10-Feb-2026
As advertised, we're back in England.
Here we are, bright and early on Sunday, queueing up for the boat from Douglas:
And driving aboard:
It was an incredibly calm crossing... Hard to believe that just days before, we were all being blown to kingdom come.
Not much call for lorry chains today
I love the approach to Liverpool. The sight of the Liver Birds takes me right back to childhood:
It was a bit of a slow and faffy journey (what was everyone doing on the roads on a Sunday afternoon, when they could have been in watching the Winter Olympics?), but we eventually reached Derbyshire. We're staying back at the van-friendly place in Alfreton that we used on our way to the Island (just -- incredibly -- 15 days ago).
Nearby, in Oakerthorpe (a Lord-of-the-Rings-sounding name if ever there was one), is Pesto at The Peacock. The Italian piattini (small plates, reminiscent of tapas) are awesome, with every one a winner:
And the building is really interesting. A former coaching house, it's reputed to be one of the oldest public houses in Derbyshire, and to have links with Dick Turpin and Mary Queen of Scots... The tunnels beneath the inn are said to be connected with this royal personage (who was imprisoned at nearby Wingfield Manor). And the skeleton that guests can see beneath the floorboards on entering is a replica of one discovered in those same underground passages. No-one knows to whom the original bones belonged, or how it ended up where it did... Creepy...
(We visited Wingfield Manor, you might recall, at the end of 2024. The Mary saga figures in Alison Uttley's A Traveller in Time, and there's more in a Book note here.)
Part of the old building
No Derbyshire trip is complete without multiple walks round Ripley. We spent Monday morning getting Nigel's hair cut, and pottering round the town:
Our favourite of the vast number of Ripley barbers
I always enjoy circling Crossley Park
One of the mosaics commemorating the human toll of World War I
Loving the Chinese New Year postbox topper outside the Co-op...
The weather has been pretty dismal all over the British Isles for the last little while. Everyone is complaining about it.
Raindrops are everywhere...
Still, we managed a bit of an Alfreton circuit this morning:
Alfreton Park. Definitely looking muted
I'm imagining an ent doing his exercises...
Part of what remains of Alfreton Hall, once a grand and extensive mansion. It was originally acquired by Derbyshire County Council in the early 1960s, but most of it had to be demolished because of the subsidence caused by mining (as with Shipley Hall). What remains is the 1855 extension, now fully restored and providing event facilities
Presumably this was the stable block, on the other side of the road
We're heading away from the park now. And this is definitely the looking we're planning to emulate for our own No. 11...
It's not often you see a terraced church
Back on the high street, and this establishment has taken literally the Alfreton royal origin story
This has been a nice little interlude. But tomorrow we're off to return the van...