Escape to Continue

Small Horse

A flatter run than the usual gruelling stuff around the Dark Peak, a nine mile circuit in the White Peak, starting at Hartington. The village is well known for its production of Stilton at the creamery and the little cheese shop in the centre of the village. Hartington was one of only seven places licensed to produce Blue Stilton (the village of Stilton is not one of them), but the creamery has been taken over by a competitor and will be closed.

Maybe this tragic loss to the village could have been avoided if the new Face of Stilton, Gizzi Erskine (see her photo here) had been appointed earlier by the Stilton Cheese Makers’ Association. She is “genuinely passionate about Stilton” and also has creamy skin with blue markings (tattoos in fact).

No doubt one of the first things that Gizzi will draw to the attention of potential turophiles is that Stilton is a bedtime hallucinogenic. In 2005, the British Cheese Board tested the effect of consuming different types of cheese before bedtime, in order to test the truth of “eating cheese at bedtime gives you nightmares”. Happily, they found that it does not, but that the type of cheese you eat can affect the nature of your dreams, with Stilton promoting the weirdest ones:

Looking North Along The Dove

In The Mighty Boosh, Tommy claims that “Cheese is a kind of Meat”. At first sight this seems utter nonsense, but there’s more to it than meets the eye. In Russia, the poorest people survive largely on potatoes with over half of Russia’s potato production being in small family plots. Average potato consumption is around a pound of potatoes per person per day. They seem able to produce a sufficiently balanced diet by incorporating dairy products, typically cheese, into their potato-based diets. Cheese is indeed a kind of meat. A tasty yellow treat.

Just outside Hartington is Lower Hurst Farm, which specialises in organic beef from its Hereford cattle. I haven’t particularly jumped on the organic bandwagon but it does seem to coincide with excellent meat and well cared-for animals. The butchery opens for business on the first Friday and Saturday of the month. That is to say, as I found, that means it’s closed on Friday 31st October and Saturday 1st November but open the following weekend. Hope that helps. All of the meat is excellent but after an extensive piece of tasting carried out by Big Kevin and myself, I reckon that one of their steak “French Cuts” is the best - La bavette d’aloyau (or bavette de Lulu as we mis-pronounced it for a year). Well worth a trip and you can see the Hereford cattle roaming happily in the fields.

The Pub

There are some nice enough pubs in Hartington but I decided to check out the Staffordshire Knot in Sheen. It seemed perfect to me. Great pint of Pedigree – smelled of neither eggs nor wet dogs. Quarry tiled floor, real fire, no muzak, pleasant bar staff, no TV, no kids. No customers either. Being just outside the village and not quite on any of the popular walks, it was deserted. Real shame. Worth a visit.

The Staffordshire Knott