Wingfield Manor is another little piece in the D.H. Lawrence trail that we embarked on last year.

This once palatial dwelling dates back to the 1440s, and was built for Ralph, Lord Cromwell, who then served as Treasurer of England. Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned here in 1569, 1584, and 1585, under the beady eye of the Earl of Shrewsbury (husband of Bess of Hardwick).

I read Lawrence's Sons and Lovers too long ago to remember that its pages feature Wingfield Manor:

"Lawrence obviously enjoyed taking the train to Alfreton and then walking on to Crich, because he describes such an outing in vivid detail in his semi-autobiographical novel, Sons and Lovers... From Alfreton, [Paul Morel and some friends] walk to Wingfield Manor which they enter for sixpence. Then they amble on and across a meadow 'that sloped away from the sun' and was 'bathed in a glory of sunshine, and the path was jewelled'...

"'At last they came into the straggling grey village of Crich that lies high. Beyond the village was the famous Crich Stand that Paul could see from his garden at home.'... From there they walked down to Whatstandwell, where they bought a 'loaf and a currant-loaf' and sat on the wall near the bridge 'watching the bright Derwent rushing by'. We get a sense of how busy a tourist spot this was 100 years ago. Lawrence describes the 'brakes' from Matlock pulling up at the inn and the crowded excursion trains from Manchester, Birmingham and London."

You can't enter the ruins of the manor at the moment, not even for sixpence, because they're not safe, but you can get good views if you follow a bridle path a little way down from the B5035 (from Crich to South Wingfield):


You can also get more distant views of another aspect by doing this very pleasant circular walk. Maybe it's even part of the one Lawrence did...?

We modified the route, and parked by The Bluebell, South Wingfield, where we'd had lunch with some very good friends last week:


You walk a little way down the road, and through the churchyard, and then you're onto field paths:













You emerge again onto a meadow. And then, suddenly, up on the hill to your left, you see Wingfield Manor again:


Finally, there's a nice stretch of river before you return to The Bluebell:



The only drawback to this walk was that the atmospherics today were such that you could hear road noise even when you were way up in the fields. Apart from that, though, this was another rewarding little foray.

On the way back to Matlock from South Wingfield, you can call in at the delightful little Chase Cafe in Holloway: