After breakfast, Philip went with our host Keith to inspect the cricket pitch to be used for the local cricket match later in the day. Then they met with other men in the church yard to re-erect a newly painted old flagpole. It’s a bit harder than first appears. But it soon was vertical using their brawn, ideas and brains.

After an early lunch, our hosts Keith and Deb took Philip and I off to explore further their corner of the world. First to Winkworth Church in a nearby village. The earliest church on the site was probably in the 800s, but the present church was built in the 1200s. And it’s a fascinating church because on the inside face of the church stone walls they used fragments from earlier buildings. Some decorated details like flowers. A stone carving of Adam, the apple and the serpentl. A picture of a miner. The first illustration of a miner anywhere in the world.

A stone coffin lid from 800. Probably from the grave of an early priest who builtthe church when the ancient kingdom of Mercia was being converted to Christianity. It’s the life of Christ carved on stone and was found under the church on a stone coffink, with a big skeleton inside.

An alabaster tomb of the 1500s to remind us of our mortality. The carved knight on top of the tomb has his feet resting on a skull.

We saw some Well Dressings. Back in the pagan days, the villagers would put flowers around their wells in summer for their nature gods so the well wouldn’t dry up. Then when they became Christians, they changed it to making pictures from the Bible out of flowers, seeds, grasses and bark to put beside their wells and make it a festival. 

It’s a painstakingly meticulous process. Putting a base of wet clay into a big frame. Pricking out the desired picutre onto the clay. Then pressing in the individual flower petals, seeds, bark and grasses with their different colours and textures to make the picture. Very vibrant when they’re first done. Then placed near the well where people leave donations for charity when they come to view them. It’s a particular Derbyshire custom. The ones we saw were a bit faded after the week of hot sunshine, but still amazingly vibrant and colourful.

We went to Eyam village. A remarkable story of a selfless village. In the 1660s with plague and fear spreaking throughout the country, the vicar of Eyam, Rev Mompresson called for a public meeting of his village where the plague had struck.

In a bold attempt to control the disease from spreading further, he proposed several measures. Including imposing a boundary and quarantine on the whole village to keep it confined.

It is estimated two-thirds of the villagers died of the plague, including the vicar’s wife. Surrounding villagers brought food to the boundary for the Eyam people. They were self-quarantined for over a year. An amazing true story. Whole families died.

Nearby was Eyam Hall which was built soon after the plague finished. Not a grand country mansion, but a big house for one of the more prosperous farmers. It’s been in the same family for 9 generations since. But the present family live in a smaller house in the village and lease it to the National Trust. It has a lived-in charm and feels like a family from a by-gone era has just stepped out for the moment. It was fun to wander around and chat to the guides and learn more about the quirks of the house and garden.

One of the guides, an older lady with a very cultured voice said to Philip, “I’ve never seen anyone as tall as you. May I touch you please?”

We drove to Monsal Head. A tall hill looking over the valley. In Victorian times, the remarkable engineers of the times and their navvies blasted their way through the hill to form a railway tunnel nearly 500 metres long. The railway has been discontinued and ripped up, but the path can be walked on. When you walk through the tunnel, you can see the high domed arch ceiling of the tunnel carefully bricked and the blackened ceiling from the many steam trains that once went through. Then out on to the long aqueduct that once carried the steam trains. There was once a famous poster of this valley and  steam train railway aqueduct advertising for people to visit the Peak District.

We walked up the steep hill to the top and looked out over the magnificent Monsal Dale. The wooded steep hillsides, the green meadows flanking the River Wye way down below. We had a great meal together at the pub at the top of Monsal Head.

Back at their house, we sat outside on their patio that overlooks the green meadow below their house while we talked and watched the day gradually get darker and darker. And pushing up through the dense dark green trees is the spire of their church and beside it, the white flagpole! 

A wonderful summer day!