Winter Days - Darley Abbey

The days just after New Year always seem strangely lifeless. When I drove into Stoke-on -Trent yesterday evening to pick-up Laura from the station there was so little traffic and so few people that it actually felt spooky, like the prelude to some zombie apocalypse movie. But no, even zombies would probably avoid Stoke!

At least this morning we woke to a sunny day. After a holiday period which alternated blustery showers (hurricane with monsoon) and mist (bone-chilling cold and drizzle), it gave us an opportunity to take Maisy for a bit of a toddle - but where to go? At the moment I am doing some initial research for my M.A. dissertation - it's about heritage and landcape and why some places are celebrated - say Chatsworth - and some places, which arguably may be more culturally or economically  significant get either ignored or vilified - Spaghetti Junction - for example. No, I did not go for a quick spin around Gravelly Hill, (I'm leaving that delight for another day) instead we went to have a look at our nearest UNESCO World Heritage site - The Derwent Valley Mills between Matlock Bath and Derby an area which at the turn of the Nineteenth Century 'invented' the factory system. In particular I wanted to have a look at the southern end of the valley at the mill and model village built by Thomas Evans, a contemporary of Arkwright, who developed Darley Abbey as a cotton producing centre between 1780 and 1830.

So we headed down the A515 towards Ashbourne; the road was quiet, though we saw quite a number of other motorhomes, I guess heading home after visiting family. We are so used to the Peak District that it's easy to forget how quintessentially 'Midlands' the area around Derby seems with ancient Anglo Saxon sounding village names like 'Thurvaston' or 'Yeaverley'. The low winter sun cast long shadows across the fields revealing the humps of ancient earrthworks. That little bit of extra height you get in the van's cab enables you to see much more than in the car.

Darley Abbey is on the northern outskirts of Derby, tucked away just off the A6 by the river. Although the mill complex and village are of significant historical  importance the place is refreshingly undeveloped in terms of tourism. It seeems a real attempt is being made to house small businesses within the mills and the Darley Abbey Society is active locally to promote appropriate development and community activities. Of course the attractive Regency vernacular architecture has resulted in gentrification, but at least this seems preferable to turning the entire complex into edutainment or a designer shopping mall, which is the fate of Masson Mills at Cromford at the northern end of the World Heritage site.

Thomas Evans' Mills

The mill managers house, I presume.

The Abbey pub is the only building surviving from the medieval  monastic foundation.

Water power.

Remnants of the early nineteenth century model village.

Actually, I find this late 1960's bungalow as interesting as the 'heritage' buildings. The area was designated a conservation area in 1970, so this could be one of the last 'unplanned' buildings erected.

Regeneration in action.

Manufacturing arts to martial arts!

Just a nice, unassuming Victorian gatehouse.

Love the little Gothic window in the gable.

Classic car restoration.....

Work in progress!

A strange place to have a coffee.

Gill questions why the coffee comes in half pint paper cups and what about the wierd ornaments?

Pudsey, a random teapot and a porcelain staue of a Shire horse....why?

Winter sunshine and the weir in spate.

We drove home to Buxton along  the A6 through Belper to Cromford, also places with significant collections of early industrial buildings and included in the Derwent Valley Mills heritage site. The choice of site does seem a little arbitary. Blenhiem Palace is listed, but Chatsworth is not.  The  Pontcysyllte Aqueduct near Llangollen is listed as a masterpiece of canal engineering - but is it more significant than the Cheshire Ring? Who chooses and why?

We chatted about this on the way home; Gill commented, "it's nice to go somewhere that encourages you to stop and stare, people don't do enough of it." It's true, and the nice thing about the Darley Abbey is it is not over interpreted  or organised as a tourist trap, so you have a freedom just to wander about and  discover for things yourself. Wandering about and discovering things for ourselves, that's our plan!