Whaley Bridge

WHALEY BRIDGE, CRACKEN EDGE, OLLERSETT MOOR

Distance: 9.9 miles

Difficulty: Moderate

Weather: Mild with Occasional Showers

Walkers: Peter Beal, George Dearsley, Alan Hart, John Laverick, Gavin Hill

Apologies: Colin Davison (Holding hands), George Whaites (Moreira), Jock Rooney (Family commitments), Tom Cunliffe (Post New Year celebration fatigue), Micky Barrett (Lake District), Lawrie Fairman (Flu), Phil Welsh (Virus).

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

Leader: Beal Diarist: Dearsley

Starting Point: The Cock, Whaley Bridge

Starting Time: 9.36am. Finishing Time: 2.17pm

A Happy New Year to all Wanderers.

This week’s walk was marred by mist and showers but offered a welcome chance to dislodge some turkey, Christmas pudding and a few mince pies.

Despite more cry offs that Roy Hodgson gets for an England friendly against Estonia away, a quintet of Wanderers braved the elements for a perambulation which m’learned friend Mr Beal’s computer clocked at an impressive 9.9 miles.

For once we turned right not left out of the Cock’s car park and immediately set a new Wanderers all-comers record by taking a wrong turning within about 250 yards.

Order restored, we duly picked up the correct path, which took us onto a stretch of the old Cromford to High Peak railway line.

As every schoolchild knows, this line was completed in 1831, to carry minerals and goods between the two destinations.

It was the brainchild of Josias Jessop, who, with his father William Jessop and their former partner Benjamin Outram had gained wide experience in building tramways where conditions were unsuitable for canals.

Even so, as almost the first long distance line at 33 miles, it was a bold venture. To reach its summit at Ladmanlow, it would have to climb a thousand feet from Cromford, making it one of the highest lines ever built in Britain.

The railway was laid using so-called "fishbelly" rails supported on stone blocks, as was common in those days, rather than timber sleepers, since it would be powered by horses on the flat sections.

On the nine inclined planes, stationary steam engines would be used, apart from the last incline into Whaley Bridge, which was counterbalanced and worked by a horse-gin.

The engines, rails and other ironwork were provided by the Butterley Company. It would take around two days to complete the journey.

With its corkscrew curves, it has been described as "being laid out by a mad Archimedes endeavouring to square the circle".

The line was initially under-capitalised because many of the subscribers did not meet their dues, and it was mainly funded by the Butterley Company which was its main creditor.

The final cost was £180,000, more than Jessop's estimate of £155,000, but still much cheaper than a canal.

Nevertheless, the line never achieved a profit. Francis Wright, the Chairman was later to say, in 1862:  "We found ourselves getting into difficulties from the third year of our existence." and added it was clear in retrospect that the line "never had a remote chance of paying a dividend on the original shares."

Clearly the Chunnel of its day.

We went straight on over a bridge to the right and on reaching the canal we traversed a pedestrian bridge which brought us to the other side where we turned right following a sign marked “Goyt Way”.

Sticking to the canal towpath, we went under Bridge 36 and on reaching Bridge 31 we went up a ramp to the right and found ourselves on the road (Marsh Lane) just down from Furness Vale.

We headed as if towards New Mills but having negotiated a bend we took a path immediately on our right.

This brought us out onto a road and we turned left.

We followed a path on the right passing some huge electricity pylons.

We negotiated two stiles and turned left before taking a path on the right.

This brought us through some renovated farm buildings and onto a metalled road which we followed until we reached a T-junction where we turned right.

At the top of an incline we went straight over onto Ollersett Moor.

In 1831, George William Newton JP of Ollersett Hall obtained a private Act of Parliament to supply the farms of his estate and various parts of New Mills using springs from the Moor.

Apparently, "powerful and constant springs of water" were present on Ollersett Moor and their height provided a sufficient head of water to supply farms and much of New Mills by gravity.

                           Library picture of the view from Ollersett Moor on a sunny day.

                                                                Er….what we saw.

We stopped for Pie Time at 10.55am before a stiffish climb, setting off again at 11.09am.

By 11.25am we had reached the large rock where the above photo opportunity presented itself.

This, I believe is Cracken Edge, famous for its quarrying.

The Cracken Edge Quarries were exploited for gritstone in the nineteenth century and probably earlier. There is very little published on the history of the workings.

It was noted for the production of paving stones and roofing slates, and remained open until about 1930

Quite a lot of the output was despatched by train from the goods yard at Chinley, with a first peak in the 1890s when about 16,000 tons per year went via train, declined slowly after then, but there was a brief second peak in 1929 of 11,000 tons for that year.

The Cracken Edge Quarries are noteworthy for the extensive vertical faces created along the edge, where there is good stone. 

Banks of spoil divide a series of working areas, and extensive waste heaps built up as debris was tipped down the steep slope.  There are access tracks and signs of an inclined tramway with a pulley wheel on stone supports at its upper end.  There were also underground stone mines behind the faces, now mostly collapsed, although entrance approach routes between spoil-heaps retained by dry stone walls remain.

Library picture of the quarries

Getting down from Cracken Edge was slightly tricky, given the steepish slopes and slippery stones but we achieved it without incident.

We eventually reached a metalled road where we turned left and at around 12.30pm (alas I did not record the exact time of arrival) we reached the Old Hall Inn at Whitehough.

The three B-walkers were already there, having taken the 199 to Chapel and meandered via Bridgeholme Green and the Tramway Trail to the hostelry.

The highly palatable Marston’s Bitter was £2.70 but it did not tempt your diarist whose annual New Year Resolution (since 2004) is to abstain from alcohol in January.

We left the pub at 1.20pm (without the pleasure of bumping into Edwina Currie, whom we met last time) and went down the hill.

We turned left and stopped for lunch at 1.33pm, resuming our walk at 1.42pm.

While we munched a man emerged from the woods with a dog, holding a mug of tea,  (the man that is, not the dog).

We passed a pond where we spotted three black swans.

Swans

The British Trust for Ornithology claims there are just 65 black swans living in the wild across the UK, compared to around 74,000 mute swans. Although I suspect the three we saw do not qualify as “living in the wild”.

Although indigenous to Australia black swans -Cygnus atratus - were initially brought over to the UK to brighten up ornamental wildfowl collections. The birds used to have their wings clipped but the practice was discontinued a few years ago, allowing some of the swans to escape.

Over the years the birds have managed to thrive alongside native swans, ducks and geese and slowly the population has started to expand.

We reached the canal and followed it until we came to the footbridge we had crossed in the morning.

We re-traced our steps passing Tesco on our left and the several narrowboats until we reached Whaley Bridge, arriving at the Cock at 2.17pm

Next week’s walk will begin from the Wheatsheaf in Old Glossop at 9.45am. We propose to visit the Anchor pub as the half way point around 12.30pm, finishing back at the Wheatsheaf.