Above: Phillida being made ‘Lady of the May’. The poem was first performed for Elizabeth I in 1591. Something I read in Strephon’s 1880 report of a visit to Errwood Hall caught my eye. He describes the walk down from the Grimshawe’s...
Don’t click the map above! Click here to view the actual Google map. Directions Click here for directions to the Goyt Valley, as well as information about parking. I’ve been testing out Google Maps to plot all the lost houses for the pages on the...
Tracing the route: The writer, his ‘Young Man’ fisherman friend, and their ‘Somebody’ artist and lady companion, turned off the Buxton to Whaley Bridge, Long Hill road, along the same winding track used by most visitors to the Valley...
Above: The Nall family pictured at Castedge Farm Cottage. Brenda Hewitt is on the right. Brenda helped Gerald with his research when writing his ‘Goyt Valley Romance’. The Hewitts had lived in the valley for many generations. The earliest records I...
Above: Gail has helped decipher the sign. We think it reads ‘T. B. HIBBERT. GOYT BRIDGE (?) FARM. TEAS & PARTIES CATERED FOR’ But why does it seem to point right towards Goytshead Farm, rather than Goytsbridge Farm which is over the bridge to...
Above: The Braddock brothers were gamekeepers on the Errwood estate in the early 1900s. I wouldn’t have fancied any burglar’s chances faced with these two with their shotguns and gun dogs! Mike has sent me another press clipping...
Above: This 1890 OS map (click to enlarge) shows both the Old Goyt’s Lane road into Goyt’s Bridge, and the Bunsall Incline. The area shaded pale blue shows Errwood Reservoir today. I’ve marked where I thought the photo must have been taken. And the...
Above: Mary, the last of the Grimshawe family who once owned the Errwood estate. Below: Dolores de Ybarguen, the Spanish lady to whom the shrine is dedicated. Many thanks to Mike for sending me a newspaper cutting about the closure of public access...
Above: Mark’s father pictured in the early 1930s – in front of the packhorse bridge at Goyt’s Bridge. One of the joys of creating this website is when people send me messages like the following… Mark writes: “I was going through some...
Above: The walk starts from a small lay-by on the old Roman road known as ‘The Street’. (Click to enlarge.) This 1½ mile walk along Foxlow Edge, returning via the narrow path to St Joseph’s Shrine, is one of the shortest in the series. It’s an...
