Last night’s rain petered out and the night was calm and clear. That meant that the temperature dropped to 2degC and the tent was was covered in dew. It was a nice colourful sky at first but later on cloud cover moved in. I was away by 07:20 and firstly had to ride through Taddington to find a rubbish bin to leave my rubbish. It also meant I was off the busy main road for a while.

Morning view from the tent

The long descent wasn’t as bad as I’d thought and the rest of the ride into Bakewell was uneventful. I didn’t stop in the town but continued to Matlock where I stopped briefly in the town centre park to take some photos and have something to eat. As I left along the A615 I was impressed with an Indian restaurant with an Asian tuk tuk 3 wheeled auto rickshaw on the roof of the entrance porch and also one parked by the door.

Matlock

Roof top parking

tuk tuk 3 wheeled auto rickshaw

Further on I saw a dilapidated dry stone wall being rebuilt. I stopped briefly to chat to the wall builder and admire his work. This is the first time I’ve been able to see the sorry state of the wall immediately in front of the rebuilt version. Because the wall had been hit by cars on previous occasions he was putting a cement mortar core to the wall to give it more strength, though it cant be seen on the completed section.
I left the A road for a while to head through the lanes to pick up the A61 into Alfreton. I’d planned to have a look at the town on my way through but couldn’t see anything of interest to stop for. At Blidworth I rejoined the main road to see an interesting looking church.

St. Mary of the Purification, Blidworth

I stopped to investigate but found it locked to visitors. Round the back was what looked like a small replica of the church built in the graveyard there was no information plate saying what it was for. A Wikipedia search showed the church is St. Mary of the Purification with alleged Robin Hood links.

Daughter Church and Mother

The graveyard is supposed to be the burial place of the outlaw Will Scarlet and the town the birthplace of Maid Marian, although there is little or no evidence to support these claims. The first recorded incumbent was Hugh (1337).
I pressed on through a thinly wooded area with a dilapidated building called something like ‘The Jolly Friar’ which looked closed, then into an area with a sign saying it was Sherwood forest.

Will Scarlet

St Mary's before the tower was added

As I entered Southwell the town’s name plate described it as a historic town. Apart from the very large Abbey type building I passed there was no other information to verify its claim. I left the busy A612 and headed through minor lanes to the banks of the River Trent at Fiskerton. I’m glad I did because riding though Averham I saw a sign saying ‘Robin Hood Theatre’ pointing down a side road. I rode down to investigate. It was quite rough towards the end and the theatre car park was a bad and didn’t seem to have been used for some time. The theatre building looked quite depressing and didn’t look to be in use. It wasn’t all doom and gloom as I saw another sign pointing along a path to ‘The Church’
I was expecting Averham St Michael Church to be locked but two builders were inside working on the interior of the bell tower.

Sherwood forest

St Michael's Church

Heads in the church

That meant I was able to have a look around. One of the builders said it was the oldest in the county. The first incumbent is listed as Richard de Markham in 1227. I left the church and rejoined the busy A617 to reach Kelham Bridge over the River Trent. The information plate on the parapet said it was built in 1856 and strengthened in 1988.

Kelham Bridge

The bridge is certainly not up to the heavy traffic that is now using it and part of one parapet had fallen off and I could see it in the murky water below. As I entered Newark on Trent I crossed another bridge, this gave a superb view of Newark Castle across the river. It was nice to see that it was possible to walk around the castle without paying a fortune for the privilege. It was free. I left the town to the SE and stopped at Balderton Sainsbury’s to buy water before continuing and crossing the A1 to try and find somewhere to camp. All the field gates and access were blocked or locked so I had to ride a few more miles before finding a pitch by the busy and noisy Shire Lane.

Newark Castle

Newark Castle