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| The path from Stanton in Peak to the A6 |
Leaving Main Road in Stanton in Peak by the public footpath that leads north to the A6, I stopped to have a quick look at the Old Post Office House, which I can’t pinpoint and date from any of the old Ordnance Survey maps, I continued past the village school.
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| The Old Post Office House |
From its general appearance, which looks Victorian, I thought that it might be a Board School, which were built following the Education Act of 1870 and, having seen many of these in Sheffield, I always look out for them on my travels.
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| Stanton in Peak Primary School |
Looking closely at the inscribed plaque above the entrance, however, it is another example of a gift to the village by Mrs. Thornhill-Gell, which includes the building of the Reading Room in 1876 and the purchase of the first organ at the church the following year. She laid the foundation stone in 1877 and the school was completed by Reverend A.W. Hamilton-Gell in 1879.
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| The inscription above the entrance to Stanton in Peak Primary School |
Leaving the village, I soon obtained a view of Shining Bank Quarry, which I spotted from the top of Main Road when I entered the village and visited in 1995, when assessing the RIGS (Regionally Important Geological Sites) in the Peak District National Park for their geotourism value.
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| A view of Shining Bank Quarry |
At the time, it was a working quarry and wasn’t a suitable site for members of the general public to visit, but it did have an excellent exposure of a thick layer of glacial till that lies on top of the Eyam Limestone Formation. Back in 2009, according to the Haddon Estate website, the quarry was near to the end of its life and being restored and the till now appears to be overgrown.
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| The escarpment formed by the Ashover Grit |
With the escarpment formed by the outlier of the Ashover Grit to my right, the British Geological Survey map indicates that along the public footpath I crossed over glacial till and landslide deposits, which both form very uneven ground.
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| A geological map of the area between Stanton in Peak and the A6 |
To the west and north-west, both the older Eyam Limestone Formation and the Monsal Dale Limestone Formation both outcrop to form the high ground that rises to an elevation of 356 metres at the Bole Hill trig point to the north-west of Over Haddon.
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| A panoramic view of high ground formed by Carboniferous Limestone |
Further to the north, the public footpath descends on to the Bowland Shale Formation, where in one place I noted a distinct change from grassland to bog loving plants and, zooming in with my Panasonic Lumix TZ100 camera, I could see that a spring emerges here and the resulting stream has cut a small channel downslope of this.
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| Boggy ground associated with a spring |
Reaching the floodplain of the River Lathkill and the end of the public footpath at Stantonhall Lane, I stopped to look back and take a few photos of the northern end of the Ashover Grit outlier, which rises above Pilhough Lane.
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| A view of the northern end of the Ashover Grit outlier |
Continuing along Stantonhall Lane for a short distance, I was surprised to come across the Tudor style Lathkill Lodge, which was built c.1845 for the Thornhill family estate based at Stanton Hall, but wasn't included in my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge.
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| Views of Lathkill Lodge |
To each side of the entrance to the lodge, there is a stone eagle that I thought might relate to the family crest of William Pole Thornhill, who would have been responsible for construction work on the estate at this time; however, the reference to him on pages 64/65 of Heraldic illustrations, by J. and J. B. Burke, shows only a lion.
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| A stone eagle at Lathkill Lodge |
It had taken less than 30 minutes to walk from Stanton in Peak and, before continuing to the bus stop, I stopped on the bridge to have a quick look at the River Lathkill, next to which the lodge is set and at this point is only 100 metres away from the confluence with the River Wye.
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| A downstream view of the River Wye |
My day out had taken a great deal of planning and I had set off from Treeton 7 hours earlier, with half of this time spent on the 4 buses that had eventually taken me to Birchover, including a brief look at Darley Dale. The following very enjoyable exploration of Rowtor Rocks, Main road in Birchover, Stanton Moor and the historic buildings of Stanton in Peak had made up for the effort and I only had to wait a few minutes before the first of another 3 buses to get me home arrived.
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| An upstream view of the River Wye |
