Whaley Bridge

WHALEY BRIDGE, CADSTER FARM, SPIRE HOLLINS FARM, COMBS, BRADSHAW HALL, WHITEHOUGH, BUGSWORTH BASIN,  BRIDGEMONT CANAL JUNCTION

Distance: 9.5 miles

Difficulty: Moderate

Weather: Overcast but dry

Walkers: George Dearsley, Lawrie Fairman, Phil Welsh, Tom Cunliffe, Julian Ross, Peter Beal, Colin Davison

Apologies: Jock Rooney (abroad), George Whaites (working), Alan Hart (Barbados)

B Walkers: Geoff Spurrell, Tony Job, John Laverick, Ken Sparrow

Non-walking drinkers: John Eckersley. Frank Dudley

Leader: Fairman Diarist: Dearsley

Starting Point: The Old Cock, Whaley Bridge

Starting Time: 9.35am. Finishing Time: 2.05pm

A perfect day for walking and an excellent turn out. Rolling Cheshire/Derbyshire countryside, intelligent banter and good ale. Were any of the Wanderers the slightest bit envious of Mr Hart in the sunshine of Barbados? Well, probably.

We left the Old Cock and took the familiar left turn a few yards up the road. For the first time your diarist noticed a sign saying Shallcross Trail. And indeed this appears to be new. 

According to the WhaleyBridge.com website the rather grandiose titled Shallcross Incline Greenway was only opened in the summer. The Greenway has been developed on the site of the old Cromford and High Peak Railway, which linked the High Peak with the Midlands. The incline was abandoned in 1892 following the closure of said railway. Since then, the incline has been disused, apart from a small section at its southern end which now forms Shallcross Crescent. The route became overgrown with self seeded trees and vegetation covering large sections and was a magnet for fly tippers.

As usual some NIMBYs said the development would exacerbate existing issues concerning crime and anti-social behaviour and would increase the fear of crime. The proposed pathway, they claimed, would also lead to a loss of privacy with local residences  being overlooked from the trail. So full marks to the local authority for going ahead and reclaiming the stretch for fresh air enthusiasts like the Wanderers.

We duly trod the virgin incline until we reached a T-junction, where we turned left. At the top of the road we went straight over passing a sign saying Shallcross Nursery. We crossed a stile and turned right.

As Combs reservoir was in the distance to our left and as the track became a little muddy I thought I would give the Wanderers the Hollywood treatment.

The direction of this walk we had followed before but on a track higher up to our right. We passed a tastefully converted barn which had a sign offering accommodation for hire at Tunstead House Farm.

We turned right and right again and were soon afforded a wonderful view of Combs Edge. It was also possible on our walk to pick out Mam Tor and Rushup.

Combs Edge

Our route eventually took us to the rear of an impressive house called Spire Hollins. The official path, however, dictates that walkers have to scale a wall that looks like something out of the Krypton Factor. To make the task more difficult it looked as if one step had been removed and a dog stood guard on the parapet. The animal turned out to be benign and the wall was duly negotiated. Although in icy conditions it might have presented more of a challenge.

Spire Hollins dates back to the 17^th century is valued by the website Zoopla at £834,417. It has been lovingly and diligently restored and with its many stone mullion windows not by your average Bank Holiday DIY-er.

Colin tackles the North Face of the Eiger

Spire Hollins

Within a few hundred yards we were at The Beehive pub where Pie Time was declared at 10.50am.

Two lithe fell runners appeared, one who was known to Mr Davison and the other having competed in times past against Mr Beal.

We set off again at 11.05am, passing the Beehive on our left and heading down the road to a T-Junction. Here we went straight over past Bradshaw Hall, once the residence of judge John Bradshaw, president at the trial of Charles I.

During his teenage years Bradshaw attended Macclesfield Grammar School (now The King's School in Macclesfield). After studying law in London he rose to high office. But Bradshaw was a controversial choice as Lord President, and opinions of his efficiency as a judge varied. Thomas Fuller dismissed him as a man “of execrable memory, of whom nothing good is remembered.”

The King himself, as well as much of the court, professed to having never heard of him. King Charles refused to recognise the authority of the court and would not plead. After declaring Charles I guilty as a “Tyrant, Traitor, Murderer, and a public enemy,” Bradshaw did not even allow the monarch any final words. Not even “I’m a Celebrity get me out of here!”

The Royalists, however, were to have their revenge following his death. After Charles II was restored to his throne in 1660, Bradshaw’s body was exhumed and displayed in chains all day on the gallows at Tyburn. Later he was beheaded, his body thrown into a common pit and his head displayed on a pike at Westminster Hall. They should bring that one back for the judge who freed Abu Qatada. Bradshaw, by the way, was played by Stratford Johns in the film Cromwell.

Mr Davison now professed that we were ahead of schedule and insisted on inserting his signature diversion into the walk. We crossed a field diagonally, came onto a metalled road and passed some expensive new stone walling being erected – rather incongruously -outside a red brick detached house.

We went left over a stile following a sign to “Eccles”. We reached a road and within 20 yards turned right along another road which we later learned to be Back Eccles Lane.

We crossed an impressive bridge over the dual carriageway that links Buxton and Whaley Bridge at 12.05pm and three minutes later arrived at the Old Hall Inn, Whitehough.

Hartington Bitter was £2.85 as was Marston’s Pedro. Marston’s Bitter was £2.70.

At 12.18pm the B Walkers arrived. They had been to Bowden Hall, Wash and Bridgeholme Green.

Just as we were about to depart who should enter the pub (with a rather overweight brown coloured dog) but former MP Edwina Currie.

The two former journalists in the group decided not to ask her about her decision in the 1980s to appoint Jimmy Savile to run a taskforce in charge of Broadmoor, where he was given temporary powers to oversee the running of the hospital following a series of industrial disputes - despite having no professional qualifications. A friend of Savile’s from his hometown in Leeds was then given the most senior job at Broadmoor.

It might have spoiled her lunch.

We set off again at 1.02pm taking the road towards Chinley.

We turned left following a sign marked Tramway Trail. We crossed a bridge on our right and at 1.18pm stopped for our own lunch.

We resumed our walk at 1.25pm, re-crossing the bridge and turning right.

We picked up the waterway at the side of the Peak Forest canal and followed it past Tesco’s into the outskirts of Whaley Bridge, reaching the Old Cock at 2.05 pm.

The B Walkers were not far behind and we were soon joined by Messrs Eckersley and Dudley.

Next week’s walk will start from the lay-by at Ridgegate Reservoir about half a mile from the Leather’s Smithy pub at 9.30am, with a stop at around 12.15pm at the Hanging Gate and ending at the Leather’s Smithy.