BAKEWELL
, flanking the banks of the River Wye some four miles south of Baslow - and twelve miles east of Buxton - is famous for its
Bakewell Pudding
. Known throughout the rest of the country as a Bakewell Tart, this is a wonderful slippery, flaky, almond-flavoured confection - now with a dab of jam - invented here around 1860 when a cook botched a recipe for strawberry tart. Almost a century before this fortuitous mishap, the Duke of Rutland set out to turn what was then a remote village into a prestigious spa, thereby trumping the work of his rival, the Duke of Devonshire, in Buxton. The frigidity of the water made failure inevitable, leaving only the prettiness of
Bath Gardens
beside Rutland Square as a reminder of the venture.
Famous tart apart, Bakewell is an undemanding place today, its main street too crowded by traffic - and tourists - to be much fun, though it is within easy striking distance of several first-rate attractions. In town, there's some interest in the web of narrow shopping streets around
Market Square
as well as in the adjacent
riverside park
, but the most agreeable part of Bakewell trails up the hill at the west end of the centre. Here, strolling up North Church Street, with its line of comely stone cottages, you soon reach
All Saints church
, the result of centuries of tinkering from the Normans onwards. Outside, in the church yard, is a rare
Saxon cross
, carved with saints and decorative circles and scrolls, and inside are the elaborate tombs of the Vernons, local bigwigs who long ruled the Bakewell roost.
