European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 12, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Haddon halt just Down the River Wye from Bakewell is one of the Region s Best known Manor houses. S4s Brian Smith location of enlargement Peak National Manchester Park \ Kinder scout a a Sheffield \ Buxton /. Bakuwel a House Haddon Hal Ftp a / a. Stoke on Trent a amps map mirrored by the splendor of their surroundings Quot said Geoffrey Claff director of the Peak Park Trust which conducts social housing and other programs for Park residents. Quot there Are Farmers living at subsistence level and local people leaving the area because of a Lack of affordable  Quot on summer sundays and holidays lines of cars and coaches can stretch five Miles As they wait to enter Bakewell Quot said Roland Smith the chief information officer for the Park. These one Day visitors contribute Little to an Economy that has to support a population of 38,000 living in the Park s villages and townships. Hikers have eroded footpaths to 80 feet wide in places such As Edale at the Start of the Pennine Way. Quot it s getting worse and i Don t know what can be clone about it apart from spending More Money on repairs and there s a limit to that a said Roger Hoole a keen Walker and Parish councilman of Hope Valley. Quot trying to get people to walk elsewhere won t work because the Best walks in the finest country Are on the moors the Dales and along River Banks and closing them would Start an uproar from walkers Quot he said. Residents complain that the Park s planning Board stifles Enterprise especially for Farmers trying to diversify by changing or extending buildings. The Peak Park Trust issued a report in june titled hidden deprivation in the Countryside. In Tideswell one of the villages examined the 2,000 residents have lost their Library and youth club and seen the Price of a Row cottage Rockef from $33,000 to $181,500 Over the past 20 years. Jobs have been lost in farming quarrying mining and manufacturing. As a result the report said a Way of life is disappearing. Quot local traditions of getting together Over sports festivals and music making. Are decaying because they Are no longer embedded in the lives of local people but increasingly an event to watch rather than take part in and increasingly planned by and perhaps for incomers Quot the report said. The plague Village a Symbol of sacrifice shrubs at Haddon halt shaped into Topi Aries include one of a boar s head the Symbol of a former owner. By Brian Smith staff writer Quot ring a ring of roses a pocket full of posies achoo achoo All fall  this children s rhyme which sounds like Little More than a nonsense verse is still heard on British playgrounds. But the simple ditty hides a bitter reality. The poem is a reference to the bubonic plague that devastated Europe in the Middle Ages. The Quot ring of roses Quot described the rash that was often the first sign of the disease the posies were Bunches of Sweet smelling herbs that people hoped would keep away the Quot evil  Quot achoo Quot was for the sneezes and coughs As the lungs of the victims filled with pus and Quot All fall Down Quot was for the almost inevitable Fate of those infected. You would t think that the plague could be much of a tourist attraction but in the English Village of Eyam pronounced Quot eem Quot in the Peak District of Derbyshire an outbreak of the dreaded disease is still celebrated. Nestled in a Valley at the Edge of the North Derbyshire moors Eyam is not easy to find a blink at the wrong time when driving the a-623 Between Manchester and Chesterfield and you la miss the turnoff a but throughout the year it is visited by school classes and tourists who be heard about the Quot plague  turn left toward the Village Church St. Lawrence and you re almost Back in the late Middle Ages. There on the Little Green Are the stocks looking As though they could still hold a vagrant or two. Behind a Stern Stone Wall is the Tudor Eyam Hall. Nearby a Grill for the annual of roast stands on what was the Village Pond. The Church is typical for the area built s4s Brian Smith a Saxon Cross battered by time and puritans stands near the Church. Over Many generations. Work Crews have uncovered fragments of murals hidden under Puritan and victorian Whitewash though an unfortunate Quot restoration Quot in the last Century removed All decoration from the Norman font. A recent stained Glass window is dedicated to the menu iry of a heroic priest and a nearby Tablet on the Wall bears quiet witness to a Lime when priests were often violently removed for their convictions. In the continued to Kige 10 december 12, 1991 stripes Magazine 9