Trip to Bakewell
We visited Bakewell and had a nice relaxing day, apart from some toilet drama!
It's been a long time since we last visited Bakewell and when we did, we had problems parking and were a bit reluctant to visit again as result.
We didn't know that the Saturday we visited was part of the Bakewell Food Festival weekend, so parking was tricky on this occasion too. However, this time we managed to park on a long stay car park, Bakewell Bridge car park, so we weren't so rushed. It's not a long walk into the town, however you have to go over a bridge with a very narrow pavement, which is not suitable for wheelchairs. Having said that though, I didn't see any disabled parking spaces on the car park, so it's unlikely that wheelchair users would need to go that way. It did make guiding John more difficult as we had to walk in single file, with him behind me. The bridge crosses the River Wye and has passing places on it, so people could stop and look over the river, without holding everyone else up on the bridge.
On the left the picture shows part of the market. There were over 100 stalls in total. The remaining pictures show the view of the River Wye from the bridge.
As usual, whenever John and I go anywhere, our first point of call has to be a toilet, and this time was no exception! We made our way to Bakewell Public Toilets on Granby Road. There is a charge of 20p to use these but this means that they're clean. The disabled toilet is away from the main toilet block, but not a huge distance, and this also costs 20p to use. We reached the main toilet block first, so I went to the Ladies, and George took John to the block where the disabled toilet is. When I emerged, I could see George still waiting for John to emerge. George told me that John couldn't get out! I shouted through the door and asked John if he'd tried the handle! He shouted back that there wasn't one! He kept trying to push the door open, but it would not move. In the end, another 20p had to be deposited to get the door to open, so John could get out. I went in and saw the sign below:
Obviously, with John being totally blind, he didn't know that there was a sign telling him how to lock and unlock the door. Even if he was aware of the sign he wouldn't know what it said because it was written in print. Which also means that he would have no idea about any button and switch, let alone the colour of the switch! Fortunately for John, he wasn't alone so we were able to pay another 20p to get him out. I'm not sure what would have happened otherwise. We did speak to the toilet attendant about it and he agreed that it was an awful system in the disabled toilet. His advice was to phone the local council on Monday, when they opened after the weekend.
Following the advice of the toilet attendant, I phoned Derbyshire Dales District Council on Monday. The only advice they could give was to email them. I followed that advice and emailed both the council and RNIB (Royal National Institute for the Blind). The council emailed me back on the same day, apologising for any distress caused and saying that they were open to suggestions. We have since emailed back to them and asked what they are actually going to do about the inaccessible nature of the disabled toilets. We've also suggested something as simple as a handle that is lifted up to lock it and down to unlock it. In other words, the same type of handle that is used in most disabled toilets. RNIB have also emailed us to say that the matter has been passed to their Campaign team.
After all the excitement around the disabled toilet, we went to get something to eat. We went into one of the traditional bakeries that make Bakewell Tarts and Puddings, and other pastry items. We bought a minted lamb pasty each and a Bakewell tart - clearly you cannot go to Bakewell and not have a Bakewell Tart! We enjoyed our pasties, although I think they would have been more enjoyable if they were heated rather than cold. Bakewell Tarts always taste better in their home town than the normal supermarket ones, so we enjoyed those too!
The minted lamb pasty and Bakewell Tart
After we had eaten, we went for a wander around the town. George spotted an old car on the road, waiting to turn out of Granby Road and we also took some pictures of the town, with the stone buildings.
The old car spotted by George and some of the buildings in the town
After that we wandered towards the river and the park. On the fully accessible path into the park, there are some houses overlooking the river, which must be a fabulous view for them. As we reached the park, we saw some people playing croquet! I've never actually seen people play croquet in real life, I've only ever seen it played on TV or in films! Bakewell has its own croquet club nearby too, which was interesting because I've only seen lawn bowls clubs at parks before.
On the left is the river from the path to the park. In the middle are the houses overlooking the river on the path to the park. On the right a real life croquet game!
We decided to wander back to the car after that, after waiting for the ducks to cross our path!
Apart from the toilet incident, it was a pleasant and relaxing day, and nice to spend time together as a family.
