Dale Abbey - Part
4 - Memories Of Bluebells and Cattle
w/e 01 May
2005
All
this week's pictures were taken with a Kodak DX6490
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What a difference a few weeks
can make. If you compare the first image below with the final
image in Part 3 which were both taken from the foot of the steps
to the Hermit's Cave it is hard to believe that there is only
a month between them. Now the leaves are on the trees, the bluebells
are coming into flower and the conditions underfoot are much
better. In this part we will continue through the wood towards
The Village with a short diversion down "Memory Lane".
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On a warm sunny Spring afternoon we pick up our walk around Dale
Abbey on the long distance footpath known as the Midshires Way
at the foot of the steps to the Hermit's Cave. We could have
continued along this path but as the conditions had improved
significantly since our last visit we opted to climb the steps
and continue upwards past the cave to the top of the sandstone
outcrop and the southern boundary of Hermit's Wood.
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We were rewarded on this higher route
with some delightful views over the village. Eventually the narrow
winding path (left) flanked by pretty bluebells wound its way
down via some rough steps cut into the hillside to rejoin the
Midshires Way. Passing through a five barred gate (right) we
entered what I recall from those austere days soon after the
Second World War as a farm yard.
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It was not uncommon in those days half a century ago to see people,
myself included, walking through here from the wood laden with
arms full of bluebells. Some were snapped of at ground level
but most were pulled up revealing long white stems. It is so
easy to be wise in hindsight for as we now know, once picked,
the flowers do not last long and by the time we had reached home
many had shrivelled and drooped. Those that survived were placed
in vases to bring a touch of the countryside into our homes for
a few days. Nowadays of course it is illegal to remove bluebells
from their natural habitat - it may well have been illegal then
too but when money was tight after the war, people had to make
the best of what they had and collecting wild flowers cost nothing.
Continuing my trip down "Memory Lane" I remember too
when this farm yard had cattle lowing in the cow sheds to the
left, pigs grunting in sties on the right and chickens roaming
free, pecking in the muddy track and cobbles. Today the only
sound was a dog barking at the gate and some distant bird song.
The muddy track has gone to be replaced by gravel and the whole
place has a feel of a desirable country residence than a farm
house. Just beyond the building on the left, the Midshires Way
branches off towards Dunshill and we made a short detour to our
walk to follow the path for a little way.
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We walked as far as Ockbrook Wood which lies
along the north facing slopes of the Dale Hills. Here the bluebells
seemed more abundant than in Hermit's Wood, perhaps evidence
that the flower picking of the 1940's and 50's had more of an
effect than we realised at the time. But the purpose of our detour
was not primarily to see the bluebells but to follow another
memory from my youth.
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Between Hermit's Wood and Ockbrook Wood is a grassy slope. It
is not quite how I remember it and I think some field boundaries
have been grubbed out but when I was a child, I had a very nasty
experience here. We had a dog and one fine evening my parents
took me to Dale Abbey where we intended to have a picnic in this
very field. Dad
looped the dog's lead around the trunk of a tree at the top of
the slope - it could well have been one of the trees on the right
of this small picture. As we sat on the grass to prepare our
meal, the dog spotted some cattle at the bottom of the slope
and started straining at his leash and barking. The cattle, curious,
started to ascend the slope and seemed to be approaching us from
all corners of the field. The dog barked and strained even more
and we could not stop him. We decided it was time to move but
Dad could not undo the lead which was now twisted and knotted.
He even tried burning through it with his cigarette lighter and
in the end a combination of adrenalin and panic enabled him the
snap the leather strap with brute force alone. The cattle were
now almost upon us so scooping up our belongings we made our
escape via a narrow passage between a double hedge on the boundary
of Ockbrook Wood. As Mum and I clambered over a fence and through
a gap in the hedge, Dad ran with the barking dog in his arms
to the gate at the bottom of the field. Mum and I turned once
through the hedge to see the herd of now stampeding cattle thunder
past, literally just seconds behind us. There were no cattle
about today and the narrow passage is now so overgrown that the
double hedge has now almost merged into one. That way of escape
no longer exists but we were oh so thankful for it then. The
passage of time has a strange effect on some childhood memories
and the changed landscape did not exactly match the picture in
my mind's eye but the experience of that picnic outing all those
years ago left me with a lifelong bovine phobia.
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Having satisfied my curiosity if not actually laying the ghost
to rest, we returned along the Midshires Way to our original
route. The building seen here at the junction of the two paths
is a rare example of a house and a church under one roof. The
semi detached church is on the far side and we shall see more
of this in Part 5. Both premises stand on the site where the
Derby baker Cornelius (the original hermit at Dale) built his
chapel and home after meeting Ralph Fitz Geremund, Lord of the
Manor of Ockbrook and Alvaston and owner of the land at Dale.
On hearing his story about the vision of the Virgin Mary, Ralph
took pity on Cornelius and not only allowed him to remain but
bestowed upon him the tithe money from Borrowash Mill.
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