THE DERBYSHIRE DALES
SOME OF the best of the Carboniferous Limestone is to be found on the Pennines, where it forms magnificent scenery. The cliffs and slopes which are the foundation of the beauty are the homes of uncommon and interesting flowers.
In this chapter the extreme south of the Pennine Range will be considered—the region of the Derbyshire Dales. The limestone here extends particularly over an area of some 25 by 15 miles from near Wirksworth and Ashbourne in the south, through Matlock and Buxton, almost to the lower slopes of Kinder Scout in the north. This area is sometimes inaccurately referred to by botanists as the Peak District,1 but properly the term should be restricted to the high, mostly acid ground which is just beyond its northern limits. I prefer to refer to it as the Derbyshire Dales, though even this description has its objections, since the west parts of Dovedale and the whole of the Manifold Valley are within the county of Staffordshire.
To a southern botanist like myself this big stretch of limestone is particularly exciting as the nearest place where a number of northern species can be seen. Lovely flowers such as Mountain Pansy, Viola lutea, Jacob’s Ladder, Polemonium caeruleum, and Globe Flower, Trollius europaeus, have taken advantage of the high ground of the Pennines to extend south with trees like Bird Cherry, Prunus padus, and shrubs like the Soft-leaved and the Glaucous Roses, R. villosa and R. dumalis. Hoary Whitlow-grass, Draba incana, and Melancholy Thistle, Cirsium heterophyllum, grasses like Mountain Melic, Melica nutans, and Wood Fescue, Festuca altissima, a rare sedge, Carex ornithopoda, and a fern, the Green Spleenwort, Asplenium viride, are less conspicuous examples. Apart from the presence of particular species, the flora has a definitely northern facies which is refreshing to people who are more familiar with the chalk and limestones of the south. Ash takes the place of the Beech in the woods, and plants like Common Lady’s Mantle, Alchemilla vulgaris, which such botanists are apt to regard as rare, are here extremely common.
On the contrary, some of the abundant plants of the South and North Downs are absent or rare. Orchids are surprisingly scarce. Whitebeam, Sorbus aria, is only found at a few places, though the allied Rock Whitebeam, Sorbus rupicola, of the north and west, is more common. Wayfaring Tree is probably absent, and Traveller’s Joy is found only near gardens where it has almost certainly been introduced. Such common downland plants as Squinancywort, Stemless Thistle, Blue Fleabane and Yellow-wort are extremely rare. Other abundant chalk flowers like Dropwort, Clustered Bellflower and Common Gromwell, Lithospermum officinale, and even the characteristic grass, Upright Brome, Bromus erectus, are local and scarce.
If the Derbyshire Dales are characterised by northern plants coming south into the Midlands in quantity, it cannot be said that the southern flowers use the same district to push north. Their road in this direction is the Magnesian Limestone, which runs to the east of the Pennines and is to be considered in the next chapter.
The area in which the Dales are found may be described roughly as a great tableland rising in height towards the north. Out of this tableland steep-sided winding valleys, with limestone exposed on their cliffs and slopes, wander in all directions. Most of them have streams or rivers running through them—the best known of these being the Derwent in the east and the Dove in the west. The area is one of heavy rainfall, particularly on the high ground around Buxton, and this has the effect of accelerating the process known as “leaching.” Rain, charged with the acid carbon dioxide, dissolves the calcium carbonate of the limestone and leaves behind a residue which produces an acid rather than a basic soil. These residues have tended to accumulate on the flattish top of the tableland, and here they give rise to soils on which rather acid heathy vegetation develops. On the slopes these tend to wash down as they form, leaving the limestone rocks exposed and clothed with plants characteristic of calcareous habitats. It will be evident that it is on the limestone precipices such as High Tor, Matlock, or on steep rocky slopes such as those which are so well-known in Dove Dale and Miller’s Dale, that one must expect to find the most characteristic calcicoles.
