Set off early from Meldingscale Farm to locate some toilets at Settle (near Giggleswick) – love the names. Then parked in a little park at Long Preston for breakfast. On to Hebdon Bridge for a look around. An old mining town that has reinvented itself (slightly alternate – healthy lifestyle type place belonging to a group called Transition towns or Centres or some such thing. Part of a worldwide organisation involved in dealing with climate change and energy costs. Lots of 'fair trade' produce. Had coffee at 'Squeeze'.
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| Parking was pretty tight at Hebdon Bridge |
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| Hebdon Bridge |
We then travelled on towards Overton on the lookout for the National Coal Mining Museum of England. Unfortunately, the police had the road closed off (presumably because of an accident). Went around the crash site in an attempt to get to the museum only to find that road also closed by the police. Decided to go to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park to have lunch before returning. Didn’t get much of a look at the park as we had to get back to the mining museum to catch the last underground tour of the day. As it turned out when we got there the tour was fully booked so we missed out. Jennie, Richard and I still did the above-ground tour. Lots to see.
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| National Coal Mining Museum of England. |
It’s still a working mine, at a much lower level than anything that was on display. Every building was a museum and the museums very much centred on the human side of things – from the difficult times during strikes and the support provided by the wider community when the mines were being closed, most recently during the Thatcher era of the 1980’s – one strike went for 188 weeks; to the realities of the way of life of the mining community, as one female miner was to say “ It didn’t do me any ‘arm so it won’t do ‘em any ‘arm, referring to her 5-year-old children working in the mine. One miner started work at 6 years of age and worked to 86. I thought my 40 years of teaching was pretty creditable but he did twice that in the workforce – and much harder work no doubt. To top it off a classic instruction in the bathing room “underclothing should be washed once per week”.
Set off again to look for a caravan park for the night – we needed a washing machine. Headed towards Chesterfield and then around it towards Peak District National Park. Saw a Caravan and Camping Club sign and thought that would do but on arrival found a very unwelcoming warden who informed us that as we were not members she could only fit us in for the night if we paid £54. She did suggest that we would find a cheaper caravan park a little further down the road at Bakewell. That’s where we ended up for the night. Still not cheap at £35 but very pleasant. It even had a bar where we could have a drink before bedtime.
