John Edward Cooper’s Notes

DAY 4 Ilam Park, Afternoon Tea and Dovedale (NB please wear strong shoes!)
10:00 Depart for Ilam, to visit the park
12:30 Drive to the famous Isaac Walton hotel. The coach parks below the hotel, on the road.
13:00 Afternoon tea in the hotel, followed by a walk to Dovedale with its famous stepping stones. You may prefer to stay in the hotel grounds, relaxing and admiring the views.
15:30 Depart Dovedale for Buxton, with a brief stop at the beautiful village of Hartington en route.
16:45 Arrive at the hotel.

There was rain in the night, and at 5am it turned very heavy. Janet reported that she had a “Good sleep. Around 9 hours. Up 7.15am. Well rested. … [John] still has ‘the runs’. Hope he’ll be OK.” I checked the location of the nearest post office using Google Maps (07:26–07:31): it’s in Spring Gardens, the shopping street. I shaved and showered after Janet vacated the bathroom.… I again had Rice Krispies at breakfast. Not sure whether I had orange juice: nothing else to eat, anyway.
 It was our last day, and I hadn’t sent a postcard to Chris, so we went out and headed for Spring Gardens. I found one of Haddon Hall at the W. H. Smith store, in the shopping centre not far along there; then we sat on a bench for me to write it, before going to the Post Office situated in the McColl’s convenience store at the far end of the street to post it. I needed to go there because I didn’t know how much it would cost to post.
 I experienced… diarrhoea, just before we were due to set off in the coach — though it didn’t seemingly cause hesitancy about joining today’s tour. There was a bit of rain en route, but when we arrived it had stopped, though the sky was grey. I didn’t note the route to Ilam Hall; it was perhaps by the A515, with a right turn near Tissington along unclassified roads. Rosey pointed out latterly that we’d gone from Derbyshire into Staffordshire, so we must have crossed the River Dove, for that’s where the boundary lies. Although it’s called the “Peak” District, much of the terrain en route was hilly, not mountainous; but towards the end we did see what we might classify as “mountains”. One had a flat top, as if the peak had been chopped off, which Rosey said was “Thorpe Cloud.” On arrival at Ilam Park, Janet and I went from the coach (cf. “11:31:48”, below) through the gatehouse in the courtyard (cf. “11:33:16” and “11:44:40”), to a café in the arcaded stable block (cf. “11:45:06”). Janet had a Diet Pepsi (“Yes!” she wrote, for it is her cola of choice when she can get it; most vendors have Coca Cola), and I had a bottled water with a cheese scone. It was perhaps there that we picked up National Trust leaflets about Ilam Park and about Dovedale. (Ilam Park is owned by the National Trust, and the Hall is leased to the Youth Hostels Association.) We referred to Ilam Park mostly as “11am Park”, sometimes as “Ham Park”, because of the appearance of the name in print.

Ilam Park



[Click on images to enlarge]

Then we walked back out of Ilam Park the way we’d come in earlier by coach, the 660 yards or so to the far side of the village, as far as the stone cross and the bridge over the River Manifold. The grey had broken into banks of cumulus clouds, through which the sun peeped from time to time.


Wednesday 28 July 2021 11:20:12
Ilam: Mrs. Watts-Russell Memorial (or Ilam Cross, left); “Swiss chalet” style houses (background, centre); and Bridge View Cottage (right)

Rosey had said that the houses had been built in “Swiss” style, but they didn’t look much like Swiss chalets to us.


Wednesday 28 July 2021 11:20:12 (detail)
Ilam: “Swiss chalet” style houses


Wednesday 28 July 2021 11:21:48
Ilam: view back from there of the bridge over the River Manifold

There was a church in the grounds of Ilam Park, but seemingly another one in the village. (I didn’t find out till some days later that this second “church” was in fact a primary school.)


Wednesday 28 July 2021 11:25:24
Ilam School

Then we went back to Ilam Hall, so I could photograph where we’d been earlier.


