Little Hayfield

THE LANTERN PIKE, LITTLE HAYFIELD, HAYFIELD VILLAGE, KINDER SCOUT, KINDER DOWNFALL, RED BROOK, WHITE BROW, HAYFIELD VILLAGE

Distance: 10 miles.

Difficulty: Difficult

Weather: Sunny

Walkers: Colin Davison, Alan Hart, Phil Welsh, George Dearsley, Nigel Crank, Chris Corps and Fergus, Julian Ross, John Jones, John Laverick

Apologies: Lawrie Fairman (lecturing on a cruise ship), George Whaites (Spanish holidays), Peter Beal (hiking), Mickey Barrett (sailing in Turkey), Tom Cunliffe (in Rhosneigr, allegedly), Jock Rooney (Isle of Man)

B walkers: Tony Job, Peter Morrall, Ken Sparrow, Geoff Spurrell and Mike Walton

Leader: Hart. Diarist: Dearsley

Starting point: Outside the Lantern Pike

Starting time: 9.38am. Finishing time: 2.45pm – 3.15pm

Walks designed by Tom Cunliffe are always challenging and this week’s was no exception. In fact it was so tough that Tom decided to absent himself, meeting the gathering Wanderers with a flimsy excuse about going to Rhosneigr. There were many who believed he was upstairs peeping from a window when the Wanderers returned.

In sunny weather, with temperatures touching 24 degrees Celsius (over 75 in old money), the group set off from the Pike, turning right down Slack Lane and taking the relatively newly built path on the left towards Little Hayfield.

Our goal was Kinder Scout, at 2,087 feet the highest point in the Peak District and also the highest point in Derbyshire and indeed the East Midlands.

Some wondered whether little Fergus’s tiny legs would take him there. But in the event the dog performed a good deal better than some of the humans, your diarist included.

Clearly, 10 weeks on a Turkish beach is not ideal preparation for your first wander back.

On reaching the bus turnaround, we crossed the main Chinley to Glossop road at the pedestrian crossing, entering Hayfield via the side of the Skillet restaurant and turned left towards the Pack Horse pub.

Just before the Pack Horse, we turned right and soon found ourselves outside the greengrocers made famous in the BBC TV series The Village, set before, during and after World War One.

My library photo below doesn’t make it clear but the TV producers kept the name – Hankins – unusual because there is no apostrophe.

Hankins in The Village

                                                                        Hankins today

Hankins today sported some hanging animals, a pheasant, a chicken and a rabbit.

There was more televisual memorabilia not 250 yards further on, the Blue Plaque that commemorates the career of actor Arthur Lowe. Who can forget that line: “Don’t tell him Pike!” when a German officer asks for the name of a member of Dad’s Army who recites a silly poem about Hitler?

                                                                     Arthur’s Blue Plaque

Another point of interest is the tiny former grammar school on the right, which probably couldn’t hold half of today’s average class size.

Just past the school we took a track on the left which led us on a steepish climb to the shooting cabin. The Wanderers have been here many times before. This time we turned right and began to circumvent Kinder Reservoir below.

For between 15 and 20 minutes we descended a tricky slope with a mixture of loose stones and awkwardly projecting stones.

Pie Time was declared at 10.52am at the bridge over a stream, adjacent to a sign which read “William Clough”.

At 11.02am we set off again and began probably the most taxing climb your diarist has ever undertaken with the Wanderers. (The second and third most taxing were also on Tom Cunliffe walks by the way). At 11.40am the track briefly levelled out. But it quickly returned to terrain more suited to a mountain goat than someone with a bus pass.

Looking back down the steep climb from near the top of Kinder

The climb afforded some truly spectacular views, which I enjoyed despite gasping like a drowning man and thinking murderous thoughts of Mr Cunliffe.

By the way, as I understand it, when Benny Rothman and chums executed the mass trespass in April 1932 they had the good sense to use the gentler William Clough route to the summit of Kinder.

I hope the Wanderers will excuse the lack of detail in my chronicle at this point but my leg muscles were resembling a wet towel being wrung dry by a 17 stone washerwoman.

Sportingly, some of the Wanderers hung back and waited for the stragglers, including me, Mr Crank (suffering a key problem) and Mr Laverick.

When we finally reached the summit and I initiated a team photograph, Mr Davison managed to scramble into shot and blot out Mr Laverick, who can now not prove to his grandchildren that he conquered the highest peak in the East Midlands. Shame.

                                  

                                        Colin Davison helpfully blots out John Laverick in our team photo

 We now embarked on a horse shoe trek around to the right, with Kinder Reservoir in the distance.

We negotiated some huge rocks and soon found ourselves at Kinder Downfall.

                                

                                                                          Kinder Downfall

Some Wanderers may well have seen Kinder Downfall in winter, when it produces stalactites of ice.

It also creates a sensation when water flows upwards as this short You Tube film shows.

We passed Red Brook and began our descent. There were two or three comforting stops before we came to the copse of trees and a path that eventually took us to a metalled road. 

We reached the road (with the sign White Brow behind us) at 1.45pm. We, being the remainder of the Wanderers left behind by our turbo-charged leader Mr Hart and the equally energetic Mr Welsh.

We (the true rearguard) made it to the Sportsman at 2.10pm. Mr Hart and Mr Welsh (who arrived at 1.32pm) had already slaked their thirsts and soon were on their feet again to proceed to the Pike, which they entered at 2.45pm.

Your diarist, alas, wimped out and arranged to be collected by his wife from the Sportsman. John Jones, who lives nearby, went home.

The remaining Wanderers ultimately returned to the Pike at 3.15pm where they  were delighted to find our old friend Frank Dudley, and his driver John Eckersley, sitting alongside the B walkers - Tony Job, Peter Morrall, Ken Sparrow, Geoff Spurrell and Mike Walton.

                                                                          Frank Dudley

The B walkers crossed the canal to Gowhole, passed the large electricity sub-station, and turned  left on a track for Brownhill Farm. After elevenses, we followed Overhill Rd to Moor Lodge, turned right for the TV mast, and descended via Meadows Farm to the Kinder Lodge for excellent Timothy Taylors at £2.80. Only 4.5 miles, but a lot more hilly than usual, so we got the Glossop bus to the Lantern Pike. Both this bus and the one back to Newtown were 15 - 20 minutes late.

They arrived around 2pm and had demolished several bowls of chips with buttered balm cakes before the arrival of the vanguard of the A team in the form of Alan Hart and Phil Welsh.

 While pints of excellent Timothy Taylor Landlord cask bitter at £3-30 were quaffed, two more bowls of chips and buttered balm cakes arrived from Stella with the instruction to "eat them while they're hot."

Needless to say the advance party, with the help of Frank, obliged and had just finished when the remnants of the A team, Colin, John, Nigel, and Julian staggered inside.

Next week's walk will start at 9.30am from the free car park opposite The Spinners Arms at Bollington. Led by Lawrie, we shall walk along the newly-opened ridge towards Charles Head before a livener at The Robin Hood at Rainow around 12.30pm prior to finishing at The Dog and Partridge, Bollington, around 2.20pm.