pearls of the peak: New Years Eve totter, part one

Here we go - into 2007. I saw off 2006 with a shortish walk of just over 7 miles, starting from Eyam, the plague village, and calling in at one of my favourite watering holes - the three stags heads inn at Wardlow Mires. If you click on the title of this posting, it will give you all the info' you need about Eyam and what happened there to make it famous. If you click on the title of part two, it will take to to a site with a very annoying cursor seeker, but has good information

on the three stags pub, plus a good picture of Geoff, mine host there.

You can click on any of the pictures for a larger version.

This is Eyam's church. There were a lot of people going in there today. It has a many famous gravestones and artefacts in its yard, not least of which is a Saxon cross. Of course, there are many graves of people connected with the plague, but many more were buried in fields around the village, and can be visited, should you so wish.

There are many antiquities around the place, and here are the ubiquitous village stocks. I was asked to pose IN them, but no thanks! That turquoise thing behind me is a sheet steel bench. It's covered in writing done in weld. A VERY strange piece, and when you read what is written, you have to ask yourself why the guy was smoking at the time of writing? It MUST be just for decoration, as it looks very uncomfortable, would be very cold (and wet - it holds water) to sit on?

Here's another set of stocks, this time the 'stand in' type. They are in a private garden in Foolow village. The first ones are bad, but I would imagine this sort could be REALLY uncomfortable after a while.

This is the view you get coming into Foolow, the first village you reach after leaving Eyam and crossing the fields. It's one of the prettiest villages in Derbyshire, and must be HELLISH expensive to buy a house in. There's a tranquil pond at the centre, complete with white ducks, and a village pub which welcomes all.