We are always in search of new plants for the garden and needed a few to fill in some of the gaps in the border along the terrace – a strip we refer to as the “Trench” given that’s how it started. We have been to Bonsall a few times, stopped and talked, seen gardens, but never been to the plant centre there until now. Oh, what a treat! How did we manage to miss that? It is jam packed with perennials of all sorts – foxgloves, many geraniums we haven’t got (umm, now have), several thalictrum varieties, clematis and loads and loads more. A cottage gardener’s delight, reasonably priced, great looking plants that appear very well looked after, hardy (the nursery is at 900 feet above sea level and not well sheltered) and with a tremendous view across the valley.
Hopton Hall is very well known for its marvellous displays of snowdrops and aconites every year - and when the gardens are opened to the public each February to see them. A well marked path snakes its way round the woodland and formal gardens where several different varieties of snowdrop stand to attention as you pass. During February, of course,
the gardens are extremely barren and only show hints of what the display will look like later in the year. This year, however, the gardens were opened throughout the summer for visitors to see and enjoy the amazing displays, particularly the roses in the 1 acre walled garden that is the centrepiece of the garden.
Over the weekend of 13th/14th June the Derbyshire village of Bonsall opened up nearly two dozen of its private gardens for charity. Bonsall is situated at the edge of the Peak District, close to Matlock and Cromford, and stretches from a junction with the A5012 Via Gellia road, up a long and sometimes steep hill to Upper Town which tops out at around 900 feet above sea level providing really excellent views back down into the Derwent Valley.
My daughter Sophie regularly asks me to take her to Curbar Edge for a walk on summer evenings. It ticks all the boxes - it's easy to get to, the walks are as long or short as you like, the views great, lots to see and, if you're a child or still act and play like one, plenty to climb and scramble over.
Curbar Edge makes a spectacular backdrop to the village of Calver just along the A623 road from Baslow towards Buxton. The fields rise gently from the River Derwent and climb steeper and steeper until the exposed millstone grit emerges from the ground nearer the top at about 330m above sea level. A strip of exposed gritstone runs along Curbar Edge from the Curbar road and gap until it joins Froggatt Edge about a mile away to the west. This has created a paradise for climbers who are almost always to be found clambering up the many routes along the edge. To climbers Curbar Edge is known as the "Cloggy of the Peak" as there are so many difficult routes amongst the 280 or so recognised routes along its length.
Since 2005 the Thornbridge Brewery has been brewing award winning ales, the most successful being Jaipur, their India Pale Ale (IPA) which has won plenty of awards and rave reviews. The brewery started life in derelict buildings in the grounds of Thornbridge Hall, a stately home just outside Ashford-in-the-Water in Derbyshire. The brewery's success means that it is moving to larger premises in nearby Bakewell. Today, for the first time, the gardens of the Hall were open as part of the National Gardens Scheme.
The Peak District National Park doesn't recognise county boundaries and whilst the lion's share is within Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire also get a small share of the area. It's reach is one of the many factors that makes it popular with visitors and there are estimates that 50% of the UK population live within 50 miles of its borders. That's quite a large number of people, not all of whom have ever visited the area of course, but certainly helps to account for it being very busy on some summer weekends when the sun is shining. It is surrounded by large cities and towns: Derby, Nottingham, Sheffield, Doncaster, Leeds, Halifax, Rochdale, Manchester, Warrington, Stoke, Stafford, Birmingham, Leicester and many others are all within easy reach of the Peak District. It is the UK's first National Park, the highest peak is an accessible 631m above sea level, there's great walking, rock climbing, fishing, cycling, gliding and much more.
If all that sounds exciting, it is, and it makes it a vibrant and a popular place to visit. It is also one of the most beautiful parts of the English landscape with contrasts on a par with the rest of the United Kingdom. Sure, it doesn't have the high mountains of Scotland or the Lake District, but what it doesn't have in height it makes up for in the grandeur and beauty of its dales and valleys. It also has plenty of contrast from the high Dark Peak moorland areas on top of large expanses of millstone grit, some of which is exposed to reveal a strip of rocky edges that traverse the area from north west to east, to the rush of streams and rivers winding their way through the White Peak dales of limestone valleys and gorges.
After several days threatening it eventually rained today, a few heavy showers and just what the plants needed. This evening the sun appeared for a while and cast a lovely light over the border; it would be a shame not to step outside with the macro lens and try to capture a few rain drops on the plants… These are a few of the images that I particularly liked.
Wirksworth is not the first place you would think of when searching Derbyshire for garden delights. It's a small town just outside the Peak District National Park, close to several large limestone quarries and once the centre of the lead mining industry in Derbyshire (now long deserted). It's also an old town with narrow streets and alleyways (colloquially known as "ginnels") that criss-cross the hillside. Gardens and courtyards are often small and hidden well away from the main streets. You could easily have made a big mistake thinking that the gardens here are not worth looking at, but the Wirksworth and Gorsey Bank Open Courtyards and Gardens event held on Saturday and Sunday 11th and 12th July demonstrates.
We found this garden and nursery by complete accident and didn’t even know of its existence beforehand. Having seen a post for a Plant Fair at Kedleston Hall on 4th and 5th July, we drove down the drive but could see no-one walking to their cars with bags of plants, no stalls, simply nothing to suggest there was any plant fair going on at all. We didn’t go into the garden, of course, as I guess that was where the fair was being held (assuming it was!) Even though I am a fully paid up member of the National Trust, I am starting to think about next year’s renewal as I cannot get the value I want from the subscription – I need photographs of gardens and plants and at National Trust locations I cannot use the photographs I take for any commercial purposes given their rather draconian conditions, so I’m starting to avoid their locations. I am seriously considering cancelling the subscription as it just doesn’t work for me any more. However, I digress…
