Taddington

TADDINGTON, ROCK LODGE FARM, PRIESTCLIFFE, WYE VALLEY, MONSAL TRAIL, CHEE TOR TUNNEL, TOPLEY PIKE, THE CHURCH INN AT CHELMORTON, BANK PIT SPRING, SOUGH TOP AND THE QUEEN'S ARMS AT TADDINGTON

Distance: 9 miles.

Difficulty: Moderate.

Weather: Dry with early cloud giving way to sunshine.

Walkers: Chris Corps, Nigel Crank, Tom Cunliffe, Lawrie Fairman, Alan Hart, John Laverick and George Whaites.

B walkers: Tony Job, Pete Morrall, Geoff Spurrell, Mike Walton and Chris Wood.

Apologies: Mickey Barrett (hols),Peter Beal (narrow-boating), George Dearsley (Turkish hols), Jock Rooney (diving instruction), Julian Ross (lecturing), Ken Sparrow (hols).

Leaders: Fairman and Hart. Diarist: Hart.

Starting point: Outside Queenís Arms, Taddington, near Buxton, Derbsyhire.

Starting time: 9.55am. Finishing time: 2.17pm.

Our faith in the meteorologists was rewarded when early morning drizzle on the drive to our starting point finally ended as we passed through Buxton. By the time we reached the White Peak village of Taddington the dark rainclouds were beginning to disappear and were replaced by the friendly white fluffy ones.

The focal point of the walk was a cracking village pub recommended by your diarist reached by a route plotted by Lawrie. Despite our early misgivings when we set off by walking for the best part of two miles away from the pub, a loop to the left put us on course as Lawrie had assured us it would (why do some of you doubt him?), and we reached our main targets on time.

This was not before a high-speed headlong fall had sent your diarist sprawling, to general merriment.

With the Queenís Arms on our right, we walked uphill, turning right at a public footpath sign before the Old Post Office (4mins). Following the path first right and then left, we reached the A6 (8mins) and turned left. After 40 yards we turned right at a wooden public footpath sign and kept to the right edge of a field.

The path led us through two gates to the right of the field. After the second one we turned left and left again (12mins) to reach a lane (20mins) where we turned right. After passing Rock Lodge Farm on our right (23mins) we entered the hamlet of Priestcliffe, with Priestcliffe House on our right (27mins). We passed Lydgate Farm on our left and followed a wooden footpath sign for Millers Dale (30mins).

The path reached a T-junction where we turned right (46mins). It came to a road (51mins) where we turned left uphill for 60 yards before turning right through a gate marked with a wooden public footpath sign (53mins). After going through a gate marked with a yellow arrow we turned left for a few yards before veering right uphill and following a row of trees until we reached a path on the right through a wood (60mins).

This took us down to the Monsal Trail in Wye Valley  where we turned left (64mins) to walk along the former railway line which heads east out of Buxton. The source of the  Wye is Axe Head Moor and it runs east for 15 miles before joining the Derwent at Rowsley.

When the railway line was built with trains emerging from a tunnel at Monsal Head across a viaduct, art critic John Ruskin described it as an abomination, ìtaking every Buxton fool to Bakewell in half an hour and vice versa.î Ironically, although the railway line fell under the Beeching axe, the surviving viaduct despised by Ruskin is now a listed building.

After walking through the Chee Tor tunnel towards Buxton we stopped for lunch on a convenient bridge wall (66mins).  Continuing, we walked through Chee Tor Number 2 Tunnel and through Rusher Cutting Tunnel (70mins).

Your diarist overshot a gentle slope on the left leading to the riverbank below (84mins). In trying to negotiate a steeper descent rather than go back, he found himself running at breakneck speed down a shale slope, finally falling headlong as the ground flattened. This brought hoots of derision from his chums.

The pain from the scratches and bruises, dear readers, was trivial compared to the psychological scars suffered by such lack of sympathy. Clearly schadenfreude is not confined to Harry Hun and his comrades.

We proceeded along the riverbank with the Wye on our right. Here fly fishermen can be seen angling for well-nourished brown and rainbow trout and grayling. The river is also a haven for a large population of water voles.

After passing through Wyedale car park (94mins), we crossed the A6 and followed a public footpath to the left of Topley Pike Quarry, run by Aggregate Industries, on our right (97mins). We ignored a sign pointing straight ahead for Chelmorton and turned right to follow a wooden public footpath sign for Deepdale (100mins).

