Bakewell Pudding V Bakewell Tart

I mentioned Bakewell Pudding in my More Of Derbyshire And A Bit Of Family History post and I had a comment asking what was the difference between Bakewell Pudding and Bakewell Tart, so when we returned to Derbyshire a couple of weeks ago, we stopped off in Bakewell and had another trip to The Old Original Bakewell Pudding Shop.

Here I purchased a pudding and a tart so that I'm able to show you that they're two very different things.

Taken from their website: 'The traditional Bakewell Pudding comprises a buttery puff pastry case with a layer of indulgent seedless strawberry jam. It is then topped with a mixture of ground almonds, whole egg and sugar and is cooked to perfection to make a soft set, silky custard-like filling on a delicious crunchy base.

The original iced Bakewell Tart comprises a shortcrust pastry case filled with lashings of luxury seedless strawberry jam. It is finished off with a pale, fluffy sponge filling made with whole egg, almonds and sugar. The tarts come both fondant iced with a cherry or topped with flaked almond.'

Here you can see them cut in half to reveal the inside.

So my verdict. Well, this is the first time I've tried a Bakewell Pudding, I've just never liked the look of them and I should have stuck to my instincts because neither Mick nor myself liked it. I did like the Bakewell Tart but I'm not very fond of icing so I should have gone with the flaked almond topping, I think that would have gone down a treat.

A Little More Family History

It was in my More Of Derbyshire And A Bit Of Family History post that I mentioned we'd visited the village of Stanton and found my great grandparents' final resting place. Seeing the village where many generations of my ancestors once lived reignited the urge to find out more, so a couple of weeks ago, as Mick had a final day to take off work from last year's holiday entitlement, we decided to head back to the area and see if we could find out more.

This time we headed to the church in Ellastone where many family occasions such as christenings, weddings and funerals took place. The church in Stanton was only built in 1847 so the villagers worshipped in nearby Ellastone.

The church in Ellastone is much bigger than the one in Stanton and I was hoping that we may find some graves belonging to my family but the churchyard was very overgrown and some of the gravestones so old that even when you could wade through the long grass, the writing on them had long since disappeared, which was quite disappointing.

Ellastone is a rural village on the Staffordshire side of the River Dove. It's set in beautiful countryside.

We also went back to Stanton where we found my mum's Auntie Betty. She was married to Harry, who we found last time we visited.

I managed to find a few leads but nothing concrete at the moment so more research is needed. It's all good fun though and wouldn't be half as satisfying if it were all straight forward.

A Rainbow Of Colours

Last week, I treated myself to a  Dinky Box from Lay Family Yarn.

These boxes contain five 10g mini skeins in an assortment of colours and are a great way to try out a dyer who you haven't bought from before or, as in my case, pick up a smaller quantity of yarn in different colours in order to add to my scrappy blanket.

I can't often tell how a colour will look knitted up when I see it in a skein but it's exciting to start knitting and seeing the pattern and colours emerge.

One thing which puts me off ordering mini skeins from many dyers is the postage cost. There's only 50g of yarn in small mini skein bundles yet they're often bunched together in a ball band, making them too big to send by letter post so the postage ends up costing the same as a parcel.

Just look how these mini skeins were sent. Genius! There was a large letter stamp on the box and they were sent as a letter. What's more, the packaging is recyclable, no plastic bags here.

A big thumbs up to Lay Family Yarn. It's little things like these which make for a great shopping experience. I'll definitely be back for more.

Clapham

Mention Clapham and most people will think you mean the district in south-west London, however, there's another Clapham which nestles below Ingleborough on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park and we visited it whilst having A Day In The Dales.

We've never been to Clapham before but we struck lucky on this day out in the Dales, we literally stumbled across it and what a gem, such a beautiful little village.

We parked up by the side of Clapham Beck, though there's a good sized car park in the village too. The village seems to be geared up for walkers and people taking part in local outdoor activities such as the 3 Peaks, caving including Ingleborough Cave and Gaping Gill, cycling and sight seeing.