Wednesday 28 July 2021 11:27:28
Entrance to Ilam Park and Gatehouse Lodge


Wednesday 28 July 2021 11:31:48
Approach to Ilam Hall


Wednesday 28 July 2021 11:31:48 (detail)
Ilam Hall, east side


Wednesday 28 July 2021 11:33:16
Ilam Hall: courtyard and crenellated gatehouse with coach arch and oriel window


Wednesday 28 July 2021 11:44:40
Ilam Hall: west side of the gatehouse


Wednesday 28 July 2021 11:45:06
Ilam Hall: stable-yard

Someone from our party mentioned the abundance of bees in the lavender patch, so we went through the Italian garden to have a look.


Wednesday 28 July 2021 11:46:00
Ilam Hall: Italian garden


Wednesday 28 July 2021 11:46:56
Ilam Hall: Italian garden

From there we descended to the River Manifold by a zigzag path. I wanted to look at the nearby “Boil Holes”, but there was nothing to see, except a few swirls of water. I also wanted to look at St. Bertram’s Bridge, a little downstream of there to the east.


Wednesday 28 July 2021 11:50:04
Ilam Hall: path down to the River Manifold


Wednesday 28 July 2021 11:52:14
St. Bertram’s Bridge


Wednesday 28 July 2021 11:52:14 (detail)
Stalactites under the arch of St. Bertram’s Bridge


Wednesday 28 July 2021 11:53:02
Ilam Hall, south-east corner

Before we went back to the coach, we also had a closer look at the Church of the Holy Cross.


Wednesday 28 July 2021 11:59:44
Ilam Hall from the south-east


Wednesday 28 July 2021 12:01:20
Church of the Holy Cross, Ilam, from the south-west


Wednesday 28 July 2021 12:03:38
Church of the Holy Cross, Ilam, east end

Just then the rain started again, so we took refuge in the coach before the heavens would open fully. And they did! We left at 12.30pm for the short journey along Thorpe Road to the entrance to the driveway of the Izaak Walton Hotel, a mile east of Ilam Park. The coach stopped there, but the rain had eased off — just as well, because we had to walk 370 yards north-north-westwards from there up to the hotel. Janet and I didn’t join the others for the afternoon tea — which is what we were trying to tell Rosey yesterday evening. We went into a bar room: I had a pint of Staropramen Czech lager, which, I was surprised to find, was room-temperature. I perhaps should have said something, because such beers in my experience are always served chilled. Janet had “a mixed salad and some nice granary bread. And a Sprite Zero — what a nice change!”
 Janet recalled: “At 1.45pm Rosey came and said that as there was a window of opportunity (it was sunny outside again), four other people were going to Dovedale. So — I wolfed down as much as I could of my salad and bread; [John] had most of what was left! — we went with them. Why were we the only ones?!”


Wednesday 28 July 2021 13:48:42
Izaak Walton Hotel, Ilam, Ashbourne DE6 2AY

Dovedale



[Click on images to enlarge]

So we walked the 360-odd yards south-south-eastwards down the hotel drive, then turned sharply left, northwards into a wide tarmacked path through trees, with the River Dove to the right in a broad, meadowed valley. After some 450 yards there was a car park; and ca.200 yards farther along, we passed a National Trust “Welcome” sign (photo, below), indicating our entry into Dovedale proper. By now the valley had become narrow, with steep sides.


Wednesday 28 July 2021 14:00:28
Dovedale

I was looking in vain for a flat-topped mountain. (I didn’t realise till afterwards, that what was visible to the right were the flanks of it, of Thorpe Cloud.) By now we’d turned north-eastwards, and we continued this way till we got to the stepping stones.


