Old Glossop

OLD GLOSSOP, GLOSSOP LOW, LONGDENDALE TRAIL, HADFIELD, PADFIELD

Distance: 10 miles

Difficulty: Moderate

Weather: Chilly and overcast but bright sunshine and warm on the tops.

Walkers: Peter Beal, George Dearsley, Alan Hart, John Laverick, Julian Ross, Micky Barrett, Colin Davison,Tom Cunliffe, Jock Rooney and Tips,

Apologies: George Whaites (Moreira), Phil Welsh (DIY)

B Walkers: Geoff Spurrell, Tony Job, Mike Walton,

Leader: Fairman Diarist: Dearsley

Starting Point: The Wheatsheaf, Old Glossop

Starting Time: 9.56am. Finishing Time: 2.45pm

A challenging walk, which afforded the Wanderers stunning views, bright sunshine, weird cloud formations and, for those drinking, decent beer.

There was a late start after Mr Hart suffered from geographical amnesia and took a wrong turning in Marple Bridge.

The group duly left the car park opposite the Wheatsheaf at 9.56am, shortly after a slightly larger band of male and female walkers whom, bizarrely, we never saw again.

We went up Blackshaw Road and through some flats on the right to pick up a trail that led past some farm buildings.

Mr Hart was then insistent that your diarist captured – photographically - two peacocks grazing in a field.

But by the time the shutter had clicked we had lost the group and Mr Hart made his second wrong decision of the day, taking us up a path to the left (which we were to revisit much later on).

Actually, the errant route might well have eventually linked us back with the other Wanderers. But we decided to re-trace our steps and within a few minutes had caught up with the tail end of the group which had, in fact, carried on along the path and through a five bar gate on the left.

This took us to a farm, which seems to be collecting bales of either paper or cloth, it was difficult to be certain.

Here we turned right and began a fairly long ascent towards Glossop Low, with an area called Peaknaze Moor in the distance to our left.

                                   Mr Peacock but no sign of Mrs Slocombe’s pussy

As every schoolchild knows the word low comes from the Anglo-Saxon Hlaw which means rounded hill and was often applied to a hill with an ancient barrow or tumulus on its summit.

Incidentally, in the North the word became “law” hence place names like Tow Law. Law is commonest in Northumberland and Durham but rare in Yorkshire, where the Viking word Howe predominates in place names like Ainderby Quernhow and Carlin Howe.

At 10.44am the sun began to appear to our right.

At what purported to be the top of the climb we turned right and went through a gate. To our right was the Cock Hill trig point.

In fact the rise continued a little further and brought us to a path bathed in bright sunshine but with a strange cloud inversion on our right, evidence by my snapshot below.

Here was also a sign saying “Recovery Roof Project”, a long track of solar panels planted about 18 inches off the ground and beyond that a wind turbine.

                                       Tom Cunliffe with his head in the clouds as usual

It transpires that this boffinry is all about climate change and pollution. Certain kinds of pollutions, damaging to upland areas, have fallen dramatically since the 1980s. For example, sulphur dioxide from burning fossil fuels like coal has fallen by 60% since the mid-1980s.

But other pollutants have remained high. For example nitrogen oxide emissions have increased with the rise in the number of vehicles on the road. Nitrogen oxides react with other chemicals in the air to produce ground level ozone and nitrates, which are bad for human health as well as damaging crops and natural communities.

Climate change is - allegedly - bringing changes in weather patterns and increased temperature, which will also impact on upland areas and will affect the ability of these habitats to recover following pollution.

The Recovery Roof project, therefore, looks at how fast and how well our moorlands will recover from pollution and how this will compare with changes brought about by climate change.

The Peak District, it turns out, is historically one of the most polluted upland areas, mostly because of its proximity to large cities like Manchester and Sheffield.  So the experiment, set up on Peaknaze Moor, replicates future predicted changes in pollution levels and climate to large areas of the moor.

Researchers aim to see how the plants, animals and the soil react to less pollution and the changes in climate that we might see over the next few decades. The hope is to identify any changes that come from climate change and falling levels of pollution.  This is important for land managers, who have to decide when to act to preserve these habitats.

It’s all being run by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, presumably funded by Wanderers’ and other people’s taxes.

Or, as Mr Rooney might say, “what a load of bollocks”.

Pie Time was declared at 11am and taken in a rather decrepit stone built erection, which at one time was – we guessed – a shelter for grouse shooters or Shooting Box.

Pie Time

My snap managed to include a rather earnest chap in blue on the horizon, armed with camera and binoculars, who duly enthused about the views we would later enjoy looking over towards Bleaklow on the right. He was not exaggerating.

