Shutlingsloe

RIDGEGATE RESERVOIR, SHUTLINGSLOE, MACCLESFIELD FOREST

Distance: 9 miles

Difficulty: Moderate to difficult

Weather: Rainy

Walkers: George Dearsley, Lawrie Fairman, Phil Welsh, Tom Cunliffe, Julian Ross

Apologies: Jock Rooney (abroad), George Whaites (working), Colin Davison (yachting), Alan Hart (home in the dry), Peter Beal (supervising workmen)

Leader: Fairman Diarist: Dearsley

Starting Point: Lay-by near Ridgegate Reservoir

Starting Time: 9.35am. Finishing Time: 1.50pm

The weather forecast was dire and the meteorologists didn’t disappoint.

Your diarist last did this walk on January 4^th 2012 with Mr Fairman and four other Wanderers, (although it may have repeated since then) in far better conditions that afforded some spectacular views.

In moderately heavy rain we left the lay-by near the reservoir and followed the trail past a sign on the left which read “Forest Office”.

The early part of the walk involves a steepish climb and by the top of the hill the Wanderers’ breathing was like something women sometimes hear on otherwise silent telephone calls from men in trench coats.

We followed a sign for Shutlingsloe which took us in the direction of the so-called Matterhorn of the Peaks. But given the inclement weather we decided not to go to the top but to skirt around the formidable crag, following a boggy path made ever more slippery by running water.

We followed signs for Piggford Moor.

At 10.47am, just past the Crag pub, Pie Time was called.

We set off again at 10.55am, negotiating a stile on the right just past the pub and crossing several fields.

Our route took us through a field of turnips, with a lot of sheep nearby. Memories of the ex-England manager Graham Taylor sprang to mind.

Pliny the Elder considered the turnip one of the most important vegetables of his day, rating it "directly after cereals or at all events after the bean, since its utility surpasses that of any other plant."

In England, around 1700, Turnip Townshend promoted the use of turnips in a four-year crop rotation system that enabled year-round livestock production.

Eventually we came across an escarpment to our right.

A stile in the wall on the right led us to a metalled road, circumnavigating the peak which is, in fact, Piggford Moor itself.

A major heather regeneration scheme in the area since the 1990s convinced bird lovers that the habitat would be a suitable home for Lagopus lagopus (or Red Grouse to you and me).

And efforts have been made to increase the population of the bird which is on an “amber” list of endangered species.

As every schoolboy knows Red Grouse are herbivores, feeding almost exclusively on heather, especially the new growth from plants 2-4 years old. They do also eat, according to availability, other moorland plants including bilberry, cranberry and cotton-grass.

The autumn fruits are favoured, but at any time of year grouse eat the leaves, stalks and flowers. To grind up these hard fibrous materials in their gizzards they need to ingest small sharp pieces of stone, of which there is no shortage in the millstone grit hills of the Dark Peak.

We reached the Hanging Gate at exactly 12 noon.

The Hanging Gate (library picture)

First licensed in 1621 this low-beamed old drovers' pub has an interesting history.

In good weather the pub has stunning panoramic views from its terrace and you can pick out Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral and Snowdonia.

Bombadier was £3.30, Doombar £3.30 and Hydes Original £2.75.

Luda the landlady tells customers that prisoners were led from the building to the gallows outside (hence the name of the pub).

But today Estonian-born Luda’s main topic of conversation was the proliferation in the area of lesbians or “lesleys” as she calls them.

We heard of two “lesleys” who run a nearby pub, one of whom allegedly walked out on her husband within a few weeks of a lavish wedding to “play for the other side”.

Luda claimed she had been kissed on the lips by a lesley who had a moustache, not a pleasant experience she insisted.

But at least there had been no “tongue-wonguey”.

Broad-minded Luda’s patience was also worn thin by a lesley version of dogging in her pub car park.

She had to tap on the steamed-up window of a vehicle one evening to call a halt to activities that you would rarely find except in the pages of Fifty Shades of Grey.

This next piece of information is of little practical use to the Wanderers but for the record lesleys have a habit, claims Luda, of running their hand up a woman’s back to see if she is wearing a bra.

Dedicated lesleys never wear bras and “let it all go South”, according to Luda.

Luda also has no time, she said, for “trannies”, some of whom try to use the ladies’ loo in her establishment.

On one occasion she followed one dress-wearing customer (who also had a large Adam’s apple and size 10 trainers) to the ladies only to discover (s)he had left the loo seat up.

Luda curtly told the cross-dresser that whatever outfit they were wearing “anyone with a todger”  had to use the gents’.

Duly enlightened, we set off again at 12.58pm.

We turned left out of the pub and descended some steps. Negotiating a stile on our right.

We wandered through some farm buildings following a sign marked “Gritstone Trail”.

Lunch was taken from 1.25pm until 1.32pm in the shadow of Fran Cotton’s palatial house.

We were back at the cars at 1.50pm and having de-booted we enjoyed a further refreshment at the Leather’s Smithy where Theakstone’s was £3.15 and guest beer Rucking Mole £3.35.

Because of the bad weather the B Walkers and others gathered at the Dog & Partridge, Bollington.

Tony Job extended his apologies to the A walkers for not joining them at the Hanging Gate.

The B team waited by Ridgegate reservoir for the promised improvement in weather until about 10.25. Failing to contact Lawrie, they decided to get nearer home, and settled for yet another walk round Bollington - Middlewood Way, Macc. Canal to Hurdsfield and back along Clegg Lane to Kerridge.

Very wet underfoot. They  found The Bulls Head closed till 5pm, the Red Lion closed, and were back in Bollington before they struck gold in the Crown. The only beers were Wainwright and Doom Bar at £3.00 a pint, but it is clean and most importantly open from 9.30 am.

They found the pie shop open at 1pm, and made their way back to the ever-reliable D & P., where they (Tony, Geoff, Wally Ken and Gaz) were joined by Alan, Pete Morrall and Frank.

They hope to see the A Walkers next week in both pubs.

They plan to travel to High Lane from Poynton (dep. Poynton Church 9.15), catch the Glossop bus at 9.33, and walk from Lane Ends.

Next week’s walk will start from the railway station car park at Disley at 9.35am. The midway point will be the Fox at Brookbottom at around 12 noon. We will finish at the car park and enjoy a pint at the Dandy Cock. Sadly your diarist wi