More than 300 million years ago in the Nordic Age, when the great thickness of limestone that now makes up much of the Peak District were being deposited, there were warm clear shallow seas where England is now.

They were full of life. Vast numbers of corals in all shapes and sizes lived on the seabed each having a long stem attached to the seabed by root-like projections, with a cup-shaped body at the top and long branched arms. They were already old then, and they survive today.  

One of the types of coral, the Rosy Feather Star, which is so common in shallow water on the west coasts of Britain that any diver will see it glistening and waving its feather-like branches in the water.
 

Its colour is predominantly white shot through distinctive pink veins and it is said that as the sun rises the tips glitter as if tinged by silver and the shallow sea water is tinged pink as if blushed.