Mick always heads for water so as we spotted the beck as we got out of the car, it was inevitable that the first thing we'd do was take a walk along the path by the side of it. Not really a path, more of a track which has been made by many feet taking this route before us.

Archie loves water too and he was very happy to have a little time free from his lead after the car journey.

We walked along the lanes in the village too, there's some beautiful cottages and stunning houses. We saw this gorgeous wisteria on the side of one of the cottages.

Looking across the beck through the greenery, we could just make out a church so we decided to take a closer look.

The church was founded in Norman times and was dedicated to St Michael, it's mentioned in records dating back to 1160, however, the village and church were burned down during a Scottish raid following the Battle of Bannockburn in the early 14th century. The church tower was probably erected following this incident but the rest of the church dates from the 19th century and is now dedicated to St James.

The local village store is owned and run by the community and has won awards. There's also an Aladdin's cave of a shop in the village selling all manner of things vintage. Stepping over the threshold was like going back in time and I found more than a few things from my childhood in there. It was jam packed with its wares even spreading out onto its forecourt.

I was thrilled to find a fabulous yarn shop in the village. Beckside Yarns is situated by the side of the beck and is stocked full of fabulous yarn over two floors. I thought it surprising that such a small village would have such a wonderful shop, after all, I know of many large cities that can't boast of such a well stocked yarn shop.

I'm sure you can see just why we were so taken with Clapham and it's definitely somewhere we'll return.

A Day In The Dales

Mick's still using up holiday left over from last year so he took another day off work on the Friday before the bank holiday. After A Day Out In Derbyshire the week before, we decided we'd stay in Yorkshire on this occasion and visited the Yorkshire Dales.

I consider myself very lucky to live in this gorgeous county. I know that most places here in the UK have something going for them, it really is a beautiful country, but it isn't hard to see why Yorkshire is known as God's Own Country.

We started our day in the small market town of Settle.

Market day is Tuesday so it wasn't on when we visited but we had a wander around the little shops.

What an impressive building. This is The Folly, built in the late 17th century. Throughout its life The Folly has been a family home, a farmhouse, bakery, warehouse, furniture shop, refreshment rooms, fish & chip shop, bank, salvage business and recently a holiday let.

We treated ourselves to a steak and ale pie and a pork pie for our lunch from a local butchers. Goodness me, they were good, it's no wonder they've won awards.

After a leisurely stroll round we were on our way to our next destination, Clapham.

We've never visited Clapham before but we were really taken with it, such a beautiful place. I'll tell you all about it in my next post but in the meantime, here's a photo to be going on with.

Not far out of the village we saw a sign for Ingleton Pottery so we made a little detour to take a look. Wow, such beautiful pieces of stoneware pottery, and all at very reasonable prices. I couldn't resist this beautiful vase and a little glazed dish. We shall definitely go back, we saw some pieces which will make great gifts.

Just north of Clapham is Ingleborough, the second highest mountain in the Yorkshire Dales and one of the Yorkshire Three Peaks, which are part of the Pennine range. We passed it on our way to our next destination, though the top was clothed in cloud on this particular day.

A little further along we came to the Ribblehead Viaduct which carries the Settle-Carlisle railway across Batty Moss in the Ribble Valley.

The photo here was taken further along the road. It's such an impressive structure.

It wasn't long until we reached our final stop of the day, Hawes, and you can't go to Hawes without visiting the creamery. We came away with some delicious Wenseleydale cheese.

We like Hawes, it's a bustling market town in Upper Wensleydale, however, I have to admit that I was a tad disappointed as most of the little shops were closing when we got there and it was only about 4.30pm! We saw people arriving at B&B's, presumably for a weekend away, but the town was already winding down for the night.

Still, it was nice to have a little wander around.

It wasn't long before we were setting off for home, taking in the beautiful scenery along the way.

