Youlgrave

My personal challenge for this round of Miss Jenny Matlock's alphabe-Thursday is to post about a location within the borders of my own county of Derbyshire, UK, for each letter of the alphabet.

Look for the letter, to see where I am.

Y is for Youlgrave.

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Youlgrave is a large-ish village which boasts three pubs...

The George Hotel, opposite the church...

The Bull's Head Hotel, in the centre...

and the Farmyard Inn towards the further end of the village.

Balancing this out very satisfactorily are three churches...

The Anglican parish church of All Saints, which dates from the 13th century but was heavily restored in 1870...

The Wesleyan Reform Chapel, built in 1857, with a weekly Sunday service...

and the  Primitive Methodist Chapel of 1895, which holds services twice each Sunday.

Youlgrave also has a Health Centre...

and a Primary School, which caters for children from 4-11 and has strong ties with the parish church. I love the small raised garden with the tomatoes growing.

Further into the village is the original school building.

The village hall is tucked away down a quiet side street,

after which the lane drops away to open countryside.

Some houses in the village are named after their past functions, this is one such: The Old Grocers Shop.

But the name of this house made me smile.

Take a guess!

Have you guessed?

Here it is...

Very profound :)

Erected in AD 1887, the former Co-op (which stands at the top of Co-op Hill) is now a Youth Hostel.

Opposite the Youth Hostel is the Conduit Head.

The provision of the original water supply for the village, was developed because of fundraising by the Youlgrave Friendly Society of Women, founded in 1827. Water was piped from local springs to the Conduit Head, this large circular tank and, each morning, the 'waterkeeper' unlocked the tap at 6am for villagers to come and collect their water.

In 1869, a new water system was developed and piped to 9 taps around the village and some of these are still decorated each year as part of the Derbyshire well dressing season.

Most of the buildings in the village are constructed from local stone.

Here, you get a sense of the elevated position of the village, standing above Lathkill and Bradford Dales.

Use has been made of the green spaces around the village, with a cricket ground and park at one end...

...and allotments at the other.

I enjoyed my tour round Youlgrave, a place I hadn't visited lately. I hope you did too :)

Just one more letter to go now :) and that would be 'Z' :/