MATLOCK CLIFF AND HILL TOP


Today was a mild day which meant it was a good day for a Journey, we needed a blow out, so we decided to take a local one. Hill Top farm can be seen from where we live, a sort of Derbyshire "Wuthering Heights" hidden behind tall trees, some of which have been blown by a driving wind so much they look as if someone has turned on a hair dryer as the branches only grow one way.


Even the field names, Fantom Hagg and Nether Fantom Hagg gives the place an eerie slant, and on a dark moonlit night the tall narrow farm building devoid of windows on one side, certainly looks every inch a frightening prospect standing high, dark and solid on top of the hill.
 Our journey takes us alongside Hillock or Hillocky Cliff, a piece of scrub land that in 1631 William WALKER gave to the parish so that the rents from that land could be given to the poor. Bentley Brook runs alongside it and maybe it was the flooding that caused this ground to be poor in what it could produce. That same brook powered BAILEYS and formerly HODGKINSONS corn mills. Joseph BLACKWELL was also miller here and in 1851 the confines of his mill saw one serious and one fatal accident. Richard BLACKWELL attempting to shoot small birds in his father yard had his left hand badly damaged when the gun he fired blew up. Even more tragic was an accident that befell labourer William BOAM a family man who had eight children. While attempting to harness a "powerful mare" the horse kicked out and hit him in the chest. He died the next day.   In total contrast what was termed "the Matlock season" was in full swing with some five thousand visitors arriving by rail in one week at the end of August the same year.

  We cross the brook a little later and have before us the old bleach and dye works of DRABBLES. Moves are afoot to convert these buildings into flats. It is sad to see this once hive of industry reduced to a broken shell with smashed windows all along its roadside wall.
Once it employed hundreds of Matlock and Tansley folk, and some from further afield. Here at this mill shirts were dyed for football teams all across the country. The smell of bleach and other chemicals no longer penetrate the atmosphere, no longer hundredweight bags of salt are emptied into vats, or the whizzing sound of huge spinners wringing out untold lengths of material before being placed over drying tubes is no longer heard, while the screeching brusher,a cylinder, that rotated with incredible speed, surrounded with spinning rollers covered with thousands of tiny needles that turned a piece of yellow fabric into the everyday duster is as silent as the dust they were designed to remove. FARNSWORTH, GARTON and RADFORD were the bleachers in Lumsdale in the 1850's.

  At the junction at the bottom of Smuse Lane stands a small cottage, looking for all it's worth like a Turnpike Cottage. William DUNN born at Darley Dale lived here. He was a carter, his wife Mary born around 1806 in Alderwasley had with her her nephew William TAYLOR a bleacher, and also a lodger, a seventy four year old Richard FARNSWORTH described as a manager. Richard was born at Mansfield.If they worked at the bleach works they could have stayed in bed until seven fifty five to get to work for eight o'clock so close were they to the bleach works.  

  As we walk up Smuse Lane, a steepish sort of hill, we are in a sort of no mans land, to our left is Tansley Parish and on our right is Matlock. In Matlock are Weavers Cottages, no doubt once used by people employed in that trade. In 1847 the fields and property around them were divided by the aforementioned GARTON and RADFORD. Behind the tall two storey buildings with their narrow windows lies a piece of ground called the "Drying Piece". Next to the cottages was the home of Robert SMEDLEY. In 1851 Bob was a widow with five sons, all were cotton spinners except the youngest aged nine who was a scholar. George was the only one born in Matlock, the rest along with their father were born at Crich.
The field on our right was called Little Oxspring Close, nearly two acres in size that stretches to the top of the hill. Joseph BLACKWELL had use of it along with other fields in the area. He was the miller on the road thats runs alongside Bentley Brook in Lower Lumsdale as it has now come to be called. He employed twelve men and lived with his wife Sarah, their sons Richard and John, his brother Andrew and his father in law, the eighty one year old widower Richard WILDGOOSE.   At the top of Smuse lane on the right hand side is George EDWARDS house. In 1851 he and his wife Sarah had the company of eight children all at home to look after. Most were employed in the cotton factory while George himself was a cordwainer. Outside his home stone cobbles, like long loaves of sunken crusty brown bread form the pavement. Those stones certainly heard the clatter of tiny feet. For many years there was on the side of his house a large bright orange Brooke Bond tea sign which could be seen for miles. An indication also that the house later became a shop. Luckily no longer a shop we walk past it and turn right towards Tansley. The main road at this point levels out having gradually climbed from Matlock Green. Looking down the road towards Matlock we see that the old barn of Joseph BLACKWELL still stands. It needs a roof, but it has needed one for years. It was owned by Joseph PAXTON whose mark has been left all over Matlock, Chatsworth, Edensor and the Great Exhibition of 1851. The Crystal Palace has long gone but BLACKWELLS barn still stands.  At the time of the Tithe the right hand side of the road and beyond was in Matlock, on the left however it was just the top part of all the fields along side the road from the top of Smuse Lane towards Tansley that were in Matlock. So we get part of Arthur Close and part of Spring Close amongst others, the other portions being in Tansley. Thomas SPENCER farmed these two particular fields, they belonged to John WOOLEY and Samuel Unwin HEATHCOTE. It's an almost straight road into Tansley, a few slight bends here and there and apart from James BRIDDON and Charles OAKLEYS houses owned by Job SMEDLEY there is nothing on this right hand side until we get nearer Tansley. On the left is Yew Tree Farm, an ancient house with its chess style pawn pieces on top of each gable end. Beyond across the fields and partially hidden by trees is Tansleywood House. This house still retains its tall internal wooden window shutters. Across the road an old wooden gate and a makeshift stile leads to the footpath up to Hilltop Farm. The path turns one way then another as it wends its way up to the top of the hill where the narrow farm with its two chimney stacks either end stands. A lone pine stands in front of an almost pyramid type hillock itself decked in trees waiting for their coats. As tempting as this route is, we carry on passing the short route into Tansley village via the Old Coach Road and head towards another part of Tansley.

