Lumsdale, Tansley, Riber, Hearthstone, Cromford, and Matlock Bath

I thought I might have been alone at Lumsdale for the first time this morning until a family joined me. I was able to quickly get away from them though and have the waterfalls, the ruins, the weirs, the walkways...and the magic of this place...all to myself for about half an hour.

I walked across the fields to Tansley and took a few photographs of the church there; it's not very old.

I then needed to walk through the village and along the main road at the bottom of the valley for a few minutes before taking the footpath up and over to Riber. There are several quite theatrically gothic looking houses here; I couldn't get a close up view of the castle though [it's a Victorian folly.]

It was only a short walk down to the hamlet of Hearthstone and then across the fields to Cromford Mill. There is some lovely rolling green countryside here, but on a quite murky day it was difficult for me to get any decent photographs.

The first thing I photographed at Cromford was the church, it too isn't very old. I arrived at just after one o'clock and there was a sign outside stating that the building is open to the public every Saturday from eleven o'clock until one o'clock. The door was open, so I ventured inside. There wasn't a lot to look at inside, but there is some quite nice painted plaster on the walls.

The mill at Cromford is a bit of a disappointment; I think they could do so much more with it.

I found a path that goes through the woods to come out at Masson Mill at the southern end of Matlock Bath. As I walked along the promenade I decided to count the number of fish and chips shops - there are nine of them.There are also nearly as many tearooms, several pubs and plenty of ice cream parlours and amusement arcades - in fact everything you'd expect to find at a coastal resort. Matlock Bath certainly lives up to its nickname of 'Derbyshire-by-the-Sea' - even though it's many miles from the sea.

I din't stay long because I wanted to catch the next TransPeak service to Bakewell...and then a bus from there to Sheffield. I had enough time to pop in to the artisan market and buy I large summer fruits scone for my tea though.

The 15:05 bus at Bakewell didn't turn up and then the next one, the 15:24 was a few minutes late. At the Golden Gates roundabout at Baslow we saw the missing earlier bus had broken down, right in the most inconvenient place where it was blocking the traffic.

Bentley Bridge, Matlock Green, Riber, Cromford, Bonsall, Snitterton, Oaker (or Oker), Darley Bridge, and Darley Dale.

Unusually I spent a bit of time researching for today's walk because there are three locations I specifically wanted to visit; Lumsdale mills, Riber Castle and Arkwright's Mill at Cromford.

The walk didn't get off to a good start though: I got off the bus at Bentley Bridge and found the lane that leads off towards Lumsdale and I was soon in a deep wooded valley which I presumed to be Lumsdale. Maybe it was, or maybe it wasn't; but even with backtracking several times I couldn't find even one of the six ruined mills that I'd read about. They'll have to be visited on a later walk because I was soon at the bottom of the valley, in Matlock Green.

I followed the main road in an easterly direction for a few hundred yards and then took the steep path which goes up to Riber, going alongside a wall, then open grassy fields and finally an area overgrown with bracken. Although the visibility wasn't particularly good, I enjoyed some pleasant views of Matlock from a new  perspective.

My next objective, Riber Castle, isn't a castle at all; it's a nineteenth century folly. In the village there are at least another two crenellated buildings, both of which I spotted before seeing Riber Castle. Eventually I caught a couple of glimpses of the battlements but had to wait until I had left the village to enjoy the best view, as I was walking across the fields towards Cromford.

The path soon descends to the Cromford road, but whilst still quite high up there were some spectacular views of Matlock Bath and the cable cars...yet again, seen from a completely new direction.

The first place I arrived at in Cromford was Cromford Wharf. I popped into the café, but was rather disappointed with the limited choice on offer so crossed the road and had a pot of tea and a cherry scone at Arkwright's Mill...a very easy location to find; it's well signposted.

This photograph was taken from where I was eating my scone.

I lingered at the mill for a while, and then continued into the town centre where I ended up taking  photographs of the most colourful outdoor shop display I've ever seen...and a green padded bicycle with a card placed in front of it bearing a very strange and cryptic message.

The message on the yellow card reads; 'Show me the rejects. Like us on Facebook.' The card attached to the rear wheel has an equally strange message about taking photographs when wearing a specific tee-shirt - I think it all might be part of some online viral marketing campaign.

I then walked along a footpath which runs parallel to the Via Gellia, passing through woodland and across fields to reach the road which leads up to Bonsall.
Despite its Latin sounding name, Via Gellia isn't a Roman road at all; it was named by, and for, a Mr. Gell, the man who paid for the original road to be built.
Interestingly, the fabric known as Viyella was itself named for the Via Gellia, the location of the mill where it was first produced.

It's a long climb up to the top of the village of Bonsall, not too steep though. At the bottom of the hill I noticed another strange message - this time on a bus stop.

There are several paths leading up from just beyond the village centre, going in a northerly direction - I'm not sure exactly which one I took but I reached Salters Lane and then found the path leading me back downhill across fields to reach Snitterton. Along this section I briefly set foot inside the official boundaries of the Peak District...the distance covered is only the width of three fields though.

I then took the road leading to Oaker, or Oker, as it is also written. It seems that no-one can agree on the correct spelling: on every actual sign I came across, the name was spelled differently to how it is depicted on the Ordnance Survey Map. Coincidence? Conspiracy? An organised protest; or just a bit of fun?

By now it was starting to rain and I was glad it was an easy walk back to Darley Dale to catch the Sheffield bus.