On the outskirts of Eyam Colin suddenly fell.

                       Colin perhaps showing how Eyam villagers reacted when the plague took hold

Was he the victim of a slippery patch of mud, was it the residual shock of buying a birthday round or was our leader re-enacting a scene from 1666 in Eyam, struck down by bubonic plague? Or was he just being moody like a true Piscean?

He was soon back on his feet, however, and striding forth via a rather gloomy looking estate back into Eyam for the ritual de-booting session in the Miners Arms car park, reached at 2.34pm.

This pub was virtually empty. Old Speckled Hen was £3.20 and Ruddles £3.

B Walkers' diary.

Walkers: Geoff, Tony, Ken, Wally and Terry.

Route: 394 bus to Lane Ends (above Compstall), Mill Brow, Hollywood End, Mellor Hall, Mellor Church, Tarden, Linnet Clough, Bottoms Hall,  Lakes Road, Marple.  Distance 5 miles.

After a couple of weeks without a walk, or Wednesday beer, we set out energetically, with the first pause at the Hare and Hounds to assess the sample menu - main couses £11 - £16  - never open at lunchtime on Wednesdays. We were heading east for Shiloh Road, but with only the Little Mill at Rowarth as a watering hole in the area, we  turned sharp left at a junction for Mellor Hall, negotiating a very slippery path. The hall is beautifully maintained, with nice tidy gardens and an attempt to reconstruct the walled vegetable garden (plenty of work ahead there. Now back on a road, we were soon in Mellor churchyard, enjoying the sun and an early lunch (actually killing time until the Devonshire Arms opened). This rest was well timed, for the doors opened as we arrived. Robbies bitter met with general approval, probable cost £3.20 a pint. They were doing a decent lunch trade.

Resuming our walk, we passed via Mellor Golf Club to Linnet Clough scout camp for a pee break. and down through a rocky path / stream to Bottoms Hall. Choices of path were both uphill - to Marple Bridge and the Royal Scot or Norfolk Arms (longer) or up Lakes Road to the centre of Marple. We opted for the latter, with no

pub in mind. A 394 bus arrived, so we headed back to the Rising Sun for a final pint. The Theakstons was in particularly fine form. What a pity Jock was unable to join us for Winter Olympics on many televisions.

Let the record show thanks to Mr Whaites for providing transport for the A Walkers..

Next week’s walk will start at 9.40am  from the lay-by next to the reservoir just along from the Leather’s Smithy pub, Langley, Macclesfield.

The half way point will be the Hanging Gate to check whether Luda has indeed moved yet. We will finish at the Leather’s Smithy.

Happy Wandering.