In addition to extensive leaching there are intrusions of other rocks in the Carboniferous Limestone which lead to complications. The most interesting of these are the bands of dark basaltic lava known as “Toadstone” which may be seen in some places along the sides of the valleys. Here there is an immediate and striking change in the vegetation, and acid-loving plants take the place of the calcicoles of the surrounding limestone. Chert, which is siliceous in character, forms a thin overlayer in some valleys and also gives rise to a calcifuge flora.
Scattered over most of the area are spoil-heaps from the lead-mines. As in the Mendips, the ore was mined here on a considerable scale by the Romans and some of the heaps have remained undisturbed from their times—others are of later date. Even the older mounds seldom get completely grassed over, and many of them have two species of plants which are specially associated with places where lead has been mined. The most widespread of these is Spring Sandwort, Minuartia verna (Plate 45). As far back as 1688 Ray recorded the locality as “In Derbyshire on the barren earth they dig out of the shafts of the lead mines near Wirksworth,” and it is quite common in such places all over the Dales area. It does occur sometimes where no lead has been mined, but it does not follow that the ore is not present at these places.
The other lead associate is a much rarer plant—a special kind of Alpine Pennywort distinguished as Thlaspi calaminare, and known in Britain only from Derbyshire and Rhum. It is to be found in many places from Wirksworth to Matlock, and north of this at Alport by the River Bradford. The Alpine Pennyworts are critical and it takes an expert eye to distinguish T. calaminare from all the forms of the much more widespread T. alpestre. The fruiting spikes are shorter and denser and the fruits are cut off almost square at the ends with long styles. It is also said that T. calaminare flowers earlier. This may be generally true, for I saw it in three places with young fruits formed one year as early as 19 May, but it is useless as a character, as flowers can still be found as late as August in some summers.
As compared with the chalk and limestone districts discussed in earlier chapters, the flowers of the Derbyshire Dales bloom late. This applies particularly to the northern valleys and is mainly due to the high altitude. To see the finest displays of colour, the visitor should go in June or even July—a full month later than on the South or North Downs. The best centres to stay at are Matlock, Buxton and Ashbourne, and although the whole of the area can be explored by using public transport from the first-mentioned centre, it will be convenient to discuss the more important Dales in sequence according to their proximity to these three towns.
MATLOCK
The last time I stayed in Derbyshire was at a hotel which had bedrooms with lovely views of the High Tor, Matlock, towering up above the River Derwent. The huge cliff was clothed with the trees and bushes characteristic of limestone scenery and growing out of chinks in the rock where it seemed unbelievable that their roots could find sufficient nutriment. The very dark green leaves of the Yew and Holly and those of the Wych Elm, Ulmus glabra (far more abundant than in the south), contrasted with the shivering paler foliage of the Ash, which was the dominant tree in so many of the woods in the neighbourhood. Rock Whitebeam, Sorbus rupicola, grew only on the very steepest cliffs, and its silvery leaves contrasted with the greens of the trees already mentioned and harmonised with the white of the limestone.
In short evening walks on both sides of the Derwent valley I saw many interesting plants, including the Spring Sandwort and Thlaspi calaminare in several places. In the woods there were two northern grasses. Mountain Melic, Melica nutans, was common. It is a very ornamental plant, easily distinguished from the Wood Melic, M. uniflora, by the much larger spikelets which nod on their stalks and are arranged on an unbranched stem. Wood Fescue, Festuca altissima, grows in one rocky wood and is equally graceful, though a much taller grass, forming loose clumps. Where I saw it, it was associated with Wood Barley, Hordelymus europaeus. Lily-of-the-Valley, Convallaria majalis, is to be found at Matlock and in some of the other Dales, as is also Giant Bellflower, Campanula latifolia, another species more common in the north than the south of England. About Matlock Bath, the rocks are covered with masses of White Arabis, Arabis caucasica, a garden plant which has become thoroughly established here and is still extending its area.
