Walking in the footsteps Beatrix Potter

[00:00:00]Greetings goths, punks, metal heads, herbettas, martians, and subterranean folk and cosmic groovers. How you all doing? My name is John and this is the health anarchist channel. Well, today I'm out at a very local walk called Gorse Hall and I'm going to do my exercise here today and I'm going to bring you guys along with me. Should we get going?

[00:00:22]Yeah.

[00:00:24]So, there's actually a specific reason why I've come here today. Over the last three weeks in the area where I live, there's been really bad moore fires, like wildfires up on the moors. And one of them's been burning for three weeks now. And then a week ago, another fire started at another local place called Dovestones. And the two of them, the amount of smoke that's coming across where I live in Staley Bridge and over to Manchester and right over to the coast is horrendous. Now today it's cleared a bit the smoke so it's not too bad. But we've all been indoors and we've been told to keep our doors and windows shut because the smoke's that bad. Um even when they've been walking round in the last week or so, you can smell the smoke heavily and there's been like a haze in some areas like a smoke haze. But it's cleared a bit today and uh I'm not going into any of the moore areas near the fire because unfortunately where the moors have been burning. It's some of my favorite walks which is really sad and tragic cuz the amount of wildlife that gets killed in these mo fires is horrendous and obviously they're out of bounds from my walks which is really sad. Um, so today I've come on a very local walk uh just to test it out. The air, like I say, it's cleared quite a bit today, but if it gets too bad, I will turn back because I'm not, you know, going out walking if there's heavy smoke or anything like that. It's not good for you, especially when you're exercising.

[00:01:58]So, we shall see. Now, a lot of the time these mo fires are created by very silly people going up with portable disposable barbecues onto the moors. And all it needs is one spark to set the pete ablaze because the Pete moores, that's what they are, the Pete. Soil is Pete.

[00:02:17]And we all know that Pete is a fuel. So you might as well, you know, it's just like bringing a portable barbecue or a disposable barbecue to a petrol station and lighting it there. But people persist doing it even though they've been warned and asked not to do it. And uh we don't know if that's the reason for the first one. They're thinking it could be man-made. And then the second one, it was man-made. It was idiotic news firing fireworks up into the moors and they caught fire. And there's one person at the moment being prosecuted for aggravated arson for that. Um, but there's probably there's probably going to be a lot more arrests in the coming days and weeks over that one. So the person who was done for aggravated arson and she hasn't received a sentence yet.

[00:03:08]And I'm just thinking if they're going to give her, you know, a custodial prison sentence, I mean really in the long term, I don't think that's the best thing. Even though it deserves punishment, I think the best thing in my opinion would be for that person to do community service every weekend whenever she's off work, go up onto the moors with all the uh conservation work that goes on there and repairing the damage that's been done. and you know I think if she has a maybe a couple of years community service having to work and repair the damage that she's caused then it might get into her head and it actually might teach the person something. But that's just my view. It does make you think when there's lots of people locally still going up onto the moors with uh disposable barbecues even though you know the dangers there's signs posted everywhere uh and it's on the news not to do that.

[00:04:04]It makes you think where has the system failed? Has it been poor parenting? Has it been uh poor schooling?

[00:04:13]Or you know, is it just a person is the sort of person that you can't teach or doesn't care about that sort of stuff.

[00:04:20]My own view is it's probably a bit of a combination of all the previous things I said, but I think it's very likely also that the people going up there were indulging in certain substances and their judgment was very impaired when they were doing things like setting off fireworks into the moors. I I don't think they were thinking right, however way you ought to look at it. So, not only is it really dangerous to the environment, uh killing all the plants and vegetation and uh killing animals, you know, from like small lizard reptiles up into big mammals. Um it's horrendous and uh like I say, the air quality's been horrendous. It's been very smoky in the local area. It's not good for the very young and very old or people with health conditions. Even for healthy people, it's, you know, it stings your eyes and gets in the back of your throat. So, it's not good. But yesterday and today has been a bit clearer. So, hence why I'm out. So, that's been the situation anyway. So, sort of living in the aftermath now. And I've looked on satellite maps and you could see the smoke from these two more fires going right across the northwest of England uh going right to the coast where the sea is and blowing off into the sea. So, you know, it's not just a bit of smoke. It's been severe. The more land will repair itself, you know, relatively quickly, but it remains very ugly and burnt for a long time. and you know going up there.

[00:06:01]It's quite sad to see you know before it repairs itself. So luckily the temperatures dropped a bit now. We're on 24 today and that's a temperature I'm okay with. Up to 25 I'm usually fine.

[00:06:15]It's just anything over that I start to struggle. So I'm glad the temperatures cooled down a bit anyway. So that's one bonus. So the place that I'm walking today, Gors Hall, it's actually the grounds of an old hall as in Gor Hall and it's a massive woodland sort of country park and it's nice for getting out for going for a little walk and it's literally, you know, 5 minutes walk from where I live to get here. So my thinking today was if the smoke was bad, it'd be easy to get back from.

