'Rock-a-bye-baby'.A true story for our lady members!

I could quite easily used as the subject,'There was an old lady who lived in a ....tree'.
This is a true,very well documented story that I found whilst planning a walk in Derbyshire at the back end of January this year.
It concerns a lady,Betty Kenyon and her husband Luke who lived in an ancient (2000 year old) Yew tree in the 1700's.
(Regretfully,there is little remains of the tree because of a fire in the 1930's and more recent vandalism but I've included my photo here https://2img.net/h/i384.photobucket.com/albums/oo285/omega2618/BettyKennyWalk_20090124_000003.jpg
and a better picture here http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/617006 )

The remarkable thing is that the couple raised 8 children whilst living in the tree and it gave rise to one of our best known nursery rhymes.(Although the first part is a true story,the part about the nursery rhyme is folk lore.)Apparently,the tree had a hollowed out bough which was used to rock the children to sleep:-

Rock-a-bye baby in the tree top,
when the wind blows the cradle will rock,
when the bough breaks the cradle will fall,
and down will come baby cradle and all.

Such is the local fame surrounding this family that a walk that includes the tree has been named after Betty Kenyon and can be found in the Amber Valley.
The walk includes ancient deciduous woodland (SSSI),the Shining Cliff Woods, and great views across the Derwent Valley to Crich Stand and Crich Chase.
This walk has something for all the family at 6.8km and I've included a link at the end which gives the route and lots of other information.But be warned.Some of the route was difficult in places but only because of poor weather and the path does come very close to an old quarry edge.
http://www.ambervalley.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/36409964-6778-498C-8EE0-8925D0D7E227/0/291AmbergateWalkLeaflet.pdf

p.s. Health and Safety and Social Servces would have had a field day.

shhh don't tell them we would like to see it as well before they close it down for our own safety,sounds interesting thanks

What an interesting story! As a bit of a hippy chick myself, I can see the appeal of living in a tree... but maybe just in summer, must have got a bit parky in winter!

Hi, are you sure it wasn't the old lady who lived in a yew?
Regards,
Arkley.