Allgreave

THE ROSE AND CROWN AT ALLGREAVE, EAGLE AND CHILD (DECEASED), BURNT CLIFF TOP FARM, GRADBACH YOUTH HOSTEL, ROACHES, HANGING STONE, SWYTHAMLEY HALL, ASH MOUNT COTTAGE, DANEBRIDGE, WINCLE BREWERY, THE SHIP AT WINCLE, HOG CLOUGH, ALL MEADOWS FARM, LONGDALE FARM, ALLGREAVE METHODIST CHAPEL, THE OLD KING’S HEAD AT GURNETT

Distance: 9 miles.

Difficulty: Easy.

Weather: Cloudy with light showers.

Walkers: Mickey Barrett, Peter Beal, Colin Davison, Lawrie Fairman, Alan Hart and George Whaites.

B walkers: To be added.

Apologies: Tom Cunliffe (bruised heel), Nigel Crank (preparing for Portuguese hols), Chris Corps (upset stomach), George Dearsley (Turkish hols), John Laverick (revisiting roots in Geordieland), Jock Rooney (walking coast to coast in the Isle of Man), and Julian Ross (hols).

Leader: Fairman. Diarist: Hart.

Starting point: Car park of The Rose and Crown at Allgreave, on the A54 Congleton-Buxton road.

Starting time: 9.45am. Finishing time: 2.25pm.

It has been said of many a man found lacking that he couldn’t organise a piss-up in a brewery. Well that remark cannot be laid at the door of our leader Lawrie, who managed to incorporate this activity into our walk.

The heatwave, which followed disappointing weather in May and June, disappeared for the last day of July and was replaced with light drizzle and a series of showers. Forecasters had predicted such weather so we were suitably attired with some of us adding umbrellas to our kit.

With schoolchildren taking their long summer break, we saw evidence of several scout camps which brought back memories of yesteryear – leaking tents, sodden ground sheets, cold baked beans and ludicrous songs around the campfire. We learned that all six walkers had been wolf cubs or scouts at some stage so Baden Powell has a lot to answer for. There was also talk of woggles, bushman’s thongs and other fashion accessories for scouts, of which more later.

The Rose and Crown at Allgreave is closed for renovation work while the new owners, Ian and Luda, serve six months notice at the nearby Hanging Gate where they have a contract with Hyde’s Brewery. They expect to have it up and running by January.

From its car park we went down to the side of the pub and turned left uphill. We soon reached a field on our right where five alpacas were grazing. One of them reared up by a gate, apparently trying to attract our attention.

George and Alpaca

This had a bizarre effect on Colin, who tried to copy the animal’s behaviour while emitting strange moaning noises. Whether the alpaca believed them to be a challenge or a mating call is uncertain. In any event it was not amused and appeared to be preparing to spit at him. This involves the bringing up of the acidic stomach contents and would have resulted in Colin being covered in green slime. What a shame that would have been.

As every schoolboy knows, alpacas are a domesticated species of South American camel which graze on level sections of the Andes in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and Chile at altitudes of 11,000 to 16,000 feet. One would have expected them to feel quite seasick in the lowlands of Cheshire. They are not bred as beasts of burden, like their large cousin, the llama, but for their coats which are converted into blankets, sweaters, socks, coats and bedding.

Interestingly, they use a communal dung pile and the males have much tidier and fewer dung piles than females. Alpaca females tend to stand in line and all go at once (rather like the girls at Sale Locarno in the Swinging Sixties)

After Colin had bade a lingering farewell to his new chum, we passed a house on the left (26mins) which had once been a pub called The Eagle and Child at Wildboarclough. A childish drawing of a bird, looking more like a blackbird than an eagle, hovering over a helpless infant, still adorned the wall of the former inn, which was built in 1753.

On our right (30mins) we came to Midgley Gate Barn, which announced it had no connection with Burnt Cliff Top, a neighbouring farmhouse. This indicated a feud was simmering between the respective owners, Messrs Picton and McInnes, unless it signals the start of a new trend (in which case can I be the first to register 68, London Road North, Poynton, as having no connection with Buckingham Palace or The Taj Mahal ?)

At a footpath sign we turned right (33mins) passing a cottage on our left and exited via a wooden stile in the right corner marked with a yellow arrow (35mins). We crossed a stone step stile on our right and headed diagonally downhill through waist-high ferns, which produced the second moans of the day from Colin.