[00:06:51]and I've not been here for a while as well. So, we're actually looking at the ruins of Gor Hall. Now, this was the later one that was demolished in 1910.

[00:07:05]So, there is actually a blue plaque at the site of Gors Hall. This commemorates the childhood connections [music] of the renowned author and illustrator Beatatrix Potter. The hall was the childhood home of her mother, Helen Leech, and Potter visited the estate frequently during her youth. The original Gorse Hall was the grand estate owned by the Leech family, local mill [music] owners who were Beatrix Potter's grandparents.

[00:07:37]Though the original manor no longer stands, [music] the site is now a woodland estate and country park.

[00:07:52]So that was the old Gor Hall ruins and uh we're going to go up to where the old stable block was now. We've just got the ruins of it, the remates of it now, but it's interesting to see.

[00:08:03]So looking over here now, this is the old stable block or what's left of it, should we say.

[00:08:14]So there's some information.

[00:08:16]You can always pause it and read it if you'd like to.

[00:08:23]So there is some darker history to Gor Hall as well. Now there's quite [music] a few stories, but I'll just go through one of them today.

[00:08:33]One of these tales is about the Gor Hall workers tunnel which was built by Milanera John Leech the grandfather to Beatrix [music] Potter.

[00:08:43]Now this footpath tunnel, it was built as a [music] covered passageway under the coach road so that the mill workers [music] could easily travel on foot between Duckinfield Newton and Staley Bridge without interrupting the family's view.

[00:09:02]So if you think about it, [music] the Leech family, they had all this land, all this [music] space, all these beautiful gardens, but they didn't want it marred by the sight of looking at peasants.

[00:09:18]So Gor Hall, it's all situated up a hill, so you're climbing uphill the whole time. So it's a bit of a workout really. The air quality so far is good.

[00:09:29]I mean, I can still smell a slight trace of smoke, but it's not heavy like it has been. So, so far so good. I think we'll walk up to the sort of peak of this hill today.

[00:09:50]>> [music] >> So, I've often wondered as I've been walking around this [music] place, I've wondered, you know, if Beatrix Potter used to walk around some of the places [music] that I've explored.

[00:10:09]And it was such a huge area. It was like a personal playground really. And [music] I wonder if she used to look at the different animals you get here and get ideas or maybe draw pictures of some of the animals that she would have seen at the time. Now it is known that Beatatric Potter used to write coded diaries and some of them have been deciphered in recent years and uh they are available to read online and from what I've read a lot of these diaries she spoke about her grandparents [music] when she was staying at Gors Hall and a lot of them were about horses and carts and travel on horse and cart or by carriage.

[00:10:59]And uh that's what a lot of her writings were about this area.

[00:11:11]I can still see one of the more fires in the distance still burning. I'll zoom in a bit so you can see that. But it looks like there's a lot of smoke coming off it still.

[00:11:22]Fortunately, it's not reaching us here.

[00:11:28]So far from the days when this was just an exclusive playground for local rich family and their friends, today it's open for the public to enjoy and it's a great resource. So if anyone's been following me recently, then you'll know that uh I've struggled to keep my water cool in this hot weather. It's a bit cooler today, but my system now is I have like two bottles of water and two small ice packs in my bag. And uh it's nice and ice cold and it's honestly it's so nice to drink when it's ice cold on a hot day. So, I'd like to say a big thank you to all you guys that have subscribed recently. Cheers. It really means a lot.

[00:12:12]I really appreciate it. And to all my older subscribers who've been with me for a while now, cheers guys. I really like having you guys around. So, Gor Hall is a fantastic local walk. There's a team of dedicated volunteers who help look after the place and they do a lot of good work here. Now, the walk is in parts shaded and in parts it's exposed.

[00:12:36]So, you know, as long as you don't mind short blasts of being in the sun, there's plenty of shady parts as well.

[00:12:44]Now, this walk, it's not for everybody.

[00:12:46]And the reason I say that is all uphill.

[00:12:49]So it's quite energetic. So you need a little bit of fitness before you do this. I'd say average fitness and you'll be okay. You know, if you're below average fitness and you you're going to struggle with this walk or if you've got any health conditions and it might not be the walk for you. But the air quality has been okay today. You could see the smoke in the distance, but it's not really affecting us in the way that it was a few days ago when we had like thick blankets of like smoke across Daily Bridge and across lots of areas in Greater Manchester. So, pointing the camera forward so you can see as I see um a lot of this walk is shaded like this. I'd say about twothirds of it like this shaded. Uh, and about a third of it exposed as you get onto the hilltop, but it's worth getting up to the hilltop because you get some really good views of the area.

[00:13:47]So, when you do make it to the top of the hill, if you're lucky, the bench will be free and uh you'll be able to sit down yourself or with a friend and enjoy the views and uh relax for a while after all the climbing. So, I'm going to wrap this video up in a moment. So, I hope you guys enjoyed coming with me today on this little walk. If you did enjoy it, don't forget to give us a like and a subscribe. It really helps grow the channel. So, until the next video, don't forget, be different, stay weird, and stay free. Bye now.