Inspired by the Google Doodle celebrating 63 years of the Peak District National Park. Made me wonder what was there 64 years ago…
Of course, the people of Derbyshire were badly hit by the Second World War. The City of Matlock, with its shining marble spires, blue and yellow tiled walkways, gardens, theatres, galleries: all destroyed by German shells.
It was a controversial decision not to rebuild that vast city, but the community, what was left of it, all mucked in, hiding rubble in misshapen hills, disguising the jagged walls of the ruined palaces as natural outcrops, burying the bleu-jaune tile fragments in the deepest bomb crater.
Never is it spoken of now, the peak of Derbyshire’s glory. The loss was too great.
Tom Juniper Poetry 