A glorious day out in the Derbyshire countryside, just a few muddy spots, but overall, a mild and sunny day with very little wind to speak of, perhaps later. I think, many may have missed out on this splendid walk because of the poor weather forecast. We were blessed with the early autumn sunshine and autumnal views as well. Derek led the walk very well, always having an escape route should the weather turn, never more than a half of mile, as the crow flies, from our starting point in the John Flamsteed memorial park.
During the walk, our route completely encircled the whole of Denby village centre and for the most part, we were able to spot the church spire, situated on the other side of the road to the car park. Although the village is renowned as the birth place (1646) of John Flamsteed, the very first Astronomer Royal, it appears that many of the village buildings, like Flamstead Farm and Flamstead Lane Farm. Do not use the same surname, perhaps an error from long ago. We actually passed the site of his birthplace, a blue plaque on the gable wall of Flamstead House Farm, reminding visitors of the fact.
A lot of the paths we walked were over former opencast coalfields, now filled and returned to a more natural state, many small woods and grassy fields, the opencast clay fill not very suitable for growing crops. Perhaps another minor criticism is that most of the fields and planted hedges bear no resemblance to the layout from before opencast mining happened. Many of the paths now straight and following hedge lines, an overlay of old maps, I am sure would show the original rights of way in quite a different position to that of today, but they do still eventually go from A to B, so to speak. Derek led the walk, so we passed many sites of local history, already mentioned Flamsteed’s birth place. We also had sight of the former Denby Pottery and passed by the one of its power sources, the solar farm behind the former factory. Bottom Dumbles and the lovely situated reservoir there, the placid water surrounded by hills covered by grazing sheep and cattle in some number (pictured). The last part of our journey passed by the very well laid out Sports ground and cricket club, a credit to any village. A large notice advertising the upcoming Firework display, drew our attention (pictured). We passed through and by many new plantations, looking like fields of tubes, sadly on closer inspection, we noted that many of the saplings had not survived. A great walk and in very good company. Thanks Derek.
