Errwood Hall

ERRWOOD HALL CAR PARK, CROMFORD AND HIGH PEAK RAILWAY, BURBAGE EDGE, CAT AND FIDDLE, ERRWOOD RESERVOIR AND THE COCK AT WHALEY BRIDGE

Distance: Nine miles.

Difficulty: Mainly moderate but strenuous in parts.

Weather: Dry and cloudy with some sunshine but a cold wind.

Walkers: Peter Beal, Nigel Crank, Tom Cunliffe, Colin Davison, Lawrie Fairman, Alan Hart, John Laverick, Jock Rooney plus Tips, and Julian Ross.

B walkers: Tony Job and Mike Walton.

Apologies: Mickey Barrett (hols in South Lakes), George Dearsley (w*^king), Malc Halley (hols),Peter Morrall (abandoned), Ken Sparrow (hols) and George Whaites (hols in Spain).

Leaders: Fairman, Rooney and Beal. Diarist: Hart.

Starting point: Errwood Hall car park, overlooking Errwood Reservoir, near Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire.

Starting time: 9.46am. Finishing time: 2.17pm.

The start of the A walk was interrupted at its outset by the sound of sobbing down you diarist’s mobile phone. B walker Peter Morrall was weeping and wailing as he tried to relate the sad story of how he had turned up at Tony’s house to find that the master had left early, and then seen him sailing past The Kingfisher.

Despite Pete’s best efforts to flag him down they were like ships that pass in the night. Pete’s request for Tony’s mobile phone number was greeted with great hilarity by the A walkers, who know it to be not only immobile but permanently switched off.

How fortunate we are in the A team to be so well organised with no such misunderstandings !

The fate of the remnants of the B team remain unknown as we go to press, although Wally managed to get a message through at 1.15pm that they were enjoying Holts bitter in The Eagle at Buxton for £2 a pint.

As we set off, Peter B pointed to Goytsclough quarry where one of Poynton’s most celebrated sons started work in 1670. Thomas Pickford’s lands in the Adlington and Poynton area had been sequestered by the Parliamentarians at the end of the English Civil War because he had “co-operated” with the Royalists.

Mr Pickford later bought the quarry and used its limestone to repair roads. The business expanded until trains of up to 50 packhorses would carry slabs of stone from the quarry in specially-crafted panniers. Instead of returning empty, the shrewd Poyntonian arranged for his horses to carry goods to towns and villages on their way back to the quarry.

He thus diversified to become a carrier. By the 18^th century, his descendant James Pickford was known as the London-Manchester waggoner, charging customers a halfpenny a mile per cwt in the summer and three-farthings in the winter. Pickfords’ haulage and removal business is now one of the biggest in the UK with a multi-million pound turnover. 

From the car park, we turned right along the lane with Errwood Reservoir on our left. We turned left off the lane (5mins) to follow a footpath which first went down to the water’s edge and then ascended steeply (18mins) back to the lane, leading to mumblings in the lower ranks.

We descended again (23mins), this time to more purpose, as we crossed the pack horse bridge, climbed up the far side and followed a wooden footpath sign for Errwood (25mins). By this time Jock had replaced Lawrie as leader in an apparently bloodless coup.

Our bearded septuagenarian was striding out like a teenager as he and Tom broke away from the pack to set a fierce pace, following another sign for Errwood by turning left at a junction (47mins) and reaching the entrance to a tunnel which once took trains from the Cromford and High Peak railways under the hills for 500 yards. Here (75mins) we stopped for pietime.

Resuming we turned sharp left uphill with the tunnel on our left below before heading across open moorland to plunge down to a gate on our right (80mins). This time Peter B was leading as we went through the gate and up a steep hill with a wall on our left. This brought us to the Trig Point at Burbage Edge (95mins) after a gruelling climb.

After admiring the view of Buxton below us to our left, we continued to keep the wall to our left until the sight of the Cat and Fiddle could be seen to our right in the distance. We turned right (106mins) and aimed for the pub which proved to be deceptively further away than it looked.

After some zigging and zagging forwards and left, we reached a wooden stile and turned right (115mins). This brought us uphill to a road (148mins) where we turned right and reached The Cat and Fiddle on the left (151mins).

The pub is owned by Robinsons, but the new occupants were awaiting a delivery so we were obliged to try the Dizzy Blonde or the Elbow cask bitter at £3-20 a pint. It was in good form and the vault was surprisingly busy while the larger rooms were unoccupied.

From the pub we turned right to retrace our journey on the opposite side of the road until we reached a wooden public footpath sign and turned right (156mins). We bore right following a sign towards Shining Tor and Errwood (159mins) and began the steady descent down to the reservoir, stopping by a wall for lunch (168mins) and reaching our cars to deboot (195mins).

From Errwood we drove to The Cock at Whaley Bridge, where the Robinsons’ cask bitter was cloudy and had to be returned. We seemed destined to be deprived of our intake of Robbies, and so we opted once more for the Dizzy Blonde, this time at a more agreeable £2-80 a pint.

Next week’s walk will start at 9.55am from The Angler’s Rest at Millers Dale, near Buxton. We expect to arrive at The Devonshire Arms, Peak Forest, around 12.15pm and return to the Angler’s Rest by 2.45pm.