Phil led a magnificent twenty one members on this 8¼ mile walk from Ticknall, through Calke Park to the Abbey Stables for coffee and cake and on to Staunton Harold Reservoir for an early lunch at the Visitor Centre. After lunch we went down to the reservoir dam before climbing up to higher ground near Robin Wood and then back along the National Forest Way past St George's Church to Ticknall . |
| The start at Ticknall Village Hall |
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| Ticknall War Memorial |
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| Entrance to Calke Abbey. The site was an Augustinian priory (attached to Repton) from the 12th Century until its dissolution by Henry VIII in 1538. The present building was never an abbey and was remodelled between 1701 and 1704. The house was owned by the Harpur Crewe family for nearly 300 years until it was passed to the National Trust in 1985 in lieu of death duties. |
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| Coffee (only) at the stables, Calke Abbey |
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| Coffee and cake for some |
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| Approaching one of the feeder streams to the reservoir |
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| Staunton Harold Reservoir, planned by the River Dove Water Board in 1955 to provide drinking water for Leicester and completed in 1964 |
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| Site of a tiny Norman chapel. St Bride (also Bridget/Brigid) is often associated with holy wells and springs. The chapel was beside the old road from Derby to Coventry |
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| St Bride's Farm converted from the knave of the Norman Chapel |
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| Trig point on an ancient bridleway between Melbourne and Repton |
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| Distant view of (a steaming) Ratcliffe Power Station in one direction, Alport Height near Wirksworth in another, 20 miles away |
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| St George's Church, Ticknall (1842). Just out of sight are the remains of the old church dedicated to St Thomas Becket and blown up with gunpowder in 1841! |
