John Edward Cooper’s Notes

DAY 3 Peak Rail, the Heights of Abraham and Matlock Bath
10:00 Depart the hotel for Rowsley Station and Peak Rail.
11:00 Round trip from Rowsley to Matlock by steam power and vintage diesel. There will be time to look at Rowsley Station and perhaps buy a coffee to go to enjoy on the train.
12:15 Depart for Matlock Bath, where we will go by cable car up to the Heights of Abraham for free time. You may wish to stay at the top admiring the stunning views or come down and spend time in Matlock Bath, maybe visiting the Aquarium or the Mining Museum, or strolling along the river.
16:00 Return to Buxton, arriving around 17:00.

Janet reported that she had “around eight hours’ sleep. I’d set the alarm for 7.50am,” she continued, “but was awake early so got up at 7.20am.” I shaved and showered after she vacated the bathroom.… My gut was still very “parlous”, and I was in two minds whether to risk joining the tour today. I guess that fruit juice isn’t recommended when one has diarrhoea, but I nevertheless had orange juice at breakfast. I had my usual Rice Krispies but nothing else. I didn’t want the lingering aftertaste of coffee, which made me feel slightly nauseous yesterday. Looked on the Asda website (09:10–09:25) for a suitable replacement for the Asus computer because of its broken screen, but didn’t find exactly what I’d like. I decided that I would risk going… I didn’t make a note of the route the coach took to Rowsley South railway station for us to travel on the Peak Rail train: the most direct route would be along the A6, on which it lies, ca. five miles south-east of Bakewell. Janet recalls that we did go through Bakewell again, after our actual visit to it. That being the case, we’d perhaps arrive at Rowsley South at ca.10.40am. There were toilets at the station, which I needed urgently… But I did manage… — actually, as the evidence below shows, with some eight minutes to spare.


Tuesday 27 July 2021 10:52:04
Peak Rail: saddle-tank steam locomotive

There was a carriage reserved for the Riviera people, but by the time we got aboard, there were few seats left, and none that were socially distanced; so we proceeded to the adjoining carriage, which was a corridor one with compartments (“like the ones we used,” Janet wrote, recalling her childhood, “Mam and us, when we went to Glasgow”), and we had a compartment to ourselves. The only problem here was that in a nearby, perhaps adjacent, compartment there was an infant that continually whined, cried and screamed, without any restraint or remedy being applied. The little saddle-tank locomotive chugged and chugged as it pulled us slowly with continual rhythmic jerking movements the 4½ miles to Matlock. The plan had originally been for the coach to pick us up at Matlock and take us on to Matlock Bath, but for some reason connected with COVID-19, we couldn’t do that and had to return to Rowsley South. I didn’t notice whether the diesel locomotive at the other end had been part of the train from the start and had been pulled to Matlock, or whether it was coupled to the train after we arrived there. The saddle-tank engine wasn’t uncoupled, anyway, and was pulled back on the return journey.


Tuesday 27 July 2021 11:26:54
Peak Rail: diesel locomotive

Our compartment was occupied when we re-boarded, but we found another vacant one — farther away from the mewling, whining, crying and screaming but not out of earshot of it. The journey back was no faster than the outward one, and seemed no smoother for the train’s being pulled by a diesel locomotive. Another visit to the loo at Rowsley South station didn’t cause me as much anxiety as that first one. (I used loos more or less I came across them, but see no need to mention this again.…)


Tuesday 27 July 2021 12:05:40
Peak Rail: Rowsley South station

The journey from there to the coach park just south of Matlock Bath railway station was ca.5¾ miles south-south-eastwards along the A6. The walk to the Heights of Abraham Cable Car lower station was some 300 yards northwards along a footpath, with a right turn under the railway through an arched stone bridge. A long queue snaked around the station building, and the fact that Riviera had an advance block booking[i] didn’t exempt us from having to join the back of it for a ca.40-minute slow advance to the front. Rosey handed out tickets to us all—




One of two identical tickets, issued to us by Rosey while we waited in the queue

—and an information card, which I didn’t find sufficiently informative.

