Hidden histories. In 2022, this phrase may bring to mind heated arguments at the National Trust, disputes over controversial statues, and the righteous efforts of campaigners and academics to write various groups of people back into the shared story of these islands. But perhaps it has a double meaning. I’ve always thought of Britain as in some way hidden: a nooks and crannies kind of place, its best and most stirring bits often tricky to find, and all the more thrillingly enjoyable for it.
It goes back to my childhood, I suppose, when we were sometimes taken to clamber on Rowtor Rocks, a gritstone outcrop that stands on the edge of the village of Birchover in Derbyshire. The old story about this collection of carvings and caves goes that they are druid, a tale that’s easy to believe, given that the nearby moors are home to several stone circles. But the truth is rather different. These eldritch altars and thrones were really carved in the 18th century, reputedly by a parson called Thomas Eyre, and this may be the reason why, even as an adult, I still love to climb on them.
