Whaley Bridge

WHALEY BRIDGE, TAXAL, HILLBRIDGE WOOD, GOYT VALLEY, FERNILEE, TUNSTEAD HOUSE FARM, COOMBS RESERVOIR, CHAPEL-EN-LE-FRITH GOLF COURSE, BRADSHAW HALL, LYDGATE FARM, ECCLES PIKE, THE OLD HALL AT WHITEHOUGH, PEAK FOREST TRAMWAY, BUGSWORTH BASIN, MOSELEY HALL FARM AND THE COCK AT WHALEY BRIDGE

Distance: Nine Miles.

Difficulty: Moderate.

Weather: Dry, Blue Skies and Sunshine.

Walkers: Peter Beal, Colin Davison, Lawrie Fairman, Alan Hart and George Whaites.

B Walkers: Tony Job, Ken Sparrow and Geoff Spurrell.

Non-Walking Drinkers: Frank Dudley and John Eckersley.

Apology: Jock Rooney (Diving in Azerbaijan).

Leaders: Lawrie Fairman (immaculate first half); Colin Davison (shambolic second half).

Driver: Whaites. Diarist: Hart.

Starting Point: Car park of The Cock at Whaley Bridge.

Starting Time: 9.35am. Finishing Time: 2.22pm.

Beneath sunny blue skies, we set off promptly and looked forward to yet another walk in the autumn sunshine. We did not know this at the time, but things started to go wrong at the outset, when Colin proposed an alternative route back from Whitehough. More of that later.

Suffice to say that this diary will only take the reader along three-quarters of the A-team’s journey. To try to describe the final two miles might lead others to follow in the footsteps of folly.

Passing The Cock on our left, after 30 yards we turned left across a stream and reached the disused High Peak and Cromford Railway line, where we turned right. After passing Alpha Mews we turned right (9mins) at a path marked with a public footpath sign which led us into a children’s playground.

We took the path to the right and dropped down to the main road, which we crossed (14mins) and proceeded along a path until we reached a footbridge across the River Goyt on our right. Here we heard what seemed to be a cockerel with a sore throat, not so much crowing as wheezing.

We crossed the bridge (19mins) and headed up the steep path with gravestones on either side until we reached St James’ Church, Taxal, on our right. We turned left (21mins) and passed Glebe Farm on our left, on this occasion ignoring the stone step stile on our right which would have led us to Taxal Nick.

After edging around a gate we followed a wooden public footpath sign across a muddy field – the first of many (28mins). We exited the field through a gate at the entrance of Hillbridge Wood (34mins).

After passing a party of walkers from the Buxton University of the Third Age, we crossed a footbridge over the Goyt (40mins) and headed up a field, slightly left and over a footbridge. We crossed a wooden stile and headed towards some farm buildings (46mins).

In the farmyard a pair of goats approached us in a friendly fashion as we headed up the lane to The Shady Oak at Fernilee (50mins). We crossed the main road and took the lane to the left of the pub, crossing Elnor Lane and heading up a track (58mins).

We crossed another lane and turned right up a stony path (59mins), which soon swung left along a farm track (60mins). We turned left at a stone step stile (72mins) marked with a wooden public footpath sign and stopped for pies and port on the sheltered side of the wall.

Resuming, we went down the field, swinging first right, then left to reach a wooden ladder stile by Tunstead House Farm (82mins). We continued down the lane, passing Meveril Farm, Swallow Barn and Coombs Reservoir on our right just after we had crossed a bridge over the Manchester-Buxton railway line.

This brought us to Tom Lane (93mins), where we turned right away from Tunstead Milton. It became Manchester Road and we turned left at a wooden public footpath sign (95mins) which led us into Chapel-en-le-Frith Golf Course. We followed a series of posts marked with yellow arrows to cross the fairways and exit the course by a gate (102mins).

The path took us to the left of Bradshaw Hall and then we swung right in front of the imposing building before crossing a stone step stile by the side of a gate (108mins). We turned left over a wooden stile (112mins), crossing another wooden stile and heading diagonally right across a field (114mins).

After crossing a stone step stile we turned left, keeping a drystone wall on our left. We crossed a makeshift stile and turned left at a yellow arrow which took us through a gate. We passed Lydgate Farm on our left (119mins) and turned right at a public footpath sign to enter Eccles Pike (120mins).

As we reached the brow of the right shoulder of Eccles Pike, we saw the three B team walkers some 250 yards ahead of us. At Colin’s suggestion we headed diagonally left through a field, exiting by a wooden stile and carrying on with a fence on our right (126mins).

A gate brought us out on a lane where we turned left and then right over a stone step stile. After 30 yards we crossed another stone step stile, crossed a road and followed a public footpath sign pointing to a stone step stile covered in weeds and grass cuttings.

We swept them aside and crossed into a cottage garden, swinging right to exit on a road and turned left (132mins). Our party crossed above the A6 Chapel by-pass (134mins) and entered Whitehough village. Work was continuing at The Oddfellows Arms on our right, so we reached The Old Hall on our left (137mins).

Here Colin made his first, but by no means the last, error of the day. Instead of asking for the cheapest beer available, like the true Yorkshireman he is, he ordered pints of Jennings at £2-75p. He was later seen sobbing when he learned that Marstons’ bitter was £2-50p.

The B-teamers arrived moments later, and a little bird told me they had driven to The Cock after Tony arrived at The Rising Sun too late to catch the free bus. Colin’s local knowledge had enabled us to outmanoeuvre the B team with a flanking movement and arrive at the pub ahead of them. It was to be Colin’s last success of the day.

Daniel Capper, the genial young landlord of The Old Hall, informed us that although work was continuing on renovating and extending The Oddfellows Arms, it had been open at weekends since September. He expected it to be fully operational, though not finished, by Christmas, although initially it will only open at 6pm on weekdays.

He intends to give it back its original name of The Paper Mill Inn, and it will have four bedrooms.

Leaving the B team behind, we turned right out of the pub and headed downhill until we reached the route of the former Peak Forest Tramway on our left (139mins). On the right was a large millpond containing several species of wading birds including two black swans.

We continued with Black Brook on our right and the A6 on our left, pausing for lunch at a footbridge (152mins). As we approached Bugsworth Basin and the Navigation Inn later, we turned left to cross a footbridge over the A6 (159mins). We walked between a cricket pitch on our left and a soccer pitch on our right to reach the village of Buxworth (they rejected an offer to be named Bugsworth).

We turned right along the road and left at a cul-de-sac to follow a public footpath sign on our right, crossing a field towards Moseley Hall Farm. It was around this point that our new leader became disorientated, leading us over gates and barbed wire fences. At one point, to assert his authority, he said cheerily “I think I know where I am.” This did little to raise spirits.

Ignoring his exhortations to head left back towards Fernilee, we descended to reach a road we knew and made our way back to The Cock. The Robinsons’ Unicorn was in fine fettle at £2-60p a pint.

Next week’s walk will start from the spare land used as a free car park opposite The Wheatsheaf at Old Glossop.  A livener will be taken at The Anchor in Hadfield and we expect to return to The Wheatsheaf at 2.15pm.

It was decided the Wednesday Wanderers’ Christmas lunch would be held at The Dog and Partridge, High Lane, at 2.30pm on Wednesday, December 21.