A Further Exploration of Bakewell

 

A blue plaque at Lumford House

The month of September 2023 proved to be very productive, with the Heritage Open Days at mediaeval churches in Kirkthorpe and Whitkirk and a trip to Sheffield General Cemetery, followed by an exploration of the geology and geomorphology of Ringinglow, the Ox Stones on Burbage Moor and the Limb Valley. 

 

The British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge for Bakewell

My next day out was to undertake a British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge for Ashford-in-the-Water, which I had last visited back in 2018, with my primary intention of visiting the Grade II Listed Holy Trinity church; however, while waiting for the bus, I made the most of my time by photographing a few listed buildings that I wasn’t able to see when in Bakewell a year earlier. 

 

East Lodge

 

I started at the East Lodge, formerly named The Cottage on old Ordnance Survey maps, together with the gate piers at the entrance to the drive to Holme Hall. When living in Bakewell, I had a temporary job as a postman and passed these every day on an old bicycle with Sturmey-Archer gears, which couldn’t keep up with my pace of pedalling as I came down the hill on Baslow Road at the end of my round. 

 

West Lodge

The West Lodge (1841) is built in the Tudor Revival style with a pair of very tall centrally placed chimneys, which are set at a diagonal. It is built with Carboniferous limestone walling which, unlike the East Lodge that comprises rubble mixed with gritstone, is well squared and coursed. 

 

Old quarries around Bakewell

 

According to the Conservation Area Appraisal (CAA), the gritstone used in Bakewell for ashlar and dressings came from the Ball Cross Quarry and at Manners Wood, which worked the escarpment of Ashover Grit that runs south from Bakewell to Rowsley and beyond Darley Dale to Matlock.

 

An extract from the Conservation Area Appraisal

 

The CAA goes on to say that limestones from the Eyam Limestone Formation are particularly prevalent as a building material in the Conservation Area, although the only quarry on this formation that I have seen on the Building Stones Database for England map explorer and the Ordnance Survey (OS) maps – the small Cracknowl Quarry at Hassop Station – is described as producing ‘’Derby fossil’, which is presumably polished crinoidal limestone. 

 

Quarries marked on the 1873 Ordnance Survey map

On the OS 1873 map for Bakewell, the three quarries marked are all located on the Monsal Dale Limestone Formation, but I have to say that I have never studied closely the stone in the many historic buildings that I have photographed, when visiting several villages in the White Peak to principally visit their mediaeval churches. 

 

The summer house at Holme Hall

 

My next listed building on Holme Lane to photograph was the late C17 summer house at Holme Hall, with its attached enclosure and garden wall, which show the same pattern of limestone for walling and gritstone for dressings, but I photographed this and the attached boundary wall using my zoom lens and can’t see the details of the stonework. 

 

The carthouse and stable

 

These materials are again seen at the early C19 carthouse and stable on the south side of Holme Lane, with the roof being made from stone slates that are likely to have come from Manners Wood, where they are known to have been worked from some beds in the Ashover Grit. 

 

Another view of the carthouse and stable

At first glance, there was nothing of particular interest to note but, from the photograph of its north-west elevation, I can see that a former opening has been blocked up with limestone that contains bands of chert, which are very dark grey in colour.

 

The location of chert mines and quarries in Bakewell

 

From the early C19 to the mid C20, Bakewell was once a major producer of chert for use in earthenware, which was mined and quarried from the Monsal Dale Limestone Formation in several places, including at the Holme Bank and Holme Hall mines to the north of Holme Lane and across the River Wye at Endcliff Wood and The Undercliff. 

 

A wall and gate piers at the entrance to Holme Grange

 

A short distance further on, I stopped to photograph the walls and gate piers at Holme Grange, which are made of limestone and gritstone respectively, but it seems that the chert bearing limestone was not considered appropriate for walls that front a prestigious house such as this. 

 

Lumford House

 

The Grade II Listed Lumford House, which was not part of my Photo Challenge, dates back to the mid C18 and is built using gritstone with a stone slate roof. A blue plaque explains that it was occupied by Richard Arkwright Junior between 1778 and 1792, following the construction of the nearby Lumford Mill. 

 

Holme Bridge

Crossing the Grade I Listed Holme Bridge (1664), a packhorse bridge that is now a Scheduled Monument, I turned to the south and continued down Buxton Road to the Victoria Mill (c.1800), where I took a photo of its wheel. 

 

The wheel at Victoria Mill

Continuing along Buxton Road, the last stop for my Photo Challenge was the wrought iron railings and gate at the C19 house Saxby, which I had somehow forgotten the year before. Although I had only walked for less than 1 km, I had learned a lot about Bakewell’s industrial history and was looking forward to taking another look at Ashford-in-the-Water, which was once famous for its Ashford Black Marble and associated inlaid products.

 

The railings and gate at Saxby