5 miles (8km): easy riverside walking along two attractive dales, linked by an interesting village street. RECOMMENDED MAP: Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 scale Outdoor Leisure Series; Sheet 24, The Peak District, White Peak Area. PUBLIC TRANSPORT: Hulley’s 171 hourly service from Bakewell (no Sunday service). CAR PARKING: laybys at roadside beyond River Lathkill bridge outside Alport. […]

3miles (4,8km): easy/moderate walking. Two short climbs on easy gradients RECOMMENDED MAP: Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 scale, Outdoor Leisure map Sheet 2, The White Peak. BUS SERVICES: Hulleys’ 172 runs at 38 minutes past the hour from Matlock, Monday to Saturday. CAR PARKING: on the village main street – please make sure you do not interfere […]

When Country Images magazine was first launched in 1994 we were pleased to be able to include walks from ‘not so’ Old Perce. Over the following months he traversed the Amber valley and provided delightful walks that, as all walks should, start and finish at the local pub. With many village pubs closing that has […]

The car park at the Cromford end of its namesake canal is a popular starting point for at least five walks to my reckoning. Most weekends and days in between, well-clad walkers will be congregating, busily pulling on their boots and at the same time, chatting to their friends. This walk starts, like all the […]

The two great houses visited on this walk are within four miles of each other as the crow flies, but each has made a unique impression on the face of the Peak District.  Chatsworth, ancestral home of the Dukes of Devonshire has developed following the fashions of house-building nobles.  Additions have been made since its […]

A Fusion of Flavours I’m not ashamed to say ‘I love Derbyshire’; every bit of it. From the Dark Peak of the moorland above Glossop to the ambling course of the River Trent as it twists and turns through the floodplain at the southern tip of the county. I also love its diverse industrial history. […]

The first thing that strikes you about the Marquis of Ormonde on Codnor Denby Lane, apart from the smart décor of the exterior, is the sleek steel and glass surround to the front terrace. This south facing alfresco seating area is decked out with matching solid wooden tables and benches making it an ideal spot […]

To spend 2 or 3 hours in one restaurant it has to be good. To spend the entire Friday evening at M.A.D.E.@No.18 it has to be exceptional and something different. It was early on a Friday evening that our taxi delivered us to M.A.D.E. @ No 18; a café-bistro at the top of the old […]

The carvery is a brilliant concept; a meal served in a pub or a restaurant where cooked meat is freshly sliced to order for diners, served in a buffet style for a fixed price. It lends itself, in a casual way, to the traditional Sunday lunch. But all too often we associate it only with […]

Choosing a place to take the grandkids for a meal can generally be quite a challenge for many of us.  So when I said “we will go to the Sanam on King Street, Alfreton at 6pm for an early doors meal”, I’m not sure it was what they were expecting.  It’s an Indian restaurant I […]

The Civil War brought tragedy to both countryside and town, none more so than in a quiet corner of the Derbyshire countryside.  Brian Spencer reports one small, but horrific event which occurred in the sleepy village of Ashover, near the head of the Amber Valley. The quiet village of Ashover sits amidst sunny fields near […]

Recently the original of the poster for the classic Carry-on film Carry on Cleo was offered for sale at an anticipated four-figure sum. This caught my eye more for its anticipated price as for anything. Of course, the film, was memorable for Kenneth Williams as Caesar’s wonderful line, ‘Infamy, infamy – they’ve all got it […]

The history of the North Midlands is writ large on this ancient town set high above the quiet meadows bordering the River Trent.  Its history is traced from Saxon and Norman times, through Tudor to the present day. Even the Danes who came this far up the Trent in their longships, made it their winter […]

Move over Glastonbury, Y Not and Download, the hottest festivals in the UK this year are more likely to feature ciabatta than The Cure. While some hardy folk still enjoy wading through slippery mud and vegan jugglers at music festivals – everyone, and their Labrador, loves a food festival. They are everywhere and so the […]

The Derbyshire Peak was once the major supplier of lead in the world.  There is the possibility of lead being dug from close to the surface in pre-Roman times, but it was one of the reasons why Rome decided to annexe Britain to its empire.  There is a folk memory of a kind of concentration […]

Replenish with Weleda Sea Buckthorn Replenishing Body Lotion 200ml £18.95 Intensive body care for dry skin. Fresh, fruity fragrant and replenishing body lotion to help your skin back to its natural beauty balance.  Sun-ripened riches in a bottle – organic sea buckthorn fruits and seeds yield the oil which makes this lotion rich and replenishing. […]

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New 4 Colour Pen  £28 Fun, practical and innovative, Clarins multi-use make-up pen, loved by women the world over, is back! New shades, new packaging and all the magic of an all-in-one, these easy to apply automatic pens feature 3 eye liners and 1 lip liner using a retractable function meaning you can wave goodbye […]

Be Beautiful with Benefit Hello Flawless £29 WHY WE LOVE IT Say “hello” to flawless! This famous powder cover-up glides on naturally sheer and layers beautifully for customized coverage. The silky formula comes with a newly designed brush AND a sponge for any degree of coverage you desire. HOW TO APPLY Cheers to a charming […]

Nourish The Skin You’re In with Crabtree & Evelyn Rosewater & Pink Peppercorn Hydrating Body Gel 250ml £30 For a lighter moisturiser, try this hydrating gel. No cream or residue – just super soft skin.  Want the intense, moisture-replenishing hydration that comes with a cream but don’t want the texture? This body gel is just […]

The Chesshyre family has been amongst the elite tradesmen of Derby since the beginning of the seventeenth century, when brothers Robert and John Cheshire, sons of a Breadsall farmer, set up in business in the town. John (1613-1689) was Mayor in 1680 and left descendants in the town, as did Robert (1602-1673) who was a […]

The story of the Strutt family and that of modern Belper, which they more or less created, are intertwined. They built the mills and the workers’ housing (to a very high standard for the period) and over several generations endowed the town with numerous benisons, leaving the built environment the better for it; today it […]

The manorial history of Brailsford is a long and distinguished one going back to the period of the Norman conquest. Then the manorial estate was held by one Elfin (as Domesday Book renders his name) or Aelfwine, clearly a man of Saxon descent. In 1086 he held not only Brailsford but also Thurvaston, Osmaston-by-Ashbourne, Culland […]

Breadsall was one of the villages immediately surrounding Derby that so far has escaped being absorbed by the ever-expanding city below it and to the south, although a considerable amount of land on the southern edge of the parish was absorbed in 1921 and is now host to the Breadsall Hill Top estate, created through […]

Readers will be well aware that Little Chester is a characterful Derby suburb which overlies the remains of the Roman small town of Derventio. What some may not know is that within its modest compass stands Derby’s oldest domestic residence: Stone House Prebend, on Old Chester Road, itself once the via principia of the military […]

I wouldn’t say that the Winter has been particularly bad, looking back on my gardening diary we had 7ft snow drifts in 2014 in South Derbyshire but I do think it has been a long one. For the first time in 20 years we had snow early in December so after stop – start with […]

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 […]