THE PEAK DISTRICT
The Peak District of England,
which is about 100 miles north of London, is one of my favorite areas in
England. It is dotted with charming villages, walking trails and a modicum of
tourists. Don’t get me wrong;
there is a healthy tourist trade here.
But I don’t feel that I am competing for every square inch of space with
the rest of the human race while wandering around the hills and dales, walking
along river paths and visiting the castles and many palatial country homes in
the area. It’s just lovely
here.
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| Mark and Sarah |
What makes the area even lovelier
is that my dear friends Mark and Sarah live in the southern end in a Nottingham
suburb. I originally met Mark in
Nepal where he was recovering from a serious bus accident in India on his way
to Nepal. Since returning to England, I have gained another good friend,
through his bond with Sarah.
Mark, a gourmet cook, had a homemade vegetable curry warming on the
stove when I arrived.
Last year when I was in the Peaks District researching for my
new mystery novel, BANISTER, he and Sarah were exceedingly helpful. Being
helpful again, the next morning, off we went to Haddon Hall, this time for a
picnic on the Hall lawns (a location used in BANISTER), and to peruse the
inside of the Hall, its herb and formal gardens, and the fields along to the
river Wye.
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| One view of Haddon Hall |
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| Haddon Hall Gate House |
Haddon Hall’s beginnings were around 1150, only 84 years
after William the Duke of Normandy’s conquest of England from Saxons. Talk
about a ‘neighborhood’ feud. This
is the battle that won England for the Norman French from the Saxon lords
If you are into battles and/or
English history, the Battle of Hastings is probably one of the most interesting
in the story of pre-Great Britain. Briefly, Edward the Confessor King of
England had no children. But he and William Duke of Normandy were distant cousins.
During William’s visit to England, in 1051, Edward supposedly promised
his kingdom to William upon his death.
Sometime later Edward also promised his throne to Edwin Godwinsom the
head of the most powerful Saxon family in England. Not surprising what a guy will promise after he’s had a
little too much grog!
Upon Edward’s death on January 4th
(or 5th), 1066, Godwinson, being right on the scene, immediately had
himself crowned King of England by two English Catholic Bishops, although one
Bishop had not been anointed by the Pope. This angered the Pope so he backed
William as the legitimate heir.
After getting the Pope in his corner, William watched, waited and prepared.
There were other claimants to the English
throne but only one acted. Harold King of Norway, a bit of a rogue and an adventurer. At the urging of
Tostig, Edwin’s brother, who after an argument with new the English King had
all his lands taken away, together the two attacked Edwin's armies in Northern England. But King Harold
and Tostig lost the battle as well as their lives.
Upon hearing of Edwin’s win in the
north of England, the Duke of Normandy loaded 700 80 foot Viking designed
ships, with 7000 fighting men including infantry, archers, and 1500 knights
each with at least one horse, and some with more, and sailed across the English
Channel.
They are reputed to have arrived at
the south coast port of Pevensey.
Whereas William’s army had some days to rest and get over their
seasickness, Edwin’s force, exhausted from the heated battle they had just
fought, had to rush down to Hastings to fight another of the new English king’s
foes.
Although Edwin’s army of
approximately 5000 was exhausted from their furious many-days march, they ended
up with the enviable position of being on top of a hill. They also wielded the most wonderful
weapon of the day, the battleaxe. While William had many more mounted knights,
his army couldn’t seem to dislodge Edwin’s from their perch. I have read somewhere that William
finally resorted to an old Roman trick of
having his archers ‘lob’, much like a tennis player, their arrows high up over the first row of Edwin's definces into
the middle of Edwin’s line. This action caused many deaths in the center of
Edwin’s force causing those still fit and fighting to be carrying the weight of
many of their dead and wounded comrades. Finally William’s force broke
through.
William lost two horses and was
riding a third when the battle was won, while Edwin is reputed to have died
from multiple wounds and an arrow in his eye. When Edwin’s body was finally found, his face was so
disfigured that his body had to be taken to his mistress to be checked for
distinguishing marks to prove this was indeed his dead carcus. Thus ending a bad day in Hastings.
After the battle was won, now known
as William the Conqueror, the Duke was crowned King. Then he went home leaving about 800 Norman Knights to run
the country. The first thing they did was begin building the Tower of London to
prove their strength. The Normans also compiled the Doomsday Book, a list of the ownership of every
piece of land, forest, manor house, animal and serf in England. This tome was
the beginnings of the first tax rolls.
So we can now blame the whole idea of modern tax records on - guess who?
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| Sarah surveying Haddon Hall court yard |
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| Gate house door to the castle |
During the making of the Doomsday
Book, the Normans also confiscated lands from many Saxons and their families
and gave the lands to Norman knights.
William Peverel, believed to be William’s illegitimate, son, who fought
along side the Duke in the Battle of Hastings, received six vast estates
including Haddon, first mentioned in the Doomsday book 1086. It eventually became the property of
the Avenel family some time in the 12th century through a
granddaughter, Avice, daughter of William Avenel II and remained in the Vernon
family until. through a lack of male heirs, it came to the present owners, the
Manners family in 1567.
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| three leg chair |
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| wooden carving of former owners of the Hall |
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| View of Aln and Linda's Gate house garden |
Haddon Hall is a remarkable estate
and after a wonderful viewing of the hall and its gardens, we were invited to
tea in the remarkably lovely garden of the castle gatehouse with Alan and Linda
Barker. Alan, a retired castle
employee, still works three days a week in the castle
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| Alan and Linda |
workshop, while Linda still bakes the famous
Bakewell Tarts part time for a company in the
town of Bakewell. She also performed her
Bakewell magic for us and we ended a lovely day with supremely good fare and
good company. Then it was back to
Mark and Sarah’s Beston house and another culinary delight, a salmon en-croute.
A pox on these two good cooks…or maybe not, as Sarah and I were the recipients
of the tasty efforts of not one but two master chefs in one day. Lucky us.
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| Bakewell Tarts and jam cookies |
Sarah has a list of fifty things
she would like to do before she turns fifty-one. Last year when I was visiting, off we went to one of the
events on the list: visiting Mr. Straw’s house, a turn of the century home
opened to the public. Since
my last visit, Sarah and Mark have fulfilled many of the items on her
list. They have had tea at the
Ritz in London, gone sailing, and holidayed in Egypt, to name a few. So on the third night of my visit, we
ticked off another event by attending a classical concert. We spread out blankets on a grassy
knoll. The orchestra played themed selections, as an amazing and most
incredibly well coordinated (to the music) fireworks show I have ever seen
flashed and crackled in the sky above the band shell. Sarah’s next adventures from her 50s List are going to a Pam
Aryes poetry reading, and going on a woodland hunt for wild fungi. Talk about an
eclectic list of activities. I am
so impressed with her idea and also for her follow through. The list has really
been terrific fun for both Sarah and Mark.
On my last night we went out to a
really great pub where I ate a particularly awful, but I understand very
British meal. A Toad in a Blanket,
I think it was called. I chose to have mine vegetarian and quite frankly, they
can keep that blanket no matter what the filing far away from me. Forever. But that did not dampen the evening of good company, good
wine, and good desserts.
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| View of the bridge over the river inside the Hall properties |
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| Sarah, Mark and I sitting in the Haddon Hall Arbor. |
The next morning I was off to
Stansted Airport to buy a new teddy bear for my future grandchild at Harrods
airport store and then fly off to Stuttgart. What? No Harrods store at Stansted? A pox on you Harrods, and this time I
mean it.
