History is everywhere with us in the Peak District.  People have lived on and shaped the land for thousands of years, from the erectors of prehistoric standing stones and henges, right down to the current developments needed to house today’s expanding population. This walk touches a sample of five different ways the Peak has been […]

DISTANCE: 3½miles (5.6km) of easy walking along farm lanes and woodland, plus by-roads and side lanes. RECOMMENDED MAP: Ordnance Survey 1:25000 scale Explorer Map, Sheet 269, Chesterfield & Alfreton. PUBLIC TRANSPORT:  Stagecoach X17 from Matlock. CAR PARKING: Roadside on Belland Lane, connecting the A632 Matlock/Chesterfield road to the B5057 Darley Dale /Two Dales road. REFRESHMENTS: […]

DISTANCE: 5 miles (8km) of field and river path walking linked by a mile of walled farm track.  Reasonably dry underfoot except during lengthy wet spells. RECOMMENDED MAP: Ordnance Survey1:25,000 scale Outdoor Leisure Series Sheet 24, White Peak area. PUBLIC TRANSPORT:  TM Travel service 65 between Sheffield, Miller’s Dale and Buxton, hourly service, Monday to […]

DISTANCE: 3½ miles (5.6km) of moderate forest track, open moorland, surfaced road, waymarked field path and rough access drive.  525 foot (160m) climb. RECOMMENDED MAP: Ordnance Survey Outdoor Leisure Sheet 1, Dark Peak. 1:25,000 scale. PUBLIC TRANSPORT: Hourly TP service buses to Buxton, then bus or train to Disley where a short walk along a […]

Lathkill Dale is one of my favourite walking areas of the Peak. I don’t know how many times I have walked beside what Izaac Walton called ‘the purest of streams’. I have walked there and enjoyed it in all weathers and in every season of the year. There are almost unlimited variations of footpath routes […]

I’ve always thought of Ripley town centre as a comfortable place. A wide variety of shops; well connected by public transport, which runs through the centre of the town, and there’s plenty of car parking. Ripley isn’t overpowering; part of its charm is that it’s all on a human scale. That comfortable feeling doesn’t vanish […]

Cooking in a traditional way has always been the priority at the Sanam on King Street Alfreton, and for the past 25 years they have stuck to that premise. Over that period of time they have seen restaurants come and go, some change hands. Their philosophy of providing quality food at a fair price has […]

Shapla Spice is one of the longest established restaurants in Ripley, Derbyshire. I must admit I drive past Shapla Spice almost every day and always thought it was a take away, how wrong was I?  It was on a pleasant Friday evening that my partner and I were booked in to dine, it was then […]

Fresh, seasonal and cooked in a traditional way. The New Inn is situated conveniently on the main A6 just midway between Belper and Duffield. And true to its name it is experiencing a new lease of life under the careful direction of Kyle and Hollie.  Make no mistake about it, this isn’t a fast food […]

Dining at The White Horse, Woolley Moor The White Horse conjures up the happiest of memories for us as it was here that we spent many sunny evenings with our children and friends enjoying the spectacular, beautiful Derbyshire countryside and a quiet drink. However, that was many years ago and happily, like our family, it has developed […]

The easing of lockdown made it possible for museums at least to partially re-open, and the Peak District Mining Museum in Matlock Bath’s Grand Pavilion was quick to take advantage of it.  With its easy access, visitors can explore the story of lead mining in the Peak District.  Everything is open except the popular children’s […]

Brian Spencer takes a trip to Bugsworth canal basin, once the largest inland port in England’s canal network. Drive along the A6 Chapel-en-le-Frith bypass and the odds are you will be unaware that below the road there was once a busy inland port handling stone and lime brought down from the hills in horse-drawn wagons […]

Adam is a familiar face to many as a TV presenter and tenant of the Cotswold Farm Park, a 650-hectare mixed farm in the Cotswolds, home to more than 50 breeding flock and herds of British rare breed farm animals. The Country Food Trust recently hit its five-year target of providing more than one million […]

Matlock started off as a collection of small settlements in the Middle Ages which, thanks to the coming of the railway and a consequent astonishing boom in demand for hydropathic health treatments, quickly became subsumed into a new, rather homogenous whole. When it came to treatments, the Regency upper classes favoured Matlock Bath; the Victorian […]

While we know the central and western parts of the Yorkshire Dales, the eastern edges alongside the Vale of York are, to say the least, a bit hazy to us.  After doing a bit of research, we found that Richard spent his childhood and trained in knightly skills at Middleham Castle in the lower reaches […]

Paula’s Choice Calm Repairing Serum, £33 This silky-soft serum soothes sensitive skin and calms redness with a gentle yet powerful blend of antioxidant plant extracts and skin-replenishing ingredients. The concentrated anti-ageing formula minimises the appearance of wrinkles while leaving skin soft, hydrated and calm. What are the key ingredients? SEA WHIP EXTRACT Extract from the […]

Fresh Lotion  For The Body £36 200ml Cool, fluid, pleasing. The bright scent of Orange Blossoms. Like a morning breeze that awakens the bay of Alexandria, this lotion refreshes sleepy skin, leaving it soft and replenished. Smoothing Body Polish £48  200ml Sumptuous, rich, regenerating. “Queen of All Fruits” the bountiful pomegranate from Carthage is brimming […]

