It’s been a truly frightful few days in The Old Hall. There were fierce devils in the fireplace at the weekend so we checked the attic today. To our horror there was a dead witch, vaporised, under the witches marks. Anxiously we checked the rest of the attic and it seemed fine. Tonight we have driven past – we dare not go in – and there is a coven in the window. We hope that these three will meet again elsewhere and go by the morning.
Last year we did a lot of work on our trees and this year we have been rewarded with a bumper crop of Damsons. We harvested some of them and left the rest for the birds and animals to enjoy. We have been making Damson Gin which we hope will be ready to entice Santa down the chimney at Christmas
Work has started on our chimneys to get them pointed and lined so that they will be back in use for the winter. The team at AS Chimneys in Kirk Langley are very experienced with working on old buildings and give great care and attention to maintaining the historical features. Earlier in the year they had done a survey for us, putting cameras up the chimney so we could be sure that there were no hidden surprises once we got to this stage. Sadly we didn’t find a pot of gold hidden up there!
Now is just the right time to see the heather out around the Peak District and Staffordshire Moorlands. A lovely picturesque drive through the countryside would be to drive north out of Ashbourne up the A515. The village of Hartington makes for an excellent ice cream or coffee stop. Continue from Hartington to Earl Sterndale then take the road towards Chrome Hill (Dragons Back) for spectacular scenery then set your sat nav for the country roads towards The Roaches which will take you up to the purple heather Moorlands. There are short but dramatic walks at The Roaches as well as longer ones involving Luds Church. This drive is beautiful year-round, however particularly colourful at the minute.
Not top of the list to want to think about in warm weather but we are nearly there with getting our chimneys back in use. The Old Hall is a 2* listed building and before anything is done, we have to go through an extensive listed building consent process. The chimneys and fireplaces are truly fabulous in Old Hall and of historic significance so it is essential that nothing is done to damage or alter them. We started the process of planning consents for repair to the main chimneys in early spring so that we can hopefully have them in place this winter. We have now got consents for the repair and lining needed just one more hurdle before we can start. The pointing on the building has to be done with a lime mortar to have it in keeping with rest of the building. Our builders need to provide an example of the pointing and if it is approved stick to that ‘recipe’. Everything is ordered for this so fingers crossed the sample patch gets through in a couple of weeks’ time. In the meantime, mid-summer, the stone walls are keeping things at a lovely cool temperature.