Thursday 27 June 2013

A Farm Journal ~ from the 1st to 15th May 1869 ...

My great great great uncle John Bayliff Bowman lived at Summer Hill, near Monyash in the County of Derby. 

The Bowman family, who were Quakers, had three farms, One Ash Grange [which John Bayliff Bowman often referred to as O.A.], Cales and Summer Hill [which he usually referred to as S.Hill or S.H.]

John Bayliff Bowman is fourth from the left in the photo below ...
 
The Bowman family

 A Farm Journal continues :~
 
5 Mo[nth] 1 Very fine time dry Eastwinds very cold with hot sun - lost 7 ewes with blackening etc 3 hogs 
 
2 day 3 Showery day - self with John Hodg[so]n [or Hodgkinson] & H[enr]y Pursglove drove to Lindhurst etc for beasts - off next morning as far as Alfreton for night self to Heanor in aft[ernoo]n M[onthly] Meeting]
 
5 - 6 Showery day
 
6 - 7 Ditto  Working Pewet Knobs
 
7 - 8 Ditto cold N.E. Wind - walling etc. Sold 7 fat pigs £3 10/- each - pastures pretty good cows all out
 
1 - 9  Fine
 
2 - 10 Fine & warm B[akewe]ll market things very dear
 
3 - 11 Fine but cold E wind Frosty nights sow[e]d swedes S.H.
 
4 - 12 Ditto weather 
 
5 - 13 Ditto sow[e]d swedes Cales
 
6 - 14 Ditto fallow[in]g lime in for mear [sic] etc
 
7 - 15 Cold dry E Wind very [next word indecipherable] week grass goes fast Tideswell Fair bo[ugh]t 4 cows - better to buy
 

Saturday 22 June 2013

The Rowthorne Trail and Lady Spencer's Wood ...

I think I was out on my fourth walk in four days ... back in April 2011 !

So, who was I out with ? Who's this ?

The Rowthorne Trail and Hardwick Hall ...

 It's my grandson ... with his mother !

The Rowthorne Trail and Hardwick Hall ...

 I had told Katy that it would only be a stroll so we parked on the Rowthorne Trail not so very far from Hardwick Hall ... and set off in the sunshine ...

The Rowthorne Trail and Hardwick Hall ...

 We left the Trail and headed across a field of oil seed rape towards Norwood ...

The Rowthorne Trail and Hardwick Hall ...

 The ground was very dry ...

The Rowthorne Trail and Hardwick Hall ...

 We entered Norwood ...

The Rowthorne Trail and Hardwick Hall ...

 The bluebells were in flower ...

The Rowthorne Trail and Hardwick Hall ...  

They grow quite a lot of oil seed rape in this area but at least the footpath across the large field leading to Norwood Lodge was clear ...

The Rowthorne Trail and Hardwick Hall ...  

There are three or four properties at Norwood Lodge but the path is easy enough to follow between the gardens ...

The Rowthorne Trail and Hardwick Hall ...

 We turned right along Newbound Lane and after a few hundred yards entered Lady Spencer's Wood owned by the National Trust ...

The Rowthorne Trail and Hardwick Hall ...

The Rowthorne Trail and Hardwick Hall ...

The Rowthorne Trail and Hardwick Hall ...  

As you can imagine, with eleven year old Benjamin with us [as he was then] the walk was far from dull ...

The Rowthorne Trail and Hardwick Hall ...  

The next wood we passed through was Park Piece where there was a wonderful display of Dryad's Saddle ...

The Rowthorne Trail and Hardwick Hall ...

The Rowthorne Trail and Hardwick Hall ...   

The Rowthorne Trail and Hardwick Hall ...

 After leaving the wood and crossing a field we reached the driveway which led us away from the Hardwick Estate ... and back to the car.

The Rowthorne Trail and Hardwick Hall ...

This walk was followed on the 28th April 2011
 
Length of stroll ~ 2.84 miles *
 
Total mileage walked so far in 2011 ~ 149.93 miles
 
Total mileage between the 1st September 2009 and the 28th April 2011 ~ 677.98 miles

  34 of 2011 [which means in 2011 I was averaging just over 4.40 miles a walk.]
 
* distance calculated on Ordnance Survey's Getamap


After the walk we went to Hardwick Hall ...

The Rowthorne Trail and Hardwick Hall ...

The Rowthorne Trail and Hardwick Hall ...

 This lady was dressed as a gardener of the time ...

The Rowthorne Trail and Hardwick Hall ...

