An Afternoon in Bakewell - Part 4

 

Bagshaw Hall

Retracing my steps from Monyash Road, I continued my afternoon in Bakewell by diverting up Church Lane to find Parsonage Cottage, a private house with limited access that is partly obscured by a limestone dry stone wall. 

 

Parsonage Cottage

 

This is another part of the town that I never visited during the three years that I lived there, which includes the Bakewell Old House Museum on Cunningham Place. Built in limestones with gritstone quoins and dressings and a stone slate roof, Historic England describe it as C16 and C17, possibly of earlier origin and with later additions and alterations’. 

Views of the Bakewell Old House Museum

I popped inside for a few minutes to talk to the staff in the reception, but I got no real appreciation of what the museum is like and continued down to Bagshaw Hill, to photograph the gritstone enclosure wall to the gardens of Greenbanks Hallcroft. 

 

The enclosure wall to the gardens of Greenbanks Hallcroft

Walking back up the hill, I stopped very briefly to take some general record photographs of the Grade II* Listed Bagshaw Hall, which wasn’t on my list but provides another good example of an original gritstone house (1694), with a C19 limestone extension. 

 

Views of Bagshaw Hall

The garden wall at Yew Tree Cottage is Grade II Listed for its group value, for its attachment to the cottage but, with very little to see here I made my way back to All Saints church and, before I further explored its interior, I had a quick look at the churchyard. 

 

The garden wall at Yew Tree Cottage

 

On the first occasion that I visited All Saints church, I was struck by the large collection of mediaeval grave slabs in the porch and also the C10 Anglo-Scandinavian high cross, which is made in gritstone and was brought from Two Dales in Darley Dale. 

 

The Anglo-Scandinavian cross

It also has an early C9 Anglo-Saxon Great Cross, with an early C19 wrought iron railing enclosure. Like the high cross, it is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and is also made with gritstone, which was probably quarried from the nearby Ashover Grit.

 

The Great Cross

At the west end of the south aisle, several coffins have been stood up against the wall, but I am not sure what their date is or if they are related to any of the grave slabs in the porch. With the sun now shining brightly, I took the time to take a better look at the Norman west door.

 

Mediaeval stone coffins

 

Historic England describes the C12 west door as having two orders of colonnettes, beakhead ornament and saltire crosses, with the fragmentary blind arcade above it having chevrons, but the stonework is heavily weathered and the detail is not easy to see. 

 

The round arch to the west door

 

At a higher level on the chancel wall, there are what look to be lancet windows, which are usually an indication of the C13. Both windows have very weathered cushion capitals and voussoirs and a chevron pattern can be seen on many of the latter; however, the position of many of the blocks with the chevron pattern is very erratic, with some having no apparent relationship to the windows – perhaps indicating some C13 rebuilding of them. 

 

Lancet windows

 

All Saints church was subject to major phases of rebuilding in the C19 that I haven't looked at closely but, on this occasion, I still had very many listed buildings to photograph in Bakewell and a further exploration will have to wait until the next time that I visit. 

Masonry blocks with chevrons