Brief Description
Staker Wood is on Staker Hill, in the Harper Hill area of Buxton, a stone's throw over the border of the South West Peak Park. This stopping place has now been mostly subsumed by Hillhead Quarry, although the outline of the northern half of the wood, delineated by a dry-stone boundary wall, can still be seen.
Co-ordinates
Staker Wood - Buxton
This stopping place is the subject of a story in 'Henry Dry-Bread' - a book compiled by Richard Wade and edited by Robert Dawson - about a Romany Gypsy Traveller called Henry Sherriff.
Henry remembered stopping at Staker Wood (he refers to it as Sticker Planting) with his Grandparents and his Aunt and Uncle Tilly and Ephram Booth. They travelled in a bow top wagon pulled by three horses, perhaps similar to the one pictured.
Brief Description
Beggar's Bridge crosses the River Dove, in sight of High Wheeldon and Parkhouse Hill.
Co-ordinates
Beggar's Bridge - Earl Sterndale
The River Dove passes between Earl Sterndale and Longnor. To get from one village to the next by foot you walk across fields and over Beggar's Bridge. The term 'beggar' has often been used, throughout history, to refer to Gypsies and Travellers. We know that Travellers stayed in a lodging house at Longnor and that a member of the Romany Boswell family was baptised at Earl Sterndale church. It seems likely that the beggars of Beaggar's Bridge were perhaps in fact Gypsy families camped in the green lane just over the bridge.
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The project was produced with support from
The National Lottery Heritage Fund through the
South West Peak Landscape Partnership.