Old Postcard of Stoke - Wood Cutting at Goatscliffe (2)

This photograph never fails to confuse me, even though I know where it was taken! The road is the B6521 leading down the hill towards Grindleford Village from the Bakewell direction, and just beyond where it's joined by the side road from Eyam. The wood is a triangular piece sandwiched between the B6521 and Goatscliffe Farm Lane. Those majestic beech trees are now gone, replaced with the ubiquitous silver birch, which around 80 years later, though luxuriant, do not measure up in terms of height. They are nevertheless doing their best to fill up the space which was left.

During WWII there were two trenches dug in this wood for the Home Guard to hide to guard the road junction in case of enemy invasion. One was parallel to the main road, and the other parallel to the Eyam road, but the passage of time has now filled them in. 'Not a lot of people will know that now', so I mention it lest it's forgotten.

The road dipping down towards the village might look less steep than it is now, but this is not an optical illusion. There had been a lot of accidents at the junction, so the road level was raised at the brow of the hill in the early 1960s, to improve visibility for those joining from the Eyam road.

(Information provided by Rosemary Lockie)

This is one of the postcards in ‘The Reeves Collection’.
In other words, it belonged to my mother.