The Moor, The Plague and The Duchess of Devonshire

After a substantial, full English breakfast with homemade sausage in the dining/living room of the farmhouse (and delightful chat with fellow travelers from outside Liverpool and the quiet, sweet-natured farmer John), we were picked up by Anne-Marie in the CouncilMobile –an official Chesterfield borough van with a volunteer driver, again one of Anne-Marie’s staff – Bryan. Our luck with English weather had finally run its course, and we were treated to the weather that the moors are known for – rainy, cold, and bleak. As we drove across the moors of the Pennines and Peak district, we could almost spot Heathcliff and Cathy among the bracken and faded heather.

We stopped in the town of Ashford to see the Sheep Swim. It is a stone enclosure along the banks of the Wye River where townspeople pen in their sheep once a year, then release them into the river for a short swim across to clamber up the bank on the opposite side. The aim is clean sheep, and it is a tradition that goes way back and according to Bryan is still performed each year.

It is a beautiful, bucolic spot (although I doubt the sheep think so). We ducked into the local church to see another local custom - the hanging of paper birdcage-type thingys called garlands when a young, unmarried woman dies. It is supposed to be in lieu of the decorations that would have adorned the church for her marriage, and they are made by her girlfriends and female relatives. There are four that remain hanging in the church.

That macabre note set the stage for our next stop in Eyam, the famous Plague Village. In September, 1665 a box of cloth delivered to the village tailor from London brought fleas with the plague. As people began to sicken and die, two village clergymen convened a meeting and convinced the townspeople that in order to stop the spread of the plague to their neighbors in nearby villages, they must quarantine themselves. The courage and sacrifice of the villagers are commemorated in the museum of Eyam and on plaques on the various houses. The village remains much like it was at that time. Between September 1665 and October 1666, 76 families were visited by the plague (in many instances wiping out the entire family) and 260 died (a third of the population).

The museum was a gem - very well done. It told the plague story - both the nature, history and movement of the plague and its effect on Eyam - and then how Eyam recovered through lead mining and other industries.

After leaving Eyam, we stopped for lunch at the site of the oldest working water-powered mill in Derbyshire?...England?...I missed that part. Even in the rain and cold, there were many other travelers walking the paths around the historic site and fighting for a seat in the warm restaurant. Revived, we left for the main attraction, Chatsworth, ancestral home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire and frequent movie set (most recently for Duchess with Keira Knightly).

What an amazing place! Think Versailles on a smaller scale, including the extensive gardens. No private tour this time, but Anne-Marie and Bryan filled us in on loads of interesting stuff about the house and the family, and the signage was very informative. We followed the herd through the various rooms, galleries, and halls. They were decorating for Christmas, and you could smell the pine. As with Hardwick, Chatsworth is delaying its seasonal closure in order to capitalize on Christmas tours - evidently a sign of tight budgetary times and the need to raise more revenue.

Although it was pouring rain, windy and cold, we took a quick walk in the gardens to the famous Cascade for a photo shoot. We had done serious damage in the gift shop, and the bags were banging against our legs in the wind. Bryan graciously got the van for us and we headed for a warming pot of tea at the estate's Farm Village tea room. Floor to ceiling windows looked out over the rolling landscape, a carefully manicured man-made park made to look "natural". If only it was sunny! But it was beautiful nonetheless.

We had made it through Chatsworth in somewhat record time, so we decided to shift the visit to Anne-Marie's museum to the day's schedule (Friday morning was going to be tight). Turned out to be a great decision, because it was great fun to be roaming the museum at night with the place all to ourselves. Anne-Marie has done a stellar job with this museum - fitting wonderful exhibits into a challenging space.

In future blogs I intend to go into more depth about the museums we visited and things we learned, and this museum will certainly be featured. One thing of note I will mention here - the Chesterfield Museum was given a special award this year by the borough Council for inspiration and innovation for their Time Traveler program. This is a way to encourage return visits by children through the stamping of passports and rewards. Sound familiar? It should - Anne-Marie was so impressed by VAM's Virginia TimeTraveler program when she visited as part of the March 2007 Rediscovering Virginia exhchange that she took it back and adapted it for her area.

Dinner at the Rising Sun, with all-you-can-eat Chinese food that was quite good. We waddled out of the restaurant smack into the beginning of a popular local custom among the young people called "town topping."

Evidently just about every evening the local youth go from pub to pub to pub into the wee hours of the morning, pretty much taking up the streets in a noisy fashion that recalls our more excessive Halloween street parties. The Halloween analogy also extends to what they wear - although we were shocked (and felt terribly old) to discover that the ultra short hot pants and generally suggestive, flashy attire of the girls in fact were not costumes but what was considered fashionable. Hmmm. We went to a pub off the historic church square called Rutlands to observe the scene, anthropologically speaking, before calling it a night and heading back to our farm retreat.