After crossing a footbridge over the River Dane, we reached Gradbach Youth Hostel on our left (45mins). We turned right along a footpath with the Dane on our right. At the end of the fenced-in field, we turned left uphill to reach a five-barred wooden gate on our right (53mins). We went through this and followed a track downhill.

We went left over a stone step stile (55mins) and turned right downhill. After crossing a footbridge we turned left (56mins) at a wooden public footpath sign for Roaches. After a steady march uphill through the woods we reached a glade and stopped for Pietime (74mins).

Continuing, we followed the wooden public footpath sign marked “Roaches” and reached a wooden stile (84mins). Some 50 yards ahead of us were Bare Stones at the start of The Roaches. Instead of heading uphill towards them we turned right following a wooden public footpath sign for Lud’s Church and Swythamley. To our left was Tittesworth Reservoir in the mist below.

Tittesworth Reservoir

We reached a junction of paths and turned left following a sign for Danebridge (96mins). Above us to our right was a crag where a raven and a crow were engaged in an aerial battle for supremacy. We passed Hanging Stone on our right and turned left heading downhill (121mins). 

This took us past the grounds of Swythamley Hall on our left and Park House. To our right we spotted a low-flying buzzard with its call similar to the peewit. Normally buzzards are seen gliding high in the sky and they are surprisingly large when observed at close quarters.

Just before we reached a large house on our left we swung sharp right to cross a wooden stile (138mins) and then plunged left downhill between two rows of trees. We emerged by Ash Mount Cottage on our right (140mins), turned left and then swung right downhill. 

This took us past Danebridge Methodist Church, below the road on our left and over the River Dane (144mins). As we started to climb uphill for a livener in The Ship, we spotted The Wincle Brewery on our left, where visitors are invited to try “a snifter.” Link here.

Wincle Brewery

We were happy to oblige, and then discovered that their cask-conditioned bitters, Life of Riley, Summer Lass and Sir Sidney, were on sale at £2-50 a pint. 

In the absence of rain we were able to sit on benches outside and discuss our various scouting experiences. It emerged that Mickey had been in Mallory patrol at the Holy Innocents Church troop in Fallowfield, where he wore a yellow and green necker. Peter B was with the Guy Gibson patrol in the 5^th St Mary’s troop in Leeds, wearing a purple necker with an emblem of a cock on it! He also wore a braided leather lanyard, known as a bushman’s thong, and went on to become a queen’s scout (He refused to name the queen involved). 

Lawrie was a member of the 1^st Heaton troop in Newcastle, where he wore a beret and shorts. George W attained the giddy rank of sixer with the 165^th Manchester wolf cubs, wearing the same green and yellow necker as Mickey. Your diarist was a sixer with 14^th Sale wolf cubs and then a member of Curlew patrol with Altrincham Grammar School’s 3^rd Altrincham troop. He wore the Canadian mountie style of hat favoured by Baden Powell, a pair of flared knee-length shorts in the style of Eric Morecambe, and carried a staff.

It will surprise nobody to learn that Colin headed the list for sartorial elegance in the 1^st North Leeds Strachan’s Caledonians, where he wore a green shirt with matching beret, a Stewart tartan kilt with matching necker, and a skean dhu down his sock. This was a sheath knife which he probably needed for protection against a local DJ called Jimmy Savile. 

Resuming our journey, we continued uphill, passing The Ship at Wincle (149mins) and turning right at a public footpath sign (150mins) which led us up steps and over a wooden stile into woods at Hog Clough (156mins). We crossed a footbridge and emerged via a wooden stile into a field (158mins). A stone step stile took us into a gravel yard (161mins) and we turned right uphill. Lunch was taken under the shelter of a large oak tree (162mins).

After lunch we went through a gate marked with a yellow arrow and turned left. We made the mistake of descending into a wood, instead of keeping to the high ground, which we had to rectify by heading upwards and climbing over a fence. 

Emerging at All Meadows Farm, we reached a road and turned right (196mins). We passed Longdale Farm on our right (199mins) and reached the main A54 road.

After turning right downhill, we passed Allgreave Methodist Church on our left and swung left round a sharp bend to return to The Rose and Crown on our right (207mins). After de-booting, we drove to The Old King’s Head at Gurnett for a selection of cask bitters at £3 a pint.

Old King's Head, Gurnett

Next week’s walk will start from The Cock at Whaley Bridge at 9.35am, calling at The Shady Oak, Fernilee, around 12.30pm and finishing back at The Cock around 2.15pm.