(Image: Anuj Mishra)
‘I went to the stunning Peak District village with a hidden Oasis connection’
by Anuj Mishra · Manchester Evening News“’Cos I've been standing at the station, in need of education in the rain.” Any self-respecting Oasis fan will recognise these lyrics from the hit single ‘Some Might Say’. The words are reflected on the cover art for the single, which shows Noel Gallagher standing on a station platform holding a watering can and Liam Gallagher looking down from the bridge above.
What fans might not know, however, is that the picture was taken in a scenic village with a remarkable history. The station is found in the Derbyshire village of Cromford, on the doorstep of the Peak District.
It may be a pilgrimage site for Oasis fans, but it’s also a destination to visit in its own right - even for those who don’t even know the lyrics to Wonderwall. The village is full of charm, home to one of the world’s most beautiful bookshops and a stone’s throw away from the UK’s only landlocked ‘seaside town’.
READ MORE: The Peak District walks that you simply have to do this autumn
My trip into Cromford began in Manchester, and it took just over two hours to take the train down to Derby including a quick change in Sheffield. While, yes, it’s much quicker to take the car (about an hour-and-a-half), where’s the fun in driving to a train station? From Derby, I took the train up to Cromford, a journey which offers stunning views as it follows the course of the River Derwent in the Peak District.
(Image: Anuj Mishra)
I was soon “standing at the station” from ‘Some Might Say’, which was released as the first single on the iconic album ‘(What’s the Story?) Morning Glory’ in 1995 and became the band’s very first number one single in the UK. Over the years it’s attracted tourists looking to take a snap of this building cemented in pop history.
Yet Cromford doesn’t need to rely on its Oasis connections as it has a history which stems back far further than the Britpop era of the late 90s and early 00s. It’s home to the revolutionary Cromford Mill to the Boat Inn pub, built in 1772. After a brief pit stop at this cosy pub, which has a lovely beer garden overlooking a wide pond in the centre of the village, I headed across the road to Scarthin Books.
(Image: Ruby Rowlands)
Recognised many times over as one of the most beautiful bookstores in the world, Scarthin Books appears to be a small street-side bookshop when you first walk in. But, if you manage to find the stairs towards the back of the shop, you’ll discover three more floors dedicated to bookselling, with all sorts of literary gems on offer.
Located in a converted Georgian-era house, the shop sells a wide range of new and second-hand books. This indie bookshop, which recently celebrated its 50th anniversary, also has a vegetarian café upstairs, making it the perfect place to grab lunch and spend an hour perusing some of the thousands of titles on offer.
After sampling the delights of Cromford, you can make your way further up the valley to Matlock Bath. While it’s only a half-an-hour walk, I opted to take the bus on the sunny day I visited. In case you do choose to be active, you’ll notice the Cromford Mill by the side of the main road. This was the world’s first water-powered cotton mill, built by Richard Arkwright in 1771, as anyone who attended primary school in Manchester will know.
(Image: Anuj Mishra)
Despite being a key landmark in the technology which would see Manchester boom into ‘Cottonopolis’, I opted to skip the educational sidebar and press on to the UK’s only landlocked ‘seaside town’.
With fish and chips galore and crowds of tourists with young children, Matlock is “the closest thing Derby people have to the seaside,” my friend, and resident Derbyshire-expert, told me.
I cannot pretend that there is anything literally resembling the sea in Matlock Bath, but the village is set in a steep-sided gorge with a river flowing alongside, which I hired a pedalo to explore. To fulfil the seaside experience I was promised, I popped into an ice cream parlour, bought a chippy tea, and sat by the ‘sea’ while trying my best not to get my chips nicked by an aggressive pigeon.
While I, admittedly, had no idea about the Oasis connection when I visited Cromford, there are certainly more than enough reasons for fans – who might find themselves having to come up with a better excuse to make the trip than the joy of recreating the photo – to take the plunge and visit.