Fatal trap accident
At 12 o’clock on Thursday night (18th May 1884) a sad and fatal accident happened at the top of Long Hill, about three miles from Buxton, whereby Mr. Thomas Dunn, of the Nook Farm, Fernilee, lost his life.
Three Shires Head walk
With the weather turning wet and windy, I thought it a good time to hunker down and catch up with a couple of walks I’ve photographed, but not posted. Starting with Three Shires Head.
Radio Derby interview
BBC Radio Derby’s Andy Twigge is up to the letter G on his regular A to Z feature on places of interest in Derbyshire. Which is how I came to receive a call asking if I’d come on his programme.
GV Facebook Group
If you’re a Facebook user and love the Valley, join our newly launched ‘Goyt Valley Appreciation Society’ Group. All members are very welcome. Contribute, chat and take part in the conversation.
Withinleach Farm
A writer in 1810 describes an ancient settlement close to Withinleach Farm. Today the farm is just a pile of stones beside the path to St. Joseph’s Shrine. It’s yet another Goyt Valley mystery.
Goyt Valley turnpikes
I’ve often wondered about the history of the old and new Buxton to Macclesfield roads that snake in tandem across the windswept moors. One now derelict, the other today’s A537.
Foxlow Edge burial site?
Could a small circle of jumbled stones mark a Bronze Age burial? And might a small standing stone be an ancient waymarker that once guided travellers across this windswept landscape?
Deciphering the stone clues
Discovering the facts about the twin circles on Foxlow Edge isn’t easy. I hope they’re the remains of a Bronze Age settlement. But the experts seem to be pouring cold water on my dreams!
Goyt’s Moss mines
A 1997 archeological survey traced the history of coal mining at Goyt’s Moss, from surface workings dating back to the early 1700s to deeper shafts using horses to winch coal up from the seam.
Coal mining in the Goyt
Close to the source of the River Goyt, Goyt’s Moss was once the centre of a coal mining industry which fed the Duke of Devonshire’s lime kilns on the slopes above Buxton. It’s a fascinating story…
Goytsclough postcard #2
An even older photo of Goytsclough shows the paint mill ruins in greater detail. It hopefully brings me one step closer to discovering where the giant waterwheel once stood.
Goytsclough postcard #1
An old postcard of Goytsclough provides another small but tantalising clue in the puzzle over the giant waterwheel that once powered both the stone quarry and the later paint mill.
Ghostly Errwood bride
Rod tells of his encounter with a ghostly apparition on the River Goyt. Could it have been Irma Niorthe, the young French maid who died at 27 and is buried above Errwood Hall?
Finding Goytsclough cottages
A new ‘then & now’ fade of one of my favourite old photos of the valley helps pinpoint exactly where the cottages at Goytsclough once stood. And it’s not where I thought!
A couple of mysteries
Mystery no.1; a couple of circles in the landscape high on Foxlow Edge. Mystery no.2; a stone memorial found close to Fernilee Reservoir. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
Goyt walks from satellite
Experience one of the most popular walks on the site, the 8-mile circular walk from Buxton to Errwood Reservoir, courtesy of Google Earth and some magical 3D satellite image wizardry.
Samuel’s pseudo bishop
Samuel Grimshaw converted a top-floor room at Errwood Hall into a Catholic chapel, earning the condemnation of an irate letter-writer who complained it was unsuitable behaviour for a magistrate.
The long white road
The last poem written by Roland Leighton was delivered to his fiancé, Vera Brittain, along with his blood-stained uniform. It may have celebrated a walk the two lovers made along Old Goyt’s Lane.
Long Hill mystery
Don asks about the foundations which lie just over the fence, coming down from the Long Hill road towards the Goyt Valley. I wonder whether it may once have been a toll house. But who knows?
Happy memories
A long-time lover of the valley, Elaine writes to ask about a photograph of the Gunpowder Mill band. She wonders whether the mill was related to the Chilwell Gunpowder Mill in Nottingham.