Telegrams office... once

There is a strange habit in England of allowing old artefacts from the past simply to stay in place – often for many years.  It doesn’t happen all the time of course – some people love to tidy away the past and make things shiny & modern, but it does happen often enough to be noticeable.

Here in Warslow village, they have left up the old sign for the Telephone & Telegrams Point.  It appears to be around sixty years old, but does look as though someone wipes it off every so often, just to give it a clean.

Mine in the hill

One of the entrances to the old Dale Mine - a 200 year old lead-& zinc-ore mine.  It lies in the wild Peak District; and faces the better known Ecton copper mines, which are on the hill on the other side of the river.
It is astonishing that it still survives so well.

Punishment central to village

A set of 'stocks' sits in the centre of Warslow village.  It's thought that these probably date to the nineteenth century, but no one knows for sure.
Stocks were a gentler form of punishment than pillory or ... gulp ... gibbet, and were more meant as a medium of public humiliation. 

But I wonder why the good folk of Warslow like to use a form of punishment as a centre-piece for their village?  Perhaps they hope the stocks will act as a silent deterrent to any baddies.

Traces of 300 year old sweat

Much of the Peak District National Park in Staffordshire is now untouched countryside... so it's strange to think this was actually once an industrial heartland.  It is dotted with old diggings.

In the picture are the remains of the Dale Mine near Warslow.  Labourers started mining for lead there as far back as three hundred years ago.  You can just see in this photo (top right), the side of the spoil tip.
Odd to think that this solitary and quiet place was once the scene of much sweating and groaning by many men!