Blackening Black Rocks
It is not widely known that the BLACK ROCKS, the famous landmark and climbing crag that looms over Cromford in Derbyshire’s Peak District, are not naturally black, but owe their unique coloration to the generations-old custom of the annual Blackening of Black Rocks in which villagers equipped with buckets, brushes, ladders and ropes anoint the crag with a black fluid prepared according to an ancient and secret recipe. The 2007 event, part of the Celebrating Cromford Festival, was made into a short film by Derbyshire and Derby Groundwork, a well-known charity active in recording threatened local customs.
Controversy surrounds the blackening ceremony, which many consider to be a pollution of this natural beauty spot. Though some ecologists are in favour of the custom, pressure is mounting on the County Council to ban it. Nevertheless, the event, which took place as always on May Day, was a great success.
Plans are fermenting to record, while there is still time, other vanishing customs of the Peak District; we will look favourably on any offers of generous funding from research institutions, grant-giving bodies, European agencies or Bolywood impressarios.
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