 

[i] I assume there was an advance block booking, though the tickets themselves were printed at “13:09” and handed out as we waited.

The Heights of Abraham Cable Car is a gondola lift with twelve six-seater cabins, which operate in four trains of three cabins each. The cabins are permanently fixed to the cable — i.e. there isn’t a continuously moving cable, from which the cabins detach to enable boarding and alighting — so to allow passengers to get off and get on, the cable is stopped as each train of cabins passes through the stations. There are four trains but only two stations, so cabins also have to stop in mid-flight.


Tuesday 27 July 2021 12:48:10
Heights of Abraham Cable Car


Tuesday 27 July 2021 13:07:10
Map of the Heights of Abraham site


Tuesday 27 July 2021 13:25:04
Queueing for the Heights of Abraham Cable Car

Some of the Riviera party were happy to board in groups of four or even six; but we wanted to maintain social distance in the confined space of the cabin, with just the two of us boarding. Janet was afraid that she’d offended the fellow in front of us (pictured above, in the red cap) when she declined to share a cabin with them. “Once up the Heights,” she wrote, “I found him and apologised. I didn’t want him to think we’d refused because of his colour. We hadn’t, of course.” (There was no mention of “colour” to him. It was evident then, that what Janet perceived as a major issue had made little to no impression on him.)


Tuesday 27 July 2021 13:32:46
View of the River Derwent from the cable car


Tuesday 27 July 2021 13:32:46 (detail)
Canoe slalom course


Tuesday 27 July 2021 13:33:30
View of High Tor from the cable car showing the A6 road through Matlock Bath with Matlock town in the distance


Tuesday 27 July 2021 13:34:18
View of Riber Castle from the cable car

On arrival, we went straight to the café (pictured below).


Tuesday 27 July 2021 13:38:56
Heights of Abraham: approaching the Treetops Gift Shop and Vista Bar and Restaurant

I had a can of Sanpellegrino “Aranciata Rossa” to drink, with a packet of crisps. Janet got them to supply her with a plain bread roll, and apple and two clementines, and a soda pop. After that, we made our way to the Great Masson Cavern Tour.


Tuesday 27 July 2021 14:16:20
Heights of Abraham: water lilies

A party was just about to depart; and by good luck our coming brought it up to the maximum number, i.e. people behind us were excluded. That was fortunate, because we wouldn’t have had time to wait for the next tour, then make it back to the coach park in time for the 4pm departure. Just as at Poole’s Cavern, the young guide was entertainingly at turns factual and humorous — perhaps more the latter, for Janet wrote: “Our guide Matthew was a right hoot.”


Tuesday 27 July 2021 14:21:26
Heights of Abraham: waiting to start the Great Masson Cavern Tour


Tuesday 27 July 2021 14:28:54
Heights of Abraham: entering the Great Masson Cavern


Tuesday 27 July 2021 14:31:24
Heights of Abraham: the Great Masson Cavern


Tuesday 27 July 2021 14:31:54
Heights of Abraham: the Great Masson Cavern


Tuesday 27 July 2021 14:32:04
Heights of Abraham: the Great Masson Cavern


Tuesday 27 July 2021 14:32:42
Heights of Abraham: the Great Masson Cavern


Tuesday 27 July 2021 14:34:16
Heights of Abraham: the Great Masson Cavern

The Great Chamber, into which miners, and later perhaps in Victorian times visitors, would be lowered from Tinker’s Shaft above, would in those times have been lit by candles. There were now a candelabrum and other candles there (electric ones), to demonstrate, after the other lights were turned out, how ineffective they were for enabling one to see anything at all. Indeed, they made one wonder how any mining — of lead, and later fluorspar — in that almost complete lack of illumination could ever have been achieved. In The motorbike and sidecar, par.28, I recalled from my childhood days:

I remember the fact that we visited spa town and market town Buxton, probably more than once, but have no specific memories that I can relate. We probably visited the Pavilion Gardens; and given our liking for show caves, engendered by visiting the ones near Castleton, we may have gone to the extensive, multi-chambered Poole’s Cavern on the outskirts of the town. A memory of a guide turning out his light and plunging us into complete darkness for several seconds may come from here (if not here, then somewhere!).