 I often go to Hardwick just to look around the garden [as I did yesterday !] though all these photographs were taken a couple of years ago ...

The Rowthorne Trail and Hardwick Hall ...

 It is a marvellous place, well worth a visit.

The Rowthorne Trail and Hardwick Hall ...

 We finish as we started with a photograph of Benjamin. I think he was just about to take flight off the mounting block ...

The Rowthorne Trail and Hardwick Hall ... 

A Farm Journal ~ April 1869 ...

My great great great uncle John Bayliff Bowman lived at Summer Hill, near Monyash in the County of Derby. 

The Bowman family, who were Quakers, had three farms, One Ash Grange [which John Bayliff Bowman often referred to as O.A.], Cales and Summer Hill [which he usually referred to as S.Hill or S.H.]

John Bayliff Bowman is fourth from the left in the photo below ...
 
The Bowman family

 A Farm Journal continues :~
 
5 - 1 4 Mo[nth] Fine day bad luck - had to kill cow bo[ugh]t of Jon[atha]n Blore £17 - Inf[lammatio]n owing to drinking too much water - also sheep died Inf[lammatio]n before lamb[in]g - sold both to Biggin men
 
6 - 2 Ditto Very stormy night Thunder & lightning with snow
 
7 - 3 Fine day Truck of grains in - another sheep poorly pig dead at Cales £2 10 - 
1 - 4 to 6 - 9 Showery weather mild & dull very dirty lost another ewe makes 2 sow[e]d manure on Seed Piece SH & harrow[e]d too wet to work well - lambs doing pretty well - very showery time no sowing
 
15th began drilling oats in Far piece S.H. harrow[e]d & sow[e]d finished
 
There are no more entries for the rest of April 

Tuesday 18 June 2013

A Farm Journal ~ from the 16th to the 31st March 1869 ...

My great great great uncle John Bayliff Bowman lived at Summer Hill, near Monyash in the County of Derby. 

The Bowman family, who were Quakers, had three farms, One Ash Grange [which John Bayliff Bowman often referred to as O.A.], Cales and Summer Hill [which he usually referred to as S.Hill or S.H.]

John Bayliff Bowman is fourth from the left in the photo below ...
 
The Bowman family

 A Farm Journal continues :~
 
3 - 16 Stormy 4d Fine to Middleton for some boards met Father & R.A. also Maria & Bertie there
 
4 - 17 Stormy
 
5 - 18 Fine frosty Cotton cake to Cales chopped at Cales etc
 
6 - 19 very stormy snow[e]d heavy W.N.E. Jesse to Millers Dale for Lime ers [those who work with lime ?] for mear at S.H. Richard Clulow doing it over with lime under pitchings on Clay - grains to Cales
 
7 - 20 Fine bright day W.N.E. snow most gone by noon Cheese off to G.Baker 22 Cwt seeds up from Jos. 3 Bar[ren ?] Cows to Elton sold  Luke Headfield £42 - Robt. Heathcote here doing gigs
 
1 - 21 Fine
 
2 - 22 Fine frosty grinding Indian corn at Cales etc. self to Nott[ingha]m even[in]g
 
3 - 23 Fine but cold N.E. winds to Warsop to look sturks doing pretty well
 
4 - 24 at Nott[ingha]m Fine do  [or perhaps ditto ?]
 
5 - 25 Fine but cold N.E. Wind to Matlock Bridge met hogs coming home - gig to meet me took 3 up in gig. Wm. Hadfield brought rest poorish
 
6 - 26 Ditto Ditto grinding Indian corn etc at Cales - harrow[e]d ley at S.H.
 
7 - 27 Very frosty & snow on gr[oun]d things doing mid - very severe [next word indecipherable]
 
1 - 28 gr[oun]d cov[ere]d snow thunderd [sic]
 
2 - 29 Snow gone Fine day B[akewe]] Fair many beasts rather dull owing to scarcity of fodder cheese 70/- to 80/-
 
3 - 30 Fine Slack in to chop S.H. Sheep on from Cales for Lambing began to sit up
 
4 - 31 Fine days frosty nights 
 

Monday 17 June 2013

Mother Cap for the first time ...

 We walked away from the National Trust car park at Longshaw towards Fox House, a delightful pub just inside the Sheffield boundary ...

Longshaw, Carl Wark, Mother Cap ... and all points between !

We were greeted almost immediately with a rather ominous sign ...

Longshaw, Carl Wark, Mother Cap ... and all points between !  

From Houndkirk Road you get a great view of Carl Wark, with Higger Tor rather dwarfing it behind ...

