Friday 24 August - Day 3 - Manchester

Today we went to try to see if we could find any trace of Brelsford ancestors in some village cemeteries.
First we caught the train to Hadfield - an experience in itself actually.  We got to Glossop which was supposed to be the station before Hadfield, but then the train started back in the direction we just came from - we thought we had missed something and were on our way back to Manchester!  However, a little way up the tracks it veered off onto another line to Hadfield, so, we got there ok.
Then we walked to the Glossop Cemetery.  Quite a steep walk actually, a bit steeper than Google Maps led me to expect.  However, we got to the cemetery without too much complaining.  We didn't find any Brelsford graves, but we did find a couple of Rowbottoms - Paul's great great great grandmother (or maybe I missed a great) was born a Rowbottom.  I'll do some research later to see if they're relatives or not.

Then, we kept walking along to Glossop, which made us really glad that we had decided to walk up the hill from Hadfield and back down to Glossop, because the walk up from Glossop to the cemetery would have been even steeper!  It's about two miles from Hadfield to Glossop, so a nice bit of exercise with some lovely views.

Then we had a look around Glossop - looking for amenities and a shop to buy some water - then got a taxi to Hayfield.  Yes, a different place from Hadfield and also the nearby Padfield!
We had a look through the Hayfield Cemetery - as much as we could given that it's on the side of a really steep hill (I've no idea how they actually dig the graves) and that they clearly can't afford to keep it mowed.  In fact, they've got a sign up saying that unless the community objects, they're going to borrow some sheep from a local farmer as a way of keeping the grass down.  Sounds like a fine plan to me.  I hope sheep like to eat nettles, because as my leg can attest, there's plenty of nettles in there too!  Unfortunately we didn't see any family names in that cemetery.

Then, we wandered back into the village and found the bus station - we got a bus back to Glossop and then a train back to Manchester.
Even though we didn't really find exactly what we were looking for, we got to see some lovely scenery and just being there made the names we have been searching for seem more real.  Now when we see the name Hayfield or Glossop when we're hunting down details of one of the relatives, we'll be able to picture the actual places.