Trips 2022 - 2023
This season the Society played away with three trips and three walks.
The flight of sixteen locks is one of my favourite places in Marple. A walk down to the aqueduct is peaceful but not lonely. You pass the occasional boater struggling with the lock mechanism, panting runners, dog-walkers exercising themselves rather than their dogs and people doing much the same as you are. A quiet and tranquil promenade to start the day or to wind down after a stressful afternoon..
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On a beautiful sunny May mo
rning, twenty people boarded the coach for a day trip to the historic town of Wirksworth in Derbyshire.
After the 9.15 start the coach proceeded through the Derbyshire countryside and the towns of Buxton, Bakewell, Matlock and Cromford, arriving at the Wirksworth Heritage Centre around 10.30. On the way Judith pointed out places of interest and the features of the landscape and its underlying geology, which gives the scenery its particular character.
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On a fine sunny evening, about 20 of us set out from the top of Townscliffe Rd/Clement Road in Mellor, heading across the fields to Mill Brow, led by Frank Pleszak. At the head of the road was Townscliffe Farm, built in 1790 with earlier sections. William Jowett, owner of Cateract Mill, lived in the house, but later it became the club house for Townscliffe Golf Club (1908) which amalgamated with Mellor Golf Club in 1920.
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There is a lot of history in Moor End but the village is not well designed for a history walk. The road is narrow, there are few pavements and there are lots of cars. And to make matters worse, when the cars are not being driven fast they are parked on the pavement. Still, the history was irresistible. We decided to organise. We bought some hi-vis jackets; we decided to split everyone into small teams for walking up the main road and we asked everyone to register their interest in advance. So far, so good. The Health and Safety Executive would have been proud of us.
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On the 19th of October at 10.30 twenty four members of the Society met at the Pavilion Gardens Tea Rooms for coffee (or tea) and biscuits prior to a guided walk around Buxton. Although it was a bit windy, it was mild and dry.
The nature of the walk was mainly to consider the architecture of the town. We were split into two groups of twelve led by tour guides Ali and Fred and we took different routes to avoid walking into each other. This meant that neither group visited the sites in their chronological order and one building looked at could have been built by the 7th Duke of Devonshire and the next one by the 5th Duke. In an attempt to avoid confusion (hopefully) this account deals with each site in the order in which it was originally built and not in the order of the guided tours.
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There were 20 on the tour + Jonathan. The weather wasn’t helpful as it rained which did affect us as we started by looking at the outside of the Art Gallery, the Athenaeum which became the art gallery extension, architect of both being Sir Charles Barry. The Art Gallery is Greek style while the is Palazzo style which influenced many of the warehouse buildings of the area.
Inside, we looked at a number of pre-Raphaelite paintings, starting with ‘The Workers’, Jonathan’s favourite and he explained what exactly was happening and what the painter wanted to convey to the public. We also went into the Lowry and Valette gallery and looked at sculptures. On this latter point, the Gallery is trying to engage with visitors more by exhibiting sculptures from the stores. Apparently, overall, only 5% of the Art Work the Gallery owns is on display.
We were not allowed into the storage area as the Gallery is concerned about malicious damage to art works by climate activists. Jonathan said he did say that he didn’t think Marple Local History Society members were a threat, but the decision was still no.
Hilary Atkinson
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- Category: Trips 2022 - 2023
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