Above: This postcard view of the Cat & Fiddle would have been painted in the late 19th century. Inset: A line illustration of the same view accompanied Strephon’s report of his 1888 visit. Above: The 7th Duke of Devonshire (1808-1891) seems to have been...
Below: The old and new views match up exactly. Click either photo to enlarge. In October last year Michael kindly allowed me to scan his wonderful collection of old Goyt Valley postcards. One in particular caught my eye. It wasn’t the most picturesque...
Above: This oil painting shows three cows being driven along the lane from Derbyshire Bridge towards Goyt’s Bridge. The author mentions the small row of paint mill cottages which stood to the right of this view. Goytsclough Quarry was just behind. Today,...
Above: This is the only photo I’ve managed to find of a train on the C&HP Railway line as it approaches the Goyt Valley section. It’s a view across Burbage, southwest of Buxton. It’s just possible to make out Buxton’s famous dome in the far distance. The Cromford...
Above: Just a few of the wonderful postcards from Corrie’s collection on the Cat & Fiddle Inn. Click here to view them all. Above: These old postcards are photographs rather than prints, so haven’t been reduced to a series of dots. This means they...
Above: Our travellers walked from Goyt’s Bridge along the lane towards Derbyshire Bridge. The photo shows three children in front of the mill workers cottages at Goytsclough, which Strephon mentions in his article. They eventually reach a ‘solitary little...
Above: This wonderful etching of Buxton’s Pavilion Gardens appears as the frontispiece in Strephon’s ‘Pilgrimages in the Peak’, first published in 1879. Click the image at the bottom of the page to view the complete illustration. Above:...
Above: The ford at Taxal was where Strephon and his ‘Young Man’ crossed the Goyt on their way to Whaley Bridge. Walk 6 passes this picturesque spot. The pair enjoyed Whaley Bridge, but were less enthusiastic about the towns and cities just a...
Above: Phillida being made ‘Lady of the May’. The poem was first performed for Elizabeth I in 1591. Something I read in Strephon’s 1880 report of a visit to Errwood Hall caught my eye. He describes the walk down from the Grimshawe’s...
Tracing the route: The writer, his ‘Young Man’ fisherman friend, and their ‘Somebody’ artist and lady companion, turned off the Buxton to Whaley Bridge, Long Hill road, along the same winding track used by most visitors to the Valley...
