Disley

DISLEY, BOLLINHURST RESERVOIR, MILLENIUM WOOD, BOLDER HALL FARM, BLACK ROCKS, OWLS’ NEST, PEAK FOREST CANAL, GOYT VALLEY, HAGUE BAR, THE FOX AT BROOK BOTTOM, WOOD END LIFT BRIDGE AND THE DANDY COCK AT DISLEY

Distance: Nine miles.

Difficulty: Moderate.

Weather: Dry with early sunshine and good visibility.

Walkers: Micky Barrett, Peter Beal, Tom Cunliffe, Lawrie Fairman, Alan Hart, Julian Ross and George Whaites.

B Walkers: Geoff Spurrell and Mike Walton.

Non-walking drinkers: John Eckersley and Tony Job.

Apologies: George Dearsley (working), Colin Davison (crewing a Caribbean yacht), Frank Dudley (in hospital), Tony Job (central heating problems), John Laverick (on union business in Paris) and Jock Rooney (diving).

Leader: Hart. Diarist: Hart.

Starting Point: Disley Station car park.

Starting time: 9.33am. Finishing time: 2.15pm.

Another newcomer joined the ranks of the Wednesday Wanderers in the chunky shape of Micky Barrett, former amateur footballer, retired business entrepreneur and all round good egg. 

He warned us he is unlikely to be a regular member of our ad hoc hiking team, but we look forward to seeing him again soon.

If he can bring such glorious weather with him he will be all the more welcome as we enjoyed our first dry day for several weeks, enabling us to have magnificent panoramic views from the ridge along Black Rocks.

A good day ended on a downbeat note when we learned from John that Frank had been taken to Macclesfield Hospital after suffering a series of falls at his home. 

Wally reported they had happened in the early hours of Sunday morning after Frank had enjoyed a convivial night at Poynton Sports Club.

While voicing our concern and hopes for Frank’s speedy recovery, we also expressed the hope that we might all live to fall over pissed at the age of 96 !

Lawrie was uncharacteristically adamant that your diarist should lead this walk – despite Tom’s protests (He recalled a shambolic performance by your diarist four years earlier when we got lost in the fog while attempting the same route).

On this occasion there were no such failures (well hardly any) as we set off in bright sunshine and managed to reach our main targets, The Fox and The Dandy Cock, with military precision.

From the car park we walked past Disley Station on our right and climbed a flight of steep steps on our left. At the top we followed the sign for St Mary’s Church before turning right uphill (6mins). This brought us a view of Lyme Cage.

Heavy rain in recent days had created a giant puddle on the far side of a wooden stile which we would normally have crossed to walk diagonally through a field. Instead we carried on along the road, then turned first right and then left along a lane leading to a farm.

Just before we reached the farm we turned left at a gate marked with a yellow arrow which guided us to the drystone wall in front of Bollinhurst Reservoir. We turned left at the wall and where it ended we went right over a wooden stile into a wood (25mins).

We exited through a gate and went straight ahead, turning left just before a picturesque cottage to enter Millennium Wood through a gate. We emerged through another gate to reach the road at Higher Disley and turned right (56mins) for 200 yards.

After passing  Bolder Hall Farm on our left we turned left over a wooden stile at a public footpath sign marked Black Rocks (58mins). Heading uphill at a steady pace we reached the summit (77mins) and took a five-minute time-out to regain our collective breath and to admire the views (82mins).

On the far side we could see Crowden Tower, Edale Rocks, Kinder Low End, Ashop Head and Mill Hill etched distinctly against the skyline. Looking back we could see Bowstones opposite, then to its right Bollinhurst and Horse Coppice reservoirs. To the left of Bowstones were Teggs Nose, Croker Hill, Sponds Hill and Shutlingsloe.

We headed north along the ridge, crossing a ladder stile and passing to the right of The Owls’ Nest, a wooden dormitory which pupils of Manchester Grammar School use as base for outward bound activities (and who knows what else?) during school holidays and weekends.

Our route took us to the right of a farmhouse and across the road back down to Disley. We went to the left of Byron House (102mins), then turned left along a path marked with a yellow arrow. At the end of this path we paused for pies and port at a convenient stack of building stones (105mins).

There was some discussion about the progress of Tom’s diet – “I’m still eating the same old sh*t but less of it,” he explained. Some experts have destroyed rain forests selling books and devouring airtime with garrulous expansions of this basic principle.

The serious tone of the conversation was interrupted by the passing of two ladies on horseback who were wearing bibs on their backs warning “Wide and Slow. Please Pass.” It was unkindly suggested that Tom should buy one.