When I wrote “somewhere”, I had in mind the Heights of Abraham show caves. Today, though, when the lights were completely out, there was still a very faint glow from Tinker’s Shaft above; so this, seemingly, couldn’t have been it. Indeed, I wonder, on reflection, whether this was my first visit to one of the show caves here.


Tuesday 27 July 2021 14:45:58
Heights of Abraham: the Great Masson Cavern, the Great Chamber


Tuesday 27 July 2021 14:48:40
Heights of Abraham: the Great Masson Cavern

As people were proceeding to the exit, but I hesitated to try to take a photo (i.e. the one above, which I evidently failed to do effectively!), Matthew (who was responsible for anyone’s getting out safely) held back too; and he pointed out a mark made by the miners, dated “1705”. It was perhaps ten feet from the floor of the cavern, but would have been near floor-level when it was made, indicating the amount of material that had been removed in mining operations since then.


Tuesday 27 July 2021 14:49:38
Heights of Abraham: the Great Masson Cavern, miners’ mark


Tuesday 27 July 2021 14:52:56
Heights of Abraham: the Great Masson Cavern, exit

Because of the talk of lowering people into the Great Chamber from above, I wanted to go and see from where that would have been done.


Tuesday 27 July 2021 14:54:16
Heights of Abraham: Tinker’s Shaft

The shaft itself had been boarded over, so there was little to see up there.


Tuesday 27 July 2021 14:55:32
Heights of Abraham: Tinker’s Shaft

It afforded an excellent view of the terrain on the other side of the gorge, though.


Tuesday 27 July 2021 14:59:12
View from Tinker’s Shaft: High Tor (centre); Riber Castle (above)


Tuesday 27 July 2021 15:00:06
Riber Castle

“Not long afterwards it started to rain,” Janet recalled, “so up went the brollies.”
 Before our departure from the site, I also wanted to see the Victoria Prospect Tower. If it provided a commanding “prospect” of the landscape, it must be high up, I thought; but upward paths seemed to lead nowhere. So I gave up the idea of seeing it, and we turned back, to descend to the the upper station of the Heights of Abraham Cable Car — which is when I saw it! If, when we were going straight to the café on first arriving, I’d looked around, I’d have seen it behind the station.


Tuesday 27 July 2021 15:09:28
Heights of Abraham: the Victoria Prospect Tower

I decided to make a quick ascent of the tower. But, Janet wrote, “I couldn’t go in: claustrophobia. I went back to the café for a pee. It was raining even heavier and I encountered [John].” That was after I was delayed getting down again.


Tuesday 27 July 2021 15:10:18
Heights of Abraham: the Victoria Prospect Tower, spiral staircase

Actually, for the most part, the “prospect” was obscured by trees, e.g. for getting sight of High Tor and Riber Castle.


Tuesday 27 July 2021 15:11:34
View of the upper station of the Heights of Abraham Cable Car from the Victoria Prospect Tower


Tuesday 27 July 2021 15:12:54
View of the Heights of Abraham Cable Car from the Victoria Prospect Tower


Tuesday 27 July 2021 15:13:26
View south-west from the Victoria Prospect Tower

“Quick ascent”: that was my intention; but when I got up there, before I could descend, scores of other people kept coming up, seemingly endlessly. It got very crowded up there; social distancing was completely lost. (There was one party of people, the males of which were wearing the kippah.)
 When I eventually did manage to get back down, and I met up with Janet again, we went to the upper station; but the queue was so excessively long that we decided to walk down. We asked an attendant the way, and she gave us a map, pointing out to us the direction to take first, and telling us that we’d have to push a button to open the gate at the West Lodge. Janet had donned her plastic raincoat that came down to her ankles but was effective at keeping out the rain. I contented myself with continuing to use an umbrella.




