Review of ‘Rocks and Scenery of the Peak District’, by Trevor D. Ford

This review is by Julie Bunting, and was published originally in The Peak Advertiser, the Peak District's local free newspaper, on 15th July 2002, and is reproduced with Julie's kind permission.

Having often called on the written expertise of Trevor D. Ford when researching for the Peak Advertiser, I am well aware of the breadth of his knowledge and the accessibility of his writing. His latest title is the result of over fifty years' experience in the Peak District. It is presented in two parts: firstly, the rocks themselves tell of their formation in changing geographies some 300 million years ago; secondly, the present-day landscape has been carved into these rocks by a variety of processes, including the glaciers of the Ice Age.

Thus we have the story of the evolution of the Peak District, broken up into separate chapters and told in layman's terms. In the early stages it tells of a time when the region lay beneath warm tropical seas and how volcanic lava flowed across the lagoon floor. By contrast the Peak District presented an Arctic tundra during the Great Ice Age, a period which has left its mark in our caves, quarries and mines. From a section on minerals and mines we learn that the total number of old lead mines in the Peak probably totals a staggering 10,000 - an estimate based on the author's knowledge of the number of named lead veins. This chapter typically contains maps, diagrams and wonderful colour photographs.

With information about caves, tors and edges, and descriptions of what to look for in popular walking areas such as Castleton, Kinder, the dales and valleys, this is just the book to dip into for easily understood explanations of how our scenery was formed. In fact it is just the right size to take with you.

Review by Julie Bunting