It was a lovely day out. I hope you enjoyed coming along with me and don't forget, my next post will be all about Clapham.

In The Making - May 2019

A roundup of the things I'm working on at the moment.

There haven't been any finishes this month but I've been cracking on with the projects I've got on the go as well as a new cast on.

I had every intention last month of casting on something new to help bring back my knitting mojo but I didn't expect it to be another baby garment. Eleanor saw her friend whilst she was home over Easter, the one who had a baby towards the end of last year. Do you remember the Flax Light I knit for the baby? The yarn I used was terrible, it was full of knots and big patches of dye where there should only be speckles and I wasn't at all happy with the finished garment but I decided to give it to her anyway. Well, it turns out that it's one of her favourite items of clothing and she asked Eleanor if I'd knit her another, exactly the same, in the same yarn and the same colour, just a larger size. Well, I'm happy to oblige. It just so happens that I'd complained to the yarn company and they'd sent me a replacement ball so I already had the yarn I needed in my stash so I got it straight on the needles. So far so good with the yarn this time, fingers crossed that I don't come across the same problems as I had last time.

Yippee! I've finished the sleeves on the cardigan. Now it's time for the worst bit of all, picking up stitches the whole way round the button bands and neck. I'm putting it off for the time being, I think I'll put this project aside for a while now and come back to it later when I might have more of an inclination to work on with it. Taking a break from something I'm not totally enjoying working on usually helps me to fall in love with it again.

I finished one of the socks I'm working on and I'm nearly halfway on the second sock. I can't say I'm totally happy with the yarn I'm using and I'll tell you more about that when they're finished.

I'm hoping I might have something cast off before next month's post.

The Secret

I read Kathryn Hughes debut novel, The Letter, and enjoyed it so I decided to download the other two books she's written onto my Kindle and have just finished The Secret.

I must admit that I haven't been reading much lately so I really pushed myself to make a start on this book, I'm so pleased I did as I couldn't put it down once I got started.

'Mary has been nursing a secret.

Forty years ago, she made a choice that would change her world for ever, and alter the path of someone she holds dear.

Beth is searching for answers. She has never known the truth about her parentage, but finding out could be the lifeline her sick child so desperately needs. When Beth finds a faded newspaper cutting amongst her mother's things, she realises the key to her son's future lies in her own past. She must go back to where it all began to unlock...The Secret'.

This is another book which is told over two time periods and at first I didn't realise where it all fitted together but as I read more, it became clear. There's some wonderful characters in this book and I warmed to most of them. The chapters are only short, there's about fifty in total and I like that, it encourages me to read just one more and before I knew it I was at the end of the book.

I'd definitely recommend this book, it's a real page turner. I'm looking forward now to reading the other Kathryn Hughes book which is waiting for me.

What I'm Watching - May 2019

TV and film that I've been enjoying this month.

The latest series of Line of Duty hit our screens just days after my mum died. As you can imagine, I wasn't up to watching TV at this time so week after week I taped each episode until the week of the finale came round and we binge watched the previous five episodes to catch up before all was revealed. Hmmm, I know everyone loves Line of Duty but at the risk of being controversial I have to say I expected so much more. I'll go even further and say that much of what I watched was boring. This series has just acted as a stepping stone to further series, we haven't learnt much more than we knew at the end of Series 4 except the whole of Series 5 was a "Who is H?" and now we know there's no such person. I'm not even sure I'll bother watching Series 6!

I read something a while ago about a programme being made based on the diaries of Anne Lister and have been watching out for it ever since. The first episode of Gentleman Jack, starring Suranne Jones, has now been shown and I thought it was really good. Anne Lister was a landowner and industrialist from Yorkshire who was born in 1791. She kept diaries detailing her life, financial concerns, work improving Shibden Hall in Halifax and her lesbian activities. Part of the diaries were written in code and it wasn't until the 1930's that they were deciphered by the last inhabitant of Shibden Hall, John Lister and his friend, Arthur Burrell. Burrell advised John Lister to burn them but he didn't listen and continued to hide the diaries behind a panel at Shibden Hall. Anne Lister is often called "the first modern lesbian" for her clear self-knowledge and openly lesbian lifestyle. I wrote a post about Shibden Hall And Park when we visited back in 2012. I'm looking forward to watching more of this series.

