A church at Cheadle

On a recent visit to Cheadle Staffs, we had a mission to visit the Roman catholic church of St Giles. Our first glimse was the 200 feet high spire which dominates the small market town. The interior of the church is not beautiful but very rich in colour and design. Built in 1846 with the generosity of the 16th Earl of Shrewsbury living in nearby Alton towers, it was designed by Pugin with no expense spared. I hope the images will inspire you to go and see for yourself, but go armed with £1 coins to operate the lights!

On a cold day there were lots of nice teashops and a small indoor market in the town.

Also an interesting reclamation yard nearby which warrants another visit to this area for photographic opportunity.

www.lesoakes.com

Ludlow Food and Drink Festival

Last Friday I went on a 'jolly' with U3A to the Ludlow Food and Drink festival. We were all very impressed by the event held in the castle grounds of this lovely town, especially as the weather remained warm and sunny all day. I was amused that we indulged in a hog roast bap listening to a debate on 'Carnivores versus Vegetarians'. Other memorable tastings were sloe gin, elderflower flavoured icecream and 'fuffles' which was a combination of fudge and truffles (sweet variety!).

A Day out in Derby

Today I travelled by train to Derby to put a few ghosts to rest!

In the square these giant ghosts from Derby's heritage were being paraded and I was amused to wonder what the conversation would have been between wealthy Bess of Hardwick and Florence Nightingale - they were 3 centuries apart. They had been built by young people for the Arts Festival this weekend.

I found the cathedral very light and airy with beautiful yellow and blue stained glass windows. There was no sign of the Peregrine falcons having nested on a ledge of the tower but I did find a lovely contempletive garden behind the cathedral teashop.

The art gallery has a room devoted to Derby's famous painter Joseph Wright of the 18 century, but it was littered with musicians practicing for an evening concert today.

A visit to the magnificent shopping centre 'Westfields' has to wait for another visit as I was far too tired for any retail therapy.

The ghosts of Derby past were vanquished today as I found everyone so friendly and helpful.

Anderton Boat Lift

Yesterday a friend and I had a day out at Anderton country park near Northwich. In the morning we had a short walk in the extensive country park, trying not to get lost as we were booked onto the 12.30pm boat. The first part of the trip was in the boat lift which was a very ingenious system to lower and raise boats in big bath tubs from the upper Trent and Mersey canal to the lower River Weaver. You needed a bit of an engineering degree to understand the mechanisms involved but the commentary made it sound easy. Originally it was developed to transport coal, pottery and salt in the good old days, but after the restoration in 2002 it is now used for leisure transport. Then we had a 30 minute cruise up the river to Northwich and back.

Details can be found at http://www.andertonboatlift.co.uk/

All these trips out makes me feel like I'm on holiday at home!

Reckless Rocky Ramble

Last week with a couple of like-minded chums I had a day out in Derbyshire. Our destination was to find Bronze age rock carvings on the rocks behind The Druid Inn at Birchover. As I used to camp nearby with the family in the early 1980's I was appointed 'tour guide'.

After a splendid lunch at The Druid and armed with sticks and cameras we scrambled up to the extensive millstone grit outcrops, where I discovered that half a pint of 'Druid ale' cured my vertigo! We discovered lots of carved steps and seats but the ancient carvings were elusive even with photos and directions from the website

www.stone-circles.org.uk/stone/rowtor.htm

Then after an amble to nearby down town Winster with it's Market Hall owned by the NT, no visit to Derbyshire would be complete without a browse in Brierlow book store (see previous post Jan I think) . We limited ourselves to 30 mins so we could fit in tea at Longnor before heading home.

Yes folks it was another action-packed day out for 3 ladies of an uncertain age.

Lichfield

Yesterday I had an away day planned travelling by train to Lichfield as I had booked into an organ recital during the annual arts and music festival. I had always wanted to visit the cathedral dedicated to one of the Celtic saints - St Chad. The journey was interesting and problem free. Parking at Kidsgrove station, it was just under an hour on the comfortable London Midland train to Lichfield Trent Valley, then a connecting train to Lichfield city station.

The organist was Robert Quinney - he was only 33 years and suborganist at Westminster Abbey. The acoustics in the great cathedral were magnificent and it was a delight to see his hands and feet on the CCTV monitors. I felt it was a priviledge to be there.

During the day I had time to walk round the lovely Stowe pool to St Chad's Church and see the well that had been mentioned at the one by Chadkirk near Stockport - see earlier posting, as well as various art and photographic exhibitions before it was time to head for home.

A visit to Chadkirk

Last week on a free day I decided to get my train 'fix' with a visit to Chadkirk on an estate situated north east of Stockport in the lovely Goyt valley. I had heard of this church dedicated to St Chad, a celtic saint who was a missionary in this area in 7th century, from my connections with the Community of Aidan and Hilda. I 'railed' from Congleton to Manchester and then on to Romiley. It was only a short walk down a steep hill to the church and walled garden backed by woods. A wonderfully peaceful place to commune with one's maker. The walks were interesting with lots of interpretive boards about the cotton industy in the past. To find out more visit the website at www.chadkirkchapel.org.uk

Derbyshire Church Crawl

On Friday a friend and I did a church crawl in Derbyshire. A few weeks ago we had picked up a leaflet from Leek Tourist Office entitled 'From Cradle to Grave', which listed various historic churches. http://www.peak-experience.org.uk/





We started in Ashbourne but could only admire the exterior of St Oswald's church as there was a lengthy funeral in progress.

In the nearby tiny village of Fenny Bentley the Norman church of St Edmund had an interesting alabaster tomb with shrouded effigies of Thomas Beresford and his wife surrounded on all sides by their 21 shrouded children. It also had an area of painted aluminium ceiling - the first of it's kind in England. Work from the local school children was very much in evidence, showing it was well patronised.

St Mary's at Tissington was a further Norman church with a good view from the teashop opposite. The lady doing the weekly cleaning was assisted by a small child and dog!

Finally St Peter's church at Alstonefield was bathed in late afternoon sunshine and looked over towards Dovedale. In the well-tended churchyard we found the oldest gravestone in the country dated 1518. Looking over the wall I spotted many wild cowslips which like the limestone in this area.