After recovering from the exploits documented at Notrock, I hit the rails again for a week in Notts. After actually checking the opening times I managed to get to have a look inside Hucknall Mary Magdalene Church, final resting place of Lord Byron. I turned up in the afternoon and ended up having a tour from a chap called Tim who was learning he ropes from the Verger, and trying to remember all the stuff about the place (10th century tower, lots of alterations, stained glass by Kempe, and the memorials of Byron and Ada.) The ladies minding the church gave me a cup of tea and a biscuit and turned the lights on for me. Is this low impact tourism?
Also while in that neck of the woods I went for a walk in and around Eyam, a beautiful spot with some fairly gruesome history (in the 1660s the Plague struck and the villagers contained it under self-imposed quarantine. The village is full of graves and memorials). We drove around Derbyshire with Test Match Special on the radio, appreciating the idea of England on a summer afternoon. That, I suppose, is what having a sabbatical is all about.
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