The New Inn at the Market Place ............ the bit of Buxton I missed

Now I thought I knew Buxton pretty well, after all I have visited the Opera House, sat in the gardens and even collected my share of water from St Ann’s Well.

But until Peter showed me his painting of the New Inn which is in the Market Place I realized I had never ventured up there.

And that is all the more surprising given that the Market Place is close to to  the Square so well within the tourist circuit.

Usually however we would have come into Buxton from Dove Holes and if we weren’t stopping off to visit people we headed on down and parked up in the shopping centre which then offered the usual old haunts.

In the summer the gardens always won out with just a passing nod to the Crescent before lingering in the old Buxton Baths and slipping into one of the grand hotels there about.

But even in summer Buxton can be a tad colder than Manchester and once the familiar places were done we were away which on reflection was a bit of a mistake.

So next time we arrive there I rather think we will push on to Market Place and the King’s Head

Painting; the New Inn Buxton © 2015 Peter Topping

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Two ghost signs for one story ............ out in Dove Holes with a bit of brewing history

Now here’s a ghost sign I once knew.

We are just past Buxton heading back towards the city and this is or rather was the Railway Inn at Dove Holes.

It was a place I passed regularly during the late 1980s and early ‘90s but never called in and now as Andy Robertson’s pictures show I will never be able to, well not for a pint anyway.

The painted roof sign always intrigued me but I have to admit I never noticed the advert for Kimberley Ales which also appears on the roof.

And that makes this a double ghost sign story, for Kimberley Ales has also vanished into history.

It was the oldest independent brewery in Nottinghamshire formed in 1930 from two much earlier breweries, the oldest of which was Samuel Robinson’s which was opened in 1832, in what is now called Hardy Street in Kimberley.

It competed with the Hanson brewery established fifteen years later and both breweries shared the same well.

In 2006 the Hardys and Hansons Kimberley Brewery and all it pubs were sold to Greene King who closed the Kimberley brewery.*

By which time I no longer took the route out from Manchester through Dove Holes to Buxton and so missed the closure of the Railway Inn, but I am sure someone will have memories of drinking there and will share them.

Pictures; the Railway Inn, Dove Holes, 2015 from the collection of Andy Robertson

* Kimberley Brewery, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimberley_Brewery

In Buxton, on the start of a history trail

The Market Place Buxton in 1900

Now there is no easy way to get to Buxton from Manchester.

Of course you can take the train and get some pretty spectacular views starting with the viaduct that runs into Stockport station and then on the line out beyond Disley.

On the other hand if you decide to go by road it is the A6 which for great stretches from Stockport out to Hazel Grove is an unending line of ribbon development of shops, more shops, the occasional pub or hotel and more shops.

Try doing it on Friday evening in the rush hour is to experience a long crawl with nothing much to look at and little hope that the traffic flow will pick up much before Disley.

But Buxton is the reward.

There you can wander the town taking in the Opera House, the Crescent and St Ann’s Well, the Pump Room, Palace Hotel, Pavilion Gardens, and the Railway Station.

I have to say that even in summer the place is a tad cold for me but the attractions of the late 18th and 19th century buildings always make up for that.

The King's Head, © 2014 Peter Topping

So I am minded to explore Buxton for the blog, not of course for any recognition from the tourist board or local traders but because the place has history, and according to Peter 29 pubs which I think he is planning to paint.

This I suspect is a direct result of a weekend he spent there with Linda and a night in the King’s Head in the Market Place.

I think this will be a pub to research but for the time being I shall leave you with Peter’s painting and the OS map of Derbyshire for 1900 showing the place next to the Town Hall and close to the Urinal with the Gardens, Pavilion and Crescent just a short walk away.

All of which are still there with the exception of the urinal which long ago will have been the victim of some council budget cuts or a rationalization of public conveniences’.

Well that and more stories of Buxton to come at a later date.

Map; Market Place, and the Gardens from the OS map of Derbyshire,1900, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/

Painting; The King’s Head Buxton, © 2014 Peter Topping, 
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