Wednesday 28 July 2021 14:04:08
Dovedale


Wednesday 28 July 2021 14:05:38
Dovedale


Wednesday 28 July 2021 14:07:26
Dovedale


Wednesday 28 July 2021 14:09:48
Dovedale: Stepping Stones


Wednesday 28 July 2021 14:11:04
Dovedale: Stepping Stones


Wednesday 28 July 2021 14:12:50
Dovedale: Stepping Stones


Wednesday 28 July 2021 14:13:46
Dovedale: view south-westwards (downstream)


Wednesday 28 July 2021 14:32:38
Dovedale: returning over the stepping stones

In The motorbike and sidecar, par.30 I wrote, about childhood visits to the Peak District:

Another destination… was Dovedale. I remember crossing by the stepping stones, but how far along the steep-sided wooded valley we went I don’t remember. I remember passing a large limestone natural arch on the way. (When I went camping with Church Road County Primary School near Ashbourne, Derbyshire, perhaps in the Easter holidays 1961, I remember getting all excited when we visited and walked through Dovedale, because I’d been there. “Just along here, you’ll see a natural arch…”)

So where was it, this “natural arch”? Nowhere that I could see. It was later, looking at the Ordnance Survey map, that I saw that I’d have had to have continued around the sharp left bend in the river and proceeded upstream almost a further mile to see it. (Why wasn’t it on the National Trust leaflet and “welcome” sign? Perhaps the part of the Dovedale[i] owned by the National Trust didn’t extend downstream far beyond the bend.)

[i] The name is “Dovedale”, one word, on the National Trust information, and “Dove Dale”, two words, on the map (except where it is used attributively; there it is “Dovedale”, one word).

© 2021 Microsoft

“At 2.30pm we returned to the hotel then departed in the coach at 3.15pm,” Janet wrote. We went by unclassified roads then turned onto the B5054 to visit the village of Hartington, which according to Rosey was one of the most picturesque villages in Derbyshire. But again there was very heavy rain, with lightning and thunder as we travelled; so only one or two people braved getting off the coach when we arrived. We returned to Buxton along the A515. According to Janet’s journal, we “arrived ca.4.30pm”. We got a bit wet as we hurried from the coach up to the hotel at the beginning of another, very heavy, thunderstorm. I transferred 26 photos from the camera’s SD card to the WD Elements HDD (16:38).…
 Ca.5.15pm we went to the bar for a pre-dinner drink: I had Campari and soda, and when it tasted a bit dilute I had another measure of Campari added, then it was fine. Janet had a Diet Coke. She had a second one after we went for dinner; I finished off the bottle of Rioja. I had the “poached pear and prosciutto”, and it was different from those I’d had before: for one thing, the prosciutto was what I would call “prosciutto” — thin-sliced, chewy ham — not crispy streaky bacon; and for another, there was a half-pear, not little chopped strips. Janet had tomato and mozzarella salad, but got them to leave the dressing off. We were served with little loaves of hot brown bread. I again had rib-eye steak and chips. I had it because I knew I could have a little dish of unbranded caterer’s English mustard from a large container, and vinegar in a Sarson’s bottle. I asked for the steak without both an added mushroom and peppercorn sauce. Janet had pork fillet again, followed by fresh fruit salad.
 “We returned to our room then I sorted out the bill,” Janet wrote. We’d got a print-out of it from reception, and Janet wanted to check that it agreed with her reckoning. “I wanted to give the staff a tip, but as we only had about £18 left — and I was thinking of £30 — [John] went to the ATM.” This was perhaps the one at Barclays Bank near the start of Terrace Road (the A515). “In the meantime, I couldn’t make any sense of the bill so went down to reception and sorted it out. I was only 20p out — I was charging us more than the bill!… [John] came back just as I’d … paid, so I asked for an envelope and we put £40 in, as I suddenly felt that would be better.”
 (That reminds me that we also gave tips to Rosey and to Craig (£20 and £10, respectively). There was a woman from the tour party who’d been appointed — or had appointed herself — to organise this. She’d approached us, I think, yesterday evening; and if that’s the case, we gave her the money in named envelopes this morning.)
 We went to bed at ca.10pm.

[Thursday 29 July 2021]