Wednesday Walk: Cressbrook Dale/Cressbrook Mill Apprentice House from 1817

For my #wednesdaywalk initiated by @tattoodjay, we visited Cressbrook Dale which is a lovely limestone gorge. From the road, we followed the public footpath passing Cressbrook Mill Apprentice House that was built in 1817 and provided accommodation for apprentices that worked there at the time.

The front part of the mill reminded me of a castle. Little did I know that in 1840, a castle-like facade was added to the end. Apparently, this was to make it more attractive to the owner of the mill who lived at the top of the hill. It is called an eye-catcher, and it helped disguise the workers’ accommodation behind. Snobbery at its finest! Today, it is now an expensive apartment block. Source

The sides definitely didn't match the front of the building.

Behind the mill, there was a concessionary footpath that took us along parts of the River Wye known as Water-Cum-Jolly and an impressive looking limestone rock face.

I spotted two snails quite a way up the wall. Apparently, they go up high to get away from predators, getting trod on, to cool off or for food. I never really thought about it before. This is what blogging and photography does for you. It educates you! Source

As we've had lots of rain, it was quite muddy in parts, but the sun was out, and we saw some lovely reflections of the trees in the water.

Sadly, the more we walked down the footpath, the muddier it became, so our walk was cut short. We ended up having to retrace our steps. It's definitely a place to go when there's been a spell of dry weather, but you can't win them all. Although, we did get chatting to a couple of nice people along the waky. One of them actually lives in the mill apartments.