Bollington

BOLLINGTON, MACCLESFIELD CANAL, HIGHER HURDSFIELD, CALROFOLD, ELY BROW, BROOKHOUSE, THE ROBIN HOOD AT RAINOW, VIRGINS’ PATH, INGERSLEY VALE WATERFALL AND THE DOG AND PARTRIDGE IN BOLLINGTON.

Distance: 8-9 miles.

Difficulty: Easy.

Weather: Dry but cloudy with snow and ice underfoot.

Walkers: Tom Cunliffe, Lawrie Fairman, Alan Hart, Pete Johnson, John Laverick, Julian Ross and George Whaites.

B walkers: Tony Job, Geoff Spurrell and Mike Walton.

Apologies: Micky Barrett (Goa hols), Colin Davison (out on the piste), George Dearsley (working), Jock Rooney (Isle of Man), Ken Sparrow (aversion to buses), Phil Welsh (job interview in France).

Leaders: Fairman and Hart. Diarist: Hart.

Starting point: Free public car park opposite Spinners Arms, Bollington.

Starting time: 9.32am. Finishing time: 2.10pm.

Another new recruit joined the Wednesday Wanderers in the form of Pete Johnson, friend of Julian and an ex-colleague still employed by Greater Manchester Police. We hope the warmth of our welcome was in sharp contrast to the weather which was decidedly chilly.

Nonetheless a half-hearted flurry of snowflakes which heralded the start of the walk soon fell away and we were treated to a largely dry day while the rest of Britain fought heavy snow showers and blizzards.

Our initial leader Lawrie had bowed to health and safety guidance, choosing a flat start along the Macclesfield Canal. So after a brief call at the orgasmic pie shop of F.Smith the baker we turned right out of the car park, crossed the road and headed right until we reached the aqueduct carrying the Macc Canal over the road.

A flight of steps on our left led us to the right bank of the canal which we walked along for the best part of an hour. Our pace was restricted by the icy conditions which required due care and attention. On our right was the Adelphi Mill, built in 1856 by brothers George and Martin Swindells. The mill, which produced cotton, silk, rayon and nylon, closed in 1975 and its 176 feet tall chimney which had dominated the landscape for more than 100 years was removed.

Classic scholars among the millworkers would have known that the name of their workplace, Adelphi, was derived from the Greek adelphos, meaning brothers. What joy that knowledge must have given them as they started their 12-hour shifts.

At bridge 29 we switched banks (27mins) and left the canal at bridge 34 (56mins). The towpath exit led us to a road where we turned right uphill passing The Three Crown at Higher Hurdsfield on our left. A few yards beyond the pub we turned right at a wooden public footpath sign (59mins) and headed uphill through the snow-shrouded fields. After a brief pause to eat the legendary pies while they were still tepid, we continued upwards following yellow arrows on marker posts until the crossing of a wooden stile brought us to a road (63mins).

We turned right, passing Cliffe Farm on our left and at Calrofold Lane we took the right fork (68mins). This led us to a road at the end of Cliffe Lane (78mins) which we crossed and followed a path uphill. This took us through knee-high snowdrifts until we reached a pair of adjacent stiles.

Your diarist crossed both of these, while Lawrie stumbled and fell between two stiles. After following the main group into and down the field indicated by a yellow arrow, Lawrie retraced his steps backwards to search for an alternative route.

Julian and John followed while the rest of us formed a splinter group which walked through fields parallel with a road on our left. Led by Tom, who was anxious to escape the snowy fields, we clambered over a gate, reached the road and turned right.

Your diarist found himself de facto leader as we walked along the road past Brinks Farm on our right. Shortly afterwards we turned left to follow a public footpath sign leading into a farmyard (106mins). As we paused for a snack and port, we were joined by a friendly cairn terrier which seemed to prefer our company to the healthy food which we offered him.

With no sight of our companions, we continued to the other side of the farm until we reached a Gritstone Trail sign pointing straight ahead. We ignored this, turning right for 40 yards before turning left over a stone step stile (110mins) into a field with Rainow in the distance below.

Our breakaway group continued downhill over a series of stiles, passing to the left of a farmhouse before crossing a footbridge over a stream (124mins). Then we headed uphill again until we reached a lane via a stile (132mins).

We turned left to reach a road and turned right, passing Holy Trinity Church, Rainow, on our right, and arriving at The Robin Hood on our left (140mins). The Black Sheep cask bitter was £3 a pint and the guest ale, a rather sharp-tasting Lazy Daze, was priced at £3-05.

By the time we were ready for our second pints, our co-walkers arrived some 20 minutes behind us with macho talk of battling snowdrifts and other adversities of nature. More fool them was the general reaction.

AN INTERESTING FACT ABOUT RAINOW

Your diarist recalls an amazing story which came to a bloody end in Rainow in January, 1977. The Pottery Cottage Massacre, as it was called, started a few days earlier when a prisoner named Billy Hughes, aged 30, from Preston, was being driven from Leicester Jail to a court in Chesterfield.

Hughes was charged with stabbing a man in the face and raping his girlfriend. He somehow overpowered his guards, slashing their throats with a blade, before making off in the vehicle. Hughes crashed on icy roads on Beeley Moor on the outskirts of Chesterfield.

He then arrived at Pottery Cottage, near The Highwayman pub on the road into Chesterfield. It was occupied by Arthur Minton, a 72-year-old retired grocer, his wife Amy, 68, their daughter Gill Moran, 38, son-in-law Richard Moran, 36, a sales director, and their 10-year-old granddaughter Sarah Moran.

Wielding an axe he had found outside the cottage, Hughes forced his way inside and made the entire family his prisoners. For several days, while police hunted Hughes, he was holed up in Pottery Cottage. He forced Gill Moran to have sex with him while systematically butchering her family.

Eventually he escaped in a car with Gill, the sole survivor, until he was stopped by a police roadblock in Rainow. He threatened to kill Mrs Moran with the axe he was carrying and she suffered a head wound as police opened fire. Hughes was shot four times and died.

Mrs Moran sold the story of her ordeal to the Daily Mail for around £60,000 – a huge sum in those days. Less than a year later she married a man named Mulqueen, and six months after the wedding she had his baby. This is yet another example of the resilience of the so-called weaker sex.

END OF INTERESTING FACT

We left the pub by the rear exit and turned left into Stocks Lane, passing the village stocks on our left before heading right into Chapel Lane. We continued until Sugar Lane where we turned right and followed the public footpath sign to the rear of Flagg Cottage (150mins).

This brought us along The Virgins’ Path back to Bollington. For the uninitiated, this was the two-mile path from Rainow into Bollington which brides took in the days when Rainow had no church. Friendly farmers lay down slabs across their fields to prevent the brides’ white dresses from becoming muddy.

After pausing for lunch at Ingersley Vale waterfall (180mins) we returned to the car park to de-boot (195mins). From there we drove to The Dog and Partridge, where Robbies’ mild was £2-45p.

We joined the B walkers who had taken a route from Poynton up to the Middlewood Way at Higher Poynton. From there they had walked some six miles to Bollington.

Next week’s walk will start at 9.35am from The Lantern Pike pub car park at Little Hayfield, High Peak. It is anticipated that the walk, led by Tom, will reach The Sportsman pub, on the outskirts of Hayfield, around 12.30pm, and that we will be back in The Lantern Pike at 2.15pm.