Buxton
- Festival Street Theatre (Part II)
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Spring Gardens, Buxton's
main shopping street, like other High Streets in Britain, fights
a losing battle against ubiquitisation through chain-store-itis
...
... but still manages to
retain some individual locally-owned shops ...
... one seemingly trying
to corner the market in Russian Dolls, or Matryoshkas as the helpful
notice informs us?
No purchase necessary, unless
it be for a container, to sample Buxton water (naturally lukewarm
at no extra charge!) from the St Ann's Well adjacent to the Pump
Room opposite The Crescent.
Around the corner, a busy
time at the Old Hall Hotel, reputedly the oldest hotel in England.
The building was originally Buxton Hall built for his own use
in the 16th Century by George Talbot the 6th Earl of Shrewsbury
and husband of Bess of Hardwick. Talbot also owned Tutbury Castle
where he was Guardian of Mary Queen of Scots and it was unlikely
she would stay elsewhere when granted permission to 'take the
waters' at Buxton for her rheumatism, reputedly with some relief.
The Pavilion, a much later
structure but still historic being built by a local architect,
an associate of Sir Joseph Paxton, and opened in 1875. The land
for the buildings and gardens was a gift to Buxton by the Duke
of Devonshire to be held free in perpetuity so long as used for
the purpose of public pleasure grounds.
Inside the Octagon: an Antiques
Fair - no Morris Dancers here then.
But here they are, our old
friends from Nottingham now dancing outside the ornate Edwardian
Opera House opened in 1903.
A less exuberant but no
less aptly attired team, Chorlton Green, from that well known
rural centre Chorlton-cum-Hardy (next door to Old Trafford, Manchester!).
These be-clogged girls also
have a more subdued aural impact than their Nottingham 'sisters',
as their green clogs are shod with rubber.
Heading towards the old
town and looking back from the side of The Slopes we can have
a distant view of the impressive dome of what was latterly the
Devonshire Royal Hospital but built originally in 1780s as an
imaginative stable block for Spa visitors. The dome is slated
externally and at approx 150ft diameter was, when built, the largest
unsupported structure of its type. The pink haze over the walls
is protective covering to the scaffolding as the building receives
its latest makeover into the Campus for the University of Derby
in Buxton.
Up in the old town, St Anne's
Church, Bath Road, dated by overdoor plaque at 1625 but parts
reputed to be much older. Not the handsome architectural structure
of the Parish Church where we started this perambulation but very
much of its simple people who built and worshipped here ...
... and lived in cottages
not even as grand as these in the lane behind the church ...
... let alone these Victorian
villas on Hartington Road overlooking the lake in the Pavilion
Gardens.
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