Explorers of the Past For many people, rich or poor, old or young, finding out about the past is a hobby that takes over their lives. Family and local history are increasingly popular today, perhaps because ordinary people have more leisure time than in the past. Luckily for us we are not the first to be interested in what happened long ago. We can benefit from the work of earlier generations of folk who were fascinated by the past and wanted to know more. They studied in books, they looked at the landscape, they dug things up and they went down into caves and mines looking for evidence of Peakland past. Bit by bit they managed to find out more. There are the earth scientists who were enthralled by the rocks and how they were formed. They were not all learned scholars, Gideon Mantell and his son were just enthusiastic amateurs and Benjamin Sellors was a poor stocking maker. Many were collectors who loved the beautiful minerals found among the rocks. Not content with admiring the beauty of the specimens, they tried to find out what they were made of and how they were formed. The early archaeologists like Thomas Bateman were enthralled by bones and burial chambers. They imagined Druids holding human sacrifices in the stone circles. They dug about in caves and barrows where they found bones and man-made objects. Sadly not all early archaeological digs were properly recorded nor the finds kept together but William Boyd Dawkins saw to it that his collections went to Buxton Museum. You can still see not only some of his finds but his whole study and library on show there. Of course ordinary people could contribute to archaeological exploration too. Some discoveries were made quite by chance. Lead miners sometimes found things in the course of their work. One thought he had found a giant’s skeleton; the truth was even more amazing. Some people looked for the answers in books and old manuscripts or by talking to the oldest people they could find. These were the Peak's first historians although not all of them ever got round to writing their own history book. Luckily for us at least some of the collections and writings from these pioneer explorers of the past remain in public hands, available for us all to study and draw our own conclusions. More Pictures Peakland People