The Church at Tideswell is the owner in 1847 of several parcels of land on either side of the road and it is John LOMAS that is occupier of these back then. Today the field is composed of dead bracken which is a good description from the 1847 Tithe schedule definition of it as "Rough in the middle of Cliff Allotment". Samuel SMITH also had neighbouring fields which he occupied from owner George STALEY.
    On our left stands a row of cottages, set on the lower hillside looking over, and above the main road. At one time Tansley Toll Bar Cottage stood opposite the lane leading to these cottages but it has been pulled down. Richard SHUTTLEWORTH was awarded land here at the time of the Matlock Enclosure.
The Enclosure makes interesting reading particularly in reference to the lane we now walk up behind the row of cottages. It's worth quoting in full. It reads; " One other Private Carriage and drift road or way as marked in the said Map or Plan branching out of the said Nottingham Road at the Tansley Toll Barr and from thence extending in a westwardly direction to John TAYLORS called the Hill Top between the several allotments made to the said Christopher COTTON No 163 the said Richard SHUTTLEWORTH No 164 the said Trustees for Matlock School  No 166 the said Solomon MERCHANT No 167 the said George SMITH of Tansley No 168 and the said John TAYLOR No 169 and several Ancient Cottage Houses on the Northwestardly side thereof and the several Allotment hereinafter made to the said John TAYLOR No 161 and the said Edmund HODGKINSON No 165 on the southwardly side thereof which said Road we have staked out a breadth of eighteen feet between the fences and do hereby call the same Hill top Road. And we do order direct and appoint that the same shall at all times for ever hereafter be repaired and kept in repair in such manner as the Public Highways and Roads within the said Manor are by law directed to be repaired". The description of the cottages as being "Ancient" ties in very well with the assorted tiles on the long undulating roof. Several types being used, but the oldest surviving ones are the large stone slab type which lie at one end of the cottage gable. Old stone pavers in the yard, worn with age add to the equation.

The lane is now grass and muddy in places, old walls have replaced the long forgotten staked out fences which at one time must have covered the parish during the period of the enclosure before stone walls replaced them. Part of the way, where the lane nears the edge of the hillside does not have a wall, but a series of upright slabs, looking like a row of old gravestones.
Trees with large girths force there way through the wall in places exposing roots, while still maintaining the legal limit of eighteen feet between the fences or walls.
On the top of Riber huge piles of stones lay in fields. Possibly surplus stones that should have been used to build the Enclosure walls.

It's not called Hill Top Road for nothing but the climb is worth it. Large areas of tree and scrub have been cut away and in the distance we can see Tansley and beyond, Foxholes.
   As the lane levels out, names like Upper and Nether Cheffin Ridding have been given to some of the fields. Timothy TAYLOR at the time of the 1847 Tithe being the owner of these fields  and farmer of Hill Top. Handkerchief Piece, a small triangular plot was occupied by Samuel SMITH, but the most comical and intriguing is Wooty Buts, in the occupation of Joseph SLACK.
A dozen or so sheep stand and stare as we walk by, then get back to chewing. The sky is overcast and they probably want their meal without water.
The view opens out on our right after walking by Edward RADFORDS plantation where a series of trees on different levels, forms what looks like one giant tree. That view takes in Matlock Cliff, or Nottingham Road and beyond to Hurst Farm, Oakstedge Lane and Lumsdale.  In front of us is the farm. I can almost imagine Hayley Mills and a couple of hundred other screaming children running down the winding lane, but that is occupied by a solitary ambling brown and white cow.
The setting is no less dramatic as we get nearer, old farm buildings, barns with no roof, deep green moss covered broken down walls, black slate tiles, muddy paths, tall majestic trees that creak and groan under dark skies make an impressive sight.
To our left the stile in the wall leads into the field path towards Riber. We cross a few fields, one field has a stone stile in the middle of it but no walls. There is one stone with a hole through it about the size of a fifty pence piece. Patricia looks through it and says it's the first time she has had a stile on her eye.
It starts to rain and we head off to the top of the winding path and down towards the main road. As the rain gets harder and the wind picks up, Matlocks own Wuthering Heights whispers gently "thee Cliff".

   

 

Michael and Patricia
 

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