Sal Chaffey looks at the Derbyshire author’s roots
Bow Woods and Lea Woods have been used on and off for orienteering events between 1970 and 2012 (photos from 2012 here), and many of us visit in April to check out the stunning bluebells. For our event on March 22nd, we’ve comissioned a brand new map. No spoilers; head over to The Startkite in February when entries open!
Derbyshire author Alison Uttley grew up at Castle Top Farm in the 1880s and 90s, and created the characters Little Grey Rabbit and Sam Pig. She also wrote a time-slip novel about a girl in the 1940s who travels back to Dethick in Elizabethan times and observes a plot to help Mary Queen of Scots escape from Wingfield Manner. The narrator – and traveller, Penelope Taberner – befriends Francis Babington, brother of Anthony Babington of Dethick who was hung, drawn and quartered in London in 1586 for his involvement in the plot. There are beautiful drawing by Faith Jaques, and the story gives a neat background to the song Greensleeves (note the dress worn by Penelope on the cover).
Our interest began when Dave and I saw the play “Alison Uttley’s Derbyshire Childhood” by Belper’s George Gunby. The play – at Derby Theatre in 2025 – took place over a week of Uttley’s life when she came home to attend the wedding of a family servant. She’d completed a degree in physics at Manchester (being one of the fisrt women to do so), and was about to start her teaching qualification at Cambridge. Other than that, I just remember the play being charming and short! The inside of the programme gives an insight into her varied life.
There’s a display about Alison Uttley, A Traveller in Time and the Babington plot on the top floor of Chesterfield Library. A Traveller in Time was televised in the 1970s and starred Sophie Thompson (yes, Emma Thompson’s sister). It’s set at Thackers, or Manor Farm in Dethick, home of the Babington family. You can still visit the Babignton family chapel today, now Saint John the Baptist’s Church, founded in 1511. It’s less than a kilometre from the Jug & Glass pub. Hunting for the key gives added interest, and there are instructions on the front of the church!
On the Monday night runs we have passed Alison Uttley’s childhood home at Castle Top Farm many times. From here, she would walk to school in Lea at quite a young age, and, in A Country Child (1931), she recalls being frightened and alone in the woods … perhaps her animal creatures were born on these walks!
Some Holmes/Kimberley genealogy linked to Bow Wood and Alison Uttley
DVO member Steve Kimberley’s ancestors lived at Highleas Cottage or “boggart house” just half a mile north of Castletop Farm, along Hearthstone Lane. Steve was told by a local landowner that it was now just a pile of stones covered in brambles, but that Alison Uttley had written about it in her 1972 book Secret Places and Other Essays. In an essay called ‘Stone Walls and Hedges’, she describes a bleak dwelling occupied by an old couple who were brought bread and milk weekly by their son, who had been injured in a quarry accident and was said to have two noses. The floor in the cottage was said to have a persistent bloodstain that returned no matter how well it was cleaned. Steve’s grandmother however knew nothing of these two claims!
Steve’s ggg grandparents Issac and Mary Holmes and various of their 7 children are listed at the cottage in the 1871, 81, 91 and 1901 Censuses. Their son Samuel was the only candidate for the quarry accident story, but his occupations were factory hand and then bricklayer’s labourer. As Steve says “The story seems far-fetched but maybe he did have a disfigurement through an accident at work.”
Aqueduct Cottage
The newly restored Aqueduct Cottage is on the new map. Derbyshire Wildlife Trust volunteers completed the renovation in 2023 and the cottage is open 10am–1pm on Tuesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. The cottage and aqueduct were built in 1802 by Peter Nightingale (Florence Nightingale’s great great uncle) to serve his mills and lead smelting works, to the north of the area shown on the map. The cottage was occupied by generations of the Eaton family who looked after the Aqueduct, and makes for an interesting browse when walking along the canal.
There’s a lot of hidden gems in the area, and I’ve not even mentioned the John Smedley Factory Shop, open Thursday to Saturday 10am–4pm and well worth a visit (or online)! We are extremely grateful to them for allowing us to use their parking.