A favourite walk or drive from Matlock is through the steep-sided wooded valley called the Via Gellia, which is about three miles to the south-west. Although this is not a place where special rarities are to be found, it is an excellent introduction to the Dales. Near the road and stream along the bottom of the valley there is thick woodland in which Ash and Wych Elm are dominant. In this Mr. R. H. Hall showed me Herb Paris, Paris quadrifolia, and the round-headed Lesser Teasel, Dipsacus pilosus. Here and there in the woods are rocky screes made up of boulders of various sizes, in which we saw plenty of Mountain Melic and Stone Bramble, Rubus saxatilis. The latter is a small creeping plant related to the Blackberry, but seldom as much as a foot in height, and usually with only three leaflets to each leaf. The fruits are bright red when ripe, and pleasant, if somewhat sharp, in taste, and thus very refreshing on a hot, thirsty August day. The screes extend above the wood into a belt of scrub-land where Elder and Hazel are dominant. Above this is a somewhat leached area with plants which are not particular about growing on calcareous soils.
Some six miles north-west of Matlock is the valley of the Bradford, of which the best part is between Alport and Youlgreave. The special plants of the lead spoil-heaps here have already been mentioned. About the village of Alport there is Dark Mullein, Verbascum nigrum, with yellow corolla and purple stamens. In the south of England we regard it as a common chalk plant, but as far north as this it is a rarity. On rocks in Lathkill Dale nearby I have been shown the fern Rustyback, Ceterach officinarum, which, although so common in the south-west of England, is scarce in the north. Growing with it was Fine-leaved Sandwort, Minuartia hybrida. High up in this valley is a colony of Jacob’s Ladder, Polemonium caeruleum, one of the showiest of our northern wild flowers. The flowers are of a rich blue against which the yellow projecting stamens show up to advantage, and the leaves are divided into some 12 or 14 narrow leaflets (pinnate). Often cultivated in cottage gardens as Greek Valerian, the plant is sometimes found in places where it is doubtfully wild, but in the Derbyshire Dales and in Yorkshire it grows high up in remote places where there can be little question of its status. From the high screes, which seem to be its proper home, it gets carried down the valleys by streams, and no doubt this explains why it is also to be found by the Bradford near Alport and by brooks near Ashbourne.
North of Eyam, in the Hope Valley, as at Castleton and the Winnats, there are other exposures of Carboniferous Limestone which I have not yet visited. Judging from the records, they have many of the commoner plants of the Derbyshire Dales, and some of the rarities.
MONSAL DALE TO BUXTON
For about nine miles from Monsal Dale to Buxton the River Wye runs through a steep-sided gorge with some of the finest scenery and best botanizing in central England. The main railway line from St. Pancras to Manchester, and its branch to Buxton, share the valley, and passengers on these lines can get some idea of the country from brief glimpses they obtain as the trains rush in and out of cuttings and tunnels. To the walker the railway is so well concealed that it hardly mars the scenery.
The main valley forms a series of Dales known as Monsal Dale, Miller’s Dale, Chee Dale, Wye Dale and Ashwood Dale. Off these lead a sequence of smaller valleys, of which the most interesting to the botanist are Cressbrook or Raven’s Dale, Tideswell Dale, Monk’s Dale, Great Rocks Dale and Cunning Dale to the north, and Deep Dale, leading to Back Dale, in the south. In the following paragraphs these will not be mentioned by name when the scarce plants are discussed. The series as a whole differs from the other Dales in its higher altitude. Many of the better habitats are very near the one-thousand-foot contour and northern plants accordingly tend to be more numerous. There is no doubt that from the point of view of the botanist it is along this series of Dales that the most attractive ground is to be found, and it is a great pity that so many naturalists merely pay a hasty visit to one particular stretch and ignore the remainder.
