Aye, that's us: Summer 1996 Peak District

The Peak District

I took the Friday off work, and caught the train down on Thursday night..... 4 hours later, and I was being picked up at the station by the ol' boy. He still had to work on Friday, so I headed into the market -- and what a market. Chesterfield has a HUGE market square, and then a smaller one on the other side of the central food hall... its just rows and rows of stalls of everything you could possibly want. (the 2nd hand/antique market is on Thursday, so there's none of that around).. and yes, I bought 3 pairs of socks for a bargain 1ukp... and a pair of moccasins for 3ukp...little bargain hunter that I am... and then some fabric - a green (British racing green!!) knit for another pair of kecks for Mal... and then some fresh bread for dinner -- we were driving up to Leeds to have dinner with Alan, Elaine, Matthew (7) and baby Robert (8weeks).  Mal used to work with Alan in Harrogate, and then when they both worked in Milton Keynes, Alan lived with us during the week. Now, they are 'back together' working at Royal Mail in Chesterfield....

We picked up a hire car for the weekend, and planned to zip around the Peaks District - out to the west of Chesterfield. So, on Saturday we got the map out, and headed off on our safari westwards...

There is some really beautiful countryside out there, and there were people everywhere!! I'm sure you read in the earlier (mates) letters about the local habit of 'well dressing'... well, (ha, ha) we hunted them out, and have now ticked that one on our 'to do' lists for the world!!!!!!!! It is a local custom dating back to pagan times, where thanks was given to ??? for providing the village with water. So, now they produce boards - it is hard to explain, but I shall try to put a photo in when I get the film developed this week - decorated in all natural bits -- and giving an overall picture.... often biblical, and using all sorts of petals, barks & grasses..... pretty mind-blowing stuff, eh??? There are busloads of tourists (usually with lots of walking sticks and wheelchairs -- get my drift) who are doing the 'well dressings' and they wander/get pushed up and down the main streets of the villages checking out the wells.

There is usually more than one, and often 4 or 5 dressed wells in the villages.... all the villages spread their 'dressing' period over June/July, but each only have them for 1 week... the week starts with a local procession thru the village, and a blessing at the local kirk, and then the viewing for a week...... heavy stuff, eh???

The End


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