Cruising the Danube from the Black Sea to the North Sea
April-May 2023: Day 39

Glossop, Eyam and Froggatt, UK

Introduction

Another fine and warm day. We departed the hotel after breakfast and stopped a short distance down the road at Crosthwaite Church where more of the Howe and Cockbain families had been baptised. From there we headed south on a trek to skirt around Manchester and into the Peak Distract at Glossop. At the parish church here Christopher Howe had been the Minister for 56 years. From Glossop we headed over Snake Pass to the plague village of Eyam where I had discovered some distant Froggatt ancesters had lived and been buried there. Then we proceeded to Froggatt Edge and the Chequers Inn for 2 nights at this delightful country hotel.

Crosthwaite Church

Several of Christopher HOWE's family had been baptised here. The church was still locked and parts of the church yard were overgrown with mature trees, so after a look at the more famous graves (poet Robert Southey and cricketer Harry Bagshaw) we headed south.

Crosthwaite Parish Church, Keswick.

View from the church

Robert Southey, poet, family grave.

Cockbain headstone.

Canon Frederick Marshall, Vicar 1956-1976. Note the memorial design.

Stephen Hogarth, bellringer.

Harry Bagshaw, cricketer.

Crosthwaite Cairn, on which you can place a piece of slate.

Glossop Church and Rev Christopher Howe

Although Christopher Howe was born at Threlkeld, Cumbria, he spent 56 years as the Minister at Glossop. Family history research reveals that after his death in 1859 a public subscription was taken up to erect a suitable memorial. Several years later the memorial was erected - "of a pleasing ecclesiastical design". The problem was - was this memorial inside or outside the church? Was it still extant? So we visited to find out. Most fortunately the church was open and there were several members of the congregation cleaning and weeding. Other than the list of vicars on the wall there was nothing else inside relating to Christopher HOWE. Outside the grounds were badly overgrown and there was one section, that included the headstone to Howe's successor, that had been abandoned. We found a memorial to Christopher Howe's daughter, but not his wife or himself. A member of the congregation made calls and messages to the local historian who eventually informed us that the daughter's headstone once had an inscription on the other side, but was now weathered away. We later realised that the "eccesiastical design" of this headstone was very similar to the Canon Marshall headstone at Crosthwaite (see just above).

Eyam Parish Church

Eyam is a small village above the Derwent River and across the valley from Froggatt Edge. It became famous as the "Plague Village" when the local civar convinced the population to remain isolated after the Black Plague had infected the villagers, thereby saving the lives of the surrounding people. Some time after the plague one of my distant ancestors moved to Eyam, establishing a large Froggatt family there. One of these, Thomas Wilson Froggatt, became organist and choirmaster. His life is commemorated in a stained glass window to the right of the altar. In the graveyard there are two headstones to other members of his family.

The Eyam sundial reads 2:15pm. It has not been adjusted for daylight saving time!

The Froggatt graves at Eyam.

Chequers Inn, Froggatt Edge

On our first visit to England in 2003 we visited the village of Froggatt and walked along Froggatt Edge. It was expected that we would then stay at the old coaching pub below Froggatt Edge, known as the Chequers Inn. It is a delightful country pub, still run by Jonathan and Joanne Tindall who had bought the pub a few months before our first visit. We have made a point of staying here on all our subsequent trips to the UK.