A record of our family history
We are really enjoying exploring our local area. If you follow my blog, you might have realised that we are an outdoors-loving family. Having lived in Yorkshire for only 10 months now, there are so many places that we are discovering for the first time. Last week it was Greno Woods, and this bank holiday weekend it was Wharncliffe Crags and Scout Dyke.
Ben is still in the honeymoon period with his new drone (as introduced last week in Thurgoland from above). I must admit, out of all the gadgets that he has bought in the past the drone is one of my favourites. I love all the photos we have of the children, and now we can see everyone from a new perspective. He has wanted to go to Wharncliffe Crags to get some footage of an awesome family walk.
The government announced last week that if you have children with special needs you can go by car to travel somewhere safer to walk. We haven’t all been out together since this whole thing started. It is really hard to walk on narrow paths around the village in a large group, especially if some of those children have ADHD too!
This easy route of Mam Tor Old Road Circuit looked like fun, I hadn’t heard about the old road before seeing it on the app. Apparently it’s really popular in the Peak District for walkers and cyclists. The road was destroyed years ago by a rock slide and now you can walk along it.
The Trans Pennine Trail was once a railway, and is now a 207 mile path in the North of England that runs from Southport on the west coast, across the peaks, and all the way to Hornsea in the East. We have explored only about 20 miles of the trail so far, but today I only want to talk about our little section of the Upper Don Trail in Thurgoland.
We can’t seem to get enough of the Peak District recently. Living right near it gives us so many opportunities to explore, and we try and go somewhere new every time. Ben wanted to go to Agden Reservoir. We put it into our map and when we got there we found it difficult to find the start of the walk.
Ever since I found out that I had family that lived in Thurgoland over 100 years ago, I have been trying to find out as much as I can. Some of this information I have come across quite naturally and accidentally, like finding 3rd great grandfather Giles Button’s house when I was out walking with Sam. Or finding information about the wire mills while lunching in the pub.
Today I was in an exploring kind of mood, so we went to Badby Woods in Northamptonshire. We found the ruins of Dower House on the Fawsley Estate
All the photos I have seen of Sharpenhoe Clappers have been taken in the summer, when everything is green and glorious, but we went in October when the leaves were dry and crispy, and covering the ground which is also lovely in its own way.
For us 2018 started with a New Year’s walk at Fineshade Wood. We had a really relaxing Christmas at home (and we are planning the same this year too!) and we always enjoy our family New Year’s walk to blow away the cobwebs and get us back into a more active life.