Folly pokes up blue

Some of my favourite walks are round the Ecton hills which are almost totally given over to Nature these days.
However, it is not a blue conifer you see in the middle of this photo, it is the high point of Ratcliffe's Folly.  Ratcliffe himself seemed to like isolation, which is perhaps why this house is so on its own on Ecton Hill.

Walking without fear

Now that Easter is been and gone, all walkers can go out on the hills without fear of extreme wet or cold.
These walkers are on Ecton Hill.

Industry's toxicity is not new

Environmental degradation caused by industry is not new.  The patch of grey in the centre of this photograph - looking rather like a man's bald-spot - is a 'toxic tip', where the hillside is bare of vegetation.  It has been devastated for 100 years.

The patch lies just below the tiny adit (i.e. entrance to underground workings) of the old 'Dutchman's Mine', on Ecton Hill, where copper was mined up to the end of the nineteenth century.  Basically, as the spill came up from the deep mine, the miners chucked what they didn't want out of the entrance, where it then just accumulated on the slope.  The toxic minerals poisoned the surrounding few acres - as you can see.

I gathered these facts from a fabulous book of walks called 'In The Footsteps of Our Ancestors - Heritage Walks' by John Barnett, which is a terrific guide to the hidden history of the White Peak area. Definitely recommended.

Ecton's Folly

This extraordinary house is known locally as 'The Folly' - being built in the 1930s by the rather eccentric Arthur Ratcliffe, who was MP for Leek at the time.  It has elements of a fantasy castle.
Its copper spire has become green with verdigris after being exposed to the air for so long.

You'll find it up an isolated track in Ecton where the few other homes were used by the old mining company for its officials.

Dotting shadows

Another late-afternoon image. 
The hills in Ecton are open for wandering, being part of the Peak District National Park... though lots of ascents (and blessed descents) are in order. The views are long-ranging, and the history (lots of old copper mining and associated sites) fascinating.

I like this more 'short-range' view; it shows the long dotting shadows on the velvety green of the opposite hill.