The Dovedale Stepping Stones Saga…

The ‘issue’ is showing little sign of slowing down yet,  a week since the Stunner broke the news (so our blog readers were among the first to know – I hadn’t appreciated how up to the minute with the news we were!).

It has since apparently been in most of the national papers and Simon Hoggart of the Guardian is quoted as saying “The slabs and the cement that hold them in place now make the glorious setting look like a botched DIY job”. Too true, as the rather hazy photo in the previous post shows.

Now apparently there has been a Facebook campaign launched to restore the stones to their original state! I don’t suppose that will happen, it is only a pity that if the work had to be done it wasn’t better dealt with although a Derbyshire County Council spokesman claims to have had many positive comments about the council’s  repair work, which he must be glad about.

On a lighter note, we were amused to see the local paper’s headline today claiming “Ancestor of former stepping stones owner speaks out over remedial work.” It is with relief that we can assure you with confidence that Sir Richard FitzHerbert is alive and well, and not speaking from beyond the grave.

He was referring to his uncle, Sir John FitzHerbert, from whom he inherited the Tissington Estate and who in 1973 had sold the stepping stones and the fields that surround the Dove at that point to the National Trust. He said he felt his uncle would have been very disappointed to see the stones replaced with what look like Jammie Dodgers’.