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  • Camping – Day 1 (Bakewell – Bakewell Bridge)

    Camping – Day 1 (Bakewell – Bakewell Bridge)

    Bakewell Bridge is one of the iconic structures of the town, Grade I listed and dating to the thirteenth century. It was widened by necessity in the nineteenth century, but it retains its medieval feel.

    The bridge has five arches, with a total span of 36 metres, and is made from Ashlar sandstone.

    The view from the bridge. The pier offers a handy place to wait for people to walk by coming the other way, making it a little easier to socially distance.

    All rather peaceful, and little has changed from the below photo taken in around 1955.


  • Camping – Day 1 (Bakewell – The Manners Pub)

    Camping – Day 1 (Bakewell – The Manners Pub)

    There are no Good Beer Guide pubs in Bakewell, but The Manners looked the most interesting of the options that were listed on CAMRA’s app.

    The current health situation means that there is no standing at the bar, so this was something of a fly-by photo opportunity. The pub is part of the Robinson’s Brewery estate and there were four different beer options from them available.

    The staff member recommended the Robinson’s mild as the best dark option and this was perfectly agreeable, I like seeing milds as an option. As an aside, I’m not sure that it’s the most useful word to describe a drink and a few breweries have renamed their beers to reflect better what it is, such as Brains Brewery renaming their mild as Brains Dark. It’s quite a change from fifty years ago when a mild was one of the most popular drinks served in pubs.

    Motivational quotes were dotted around the sizeable beer garden.

    The interior of the pub, with a couple of guest rooms upstairs and numerous smaller areas for drinkers and diners. The pub was serving food which looked of a decent quality, but Richard had suggested that we go for a Bakewell Pudding, so our culinary delights were on this occasion coming from a shop down the road. More on this in another post.

    The staff here were notably friendly and engaging, offering us the opportunity to pay separately and they were knowledgeable about the drinks options. For a pub in a touristy town, it didn’t feel overly commercialised and it’s one of the better-rated hospitality businesses in Bakewell judging by the reviews.

    On which point, looking at the reviews, there was an angry customer who wanted to know whether the salami they had been served was gluten-free. I didn’t quite get the customer’s argument, they said that the pub refused to provide the packaging and that the chef didn’t seem to know whether there was gluten in the product. That seems to be a moderately unfortunate situation for the kitchen, but I’m puzzled why then the customer ate the salami anyway and then complained they got ill. The pub noted in their response:

    “You were not refused the packaging, but it was not clear on the labelling, whether there was gluten in the product. The waitress advised you that the chef was calling the supplier for clarification and not to eat the salami. You then proceeded to eat a small amount of the salami, which you had raised concerns about. I do not understand why you would eat something that you were worried about. You then walked out, without giving us any further opportunity for discussion or apology.”

    Perhaps I’ve misunderstood the original complaint as well…

    Anyway, I digress. I liked the pub, a comfortable and relaxing environment.

  • Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 139

    Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 139

    The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the current health crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored….

    Gill

    The dictionary defines this as “the abbreviation of Gillian, figuratively used for woman. Every jack has his gill; ie every jack has his gillian, or female mate”. The phrase of ‘every jack has his gill’ was used by Shakespeare and so is at least from the sixteenth century. It’s also where the nursery rhyme comes from, which was initially:

    “Jack and Gill
    Went up the hill
    To fetch a pail of water
    Jack fell down
    And broke his crown,
    And Gill came tumbling after.”

    The changing of Gill into Jill came later, probably around the middle of the nineteenth century. The word ‘gill’ is also used to describe a female ferret, but quite why this name was chosen I’m not sure is known, perhaps it just fits in with Jack quite well.

  • Camping – Day 1 (Eyam – Caves)

    Camping – Day 1 (Eyam – Caves)

    And, just photos in this post. These are the caves located just off the A623, between Eyam and Stoney Middleton. There were numerous climbers in the area with ropes and I considered myself exceptionally brave to climb a few rocks to go and examine a cave.

     

  • Eyam – Name Origin

    Eyam – Name Origin

    When we were in Eyam this weekend, we were debating whether it’s pronounced Eee-am or I-am. Fortunately, we checked on-line before trying either of these words on the locals, as it’s pronounced Eeem. This is what The Concise Oxford Dictionary Of English Placenames has to say about the origins of the village name:

    Eyam, Derbyshire. Aiune in Domesday Book, Eyum in 1236. From Old English egum, the plural of eg, or island.

    The origins of the word are likely that Eyam was an island area in between moors or marsh, with the word island in Old English being ‘īeg’.

  • Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 138

    Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 138

    The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the current health crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored….

    Garret Election

    This was an event very much of its time, popular in the middle of the eighteenth century, but falling out of favour by the beginning of the nineteenth century. It was defined by the dictionary as:

    “A ludicrous ceremony, practiced every new parliament: it consists of a mock election of two members to represent the borough of Garret (a few straggling cottages, near Wandsworth, in Surry [sic]); the qualification of a voter is, having enjoyed a woman in the open air within that district: the candidates are commonly fellows of low humour, who dress themselves up in a ridiculous manner. As this brings a prodigious concourse of people to Wandsworth, the publicans of that place jointly contribute to the expense, which is sometimes considerable.”

