Rallies, pearls and church wells

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ROY Lister missed the 1932 Kinder Scout mass trespass because he could not afford the train fare. He was a printer’s apprentice, earning just 10/6d a week (53p), at the time.

He writes: “In future years, I attended Whitsuntide rallies in Winnats Pass until the war came along and changed the world.

“These rallies were organised by by the Daily Herald newspaper through their nature correspondent, Tom Stevenson. We had to wait until after the war to gain access to the mountains but, even then, the Act was so amended by the time it was passed that the proposers voted against it.

“It was several more years before the public gained the right to roam and, even then, landowners tried to twist the meaning of the Act to turn people against it, saying it gave anyone the right to walk across one’s property.

“There have been several articles on caving recently, which was also one of my interest. I belonged to the Derby Mountaineering Club, aka the Dirty Mucky Cavemen. We also worked with the Rev Wilson, of Buxton, and his group called the Peakland Explorers.

“I wonder if anyone visits Jug Holes Cave these days, at the back of Masson Hill, Matlock. I believe we were among the first to visit this site – part cavern, part lead workings.

“Does anyone find cave pearls, or straw stalagmites, anymore? If one entered a cave which had never been disturbed, it would be festooned from floor to ceiling with fine stalagmites like glass drinking straws. One touch and they shattered, so, over the years, they became less abundant.

“Cave pearls were formed from grains of sand, rolling round a pool of water, getting coated with lime. Both took thousands of years to form. We used to take the pearls in a matchbox to show our friends but, when we opened the box, only grains of sand remained.

“Being born on The Green, Chellaston, not far from where Frank Greasley, the painter, lived in School Lane, I have also been interested in articles about the area.

“In those days, a footpath ran across the Flats. from the school to Derby Road, emerging near Sinfin Lane. On the Derby Road side of the Flats was an earth mound, rather like a burial chamber.

“A few years ago, I was in Chellaston and decided to visit my first school and then walk across the Flats to Sinfin Lane. Imagine my surprise to find it completely built on and the mound gone.

“Was anything found it when it was levelled, or was the story true that I had been told that it was built by the gentleman, who lived on the main road, after he had been jilted by his girlfriend.

“She lived in a cottage on the far side of the Flats and it was said he built the mound to block his view of her house.

“Of course, Chellaston was a real village, in those days, where everyone knew everyone. Mr Gilbert, of the dairy firm, was the head of the heap with various other families jockeying for position in the hierarchy of village life.

“In the summer time, lying on a layer of gypsum, the wells in the village used to dry up, one by one. Ours was one of the last, being 70 feet deep. Everyone would get water where they could, hastening the drying up.

“The only well which never dried was under the churchyard. The last time I passed by, the little door in the wall was still there, just us the slope from the lych gate of the church.

“The church sold water to local inhabitants for a halfpenny a bucket. People would say they were drinking their relatives!”

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