Matlock Bath | >Re-PHOTO

Christmas Walks. For many years we have had a family get-together on Boxing Day and we will do the same today, but it will be a little different as for the first time for many years we will not be walking the five or six miles to it.

Staines to Runnymede Walk

We always needed that walk to work up enough appetite for a large meal in the middle of the day after a little overindulgence on Christmas Day. I’ve posted some pictures from our Boxing Day walks here in previous years, But as we got a little older they became simply a matter of the shortest route- a pleasant stroll along the Thames Path rather than any of the slightly longer and hillier variations that use to add interest.

And in late 2023 the Environment Agency found an unsafe 90 year old footbridge across a small creek close to Runnymede Bridge and fenced of this short section of the Thames Path in February 2024. Almost two years later it remains fenced off with work yet to start. The diversion isn’t a great deal longer but makes the walk less interesting.

We’d also go out on at least one walk between Boxing Day and New Year’s Day on a longer walk with whichever of our family were staying with us. But now our house seems to have shrunk as our children’s families have grown and we go away to stay with or near them. But I think we will still make some walks.

In 2019 we made three walks between Christmas Day and the New Year and I posted about all three on My London Diary.

The first, our walk on Boxing Day 2019 from Staines to lunch in Old Windsor was cut a little short, not by the Environment Agency but by the weather. We made it roughly two-thirds of the way to the café at Runnymede when the heavens opened – and we rang to be collected.

Staines to Runnymede walk

Wimbledon to Richmond walk

The second walk, two days later, followed an invitation on the Christmas card from the father of my younger son’s wife to join a walk he was arranging from Wimbledon across the common and through Richmond Park. We hadn’t intended to go, but it was a fine day and we decided at the last minute to join them, though we had to leave before the lunch they had planned at the café in Richmond Park.

More at Wimbledon to Richmond

Matlock & Matlock Bath

The next day we took the trains to briefly visit my elder son and family in Milton Keynes and from there were driven up to Matlock by my younger son to stay with them for a couple of days. And the next day we walked what was described by one sensationalist article in a tabloid newspaper as the “most dangerous footpath in England” around the face of High Tor to Matlock Bath.

Of course it is no more dangerous than many other paths on cliffs around the country – and even has a handrail to hold on the narrowest section, as well as a short ‘one-way’ section to reduce the risk where passing others could be dangerous.

Matlock Bath is in parts tourist hell, full of fish and chips and ice cream shops, and a mecca for bikers, but it does have at least one decent pub – where we ate and went to look at some very large specimen fish before visiting the Mining Museum.

Coming out, I and my younger son started to climb up the hill on the west side of the valley while the rest of our party decided to take the short train journey back to Matlock. The climb of the valley was steep and exhausting, but once we had reached the top it was fairly easy going, with more great views at times of the Derwent valley as the light was beginning to fade.

By the time we reached Matlock I was thinking I should have taken the train.

Matlock & Matlock Bath

Flickr – Facebook – My London Diary – Hull Photos – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Photos

All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.

Monday 30th December 2019 seems so long ago now, part of BC – before Covid – and it comes as some surprise to work out that it was only three years ago that we were staying in Matlock and going for a walk with my younger son and his family.

Matlock Bath is the tourist centre of the area, just around a mile and a half down the A6 from Matlock where we were staying, but that would be a rather boring walk. Instead we took a route along a well-signposted footpath up the steep east side of the valley taking us to High Tor, coming down to Matlock. The actual horizontal distance was perhaps twice as far, but the vertical aspect was considerably greater, with some splendid views perhaps compensating for the life-threatening exertion. I’m just not used to hills.

The path around the face of High Tor was described by one sensationalist article in a tabloid excuse for a newspaper as the “most dangerous footpath in England” but in fact is rather safe, even having a handrail to hold as it narrows around the cliff face. It’s a path I would avoid in high winds, event though there is a one way system which most walkers adhere to on this short section as passing people could be just a little tricky.

But there are far more dangerous paths than this, which is safer than many coastal cliff walks. Not of course a walk to take your hard to control young children on, and the article appeared to have been triggered by the complaint of one mother who had done so. Public footpaths date from before we had much concern for health and safety.

There were a few people like us making this popular walk, but coming down to the main road with its long row of fish and chip shops was entering tourist central, crowded enough to make it hard to keep walking at a sensible speed. It’s always like a little bit of a popular seaside resort strangely landed in the centre of the country about as far from the sea as you can get. It was quite a shock when I first saw it, coming up the A6 on my way to another term at Manchester University in the 1960s – though we soon found there were better routesif less scenic.

At one of the pubs we met other family and friends including the younger and less controllable who had arrived by train – one short stop down the line – rather than make our more hazardous journey. We walked out to admire the fish swimming in their pool while waiting for the food to arrive and afterwards left to visit the mining museum.

The mining museum is worth a visit, though it really needs several visits to see it all, and hits a balance between a museum proper and a visitor experience mainly for children, though some of its fake mine passages are tricky for overisize adults.

We left the mining museum and divided into two parties again. My son and I decided to walk back to Matlock over the hills to the west of the main road while the others went to the station to catch the train.

The steps up the steep hillside past the entrance to Gulliver’s Kingdom were a little daunting to a flat earth dweller whose heart has seen better days, but past them it was a pleasant walk with few sections with good views across the valley as the light faded at the end of the day.

More pictures and story at Matlock & Matlock Bath. This year we will be at home today and our walk will be rather flatter.