21 August 2012

Peak

Peak Forest is a small village high in the Peak District National Park. Its little primary school accommodates just thirty five pupils. In wintertime, it can be very bleak up there. Drivers speed through - usually heading for Buxton, Manchester, Chapel-en-le-Frith, Chesterfield or Sheffield with their heaters fanning out warm air. Mostly they don't stop.

Yesterday, I drove out there and parked at a remote crossroads, near to the course of the Batham Gate Roman road which once led legionnaires back and forth from northern defensive fortifications to the mineral baths at Buxton. I undertook a wide circumnavigation of the village having planned the route beforehand. The greyness of the Pennine morning gave way to a delightful afternoon with more blue sky than clouds.

It took almost four hours and led me past hill farms, sturdy stone houses, old lead mine workings, windswept coppices and a network of ancient limestone walls. How beautiful and how very lucky I am to live close to such loveliness though I am not sure I'd have said that if rain had been pelting down. Here's a selection of yesterday's photographs, please click to enlarge:-
Traffic crawling up Hernstone Lane
Cattle posing near Mount Pleasant Farm
Looking towards Mam Tor from Old Moor
Typical Peak District vista
Cutting the grass south of Peak Forest - my favourite picture of the day
This section of road is on the course of Batham Gate Roman road leading up to Kemp's Hill but mostly the old road strikes across fields and is difficult to decipher - even from aerial imaging
Driving sheep down the main broad in the hamlet of Wheston

4 comments:

  1. You're absolutely right about the drivers. I've driven through there I don't know how many times on my way to and from Sheffield and didn't even realise it was called Peak Forest!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gorgeous. Green. Glorious. (Bursts into a squeaky rendition of 'Jerusalem')

    ReplyDelete
  3. Beautiful.....both the images and the land.

    ReplyDelete
  4. SHOOTING PARROTS I imagine you headbanging against the steering wheel with your Bon Jovi CD turned up full blast.
    KATHERINE Pleased you liked 'em and happy there was no grey rain that day...."in England's green and pleasant land!"(raucous football supporter)
    LIBBY Drat! At first I thought you were judging the photographer!

    ReplyDelete

Mr Pudding welcomes all genuine comments - even those with which he disagrees. However, puerile or abusive comments from anonymous contributors will continue to be given the short shrift they deserve. Any spam comments that get through Google/Blogger defences will also be quickly deleted.

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