Longnor

LONGNOR, BRUND, SHEEN, PILSBURY, CROWDICOTE

Distance: 9.5 miles

Difficulty: Moderate

Weather: Windy and raining

Walkers: Colin Davison, George Dearsley, George Whaites., Lawrie Fairman, Peter Beal, Jock Rooney and Tip

Non Walking Drinkers: Geoff Spurrell, Tony Job and Alan Hart.

Leader: Fairman  Diarist: Dearsley Driver: Whaites

Starting Point: The cobbled area in the centre of Longnor

Starting Time: 9.55 am. Finishing Time: 1.35pm

I often wondered how Napoleon’s troops felt as they retreated from Moscow. This week’s walk in persistent and often torrential rain provided a telling clue.

The day after the 80^th anniversary of the Mass Trespass there were times when you wished Benny Rothman and his chums had stayed indoors with a hot Bovril instead of inventing rambling.

Anyhow, on we plodded, sometimes through Passchendaele-style mud to fulfil the requirements of this Wednesday fixture.

Unsurprisingly, we spied not a single other walker.

The rain was so intense that your diarist’s notebook soon resembled a toilet roll that had accidentally been dropped into the loo.

An attempt to use “new technology” (i.e. a Dictaphone on the iPhone) was not, in truth, all that successful.

So I am indebted to Mr Davison for supplying a Google map (below) of our perambulation, which will have to make-do in place of a more detailed record.

What follows is an account cobbled together from the soggy audio emanting from my mobile phone.

We began with a slight miscalculation. Turning left away from the cobbled centre of Longnor and passing the Cheshire Cheese, we took a road down to the right but then an initial wrong turning and had to double back.

The second foray took us diagonally across a field.

We headed towards the river, went through a Viking stile and reached the correct path.

At 10.25am Mr Fairman’s map came out, as we huddled for some temporary shelter under a tree near a farmhouse.

We pick up the Manifold trail and followed signs to Brund.

Pie Time was taken at 10.55am.

We set off again at 11.05am.

We came out onto a road, one sign post pointing to Knowl and the other at 180 degrees pointed to Sheen.

We took the road to Sheen.

At 12.21pm we passed Pilsbury Castle, a Scheduled Monument lying within the parish of Hartington Town Quarter in the Derbyshire Peak District. The Peak District National Park Authority recently purchased the site to protect it from possible damage.

The castle occupies an area of high ground approximately 175 yards by 150 yards overlooking the River Dove. The castle was probably originally an Iron Age fortification before being used by the Normans, and indeed the name "Pilsbury Castle" forms from the Celtic "pil", the Saxon "bury" and the Norman "castle", all meaning "fortified site". In early medieval times, the site would have been located along the River Dove routeway, and would also have overlooked a key crossing point.

The Normans built a subtantial motte-and-bailey castle on the site, and several theories have been forwards as to when and who did so. One theory is that the castle was built in the years following the Norman conquest of England.

The area around Pilsbury was granted to Henry de Ferrers by King William; the area was devastated during the harrying of the North, and the castle may have been built in the aftermath by Henry to establish control. Henry built other castles at Tutbury and Duffield, making Pilsbury part of this set of 11th century fortifications. An alternative suggestion is that the it was built by Robert de Ferrers or his father, around the period known as The Anarchy for, while the de Ferrers supported Stephen of England, the neighbouring Earl of Chester supported Empress Matilda.

The castle appears to have been abandoned in subsequent years, and it may be that it was destroyed after William de Ferrers' part in the Revolt of 1173–1174, or it might have become abandoned when the land passed to the Duchy of Lancaster after the sixth Earl was dispossessed. Alternatively, it may simply have become redundant as nearby Hartington grew in importance and the village of Pilsbury became increasingly depopulated.

By the twentieth century there was little to see except for a mound on a limestone outcrop and the remains of various earthworks. At the beginning of the present century, however, archaeological surveys revealed the foundations of the castle.

Are we downhearted….?

Towards the end of the walk there was a mini rebellion, leader Fairman returning to his car as the remaining quintet sloped off to the Pack Horse pub in the hamlet of Crowdicote.

A cheery landlord ushered us through to a back room with a welcome open fire.

We left the pub at 1.20pm and were back at the cars at 1.35pm.

Having debooted we made our way to Wetherspoons in Buxton, where free ale was on offer courtesy of Mr Job celebrating his 77^th birthday.

Ruddles was £1.79 a pint. Double Gold £2.49, No Brainer £2.35 and Forty Niner £2.35.

Next week the group is meeting at Clough House just north of Wildboarclough   at 9.35am. The midway point will be the Cat & Fiddle and the finish will be at the Stanley Arms. Your diarist will sadly be absent through work. No doubt flags will be cracking and eggs being fried on car bonnets.