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile are the words spoken by the judge in Ted Bundy's death sentencing and the title given to the new biographical crime thriller told from the viewpoint of Bundy's girlfriend, Elizabeth Kendall. It was released in the cinemas at the beginning of the month but broadcaster Sky has the distribution rights in the UK so, as a subscriber, I was able to watch from the comfort of my living room. I rarely go to the cinema these days. Zac Efron takes the part of Ted Bundy and he's done a great job, I think he was well cast as, chillingly, he does have a look of the evil mass murderer and I think he managed to portray the charming side of this animal as the movie required. Thirty years on from Bundy's execution, there have been countless documentaries and films made about him but telling his girlfriend's story gave the account a new angle. I'm glad I didn't take a trip to the cinema to watch this film but it held my interest for a couple of hours.

I haven't watched anything on Netflix this month but I have binge watched Gayna's Tales From Cuckoo Land podcast on YouTube. This started out over two years ago as a knitting podcast but, over time, it's evolved into a family life podcast. She does still show her knitting projects but she now records more of the general goings on of daily life with her husband and three lovely boys. I'm now up to date and have enjoyed what I've watched.

Have you been watching any of these? What else have you been watching this month?

More Of Derbyshire And A Bit Of Family History

Following on from my last post, after we'd visited Matlock Bath and Caudwell's Mill & Craft Centre we headed off to the ancient capital of the Peak District, Bakewell.

We parked by the River Wye and crossed Weir Bridge.

The railings on this bridge are now just about full of padlocks, a tradition started by lovers fastening 'love locks' on the Pont des Arts in Paris.

There must be thousands of padlocks adorning the bridge.

Bakewell is a busy town but it still retains its character and charm.

Home of the Bakewell Pudding, there are many bakeries selling this flaky pastry dessert.

We had a wander around the town before getting back in the car and setting off once again. We stopped to enjoy the view at Monsal Head, high above Monsal Dale where the viaduct which carried the former Midland Railway over the river can be seen.

It's quite a few years now since I've worked on my family tree but generations of my mum's family came from Derbyshire. I know that my mum's grandparents are buried in the churchyard at a village called Stanton so we decided we'd go and see if we could find their headstones.

Stanton is a small village on the Weaver Hills near Ashbourne. Each generation of my mum's family were born there from at least the 1780's when my great great great great grandfather was born, right down to my my mum's mum who was born there in 1909. It was a bit of a drive but eventually we came upon the church.

It's only a small church and there aren't a great number of graves as it's relatively new, being built in 1847. Prior to that, the villagers worshipped at Ellastone, a village about two and a half miles away so some family occasions such as christenings, weddings and funerals took place there. It didn't take us long until we found my mum's Uncle Henry, or Harry as he was known.

I was really pleased that we discovered my great grandparents, William and Louisa. We only decided to look for the church on the spur of the moment, if I'd known we'd be visiting I'd have taken some flowers. There's a misspelling on the stone, Louisa has been spelt Lousia.

And here is a photo of Louisa, kindly passed on to me from a relative who I found when researching my family tree. I don't know when the photo was taken but Louisa was born in 1871.

The village is in such a peaceful place, you can see for miles from the churchyard.

It's a shame that the church was locked as I'd have liked to have gone inside. I'm so pleased that we found it though, it really made my day.

I used to love to work on my family tree, discovering family history from long ago. Visiting the place where my great grandparents lived, and my nana lived as a child, has reawakened something in me and I'm all geared up again to discover more. I can see this old hobby of mine being rekindled, and I'd love to go and explore this area more and perhaps visit Ellastone church too.