The stone cross on Foolow's green is probably fifteenth-century, and fixed at the foot of its steps is an iron ring, left over from bull-baiting. A few yards off there's a pond with white Aylesbury ducks on it. This is the centre of the village, and everything else arranges itself around the green: grey limestone cottages, the eighteenth-century Manor House tucked into one corner, and open country beginning at the edge of the last garden.
It sits high in the White Peak, a cluster of grey cottages with Bretton Edge rising to the north and fields on every other side.
The Bull's Head is the pub, and these days it's the only one. Foolow had as many as five in its lead-mining years; this is the survivor, on the green since at least 1753. Oak beams, an oak-panelled dining room, a stable bar hung with horse brasses, and a sun-trap frontage for a drink outside.
The kitchen leans local. Roast Topside of Derbyshire Beef is £21, served with duck-fat roasties, honey-roast parsnips, carrot purée and the rest; a Sunday-lunch reviewer for the Sticky Beak blog called the beef "absolutely divine; tender beyond belief and with a flavour that mesmerised the palate." There's a Red Onion and Goats Cheese Tart to start, and a Warm Bakewell Pudding with custard to finish. Two cask ales rotate through — Stancill Barnsley Bitter and Peak Ales Bakewell Best. Dogs are welcome in the bar, where water is provided.
There are no shops. No butcher, no deli, no farm shop — for a village this size that's no surprise, and you self-cater from Eyam, Tideswell or Bakewell instead.
The walking starts almost at the door. The main circular goes up Bradshaw Lane towards Bretton — a quiet lane with a steady climb and wide views — over Bretton Edge and down to Eyam, about eleven kilometres round. On the ridge is the Barrel Inn, which dates to 1597 and, at roughly 1,247 feet, is reckoned the highest pub in Derbyshire. It makes a natural halt with the White Peak laid out below. A longer option loops out over Sir William Hill and Eyam Moor.
St Hugh's, on Bradshaw Lane, is the village church, and it used to be the village smithy. It opened in December 1888 after the Eyam parish magazine reported "a very liberal offer" for the old smithy, with the whole conversion estimated "not to exceed £150." The interior stayed plain: bench pews and a table altar.
Lead shaped all of this. Watergrove Mine worked south of the village until 1853, its engine chimney standing until 1960; a 1470 record names one Robert Roworth, a miner of Folowe, owing £4. The hillocks left behind are grassed over now.
Foolow is off the A623, with Grindleford station four or five miles east and Eyam a couple of miles on. Buses are the limited rural sort, so bring a car. Eyam, once you get there, is the plague village of 1665, museum and cottages and all — a ready-made afternoon two miles down the road.
Come in late August and the village dresses its well — smaller and quieter than the ones the crowds go to, which is rather the point.
