This morning Mummy, Tilly and I went to my friend Dominique’s house to pick her up. We then drove just over two hours all the way to Cromford Mill: we were going on holiday to the Peak District! We’re staying in a youth hostel in Youlgreave for four nights (that’s Monday to Friday). Dommy and I are having the top bunks on our bunk beds and Mummy and Tilly are having the bottom ones.
Cromford Mills was built by Sir Richard Arkwright in 1772. It was the first cotton mill to be built in England.We went on a tour where we were showed how a big tuft of dirty sheep’s wool became cotton used in clothes, et cetera et cetera. Before our tour, which was really interesting, we went on a walk from the mills to the huge big Victorian pumping station a couple of miles away. It took about an hour to get there. I don’t think it would have taken that long if it hadn’t been uphill most of the way and roasting hot! We ran out of water after maybe the first fifteen minutes, so…! The actual walk was really fun though: the scenery was amazing. It was like walking through a fairy forest, all bluebells and little clearings and big trees and a gentle breeze and the birds tweeting! I felt like I was walking into a children’s fantasy movie.
The steam engine was taking water from the river below and pumping it into the surface of the canal to keep the waters level. It’s the school holidays so the pump was on, so we could see the enormous piston that was pumping up, down, up, down, up, down, sucking up huge amounts of water from below as it went down. Apparently, the coal used costs £300 every running day!
Our tour was about an hour long, and was very interesting. After it we went to our youth hostel, YHA Youlgreave, where we had frenchstick pizza for dinner followed by hot chocolate! Yum yum!