Natural Cosmetics with a difference. Our brand is much more than a chic logo – it denotes our cosmos. Our selected medicinal plants are certified organic and help the skin to help itself and to regenerate. We respect our inner beauty just as much as our outer beauty. We are obsessed with quality and have […]

Skin Academy has just launched the UK’s most eco-friendly beauty range, Skin Academy Zero. Skin Academy Zero is the first mass market, 100% natural, 100% recyclable / recycled packaging and sustainable skincare range that is set to shape the future of the beauty industry. The innovation sets a new environmental standard in the beauty industry, […]

Nourish from the outside-in with these new additions to the vitamin-packed Pre-biotic  SUPERFOOD SKINCARE RANGE New Superfood Blackcurrant Jelly Exfoliator £28 | 50ml This super gentle facial scrub is jam-packed with anti-oxidant rich fruit extracts, Black Tea Extract and Glycerin, leaving the complexion smoother, softer and hydrated. • Sustainably-sourced Blackcurrant Fruit Pulp exfoliates for a smoother, […]

‘On the west side of the Mill Stream is a good house, built by Mr. Beardsley – on the side of a hill on which was formerly a castle still called Castle Hill, but by others Cockpit Hill.’ Written in 1713, William Woolley, Derbyshire’s first historian, of Cockpit Hill House. This enigmatic building suffers from having […]

Like Norton, about which I wrote last year, Hazelbarrow – part of Norton in my opinion, but according to Historic England belonging to Eckington – is one of those places which were included in the considerable chunk of our county which was appropriated by the City of Sheffield in 1936 to boost rate income.  Hazelbarrow […]

As you proceed out of Matlock going north you will pass on your right the end of Dimple Road, which rises vertiginously up the steepish hillside. Some way up you might just miss Allen Hill a narrow road leading down into a mass of 1960s housing and rising out on the other side as little […]

When Mick Stanley and I were researching the first edition of The Derbyshire Country House around 1980 our attention was drawn by a colleague of Mick’s at the Derbyshire Museum Service (of blessed memory) to an item in a north Derbyshire auction. Provenanced from a vendor in Buxton, this was a fine oak 17th century […]

‭‬For any reader who missed my description of Greenhill Hall‭, ‬I ought to repeat that although Norton is today a fully integrated suburb of Sheffield‭, ‬this has only been the case since 1936‭, ‬when the Sheffield Council‭, ‬greedy to boost rate income‭, ‬managed‭ ‬to obtain a large chunk of NE Derbyshire during the local government […]

Quiz question:  Who is James Graham? Is he (a) the writer of the TV drama about the coughing scandal on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?; (b) a collaborator working on a new musical with Elton John; (c) the winner of an Olivier Award for a comedy; or (d) the man who penned an episode […]

Her books have sold 16 million copies worldwide, been translated into 40 languages and recently her work topped the fiction, non-fiction and children’s book charts all in the same week. But Val McDermid isn’t sitting back basking in her success: she’s always looking for new challenges. The 64-year-old crime writer is working on her next […]

More than ten years on from her unforgettable rendition of I Dreamed A Dream from the musical Les Misérables, Susan is heading out on tour to do what she loves most of all: singing to an audience. When she stepped onto the Britain’s Got Talent stage, few people could have imagined the impact she would […]

‘Prism is at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre from 3rd – 12th October and at The Theatre Royal, Nottingham from 21 – 26 October’Tara admits she always gets nervous: “It’s always been the same as far back as I can remember. Excitement and the desire for something to be good are the drivers and inevitably make […]

Take two of the world’s greatest classical voices, get them to sing a selection of their favourite hymns, arias and popular songs, and what do you have? One of the fastest-selling albums nowadays of any genre. Aled Jones and Russell Watson are continuing their partnership with their first tour together, stopping off in Nottingham where […]

Over the past month the colours in the trees have really started to change, have you got space in your garden for a small growing tree? There are plenty of different varieties that are suitable for a modern small garden – they create a focal point that is evident all year especially if you choose […]

Wow October already!  It truly has been one of the best years for growing.  With last month’s ‘Indian’ summer along with the warm start to the autumn season this continues to be a kind year to gardeners and more importantly those of us able to be outside enjoying the garden. With the fantastic sunny weather […]

Last month I was asked to judge Ticknall Flower and Produce show for the third time. The standard was very high again and extremely difficult to judge. I was pleased to see a great effort from the children’s category and an interesting section “Gardening Disasters” which strangely enough made me smile than cry. I said […]

Its always interesting looking back on my diary and what I wrote this time last year in Country Images Magazine. I wrote about how the rain just kept coming and it rotted the Rose blooms on the plants – it just shows that 2 years are never the same and you have to adjust your […]

Last month I visited a place where I used to go as a child almost every weekend, Elvaston Castle near Borrowash. It must have been about 15 years ago that I last visited the walled gardens – I had the opportunity to visit again to see what the gardeners have done (with very little money). […]