The special plant which brings many botanists here is the Birds-foot Sedge, Carex ornithopoda. It is restricted to limestone in Britain and, apart from this valley, grows mainly only in north-west England in the district where Yorkshire, Westmorland and Cumberland meet. The name is a remarkably apt one, for the young spikes in outline show a close resemblance to the foot of a bird. It is allied to the Fingered Sedge, C. digitata (which R. H. Hall also found here in 1947), and indeed specimens collected in 1801 were confused with this species, and not recognised as an addition to the British flora until three-quarters of a century later. I have seen Birds-foot Sedge in two places in these Dales—one in the main valley and the other in a small Dale some two miles away. It flowers in May, but the wiry little plants can be recognised at all times of the year, and I have found fruits by careful searching as late as August.
At one place the sedge is associated with Hoary Whitlow-grass, Draba incana, with leaves and stems covered with greyish hairs, and the small white flowers succeeded by pods which are curiously twisted. This little Crucifer is more common farther north, but it is found in several places in the Dales. On limestone rock ledges in the district there is also the Germander Whitlow-grass, D. muralis, which is much earlier-flowering and quite dried up by July and August, when D. incana is at its best. Another Crucifer is Rock Pepperwort, Hornungia petraea, which Mr. Hall tells me varies greatly in quantity from year to year, so that botanists who come in a good spring for the plant get a false idea of its abundance.
One of the localities for Rock Pepperwort is on a rock in the smaller dale, where Bird’s-foot Sedge grows. Here I saw Dark-flowered Helleborine, Epipactis atrorubens. Mr. Hall had known the plants for years and visited them most seasons, but it was not until July, 1946, that we first saw them in flower. Another nice plant was Small Meadow-rue, Thalictrum minus.
In this and other dales in this series there is a good deal of Bloody Cranesbill (I prefer this old and thoroughly English name to the “Blood-red Cranesbill” of some ultra-delicate writers). Geranium sanguineum (Plate 39) is handsome enough to be commonly grown in gardens, and yet is widespread as a native on limestone cliffs and also sometimes occurs on the chalk. The flowers may be as much as an inch and a half across and are usually deep magenta in colour. They show to advantage against the deeply divided leaves, which turn a delightful shade of red in autumn. In this species the stamens mature one or two days earlier than the stigmas, and it is possible that this is connected with changes in the colour of the petals following pollination. In Johnson’s 1633 edition of Gerard’s Herbal these changes are described in the following picturesque words: “The floures are … of a perfect bright red colour, which if they be suffered to grow and stand untill the next day, will be a murry colour; and if they stand unto the third day, they will turne into a deep purple tending to blewnesse, their changing is such, that you shall finde at one time upon one branch floures like in forme, but of divers colours.” I do not know how accurately this description fits the facts (“murry” is the colour of the mulberry—purple-red), but the question does not appear to have been recently investigated. A rare gall, Eriophyes geranii, has been found on Bloody Cranesbill in this dale.
Another feature of this little dale was the abundance of Roses. I noticed Burnet Rose, Rosa pimpinellifolia, and Field Rose, Rosa arvensis, as well as Dog Rose, Soft-leaved Rose, and Glaucous Rose; here they were abundant and variable.
Higher up the valley we saw Dropwort, Filipendula vulgaris, one of the most handsome of British wild flowers and, in my opinion, superior to its much more widely admired relation, the Meadowsweet, F. ulmaria. Old-fashioned gardeners would appear to have very similar views, for a fine large form of Dropwort is sometimes grown in country districts. The flowers are creamy white, often flushed with red outside, and are gathered into a loose head. The leaves are made up of very numerous small sharply cut leaflets, pinnately arranged, while the root-fibres are enlarged into the drop-shaped tubers which have given the plant its name. On the southern chalk the plant is often abundant, but although it goes north on the limestone to the north of Scotland, it becomes much more local on the way. In Derbyshire it is rare but in the Dales where I have seen it Dropwort is a much larger and finer plant than on the drier chalk downs. The same applies to other localities in the north. It is said that the swollen roots, when dried and reduced to powder, can be made into a sort of bread not to be despised in times of scarcity. It would be necessary to gather an immense number of plants to produce a sufficient quantity to be of any real use, and it is to be hoped that it will never be necessary to try the experiment in this country!
