Stardate: 9 May 2019 - To Bakewell, and not just for the puddings....

... or tarts!   Which some may never have heard of but they are famous, especially in these here parts.  Purists scoff at the tarts (pastry with a jam and almond filling, pink icing and a glace cherry on top).  But the puddings are considered the original and best and are the pride of the old township of Bakewell, just a spit up the road from Buxton.

Here's a Bakewell pudding we ate earlier.  It doesn't look particularly appetising but was fine with a cup of tea.  The Bakewell pudding was apparently first created in the mid-1800s with the Bakewell tart following later.

But there is so much more to Bakewell than overly-sweet cakes.  It is the most beautiful town and every building in its CBD is original and mostly 17th and 18th century, with some even earlier - there is no intrusive and unsympathetic 20th century monstrosity buggering up the place. There's a big Aldi supermarket but it's about 2 kms down the road from the town so does not impinge on the landscape.  Excellent.

The helpful woman in the Tourist Office suggested we start our exploring at All Saints Church, high on the hill.  This place was stupendously good.

There was an Anglo-Saxon Church on the site in the early 900s.  That was demolished by the Normans and a new church built in 1135. There were further renos in 1230 and then nothing much after that until the Victorians got their hands on it in the 1840s and rebuilt most, but not of all of it. In doing so they discovered heaps of Anglo-Saxon stonework and sarcophagi that had been buried or hidden for centuries.

Pics of that in a minute.  The yard around the church has thousands of graves, many of which seemed to be 17th and 18th century, often with sad inscriptions relating to three or four children in one family all dying within a short period.




But it also had these, still in situ 1100 years later: an Anglo Saxon and an Anglo-Scandinavian cross.  The tops of the crosses have broken off  and they would have stood very tall in the day.  Still extraordinary after all this time.

Anglo-Scandinavian cross

                                   

Anglo-Saxon Cross

Here is Mr Pants standing at the remaining

Norman part of the church.  

Just inside the archway behind him was the most incredible collection of Anglo-Saxon sarcophagi and worked stone that had been unearthed by the Victorians.  

We don't seem to have a pic of the sarcophagi but here is some of the etched stonework that apparently gives details, through symbols, of people's names and occupations when they died.

It's rare to see anything Anglo-Saxon (other than occasional jewellery and the like in museums) so it was a privilege to see so much of this. 

Inside the church was simply fabulous too.

This is an alabaster memorial to Sir Godfrey Foljambe and his unnamed (of course!) wife - created in 1385.  

Sir Godfrey was Constable of High Peak and I imagine wielded a lot of power in his day.  

The church also contained the graves of various members of the Vernon and Manners families who held the the earldom (later dukedom) of Rutland and their descendants still own it today.

And here they are in all their splendour.  These graves date from from the late 1400s to the mid 1500s.   There's quite a story attached to them and I expect old Mr Pants will do it justice imminently, when he shares details of our later visit to Haddon Hall - the ancestral seat of this family.

Before signing off, just want to apologise to those who have told me by other means that they want to comment on the blog but can't.  I have fiddled with the settings and have hopefully removed that stupid "I am not a robot" embuggerance.  I hope that will do the trick.  If not I will remove the vetting function so keep it clean and keep it blog-focused.  😊  Over to Geoffy who is just back from a skinful at the local Slug and Lettuce.  

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I can but agree about the township of Bakewell.  It seems almost totally unspoilt - quite a feat, considering the commercial imperatives of the 20th century.  Well done Bakewell!

Here's a long lens view that we hope demonstrates our point.

After the All Saints church we went on not very far to the Old House Museum.  Originally a Tudor house, it was modified into a house for mill workers by Sir Richard Arkwright, generally thought of as one of the fathers of the Industrial Revolution.

Here is a Tudor dunny that we were quite taken with.  There were of course some thousands of exhibits, but a good dunny is always hard to beat.

We would have spent longer here, but time was against us, so we needed to press on.



Following lunch (the highlight of which was of course the fabled Bakewell pudding, not to be confused with the tart), it was on to Haddon Hall.

Only a couple of miles south of town, it has been used for numerous films, including The Other Boleyn Girl, The Princess Bride and one of the numerous Pride and Prejudices.  Apparently also Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall, starring Mary Pickford, for those who can remember back that far.

I confessed that I was a bit surprised that Hortense was so keen to visit a stately home, given that I thought we had sworn off them after our last visit.  But of course she was right.  This one is quite different; for a start it's hugely older than most others.

Its construction dates from the 11th to the late 16th century.  You can't rush these things; something as impressive of this was bound to take at least 500 years.

Its owners have been Avenells, Vernons and Manners, the last two of whom have been Earls and Dukes of Rutland for many centuries.

It's still occupied by the present owners, the male of whom may be the 11th Duke of Rutland, but who's counting?  We didn't see their modern day digs.  We think they were closeted away watching steeplechase racing and drinking Pimms.

The other interesting thing about its history is that it was unoccupied for about 200 years between the early 18th and 20th centuries. (again, what's 200 years in the grand sweep of history?).  In 1703, the 9th Earl of Rutland was made the 1st Duke, and decided to move somewhere more grand, namely Belvoir Castle (as you do; I certainly would have).







In the early 20th century the Manners clan decided to move back in, and their descendants have been there ever since.  Very nice of them to allow us to share it with them, albeit for a moderate entrance fee.  It wasn't actually that moderate, but still worthwhile.

We took about 100 photos, and it was difficult to cull them, but we've done our best.













One of the things about visiting Britain is that there are attractions like this seemingly everywhere.  We don't say this is the best, but it's so close to home for us.  I'm constantly reminded of Bill Bryson's explanation as to why he loves Britain (actually one of the many), and that is that there's history every step you take, whether you choose to look for it or not.  Our day today proved the truth of his observation.