Family in Manchester

 I woke to the best clear calm morning, and joined Steve and Izzy on a walk to the Thursday market at the Butter Cross – very village...

The Butter Cross

We all got on the road around 9:30am and drove northwards through Sherwood Forest area – it stretches way north of Nottingham – and then via a quick bit of the M1, west through Chesterfield with its crooked spire, and into the Derbyshire Peak district, with its lovely mixture of beautiful houses, limestone cliffs and moorland.

Chesterfield church has a really crooked spire!

We veered off main roads, and headed for a place called Styal, where we visited a National Trust property called Quarry Bank. It holds one of the early cotton mills of the Industrial Revolution, built in the late 18th century by a man named Samuel Greg, and it has been well preserved by the NT and enhanced with a really fine exhibition of the processes and perils of the weavers’ lives. For more information, see here. 

Demonstration of weaving processes

Local schools visiting - in costume!

We walked through the extensive gardens of the estate, and had lunch in the garden cafe, before returning to look around the owners’ house. Having Izzy with us meant that Steve had to wait with the dog while Gill and I did the mill exhibit, and then Gill did the same while Steve and I explored the house. But as Steve said, they’re NT members, and will be back that way again – they can re-visit, and I probably won’t.

The owner's house and the mill

Having done a lot of uphill walking, we headed north to western Manchester where my nephew Ben lives with his partner Irene (pronounced Ee-rain-uh – she’s Spanish), 3-year-old Oscar and 8-week-old Nico – they chose names that would be pronounced the same in Spanish and English. Irene is totally bilingual (she actually speaks French and Catalan too) and Ben’s Spanish is good. Oscar is managing in both languages and is going to a Spanish-speaking nursery. Gill and Steve went off to pick him up while I had a chance to get to know Irene and to cuddle baby Nico.

Gill with Nico

Once Oscar was home and scrubbed off, we all set off on foot for a 20-minute walk to a local “Italian” (plus lots of other influences!) restaurant – lovely food, classy presentation and still managing to be family-friendly; we were not the only group in with small children. A walk back, a special Grandma story for Oscar, and it was time for his bed, and time for us to leave.  This time we travelled motorways and major roads most of the way, and were more than ready for our own beds when we got home.