Bamford Well Dressing and Win Hill

On Tuesday I found out that Bamford's well dressing was on display. Having never seen one before, and Bamford being easily accessible by train, I decided to go and visit on Wednesday.

We got off the train at Bamford with Sybil in a good mood, having been fussed by a large group of schoolchildren until they left the train at Dore. She then didn't mind waiting while I took some photos.

Can anyone guess the theme for this year?

The village was dressed up for the occasion with coloured flags strung up between houses. There were scarecrows in front of some of the houses; finding a poster I discovered there had been a scarecrow competition in which the villagers worked together to create the best scarecrow with an Olympic theme. Bamford seems full of community spirit and there are noticeboards and posters throughout the village advertising events such as dog shows, carnivals and the like.

Bamford

We then left the village and walked up to Ladybower. I decided to take a slightly different route and followed the footpath to Heatherdene, which cut through a lovely wildflower meadow.

Common Spotted Orchid

Wildflowers

The bellmouth spillways at Ladybower were overflowing, evidence to the wet summer we've had so far. As I've walked around the reservoir before I decided to take a path leading up to Win Hill. The map said it is called Parkin Clough and it is quite steep and rocky.

Parkin Clough

Being not very hill-fit I took quite a few rest-stops on the way up. A man passed me and I asked him if it was much further. "About 100 metres or so," he said. Well, it turned out to be "or so"!. We finally reached Winhill Plantation where Sybil had to go back on the lead as there were sheep about. This bit seemed even steeper, although there were steps cut into the hillside; thankfully it was not as long as Parkin Clough and we could soon see the top. This gave me an extra burst of energy and we got to the trig point soon after, where there were fantastic views of the reservoir and the Hope valley.

Ladybower Reservoir

Sybil at the trig point

The wind picked up which made it difficult to get my map out, so I decided to head back the way we had come. That way we wouldn't get lost! On the way back down Sybil scared a young woman heading up by barking at her. She was quite a bit further down than I but knowing that she would only bark if someone had startled her and that she wouldn't bite anyone I shouted her back, apologising to the woman who quite rightly had been pretty nervous. She was very nice and we had a little chat before heading our seperate ways. I only managed to slip once on the way down which was lucky considering how wet and muddy it was. After a quick rinse in the stream at the bottom for both of us, we headed back to the train station.