A week in the Peak District: a quick wander around Wirksworth, Derbyshire

Over the summer, one of our wonderful staycations was in Derbyshire. I have quite a few pictures to share from the various wanderings so will split them into a handful of shorter blog posts rather than one long one. Let's start with Wirksworth, which was the nearest town to where we were staying. Small enough to have some soul to it, large enough to have some great bars and restaurants, and pleasing that it had a few ghost signs and old signs to reveal. Unfortunately a couple of these were quite weathered so I was not able to decipher them.

This first one however was readable

WIRKSWORTH & DISTRICT CO OPERATIVE SOCIETY LIMITED  

Ghost sign, Wirksworth, Derbyshire

I'm sure this next ghost sign would have been stunning in its time, but time has taken its toll and it's hard to make out anything other than a few letters, and searching through the internet didn't show anything either. If anyone knows more I'd love to find out.

Ghost sign, Wirksworth, Derbyshire

Less ghostly, but more readable, is this wonderful pre-Warboys sign.

Pre-Warboys sign, Wirksworth, Derbyshire

It wasn't until I blew this picture up on the PC that I noticed it had more to it than initially caught my eye. As well as the lettering starting WIN between the rows of windows, there are also the letters SWORN just in the shadow of where the roof hangs over the wall, and there's a middle line ending in SER. However I am none the wise as to what the complete sign may have read. Any clues?

Ghost sign, Wirksworth, Derbyshire

And of course, no trip to Wirksworth would be complete without a few pictures of the heritage railway. However, it would seem these have mysteriously vanished from my phone.

A Week in the Peaks

We have just returned from a great week in the Peak District. Having been as far as Nottingham many times before, we somehow had never seemed to make it as far as the Peaks. We rented a lovely cottage in the village of Baslow which we used as our base for the week. Although the weather was grim at the beginning of the week, including some snow, we still managed to get out on some great walks. The highlight of the week however was the Thursday when the rain stopped, the clouds parted and the sun shone. Having attempted to do the Tissington Trail earlier in the week only to find it was snowing, we made the most of the break in the weather.

The Tissington Trail is a purpose made cycle track and footpath on what used to be the Buxton to Ashbourne railway line. What surprised me however was that it has been open for recreational purposes since the early 1970's. We cycled up hill, climbing something like 700 metres over the 13.5 miles from Ashbourne to Parsley Hay where we stopped for lunch. The track does continue a bit further from there, and also joins the High Peak Trail, but we'll have to leave that for another day.

Road bridge crossing the Tissington Trail

Road bridge crossing the Tissington Trail

Tissington Trail, just north of Tissington station

Tissington Trail, Hartington signal box

Back home now it's back to business as usual. We've just about unpacked everything and I even managed a short 10 mile bike ride today, albeit in the rain. This is part of my attempt to be able to get into a suit that I need to wear to a family wedding at the end of March. I fear however that my wife and one of the kids is at this very moment at the village market buying cakes.

And probably the most exciting news since being home is that I finally attracted a Goldfinch to my bird feeder. I did try and get a photo but managed to scare it off in the process.