Day 13.  Winster to Wirksworth.

Winster and Wirksworth were both known for lead mining, a very valuable commodity in the medieval period, and both are mentioned in the Domesday Book. They prospered in the 18th and 19th centuries. On the map the deep Griffe Grange Valley,  with its busy Via Gellia road, forms a barrier between the two villages. I need to find a way around this without incurring much height loss. The Limestone Way takes a far too circuitous route. 

Winster is bedecked for the culmination of its festive Wakes week. I get a coffee from the village shop and sit outside watching the locals come and go to what is now the centre of village life.

Across the way is the Market House, dating back to the 17th century, when it would have been the centre for village life. At one time, the ground floor was an open, arched space for the market while the first floor was for village assemblies. The National Trust now owns it, and some limited local information is available upstairs.

Time to make a start up that steep lane going south, the residents must be a fit lot. Pretty cottages and gardens are a pride to their owners. Although holiday lets are becoming more prominent. A lady is out checking on the hundred or so ducks hidden for the festive ‘duck hunt’.

At the top lane, the pinfold has become an attractive wild garden. I am impressed with Winster. 

Soon, I’m above the houses, a footpath heads across meadows, forever upwards. There is surface evidence of lead mining everywhere you look.

A stiff wind gives the weather a fresher feel as I climb higher. I could continue through a network of fields for another mile or so, but there are an awful lot of cattle about. Why have the hassle when there is a gated road with no traffic running parallel? As I’ve written, I’ve no definite route, just places to visit along the way. I’m my own master.

I get to see the views just the same, and I have time for some wayside flower spotting. 

In the distance is a working quarry, not realising I will end up beside it.

Down to Grangemill, a cluster of houses and a pub, the Hollybush Inn, at a busy crossroads. Here I found a bench for some lunch, watching the lorries come out of the working quarry opposite every minute or so onto the busy road down to Cromford, Via Gellia. There is a lot of lime dust in the air. 

The Via Gellia is named after the Gell family who lived at Hopton Hall for generations, having profitable quarries and lead mines. The building of the Via Gellia is dated to 1791 and was designed to allow carts of lead ore or stone to travel down from the Hopton area to the canal and lead smelters at Cromford. One of the Gell family may have named it in the Roman style. Todays traffic disappears down the road into the deep wooded Griffe Grange Valley.

Back into the fields bordering the old quarry, I pick up The Limestone Way again. It’s not entirely clear on the ground. A runner coming towards me is lost, trying to navigate using his watch. I point out the way, and off he rushes to complete about twenty miles, in this heat!

 

Now, on higher ground away from the quarry nose and dust, I can see the hilltop of Harborough Rocks, which I wanted to include in today’s route.

 A lady runner is also confused by the field systems, but she is only doing six miles and is much more relaxed, enjoying the scenery.

On to the High Peak Trail, the former line for the Cromford and High Peak railway, which I last met back in Whaley Bridge. It was built in the early 19th century to transport minerals and goods across the high ground between the two canal towns. I’m also back on the Midshires Way.

Up ahead are Harborough rocks—a popular low-grade climbing area of Dolomitic Limestone, full of pockets and jugs. Once again, I start reminiscing on sunny days spent here, but I don’t recall the noisy factory adjacent. A couple are climbing above the path; it turns out they are from Burnley, not far from me, and visit Craig Y Longridge from time to time—a small world.

Apart from the climbing, the other reason I wanted to visit here is to seek out the ‘Hermit’s Cave’. The cave has been excavated several times. Finds included human burials, dated to the Neolithic. Iron Age pottery and arrowheads, Daniel Defoe visited the rocks in the 18th Century and found the cave was inhabited by a lead miner and his family. If the Portway had come this way, could it have been used as an overnight shelter?

The High Peak Trail goes on and on. 

One forgets that these railways were originally horse-drawn and used Fishbelly rail laid on stone blocks, a common form of early track construction. This had the advantage of providing a continuous soft path between the rails that was suitable for horses.

Eventually, field paths drop away from the line, no sign of Wirksworth yet, but the hill in the distance must be Alport Height, tomorrow’s objective.

I find myself walking through the remains of a massive quarry.

At last an ally takes me to the high street of Wirksworth.

A busy market town with an impressive High Street of independent shops.

In Roman Britain, this limestone area yielded lead, and they named a place Lutudarum, which is likely the present-day Wirksworth. Roman roads from Wirksworth lead to Buxton (The Street) and to Castleton (The Portway). It was in the 17th century that Wirksworth further developed from its lead mines and limestone quarries. Richard Arkwright owned a cotton spinning mill here, marking the beginning of the industrial age. When the lead ran out in the 19th century, large-scale limestone quarrying took its place.  

I head to the parish church, St Mary the Virgin. The existing building dates mostly from the 13th century, but a church has stood on this site since at least the 8th century AD. One of its restorations was by Sir Gilbert Scott in 1870. 

The church is notable for its Anglo-Saxon carvings, a large Anglo-Saxon coffin lid, and beautiful stained glass. Again, like Youlgreave’s church, I may do a separate post on St. Mary’s. However, in the meantime, here is the carving of the medieval or possibly even Saxon lead miner.

After a bit of shopping, it is time to catch the bus back to Matlock. You may recall a car fire halting my bus in Buxton; well, this time, a fire broke out in an abandoned building on the outskirts of Matlock. When we arrived, the police were in attendance and let us through. Five minutes later, as the black smoke enveloped the valley and fire engines were rushing to the scene, the roads were closed. By then, I was safely in my B&B.

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