I lived at number 4 Cross Cottages which later became 65 Meadow Lane which was a real shame but some things you can’t change.
When we went to Dove Holes C of E School we would always be early because our parents used to have to go out to work so a gang of lads used to set off and we would go over the railway bridge and past the 3 massive hills and onto the A6 and then up to the school. We later found out the hills were a petrol dump. It had spiked railings all the way around to stop people getting in. I can’t recall ever seeing anyone in there. We would run down with a stick hitting each rail as we went. Rat at tat tat and this multiplied by six or seven lads. What a noise.
Later we found out that these green hills were massive steel holding tanks covered in turf so the Germans wouldn’t notice them.
Some times if we were a bit late we would climb over the wall at the far end of the railway bridge and run down the well worn track and over the sidings where the train tankers brought the fuel and we would emerge on to Alexander Road. I suppose it was a bit dangerous but we never worried at the time and it would make up a few minutes in time to get to the school playground for a quick kick about before assembly. What we didn’t bargain for was the headmaster, Mr Evans, hiding just around the corner outside Williams and Deacons Bank. As we went past each one of us would get a clip around the ears and were told we would be dealt with after assembly.
After assembly we were called out to the front, bent over and given a minute’s worth of thrashing with the slipper.
Years later a few of us were riding our bikes down Dale Road towards Peak Dale and just past the Dove Holes sewerage works on our right was an old wagon track opposite the entrance to the RMC Plant. None of us had ever been up that track before but for some reason on this particular day we decided to have a look.
There in a hollow, out of site of the road, were the very same black railings and the very same 3 green hills.
Eventually the three hills in Dove Holes were demolished and Horseshoe Avenue was built on the site. During the demolition an old school friend of mine approached the removal contractors and said he had lived there all his life but had never been inside and could they show him round. One of the men agreed and invited him in.
He then said come and have a look at this and took him to a doorway that went into a tunnel. They went down into the tunnel and there was a roadway from the Dove Holes site to the Dale Road site.
Apparently it was big enough to take large vehicles from one place to the other.
The tunnel must have gone under the A6 and as far as I know it is still there.
Tony Beswick
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| Dove Holes C of E Primary School
If you were driving down from Buxton towards Dove Holes you would
eventually come to Katy’s Diner on the left hand side in the lay-by.
Behind that Diner are the remains of Bibbington’s Lime Tip or Bibby’s
Tip as I used to know it. It has now mostly been removed and dumped in
the old Victory Quarry on the opposite side of the road. The tip was
huge, pure white and as kids we used to climb up to the top of it; I
dread to think what would have happened to us if we fell off the large
end closest to Dove but thankfully we never did.
My Dad told me that in the bad winter of 1947 some photographers from the national papers came to take photos of it believing to be the largest snowdrift in Britain. When you could manage to get to the top you could look down on the blue pond below where the level never goes down no matter how hot the summer is. But looking down that is how this pond got its local name: The Cup and Saucer Pond. Because it looked just like a cup and saucer from high up. So it is perhaps appropriate that the Diner has a cup and saucer right at the side of it.
Strange but true.
  Tony Beswick. |
If you were driving down from Buxton towards Dove Holes you would eventually come to Katy’s Diner on the left hand side in the lay-by. Behind that Diner are the remains of Bibbington’s Lime Tip or Bibby’s Tip as I used to know it. It has now mostly been removed and dumped in the old Victory Quarry on the opposite side of the road. The tip was huge, pure white and as kids we used to climb up to the top of it; I dread to think what would have happened to us if we fell off the large end closest to Dove but thankfully we never did.
ReplyDeleteMy Dad told me that in the bad winter of 1947 some photographers from the national papers came to take photos of it believing to be the largest snowdrift in Britain.
When you could manage to get to the top you could look down on the blue pond below where the level never goes down no matter how hot the summer is. But looking down that is how this pond got its local name: The Cup and Saucer Pond. Because it looked just like a cup and saucer from high up.
So it is perhaps appropriate that the Diner has a cup and saucer right at the side of it.
Strange but true.
Tony Beswick.