                    Bright sunshine and blue sky….but you can have too much of a good thing

                                                                   Tips on the Top

During Pie Time Mr Davison made the radical suggestion that we amend the walk to stay in the sunshine on the tops, rather than descend to the cloud and cold, albeit eventually to reach the Anchor pub.

Although there appeared to be eight votes in favour and only one against (Mr Hart), the motion was duly defeated and we resumed our trek across the moor, covered in thick heather, the colour of an old welcome mat. (The moor that is not us).

                                                             Heather but no Mills

Soon we were to find ourselves on what looked like the rim of a great cooking pot, the “steam” being replaced by inverted cloud.

This, said Mr Beal, was actually part of the Pennine Way.

Just for the record, the Pennine Way is a National Trail running 431 km (268 miles) from Edale, in the Derbyshire Peak District, through the Yorkshire Dales and the Northumberland National Park, ending at Kirk Yetholm, just inside the Scottish border.

The path runs along the Pennine hills, sometimes described as the "backbone of England".

                                         Strange halo effect…and a rainbow (pic by John Laverick)

Although not the United Kingdom's longest National Trail (this distinction belongs to the 1,014 km - 630 miles - long South West Coast Path), it is according to the Ramblers' Association "one of Britain's best known and toughest".

The path was the idea of the journalist and rambler Tom Stephenson, inspired by similar trails in the United States of America, particularly the Appalachian Trail. Stephenson proposed the concept in an article for the Daily Herald in 1935, and later lobbied Parliament for the creation of an official trail.

The walk was originally planned to end at Wooler but eventually it was decided that Kirk Yetholm would be the finishing point.  The final section of the path was declared open in a ceremony held on Malham Moor on 24 April 1965.

Our descent from the sun kissed summit was a little tricky but accomplished without mishap.

At 11.49am we reached a metalled track and a sign pointing back to where we had come from saying “Bleaklow Head”.

We turned left onto the track and a few minutes later crossed a main road to join the Trans Pennine Trail turning left at a sign which read “Hadfield 3 miles”.

This, if I’m not mistaken, is also part of the Longdendale Trail.

The trek into Hadfield is flat and without a great deal to observe, but we were passed by a woman with a three legged greyhound, which I’m sure many of us have bet on in the past.

We reached Hadfield at 12.48pm and were in the Anchor pub by 12.51pm.

Mr Cunliffe, who I believe is on a New Year’s Resolution diet, ordered a giant baguette containing enough cholesterol to block the Mersey tunnel.

Tetley’s Bitter was £2.60 and in good fettle.

Hadfield, of course, was the real Royston Vasey in the television sitcom The League of Gentlemen.

Naturally, Glossopdale residents weren't thrilled that their locality was portrayed as an insular community of weirdos, sadists and secret cannibals.

But eventually they rose above it and Hadfield later had a Cafe Royston and a butcher's shop advertising "human flesh" sausages.

We left the Anchor at 1.40pm, retracing our steps to return to the Longdendale Trail.

After a while we took a path on the left and walked into Padfield, once home to Bez (real name Mark Berry) and Shaun Ryder of the Happy Mondays.

There was a moment’s hesitation before we took a road on the right called Peel Street. This led us over four stiles onto a road where we turned left (although some Wanderers went right).

The main body of walkers came to Little Padfield Farm where we took a path to the right.

We passed a farm, came onto a road and turned right. Just 30 yards later we turned left and took a very short lunch break, from 2.16pm until 2.24pm. In fact, I believe the slaves used to get longer on a Roman galley. By this time we had been rejoined by the breakaway walkers.

We were soon alongside Swineshaw Reservoir and trudging on a muddy path which, according to experienced Wanderers, has the consistency of lumpy porridge even in summer. This brought us back to the muddy descent your diarist and Mr Hart had visited early in the walk.

By 2.45pm we were back at the Wheatsheaf car park and after de-booting we enjoyed a libation in the nearby Bull, the Wheatsheaf itself being closed. Robinson’s Bitter was £2.85 and Mild £2.50.

The B team were driven by Geoff to Brabyns Park from where they crossed the Peak Forest Canal, passing Marple Cricket Club and The Railway at Rose Hill, joining the final section of The Middlewood Way and crossing Marple Golf Club to return to the canal.

After two pints of Robbies in the Ring o' Bells at Marple, they walked back along the canal to Brabyns Park. They concluded their five-mile walk with further refreshment in The Royal Scot at Marple Bridge.

There’s a lot of Dick and Cock in next week’s walk, which will begin from the Soldier Dick in Furness Vale at 9.30am. We propose to visit the Dandy Cock pub as the half way point around 12 noon to 12.15pm, finishing back at the Soldier Dick.