The Hidden Gardens and Courtyards of Wirksworth

A visit to the Hidden Gardens and Courtyards of Wirksworth today. The weather was forecast to be just as hot as it has been recently so I was prepared with a couple of litres of orange squash in my rucksack. With Wirksworth being a town there would be shops where I could buy sandwiches or snacks; there were also refreshments being served at several of the open gardens.

I arrived with nearly an hour before the gardens would be opening and so I wandered around the town and popped inside the church.

It was a long day with twenty five gardens which were open; I did quite a bit of walking around the hilly terrain and managed to visit twenty of them; there were three situated at quite a distance from the town centre up a steep hill which I decided not to visit and two gardens that were so well hidden I couldn't find them. At these open garden events the gardens are usually marked with brightly coloured balloons or bunting, but today it was just black arrows on white card.

Scrooby and Ranskill

Another local walk today so that I could get an early start before the weather got too hot.

I travelled on the Retford bus to Scrooby, the first village in Nottinghamshire, and then headed southeast to Mattersey Grange and then the road going back east to Ranskill.

The level crossing at Scrooby is now pernanently closed; a man in a van was on his mobile phone asking for instructions because he didn't know about the closure either., I had to use the pedestrian only crossing over the railway a few hundred yards south but was soon able to continue along my originally planned route. 

I left the road as soon as possible, cutting through Birch Wood and coming out near to Ranskill level crossing [which is open]. I walked up to the bus stop on the main road, stopping at the shop for an iced lolly, and had half an hour to wait for the bus back to Doncasster.. 

Thurnscoe, Billingley, and Darfielld

I needed to visit my brother at Thurnscoe today and so I caught the 203 Wombwell bus; it's a lovely route, passing through the pretty villages of Brodsworth, Hooton Pagnell, and Clayton. After staying for nearly an hour I set off heading towards the site of the old sewage farm which is looking quite a bit different since the last time I was there. I climbed up to Billingley and then went down the lane and the disused road to Darfield to catch the bus back to Doncaster.

Matlock Food and Drink Festival and Matlock Bath

When it's busy it can take the bus a long time to get into Matlock Bus Station and so today I got off at the bottom of the steep hill in Matlock Green and went exploring in the area near to the church. 

The church was open and so I went inside, there's nothing particularly interesting to look at; I was joined by a fellow Doncastrian though, now living in the local area,  and we chatted for a few minutes.

The food and drink festival was being held in Hall Leys Park and from this area I was able to easily access the park. I was disappointed with the festival, the last time I visited about ten years ago there were many more stalls, inside two large marquees.

I went into the town and looked in the charity shops and then caught a bus to Matlock Bath, it was surprisingly quiet for a Saturday with several shops closed. I bought a tub of ice cream and ate it sitting down by the river.

Doncaster: Waterfront East Park and the Canal Basin

A quick visit to Doncaster Waterfront East Park just beyond the city centre, at the back of the college.. It's an area of formerly derelict and contaminated land that has been temporarily landscapeed prior to the contractors moving in to start construction work. In the meantime though it's open to the public.

There's not much to see, apart from a short walk alongside the riverbank it's just grassed over; there is, however, an old derelict pumphouse surrounded by railings. This is actually quite a nice building, looking like a miniature stately home - I wonder what the long term plans for it are?

I returned to the city centre to do my shopping, going via the Canal Basin.

Gringley-on-the-Hill Open Gardens and Classic Car Display

My first Open Gardens event of the year, visiting Gringley-on-the-Hill, only seventeen miles away in Nottinghamshire. It's a pretty village which I've visited several times before but today I got to visit areas I've not previous seen; there were only six gardens scheduled to be open today, but two of them were actually closed.

The village is hilly and Siobhan, my support worker, struggled a bit; the carpark is at the bottom of a hill and by the time we'd climbed up to community centre to purchase our wristbabds and programmes we were both ready for a sit down and something to eat. Siobhan purchased a sandwich but I got a Gainsborough pasty.

The classic car display was rather disappointing, most of the vehicles were fairly recent...but there were a few nice ones.