Sunday 30 August 2009

Gritty Walks

Yesterday Jill and I headed off towards Lyme Park, a 1400 acre deer park belonging to the National Trust. The Park is perhaps a mile and a half from the boats and criss-crossed by any number of trails and public footpaths including the Gritstone Trail, The North Cheshire Way and the The Lady Brook Valley Interest Trail.
Above and below, the Gritstone Trail. We headed off on the path you see above with thoughts or even plans? of walking the high moorland above Lyme Park House. Sadly after about a mile of rough going we came across a gate the was marked 'Bull in the Field' and also, though not mentioned, a herd of cattle and their calves. Now dogs and cows don't mix too well so after some consideration we turned and retraced our steps and went to plan B.
Another stunning view from the Trail.
Above, ancient beech trees adorn the park land and dwarf the dogs.
Above, a view of The Cage, a hunting Lodge of rather grand proportions!


Dry stone wall under repair.
Coming back into Disley en route to the boats we passed the church.
And below, a stone of heartbreak.........

James and Emery Sarah Boxall buried five of their children, the oldest being only 3 years whilst Mum and Dad made 62 and 66 respectively. There must have been a lot of heartache in that family.
Above The Rams Head which sits at the crossroads in Disley alongside the A6. Built in 1690 and formerly belonging to Lyme Park, then becoming a Coaching Inn. Good food to be had here.
So walk over, it was back to the boats, wash the Labradors on the towpath because they were distinctly odorous after finding a dead thing to roll in, then go blackberry picking. The mission today is to get some bramley apples and make a apple and blackberry crumble of course.

4 comments:

nb.bobcat said...

Having watched "Who do you think you are?" recently I can hazard a guess that they had syphilis. Apparently it was rife and, wherever you have a large gap in child bearing, this is usually the reason the children didn't thrive. Either Stillborn or weak and feeble - dieing days, weeks or years later.

Nb Yarwood said...

Bobcat
Poor Emery Sarah. I doubt that she brought that upon them then....
Lesley

nb.bobcat said...

Bizarrely that same Who do you think you are was on again yesterday so I watched it with Small Boy as it was quite interesting. Apparently 10% of people around that time had it and his great grandmother was born with it hence she went blind aged three. After about six years it goes away of its own accord. Then after marrying his great grandfather (blind from birth) and having her first child she caught it again and lost 6 children on the trot recovered again and then went on to have a further 5 children who survived and lived into her nineties!

Remarkable

May not have been the case for Emery Sarah.

Nb Yarwood said...

Hi Cath
I saw the tail end of that episode and remarked to Joe that was probably the programme you had seen.
Lesley