This was the start of a steep climb to a stone step stile at the summit of Topley Pike (108mins). Grumblers had to be reminded: we are the A team. From there we went diagonally right through a field until we reached a stone step stile, which we crossed and turned left (112mins). The path was ill-used between two walls. Wet grass, weeds and nettles grew to waist height, and with your diarist now at the vanguard, there were soon mutterings about the convening of a leaderís badge committee.

At a lane we turned left, later ignoring a track to our right, and reached a road (136mins). We turned left and immediately right over a cattlegrid, passing through grazing cows and a farm on our left (142mins). The lane brought us to a road (146mins) where we turned left and soon reached The Church Inn at Chelmorton (147mins).

By now the sun was shining, the sky was blue, the beer garden was open and Marstonís cask bitter was £3 a pint. Tom, despite sitting on a wet chair and giving the impression, this time falsely, that he had disgraced himself, described the beer as ìfine.î This, from a beer critic such as Tom, is the equivalent of being awarded three stars in the Michelin Guide. 

Across the road is the church of St John the Baptist, first built in the 13th Century and restored three times since. The church is always open and before the altar rail is a long kneeler embroidered with locusts, which have a connection with John the Baptist, the man who lost his head to Salome, the Bibleís most renowned stripper. There is also a locust-shaped weathervane atop the church spire ñ an incongruous sight in this rural farming community.

The parish registers, dating from 1589, include a sprinkling of highly unusual names. In the 17th Century a boy was christened Cutbeard and a girl Sabrae. The following century one boy was named Exuperious and a girl given the hopeful name of Silence.

The church tower houses five bells, and campanologists will be interested to learn that the treble and tenor bells were re-cast in 1960 to incorporate metal from the bells of Derwent Church, which now lies submerged in the Derwent Reservoir.

 After a second pint, we sallied forth uphill with the pub on our left and the church on our right. Where the path forked, we swung right past Bank Pit Spring. A sign informed us that the contents of this spring were known locally as the ìilly willy waters.î We were not tempted to try a taste to find out why.

Shortly afterward we reached a four-way junction (152mins) and stopped for lunch. Continuing we walked to the right for 40 yards before heading left over a stone step stile at a wooden public footpath sign. We ascended gradually in a straight line through several fields, passing a Trig Point on our left just before reaching Sough Top (172mins) where we turned left over a stone step stile.

We then began our descent into Taddington, crossing a lane and squeezing through two gap stiles (179mins) and crossing a stone step stile leading to a narrow path which emerged at Humphrey Gate. We turned right downhill (182mins) passing St Michaelís Church on our left and reaching The Queens Arms (186mins) on our left. After de-booting we drank pints of Doombar at £3-20.

B Walkers

Itinerary:  392 bus Poynton Church to Macclesfield, dep.Poynton 9.44 arr. Macc. 10.23. Fare £3.00 single for those without passes, though a day ticket can be had for £5.00 according to SK12 magazine. Walk downhill to Macclesfield Pie (shop), meat and potato £1.40, steak £1.50. Walk uphill to canal bridge, access towpath at the Puss in Boots, where pies were consumed. Walk South under 1 bridge, turn left for Macc.G.C. at next bridge, and follow path starting at the clubhouse, climbing gently before dropping down to Langley. Plan to walk up to Leather's Smithy abandoned when alternative via Church House, The Lamb at Sutton, and King's Head was suggested. Good Robbies at Church House (£2.65 a pint), No stop at The Lamb, but walk to Gurnett via Sutton Hall. Landlord at King's Head (£3.20 a pint) very good. Return via towpath and Storm Brewery to Macc. for draught Bass in the Jolly Sailor, before catching the 16.14 393 bus to Poynton. Distance walked 5 miles. We could have used the 14 bus from Langley Chapel to Macc, which leaves at 22 minutes past the hour.

Next week: 199 bus from Rising Sun at 09.48 to Disley, walk to Kettleshulme or Furness Vale via Green Lane to meet up  with the A team, then 199 bus to the Horseshoe at High Lane.

Next weekís walk will start from outside Colinís house in Mill Brow, High Lane, at 9.20am. It is our intention to march through Lyme Park up to Bowstones, before dropping down to The Soldier Dick in Furness Vale around 12.15pm for a livener. We will then take the Peak Forest Canal route back towards High Lane and our cars before driving to The Horseshoe for further refreshments around 2.20pm.