Resuming, we turned right, passing Pear Tree Cottage and walked downhill to the A6 (116mins), which we crossed to enter Lower Greenshall Lane. After walking over a bridge across the Peak Forest Canal (120mins) we turned left to walk along its right bank.*

Shortly after passing a swing bridge we turned right (134mins) down a steep path. We followed this down to a footbridge over a stream (139mins). The path brought us to a T-junction where we turned right to head up a flight of steps and over a wooden stile.

We turned left at a stile marked with a yellow arrow which had been obscured by the trunk of a tree (144mins) and the path took us into the car park of the Disley Tissues factory (145mins). We reached a road and turned right uphill (147mins).

While others took a short cut by following a path along the right bank of the River Goyt, the main group negotiated a hairpin bend and crossed the Goyt by a road bridge before passing The Torrs Riverside Park and Hague Picnic Site on our right (157mins).

We crossed into Hague Fold Road for the long final ascent towards Brook Bottom. As we swung left at a row of houses Lawrie, not for the first time in his life, pointed out Liverpool Cathedral some 40 miles away on the distant skyline.

After swinging right at the end of the row we reached a road and turned left (168mins). This brought us to The Fox (170mins) at precisely 12.15pm. A pint of Robbies’ mild and one of bitter came to £5-70 (presumably £2-80 and £2-90 respectively).

Tom declared, somewhat loudly, that the bitter was not to his liking. Lawrie also expressed the view that it was under par. Nonetheless most of us bravely risked a second pint.

Meanwhile the B team had caught two buses from Hazel Grove to Birch Vale, passing through Thornsett, the Shiloh Road and New Mills Golf Club on a rollercoaster route of four miles to The Fox. They arrived just as we were leaving.

From The side of The Fox car park we headed downhill going under the railway line at Brook Bottom Road Bridge (181mins) and crossing the Goyt (186mins). At a main road we crossed and went straight on to reach the Peak Forest Canal (196mins) where we stopped for lunch.

Continuing our journey we turned left with the canal on our right until we turned right at Wood End Lift Bridge (204mins) to cross the canal. This path took us past allotments on our left before we reached the A6 with the Dandy Cock on our left (216mins). It was widely agreed that the Robbies’ bitter here was in fine fettle, as was the mild at £2-50 a pint.

Julian regaled us with the story of his first day as a 21-year-old Pc at Cheadle Hulme police station, where his inspector gave him a clue as to what lay ahead. “So you’re a graduate are you,” the inspector remarked. “They remind me of street lamps in the jungle. Bright but completely useless.”

*Historical note: The Peak Forest Canal, running 15 miles from Ashton-under-Lyne to Whaley Bridge, was authorised by an Act of Parliament in 1794. Its main promoters were the redoubtable Samuel Oldknow and Richard Arkwright Junior with the aim of providing an outlet for the vast limestone deposits around Dove Holes.

The canal, which formed part of the English-Welsh inland waterway network, was completed in 1805. It went into decline with the invention and expansion of railways, and by the 1920s the Peak Forest Tramway and Bugsworth Basin closed. The Peak Forest Canal Society campaigned for its restoration which finished in 1974. Buggy Basin reopened for navigation in 2003.

Next week’s walk (Dec 5) will start from the car park of The Little Mill Inn at Rowarth at 9.40am. We aim to reach The Grouse at Chunal for a livener around 12.30pm and expect to be back at The Little Mill for further refreshment around 2.20pm.

Our attempts to organise a ladies’ dinner or lunch have been somewhat thwarted by unforeseen events so it was decided to announce that members with their wives or girlfriends (but not both) would have lunch next Sunday (Dec 2) at Poynton Sports Club at 1.30pm. This follows a walk which Geoff holds every first Sunday of the month at 10.30am starting from the club, for those who wish to participate.

We know some of you are unable to attend. So that the chef can know the numbers involved, would you please let Geoff or Yvonne know (0161-483-8316) whether you will be there?

Finally, in the absence of Colin’s customary largesse, the Christmas lunch day will start at 9am on Wednesday, December 19, at the home of your diarist, 68, London Road North, Poynton, SK12 1BY.

After bacon butties, mince pies and a stirrup cup of mulled wine or two, we will sally forth around 10 am passing Poynton Pool, heading up Princes Incline to Higher Poynton, through Lyme Park up to Bowstones and back past Lyme Hall to The Dog and Partridge at High Lane for a traditional lunch. We will then complete the day with a 2 ½ mile walk across fields back to my house.