Chapel en le Frith

CHAPEL RAIL STATION, RIDGE HALL, COW LOW, CASTLE NAZE, COOMBS EDGE, THE BEEHIVE AT COOMBS, THE ROEBUCK AT CHAPEL-EN-LE-FRITH

Distance: 8-9 miles.

Difficulty: Moderate.

Weather: Misty but mostly dry with occasional sunshine.

Walkers: Mickey Barrett, Peter Beal, Nigel Crank, Lawrie Fairman, Alan Hart, John Laverick, Syd Marland, Julian Ross and George Whaites.

B walkers: Terry Jessop, Tony Job and Geoff Spurrell.

Apologies: Chris Corps, Tom Cunliffe, George Dearsley and Mike Walton (all w*^king), Steve Courtney (Turkish hols),Colin Davison (Spanish hols), Pete Morrall  (preparing for winter in Spain), Jock Rooney (Isle of Man tax exile), Ken Sparrow (domestic chauffeuring duties).

Leader: Fairman. Diarist: Hart.

Starting point: Road outside Chapel-en-le-Frith railway station, Derbyshire.

Starting time: 9.48am. Finishing time: 2.10pm.

A quick look at the list of apologies will show that we have far too many w*^kers among the Wednesday Wanderers these days. Despite this unfortunate trend, we had nine A walkers, including the welcome return of Mickey Barrett from mopping up operations at his family home.

Mickey has been missing for the past two weeks after returning home from a sailing holiday to discover a burst tap had flooded three storeys of his house.

Our message to those who prefer w*^king to walking was summed up by the words on Syd’s tee-shirt – “A rainy day in the hills is better than a sunny day in the office.”

The B walkers were augmented by the debut of Terry Jessop, who has come to Poynton from Ilkley via Derby. His shy, retiring nature should fit in nicely.

Early morning rain had disappeared by the time we started, and the forecasts of a dry day proved largely accurate apart from light drizzle shortly after Pietime. The usual trick of donning waterproofs was enough to drive the rain away and we even had occasional glimpses of weak sunshine peeping through the cloud and mist.

The highlight of the A walk was reaching Castle Naze, a promontory hill fort which commands panoramic views for miles around in every direction: or so it should have done. 

Unfortunately the morning mist refused to clear and our sustained uphill march went unrewarded. Nonetheless we were able to walk in the footsteps of our ancestors and imagine what life would have been like back in The Iron Age.

For Lawrie it was a trip down memory lane, recalling: “It was ‘ard but we was ‘appy.” Frank Dudley, working as an apprentice carpenter at the time, thought iron would never catch on.

We crossed the Manchester-Buxton railway line at Chapel and trooped steadily uphill for nearly a mile, passing Ridge Hall and Ridge Smithy on our left en route. When we reached a T-junction (15mins), Peter urged a right turn but Lawrie insisted the legitimate path was to the left.

After a quarter of a mile, Lawrie reassessed the situation and ordered an about-turn. We retraced our steps back to the T-junction (22mins) and carried on until Peter pointed out a broken fence on our left (24mins) where several hundred pairs of boots had crossed before us for the ascent of Castle Naze.

We reached the summit (34mins), which is also known as Combs Moss. Historians and archaeologists believe it was the site of a fort, spread over a triangular area of 2.5 acres, protected by natural slopes on two sides and two ditches on the third.

Educated guesswork surmises the fort dates from The Iron Age (800BC) until the Roman invasion of Britain in 43 AD. The steep gritstone escarpment 1400 feet above sea level provided  a formidable natural fortification,  enhanced by man-made ditches protecting the entrances on the vulnerable side. Roman coins have been discovered here and there could be links with The Bull Ring henge at Doveholes two kilometres away.

After a pause to remove outer clothing, we went over a wooden stile and followed a path along the ridge with a steep drop to the valley below on or right. Sadly, the spectacular views were shrouded in mist. 

We reached a track by some handy rocks and stopped for Pietime (75mins). As we finished, the first drops of rain were felt, but by the time we had put on our waterproofs, the drizzle had ceased.

Resuming our walk along the ridge, we reached a drystone wall (111mins). Once again Peter suggested a right turn downhill, but Lawrie opted for the left turn uphill keeping the wall on our right. When we reached the corner of two converging drystone walls, Lawrie turned left again and Peter was heard to mutter: “We are now going in the opposite direction from the pub.”

We reached a gate on our right which we went through (119mins) and followed the well-trodden path downhill. We reached a wooden stile (124mins) and turned right along a pebbled lane before turning right again (131mins) at a wooden public footpath sign and entered a field with a drystone wall on our right.

Our group passed a farmhouse on our right and carried on across a broken wall (143mins), through an open gateway and down into a valley. When we reached two more open gateways, side by side, we went through the one on the right (146mins) and crossed a wooden footbridge over a stream (150mins), soon followed by a stone footbridge (151mins).

We then turned right heading uphill through a field. With farm buildings on our right we walked through a gate and reached a lane (155mins). We turned right and descended to the outskirts of Coombs, where we turned left at Hitch Croft Cottage (164mins).

We  reached The Beehive (168mins), where pints of Beehive cask bitter cost £3-10 and were enjoyed in the beer garden at the front of the pub. Some  sunshine had penetrated the clouds to raise the temperature. One of our more extravagant comrades opted for the Marstons’ Pedigree at £3-50.

Resuming, we retraced our footsteps back uphill until we reached a wooden public footpath sign we had passed earlier (171mins). This time we turned left and skirted a farmhouse to its right, crossing a wooden stile and uphill through fields.

We reached two fields containing single horses, which were separated by an electrified fence. After lifting the insulated wire to allow us access, one of the horses came over to inspect us. We gave him strict instructions not, under any circumstances, to take advantage of the situation and cross into the other field. To our pleasant surprise, he obeyed the order and we were able to pass unmolested to a wooden stile on the far side of the field.

Turning right after crossing the stile (181mins), we followed a narrow fenced path. We exited through a gate and turned left over a bridge which went over the Manchester-Buxton railway (184mins). We stopped for lunch prior to the final push towards Chapel Station.

This was achieved by turning right on to a path on the far side of the bridge and walking along it parallel to the rail track. We reached the cars (198mins) and de-booted before driving to The Roebuck in the centre of Chapel for pints of cask beer for passengers and soft drinks for drivers. The Tetley’s mild was in good form at £2-50 a pint.

The B walkers were already ensconced after a walk of slightly more than five miles. They had caught a bus as far as The Soldier Dick at Furness Vale, from where they had walked along the Peak Forest Canal through Bugsworth Basin, and the Peak Forest Tramway to Whitehough, Chinley. At this point they decided it would be rude not to call at The Old Hall for pints of Marston’s bitter. They had then continued on foot to Chapel-en-le-Frith.

Next week’s A walk  of about nine miles will start at 9.30am from the car park of The Bull’s Head on London Road North, Poynton, led by John and Syd. They have promised to get us to The Davenport Arms in Woodford by around 12.30pm, and return us to The Bull’s Head at about 2.20pm.

“W*^k,” which rhymes somewhat ironically with “shirk,” is an unacceptable word in the Wednesday Wanderers’ vocabulary