Tissington, Derbyshire
In Chapter Five of Bad Boy, Jason and Marcus's former wife, Judy, drive to Tissington in pursuit of one of Marcus's clues to the missing Elgar scores.
While Newlydale, where Judy lives, is a completely fictitious village, Tissington is very real. Here it is on the A to Z roadmap that Jason and Judy consult on their road trip (just above the number 73 in the little blue box near the bottom centre of the picture).
It's a lovely little place, population about 160, located in the Derbyshire Dales. It's also one of the few villages in England which is privately owned - in this case by Sir Richard FitzHerbert, 9th Baronet, whose home is at Tissington Hall. Some 45 of the properties in the village are rented out, and tenants farm the 2,000 acres around the Hall.
My sister and I were introduced to Tissington by our cousins, Martin and Debra, on a somewhat cloudy day in March. It has a beautiful duck pond, which you can see on a sunny day in this photo (Attribution: Rob Bendall, on Wikipedia).
Tissington is also known for its wells. It has six (Children's Well, Coffin Well, Hall Well, Hands Well, Town Well and Yew Tree Well) which are decorated during the week of Ascension Sunday with pictures created by pressing flower petals and other organic materials into a base of clay. The pictures are usually Biblical themes reflecting current events or anniversaries. The tradition seems to date back at least to 1348, following Tissington's escape from the Black Death, which the villagers attributed to the purity of its well-water. About 50,000 people a year visit the village to view these well dressings.
Unfortunately it's the wrong time of year for Jason and Judy (their pursuit of clues takes place in October).
They're instructed to look for a specific stone in a wall beside a telephone kiosk and a barrow. The actual stone wall and telephone kiosk are here (courtesy of Google Street View):
The barrow is something we discovered while wandering through the village. I didn't make note of its exact location, but it was exactly as Jason describes in the novel:
I listened with appreciation, then made my way over to the little cart, where there were handmade glazed pots and bowls for sale for £5. It was on the honour system—there was a slotted box where you could leave your money, and black and white striped paper bags if you needed something to carry your purchase home in. I looked at the wall behind the barrow. There it was. A smoky black stone. I jiggled it out.
Tucked into the cavity was, of course, another envelope. And something in a striped black and white paper bag.
It was starting to rain. And I hadn’t brought my umbrella. I grabbed the envelope and the paper bag, shoved the stone back into the wall, and ran back to the car.
I looked inside the bag first. It was a tiny bowl with an aquamarine blue crackled glaze.
And here is the exact little aquamarine-glazed bowl that Jason has discovered. It's about 2 inches high and 3 inches across. And I still have the black and white striped paper bag somewhere, too.
For more information about Tissington, you can consult Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tissington
Or, this Peak District website:
