Distance: Nine and a half miles
Difficulty: Easy
Weather: Drizzle
Walkers: Peter Beal, Colin Davison, George
Dearsley
B Walkers: Tony Job and Geoff Spurrell.
Non Walker: John Eckersley
Apologies:
Jock Rooney (Diving in Azerbaijan) and Ken Sparrow (Cruising on Queen
Elizabeth). Alan Hart (Holidaying in Benidorm), Lawrie Fairman (Cruising in the
Adriatic), George Thwaites (Spain)
Leader: Beal Diarist: Dearsley
Starting Point: Red Lion pub, Litton,
Derbyshire
Starting Time: 9.50 am. Finishing Time:
1.51pm
The trio of walkers set off out of the
picturesque village of Litton with the Post Office on our right, past the
Methodist Church on the right and took a right turn.
Almost immediately we climbed a wall and
set off following a sign which read: “public footpath to Cressbrook Dale”.
We negotiated a second wall and turned
left, the grey drystone walls on each side of us forming a silent guard of
honour.
A climb over yet another wall on the right
led us into Tansley Dale, although somewhat confusingly a sign a few yards on
said: “Welcome to Cressbrook Dale”.
Whatever. The scenery was striking, even if
the weather was inclement, with Messrs Beal and Davison quickly donning full
weatherproofs.
We passed some cottages, one called Quiet
Ways and spotted an old MG 1600 looking rather forlorn.
MG
A quick check on Google showed that the car
was from around 1960 and in good condition might fetch up to £14,000.
Cressbrook Mill
We passed Cressbrook Mill on our right and were soon alongsidethe River Wye, which Mr Beal thought had
the accolade of being the purest river in Britain.
The River Wye, which rises on Axe Edge and
flows through Buxton and Bakewell before joining the mighty Derwent at Rowsley,
was certainly, at one time, a working river. Although it is only about 20 miles
in length, at least 25 mill sites have been identified along its route. Many
were originally local corn mills, but when the Industrial Revolution came
along, textile manufacturers were quick to realise the potential of its water
power at places like Litton Mill, Cressbrook Mill and at Bakewell, where
Richard Arkwright had a mill at Lumford.
We stopped for a snack at 11.01am, some
very friendly ducks sidling up to see what scraps they could elicit and set off
again at 11.15am.
We crossed a footbridge and took the path
that climbed steeply to the disused railway line, actually going under the arch
of a bridge before turning back on ourselves to walk over the top of the
bridge, which forms part of the Monsal Trail.
A sign pointed to “Wye Dale” but really no
maps, compasses, Lode Stones, Tom Toms or other GPS devices were needed because
this was the M 1 motorway of Wednesday Wandering, a more or less straight trek
along what must have been a very attractive train route, taking in three
tunnels, although we were only to negotiate two.
The tunnels opened earlier this year and it
is the first time the public have been able to go through them since the former
Midland Railway Line closed in 1968.
Following work by the Peak District
National Park Authority – using £2.25 million funding from the Department of
Transport – the tunnels have been repaired, resurfaced and lit to form an
extension to the existing Monsal Trail.
Along the way are wind-up metal boxes that
trigger recorded messages detailing some of the history of the line.
Having navigated the tunnels and dodged a
number of bicycles that came towards us, some at breakneck speed, we took a
plunging path to our right, signposted for “Millersdale”. We were soon back at
the River Wye, crossing a footbridge and stepping over the threshold of the
Anglers Rest pub at 12.12 pm.
The pub has a hikers’ room, which was
occupied by two elderly women and an elderly man. But later a seven-strong
Probus group arrived from, of all places, Marple.
We left at 12.39pm after one pint of Adnams
Southwold Bitter (£2.70) which Mr Davison thought “cloudy”.
Turning right out of the pub we then went
to the back of the building where some well worn stone steps took us to the
road above and an old fashioned red telephone box.
We turned left, crossed over to a row of
houses opposite and turned right up a steepish slope with houses to our left,
one called Rock View.
Some of the gardens to these homes were
decorated with railway signs and other memorabilia, which I have no doubt were
all purchased from reputable retail outlets.
About 200 yards up the slope we dog-legged
left, through some metal gates, following a sign saying: “Limestone Way”.
This quickly took us through a farmyard
where we veered to the left through another one bar metal gate to resume our
walk along Limestone Way.
After a few hundred yards we hopped another
wall on our right, following a public footpath sign. At the end of this path we
turned right, then left and right again past a United Reform Church to find
ourselves in the village of Tideswell.
As every schoolboy knows, Tideswell is one
of the most ancient settlements in the central Peak District and was granted a
charter for a market in 1251. These were held regularly until relatively
recently.
It
was also the site of the 'Great Courts' of the Royal Forest of the Peak in the
time of Edward I and a few of the buildings along the main street have
foundations which date from this period. However the major feature from the
medieval era is the magnificent 14th-century church, known locally as 'The
Cathedral of the Peak'.
Tideswell was also featured in a popular TV
programme called Village
SOS. If you click on the highlighted words, and are on the internet, you
should be able to view the episode.
We turned right onto Church Lane and
followed the road which soon took us back to Litton and Mr Davison’s car, which
we reached at 1.51pm.
By 2.29pm we were back at the Cock, Whaley
Bridge, where Mr Eckersley was already warming himself in front of a coal fire.
A few minutes later B-Walkers Job and
Spurrell arrived. They had taken two buses to end up a Peep-o-Dale, walked to
near Cracken Edge and then taken a path below Cracken Edge to Chinley. After a
pint in the Old Hall Inn, they followed the old railway via Buxworth to Whaley
Bridge, a total distance of around 6.5 miles. A sterling effort.
Next week it was decided to start from the
Cock at 9.30am with an intended half way stopping off point at the Swan,
Kettleshulme. Hopefully the weather will be more favourable. Mr Beal will not
be joining us due to work related commitments.
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