Derby

We had breakfast this morning sitting at a table on the footpath outside the B&B. Some of the night was so quiet, we couldn’t hear anything at all  (window was open, facing the main street), then early this morning (it was light), a big truck went past and the garbos picked up a big industrial bin outside.

The Crich Tramway Village was only a few miles away, so we went to visit. It was raining quite heavily when we got there and we waited ‘til the rain eased. Didn’t take long before the rain stopped. The museum had a huge collection of trams, mostly from England, 1 or 2 from Wales, I from Ireland, one from Portugal and a couple from Germany. They also included a 1 mile each way tram ride for one penny, which we were given as part of the entry fee. If we wanted to, we could ride on 3 different trams all day and we have tickets to allow 2 of us to come back as many times as we want for the next year. Really useful.

On the way, we stopped at an unusual book exchange, run by the local church, an old red ‘phone box. We went on to Kedleston Hall, a huge 18th century house. The middle section was not designed to be lived in, but for entertaining. The owners, the Curzon family, can be traced back to 11th century and the family still lives there. We really enjoyed this visit, there was a lot more interesting stuff than in many more “stuffy”, overcrowded properties. Beside the house was the “family” church, All Saints, not used often but still consecrated. This church forms part of the Church Conservation Trust, which cares for over 325 churches no longer needed for parish use. It was a nice church, but nowhere as appealing as the one we saw in York.

  

These 2 activities filled in the day very quickly and we left Kedleston Hall around 4:30. We were lucky that the first place we stopped at, the Georgian House Hotel, had 2 rooms. We’re slumming it tonight in rooms with 4 poster beds.

Very expensive breakfast here, so we’ve just come back from “Morrisons Local”, across the road, with pastries etc for breakfast in our rooms. Having a pre dinner drink and nibbles now while writing the blog.