Longshaw, Carl Wark, Mother Cap ... and all points between !

 Houndkirk Road is an ancient road [I don't know how ancient] and heads northward towards the western side of Sheffield ...

Longshaw, Carl Wark, Mother Cap ... and all points between !

Longshaw, Carl Wark, Mother Cap ... and all points between !

A mile or so along it it we could see some of the buildings of the city beyond Houndkirk Hill ...

Longshaw, Carl Wark, Mother Cap ... and all points between !

 There was still plenty of moorland between us and Sheffield though ...

Longshaw, Carl Wark, Mother Cap ... and all points between !

 It was at this point that we left the old road and turned westwards to eventually cross Burbage Brook ...

Longshaw, Carl Wark, Mother Cap ... and all points between !

 The path we were following took us between Higger Tor and Carl Wark. In the photograph below Higger Tor rises above us as we cross the sometimes boggy ground ...

Longshaw, Carl Wark, Mother Cap ... and all points between !

 Carl Wark is an Iron Age hillfort dating back four to four and a half thousand years. Here's part of the man-made stone wall that forms part of its defences ...

Longshaw, Carl Wark, Mother Cap ... and all points between !

The wall must be between eight and ten feet high.

The hills to the west stretched away into the distance ...

Longshaw, Carl Wark, Mother Cap ... and all points between !

 We turned south, past the remains of a millstone ...

Longshaw, Carl Wark, Mother Cap ... and all points between !

 There are some unusual gritstone landmarks up here, besides the man-made ones ...

Longshaw, Carl Wark, Mother Cap ... and all points between !

  Then we reached Mother Cap which merits a few photographs ...

Longshaw, Carl Wark, Mother Cap ... and all points between !

Longshaw, Carl Wark, Mother Cap ... and all points between !

Longshaw, Carl Wark, Mother Cap ... and all points between !

 A few paces beyond there's the head of a creature in stone ... with a smile and two eyes [or are they nostrils]. It looks like the head of a tortoise to me ...

Longshaw, Carl Wark, Mother Cap ... and all points between !

  Then on the floor, with the sun's ray coming in at a low angle I noticed this stone. Whether the markings have any significance ... whether they're ancient or modern I don't know. 

Longshaw, Carl Wark, Mother Cap ... and all points between !

  What we could age more easily were the two or three millstones lying near a disused quarry below where I stood. I was reading some blurb at Caudwell's Mill just a day or so ago and it said that when metal grinders/rollers became readily available in watermills the need for millstones ceased almost overnight. This is rather supported by the fact that there are so many millstones lying around in this part of the Peak District ... still awaiting removal or collection ...

Longshaw, Carl Wark, Mother Cap ... and all points between !

 We passed through silver birches ...

Longshaw, Carl Wark, Mother Cap ... and all points between !

 ... and I found another of the Peak Park 'poetry benches' ...

Longshaw, Carl Wark, Mother Cap ... and all points between !

 The nearby car park only dealt in credit cards ...

Longshaw, Carl Wark, Mother Cap ... and all points between !

 Surely there's something to be said for a Ranger with a high powered rifle being positioned nearby ?  OK ... I jest ...

On the far side of the A6187 we followed the ancient sunken lane which runs back towards Fox House and the Longshaw Estate ...

Longshaw, Carl Wark, Mother Cap ... and all points between !

 We crossed Burbage Brook again but this time by a much more modern bridge ...

Longshaw, Carl Wark, Mother Cap ... and all points between !

 On the National Trust's Longshaw Estate further work has been undertaken clearing rhododendrons ... work that the Derbyshire Dales Group of the Ramblers were involved in 15 years or more ago ...

Longshaw, Carl Wark, Mother Cap ... and all points between !

 I think this ant forms part of a Trail of some sort ...

Longshaw, Carl Wark, Mother Cap ... and all points between !

 I never tire of taking photographs of Carl Wark with Higger Tor behind [as you may have noticed over the years] ...

Longshaw, Carl Wark, Mother Cap ... and all points between !

 The sun was setting quite quickly as we neared the car ...

Longshaw, Carl Wark, Mother Cap ... and all points between !  

This walk was followed on the 27th April 2011
 
Length of stroll ~ 5.02 miles [very approximately] *
 
Total mileage walked so far in 2011 ~ 147.09 miles
 
Total mileage between the 1st September 2009 and the 27th April 2011 ~ 675.14 miles

  33 of 2011 [which means in 2011 I was averaging just over 4.45 miles a walk.]
 
* distance calculated on Ordnance Survey's Getamap