Near the Dropwort there was a colony of Melancholy Thistle, Cirsium hetrophyllum (Plate 40). This is not particularly a limestone plant, and I think it grows equally well on a wide range of soils, provided an adequate supply of moisture is available. Nevertheless it is so frequent on the Carboniferous Limestone of Derbyshire and Yorkshire that it must have a place in this book. The leaves are cottony-white on their lower surface, and the bare, spineless stem stands boltupright with a single purple flower head (rarely two or three) at the top.
The main series of dales is in no way inferior to the side valley just described. There are banks in Miller’s Dale where a show of bloom to equal the best we have in the south may be seen. Even from the road, limestone plants can be seen growing as luxuriantly as anywhere in Britain.
One small cliff which I examined will serve as an example. Here there was Nottingham Catchfly, Silene nutans (Plate XX), a plant which is scattered about the chalk and limestone from Dover to Kincardineshire, but always very local. The name Catchfly has been applied to the genus on account of the viscid hairs which clothe the upper part of the stem and on which small insects are often caught.
On the ledges on the same cliff was Long-stalked Cranesbill, Geranium columbinum, which is less common on limestone than on chalk. The rather pale purplish-rose flowers are carried on long stalks from the axils of the very finely divided leaves. Growing with it were Spring Cinquefoil, Potentilla tabernaemontani, Hairy Rock-cress, Arabis hirsuta, with its racemes of strict, narrow pods, and Basil Thyme, Acinos arvensis.
All along Miller’s Dale there are abundant Hawkweeds, Hieracium spp., of several different sorts, brightening the rocks with their golden flowers. Mossy Saxifrage, Saxifraga hypnoides, is scattered about in the damper spots. We also saw Alpine Currant, Ribes alpinum, a bush five feet or so in height. The male and female flowers are on different plants (dioecious), and thus only some of them have bunches of bright red fruits in late summer. These look very like those of the garden Red Currant and taste rather similar though somewhat insipid. In wet copses on the limestone in this valley there are colonies of the handsome Globe Flower, Trollius europaeus. It is a plant of mountain districts and is rather like a big Buttercup with globelike yellow flowers. Higher up towards Buxton, in Ashwood Dale, London Pride, Saxifraga umbrosa, is abundantly naturalised on damp rocks.
The main road to Buxton runs through the well-wooded Wye and Ashwood Dales, where the more interesting plants are high up on crags which are not readily accessible, or in the smaller lateral dales.
DOVEDALE
Compared with the rugged dales near Buxton, Dovedale seems soft and unduly civilised. The best part both for scenery and plants extends from Milldale, near Alstonfield, for about three miles south to near Thorpe. All along this stretch the sides are steep and well wooded. To see the choicest plants the botanist must leave the well-trodden track by the Dove and climb some 500 feet to the crags. But even if this strenuous exercise is avoided, the beauty of the view, and the sight of some of the finest general vegetation in Derbyshire, will more than justify a visit. On the first occasion I went to Dovedale it was cold and May snow rested on the higher ground; on the second it was a wet August day; and yet I count both trips as well worth while.
It is perhaps seldom realised how much of the beauty of this Dale is due to the Ash. This tree is dominant throughout the popular stretch of the valley, and it is the peculiar shade of greyish green of its foliage, and the rounded outline of its canopy, which contributes to the softness of the scenery. The next most common tree is Wych Elm, while Elder, Hawthorn and Hazel are also plentiful on the lower ground, and Yew on the crags. On the steep cliffs there is a good deal of Rock Whitebeam, but this is mostly inaccessible.