Tuesday 27 July 2021 15:23:48
Descending the Heights of Abraham

The way down wasn’t so excessively steep as to stop us thinking that we could have saved a lot of time by walking up earlier instead of waiting for the cable car. We had a quick drink at the Tavern. I had a bottle of Peak Ales Black Stag, a 4.8% a.b.v. stout.


Tuesday 27 July 2021 15:33:02
Information on the wall of the Tavern




Tuesday 27 July 2021 15:36:04
Heights of Abraham: the Tavern

We were the only ones there, but before we left a crowd entered from a tour of the adjacent Great Rutland Cavern. On leaving the Heights of Abraham estate, there was still a fair distance to go along downward-sloping urban roads till we crossed the main road and the river to reach the coach park. “We… arrived back at the coach spot-on 4pm,” Janet wrote: “[but we were] not the last there!” Almost the last, though: I expected there would be a few more latecomers because of the wait for the cable car. Our way back took us initially southwards, then eastwards along what Rosey called “Via Gellia”.

Via Gellia is a steep-sided wooded dry valley and road in Derbyshire. It is probably named after (or by) Phillip Eyre Gell in a mock-Latin style; he was responsible for building the road through the valley, and the Gells claimed Roman descent. [Wikipedia]

Via Gellia is the first part of the A5012 road, which is ca.9 miles in length, starting where we joined it and ending at a T-junction with the A515. There, we turned right and travelled the remaining 11½ miles north-westwards back to Buxton.
 Tomorrow’s itinerary promised “Afternoon tea in the [Izaak Walton] hotel”, which didn’t appeal to either of us; so Janet approached Rosey in the hotel lobby and suggested that she order for two less people, and we’d do something else. Rosey, however, suggested that we stay with the party, for we’d find something there that we would like; and Craig said that he would eat what was left over, anyway.
 After returning to the room to freshen up, we went to the bar again as we had yesterday, where I had a prosecco and Janet had a Diet Coke. Ca.5.30pm, we entered the “greenhouse”. I had another glass of prosecco and a new bottle of Rioja. Today’s soup was “vegetable”. I was concerned for Janet that it might be spicy, as the tomato soup had been yesterday; but after going to the kitchen to ask, the server assured us that it wasn’t, so we both had it. There was an item on offer that wasn’t on the daily menu, so I had that: lamb rump. I had a sachet of mint sauce with it: a bit too strong-flavoured, really, but it didn’t spoil things. Janet had veal. I had room for cheese, so I had that but no biscuits. Janet had fruit salad.
 “Only us in the restaurant,” Janet wrote, “and we were served by a young woman we’d not seen before. We ended up having a good yak with her. She was only young but, like us, had no use for a car so couldn’t drive, liked 60s music, and enjoyed getting around under her own steam. She was amicably estranged from her partner, and between them they were raising their seven-year-old daughter, who clearly came first. Quite rightly so. A remarkable young woman. If I could have hugged her I would have done. It was a pleasure to meet her.” She was most concerned not to disturb our meal, and was ready to withdraw; but it was our urging and keenness to converse, which encouraged her to stay, and chat. She evidently valued our approval of her, and our affirmation of her way of doing things.
 “We were back in our room at 7.15pm,” Janet noted. I transferred 34 photos from the camera’s SD card to the WD Elements HDD (19:29). I opened them in Windows Photo Viewer, and rotated two of them that needed it (19:35). Janet’s journal notes that “we were in bed at 9.40pm.”

[Wednesday 28 July 2021]