Mines and Mansions

Another couple of photos here from our little foray into the Peak District over the summer... Towards the end of our long day of walking, we passed through the pretty little village of Sheldon and joined a footpath leading across the fields back to our campsite. Just outside the village and a field or so away from the path, we spotted these ruined buildings and I couldn't help but go and have a look...


A small sign on a nearby fence told us that this was the site of Magpie Mine, and that the remains here form one of the best preserved 19th century lead mines in the whole UK! Workings on this site are first recorded in 1740, and the different buildings here now represent almost every era from then up until the mine's closure in 1954.


I had to put a cheesy antique effect on this photo because the quality was so bad but it almost works with the mood of the mine site. (My camera is dying - a new one is on my Christmas list! The first photo is taken on an iPad so it's ridiculous that it's better quality when it's not even really a camera!)

A bit of googling also uncovered an interesting story about the mine - apparently the mine was involved in several disputes with neighbouring mines over which tunnels belonged to who, and miners would light fires underground to smoke out their competitors (obviously modern health and safety regulation was lacking...). In 1833, 3 miners from a rival mine were suffocated. Eventually, all Magpie miners were acquitted, partly because it was difficult to identify individual culprits, and partly because of the aggravating antics of the rival miners. But it is said that the wives of the dead miners put a curse on Magpie Mine, which ultimately caused the mine to temporarily close for some time during the 1830s as a result of financial ruin.

Chatsworth in the rain...


From one historic site to another, the day after our walk we took it easy (our legs wouldn't let us do otherwise!), packing up at the campsite and driving into Bakewell for a super-long and leisurely lunch. We then headed out to Chatsworth, where unfortunately the weather turned and the heavens opened, lucky for you as you get to see me looking a bit special in my rain poncho! Haha. We'd visited the house and gardens before so as it's quite expensive, we decided to just walk around the surrounding parkland instead (although if you haven't been before/are not strapped for cash it's definitely worth the money). Even in the rain, it's such a beautiful place, if anything the weather made it even more atmospheric!

The best type of flea

So I was planning to walk up to Beeston Library this afternoon to return my Edward St Aubyn books but it suddenly started pouring down with rain. So I am stuck in on the sofa, getting a bit emotional listening to Ed Miliband on Daily Politics Conference Special. But there is a benefit to you, dear readers, and that is that you get a lovely blog post!

Last Saturday we headed into Nottingham for a lovely brunch at Jam Cafe followed by a trip to the Pretty Dandy Flea Market held in the Congregational Church on Castle Gate.

The church was a great venue for the flea. You can see some photos of the day taken by one of the stallholders on their blog, here. It was the first time the market had been held, but I hope they do another one soon as it was amazing - so many wonderful stalls with artists and collectors selling beautiful handmade/secondhand homewares.

It would have been very easy to spend a LOT of money at the market, but we restrained ourselves as I am still out of work right now. One thing we have been doing recently in our home is trying to build up our cushion collection - it's amazing what a difference they can make to the living room! There were a couple of stalls selling cushions made from vintage fabrics and we this one really jumped out at us as soon as we saw it...

The front is a screenprinted fabric from 1964 called 'Stanhope' (you can see it in the V&A textile archives). The back is a Harris Tweed. We got it for £35 and it makes such a statement, it looks amazing on the sofa!

Most of the sellers at the market had online stores so we collected fliers from the stalls we liked so we can buy from them another time. In particular there was a lady there selling her own prints, I can't remember her name right now and Mark has the flier, but they were really nice and bright and hopefully we'll get one to hang on our wall soon.

Otherwise, Mark picked up a few records from the second hand record stall and we also bought this set of 4 bowls for only £4!

According to Pretty Dandy's Facebook page they are looking at trying to arrange another flea market before Christmas, which would be brilliant for present-buying! *fingers crossed*