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Spring was bursting through even if the sun wasn't.
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Last week's geology walk was down the Wye Valley from Monsal Head. Ruskin's views regarding the building of the now elegant Headstone Viaduct were clear:
“There was a rocky valley between Buxton and Bakewell, once upon a time, divine as the Vale of Tempe... You Enterprised a Railroad through the valley – you blasted its rocks away, heaped thousands of tons of shale into its lovely stream. The valley is gone, and the Gods with it; and now, every fool in Buxton can be in Bakewell in half an hour, and every fool in Bakewell at Buxton; which you think a lucrative process of exchange – you Fools everywhere".
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We clambered up to Hobbs House, a large lump of limestone that had slipped from the nearby cliff. The similar and more impressive Peter's Stone is not far away and better documented.
http://www.emgs.org.uk/files/mercian_vol13on/Mercian%20Geologist%20volume%2019%202016/Mercian%202016%20v19%20p051%20Peter%27s%20Stone%20landslide,%20Cressbrook%20Dale,%20Brancaleoni%20et%20al.pdf
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The limestone beds were interspersed with dark lumps of flint-like chert; giving (to my eyes anyway) a good abstract image where the chert could be seen as mouldy growth on an ancient wall.
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Fossil coral was in abundance.
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A couple of images from the extraordinarily well appointed church at Mellor, near Glossop.
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We met the new vicar, who left a very positive impression.
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