Probably the most famous Dovedale plant is Alpine Currant, which is locally plentiful here and regarded as undoubtedly wild. When I came in May the bushes were very easy to find owing to the fresh green colour of their foliage, and they were laden with flowers. In August the foliage had gone dark, and it was less easy to spot the plants with their red fruits rather hidden under the leaves.
There is much Nottingham Catchfly and Spring Cinquefoil on the rocks and grassy slopes, and high up on the screes there is Rock Pepper-wort and Germander Whitlow-grass. I am told that there is one patch of Angular Solomon’s-seal, Polygonatum odoratum running down the cliff, and I saw Herb Paris. Greater Burnet-saxifrage, Pimpinella major, is plentiful—this has the purest white flowers of all the British Umbelliferae. On the lower ground there is also Long-stalked Cranesbill.
The western side of Dovedale is in Staffordshire, and it happened to be within this county that we found Lesser Teasel, Dipsacus pilosus, and Woolly-headed Thistle, Cirsium eriophorum. But the mystery plant of Dovedale is recorded as from the Derbyshire side. Madder, Rubia peregrina, is the largest of the British members of the Bedstraw Family (Rubiaceae). Its leaves and the angles of its perennial woody stem are rough with deflexed prickles. By means of these it scrambles over the bushes amongst which it grows. The leaves are dark green, arranged in fours, and some of them persist through the winter so that the plant is ready to renew its growth from fresh shoots immediately suitable weather returns in the spring. Formerly Madder was in great demand on account of the fast dye which was prepared from the rootstock.
The plant is most common on chalk and limestone cliffs on the south and west coasts, and it does not go north of Anglesey. Away from the sea it is very rare, though instances of its occurrence have already been given at Cheddar and the Wye Valley on Carboniferous Limestone and at Arundel in Sussex on the chalk. From this it will be clear that a record of Madder from thickets in Dovedale in the heart of England at an altitude of some 600 feet was a somewhat remarkable discovery. It was found by the Reverend R. Bindley of Mickleover about half a century ago and his specimens were checked by the Rev. W. R. Linton, so there can be no doubt about the identification. It is strange that no other botanist has ever seen it there, and it is to be hoped that now wider publicity has been given to the record the plant will be rediscovered.
The Rivers Dove and Manifold join between Ilam and Thorpe, and either of these villages would be a good centre for the exploration of both river valleys. Since it is in Staffordshire, the Derbyshire term “Dale” is not applied to the Manifold Valley, although in scenery and flora it forms an extension of the area just described. The trees—mostly Ash—cover many of the slopes but are restricted to the shelter of the valley, leaving the exposed tableland above devoid of woods and often leached. The flora of the Manifold is rather less rich than Dovedale, although the research undertaken by Mr. E. S. Edees and his friends in recent years has added considerably to the records.
The best part is the limestone about Wetton Mill, and here Rock Pepperwort, Spring Cinquefoil and Jacob’s Ladder are to be found. Amongst other interesting plants are Soft-leaved Rose, Rosa villosa, and Melancholy Thistle. There is also at least one place in the Manifold Valley where the winter-flowering Mezereon, Daphne mezereum, occurs wild.
The Carboniferous Limestone of Derbyshire and Staffordshire is one of the richest parts of central England for wild flowers, famous both for the large number of species represented and for the luxuriance in which many of them occur. North of the dales from the Peak onwards there is one of the most deadly dull areas to the botanist in Britain. For 50 miles Millstone Grit (or “The Grit,” as Yorkshire botanists disparagingly call it) is the rock of the Pennines. Here and there a few good plants are to be found, but in general the vegetation consists of a short list of calcifuges repeated with monotonous regularity. Going north, it is not until the upper valley of the Wharfe is reached that good limestone country is again to be found. Fortunately on the east side of the Pennines there is a narrow strip of limestone of another sort, and this will be considered before returning to the Carboniferous in Yorkshire.