    Francis Grose, not for the first time, made a spelling error in the dictionary, as it should really be a ‘Garrat election’ as it takes its name from the village of Garrat, in Wandsworth, London. Evidence of this area is still evident in Wandsworth, not least with the Garratt Tavern and Garratt Lane.

    The whole thing came about when there was a real election to elect an individual to preside over the town’s small commons area. It seems some people took this a little too seriously, so others decided to mock that process with their own election. This evolved into an election that wasn’t taken at all seriously and was designed to elect an idiot. Perhaps there are modern elections that still do that, but I won’t verge into politics here.

    These mock elections caused much merriment and I can imagine the entire disappointment that must have been felt by the serious local politicians in the area. There were numerous candidates for this fake post, in one year there were nine, with various random promises being made to the electors. The Globe newspaper noted that one individual elected was Sir John Dunstan, although the knighthood was fake, who “had at his command a great fund of vulgar wit, and was of an extremely grotesque and peculiar appearance”.

    For a while, these elections drew thousands of people out from the centre of London to watch proceedings, which were likely drunken affairs. This is perhaps evident by the fact that inn-keepers paid some of the costs of the event, although the popularity started to wane and later attempts in the 1830s to revive the tradition failed.

  • Camping – Day 1 (Eyam – Cucklet Church)

    Camping – Day 1 (Eyam – Cucklet Church)

    We saw a map in Eyam which mentioned the Cucklet Church, an outdoor rock formation that was used for religious services when it was felt wise not to use the church to avoid the spread of the plague. We weren’t entirely sure what to expect, although a family picnicking pointed us towards the rocks where the services were held.

    Families could socially distance within the rocks, and also on the open ground amphitheatre type arrangement on the edge of the valley (known as the delph), which helpfully enabled social distancing. Everything in history comes around in circles….

    William Mompesson, the local priest, was one of the key figures who managed to stop some of the villagers fleeing to Sheffield to avoid the plague in Eyam, which would have only caused the disease to spread. He led the services at these rocks, apparently designed to try and inspire the residents during some trying times.

    Some photos of the rocks….

     

    And a photo from 1896.


  • Camping – Day 1 (Eyam – Village Stocks)

    Camping – Day 1 (Eyam – Village Stocks)

    The stocks in Eyam date back to the late seventeenth century, so are from around the period when the plague struck the village. The stones at either end are made from gritstone, with the wooden bars resting in holes in the stone. It’s thought that they were placed here by the Barmcote Court, a local system of justice used in lead mining areas of Derbyshire.

    The stocks were restored in 1951 to mark the Festival of Britain, which seems a cheery way to mark what was supposed to be such a positive event. Thanks to the Statute of Labourers law of 1351, every village in the country once had stocks, although they were used more rarely after the eighteenth century. The last recorded use of stocks was much later in the UK, coming in 1872 in Newbury, Berkshire.

    And here’s a photo of what the village stocks looked like in 1919, when it wasn’t quite as obvious what they were.


  • Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 137

    Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 137

    The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the current health crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored….

    Gapeseed

    This sounds like a word that has recently been made up, a beautiful term which is defined by the dictionary as “sights; any thing to feed the eye. I am come [sic] abroad for a little gapeseed”. More widely, it’s something which is worth seeing, something of note, or indeed, someone who is looking at such an interesting thing.

    The word was first used in the late sixteenth century, combining the two words ‘gape’ and ‘seed’. ‘Gape’ is actually from the Norse word ‘gapa’ meaning a wide opening, and of a similar derivation to the word ‘gap’, which evolved into something like ‘an open-mouthed stare’ and ‘seed’ is from the Germanic word ‘saed’ meaning to sow.

    It is though another word seemingly lost to the English language, now fallen out of usage.

  • Camping – Day 1 (Eyam – Lydgate Graves)

    Camping – Day 1 (Eyam – Lydgate Graves)

    Back in the days of the plague in Eyam, local residents were allowed to bury their dead in what was previously unconsecrated ground since the main churchyard was temporarily closed off. This enclosed area, off the road called Lydgate, is known as the Lydgate Graves site, with two burials dating to 1666.

    The grave of George Darby, who died on 4 July 1666. The inscription reads “Here lyeth bvr the body of George Darby who died on July 4th 1666”. The ‘bvr’ bit is either a mistake on the listed building record, or it’s an English abbreviation that I have no clue about.

    This is the grave of Mary Darby, the daughter of George Darby, who died on 4 September 1666. The inscription reads “Mary, the daughter of George Darby, dyed September 4th 1666”.

    Before the plague struck Eyam, there were three people in the Darby household, George, his wife Mary and his daughter Mary. George had been born in 1610 and his wife Mary in 1615, with their daughter Mary born on 28 December 1645. George’s wife survived the plague, living until 1674.