Little Hayfield

LITTLE HAYFIELD, SHOOTING HUT, WILLIAM CLOUGH, MILL HILL, BURNT HILL

Distance: 7 miles

Difficulty: Strenuous at times but generally easy

Weather: Grey skies, some sunshine

Walkers: Tom Cunliffe, George Dearsley, Lawrie Fairman, Colin Davison, Phil Welsh, George Whaites, Julian Ross, John Jones

Apologies: Alan Hart (Spain), Chris Corps (no reason given), Pete Beal (Lanzarote)

Leader: Cunliffe  Diarist: Dearsley

Starting Point: The Lantern Pike pub

Starting Time: 9.39am. Finishing Time: 12.47pm

Walks led by Mr Cunliffe usually involve plenty of hills, a bit of off-piste and a degree of confusion and today’s was no exception.

However, any carping at the loss of two of our walkers must be offset by the fact that the genial host of the Lantern Pike generously agreed to extend his 61^st birthday celebrations (last Sunday) to the Wanderers, who were regally feted with free beer, chilli, rice and chips.

Top man, Tom.

Mr Cunliffe told us that the walk would be a “magical mystery tour in the shape of a figure of eight”.

He then revised this to “the shape of a squashed ampersand”.

So there was already a degree of bewilderment as we left the Lantern Pike at 9.39am, turned right and headed towards Hayfield, turning left  as we had done only two weeks earlier opposite Slack Lane and up the track past the Park Hall swimming baths.

At the end we slipped through a five bar gate and headed straight up the incline.

The path was tight and the rain and/or dew-soaked heather soon made our trousers as wet as Steve Davis’s on his recent Bush Tucker Trial.

View of Kinder Reservoir

We quickly reached the white shooting hut where we went “freestyle”… leaving the track to go right and see if we could turn an ankle or two on a heather-covered incline.

The detour eventually brought us to the path we’d taken two weeks earlier at the side of Kinder Reservoir.

                                                       Spectacular scenery at the top of the hill near the shooting hut

The brains of George Whaites and Lawrie Fairman, who were in the rear, might well have been on auto-pilot from a fortnight previously, as Mr Cunliffe and the three-stone lighter Mr Welsh set a pace like Usain Bolt on fast forward.

The duo were headed for William Clough. But somehow George and Lawrie turned right and climbed up the side of Kinder, eventually going down to the reservoir, then to the campsite before finally walking to South Head. Mobile phone calls and SMS messages failed to reach them.

At 10.39am it began to rain but fortunately it was just a light shower.

The main party stopped and waited but after a while decided to press on, after another walker said that he’d seen two gents walking a different route.

The climb up William Clough is rewarded by fantastic views in all directions from the top at Ashop Head.  This is part of the Pennine Way which start/ends at Edale depending on which way you decide to tackle it.

The Pennine Way is a 268 mile long distant walking route that weaves its way north from Edale all the way to Kirk Yetholm in Scotland.

At the top of the challenging climb Pie Time was declared at 11am, until 11.11am.

To cheer us further the sun came out.

William Clough, of course is also the site of the Mass Trespass which happened on Sunday, April 24, 1932. The trespass, a protest by around 400 ramblers, had a far reaching impact and paved the way for legislation in 1949 to establish the National Parks, and also the right to roam act in 2000.

For more information about the Trespass visit http://kindertrespass.com/

A passing helicopter caused some concern that it could be heading to collect the prone bodies of our compatriots Lawrie and George.

We might have been even more worried had we also realised that we were walking a path which many people claim to be the site of Alien Evacuations.

We didn’t see it but apparently somewhere in the vicinity is a white cross and the initials GK in white paint.

They stand for George King and this is the point where his followers - called  Aetherians - will be evacuated by Extra Terrestrials from Venus when the world ends in the year 2015.

The Wanderers must remember to chalk this walk off the list for that year.

The Aetherius Society is a UFO religion founded by King in 1954 and combines UFO claims, yoga, and ideas from various world religions, notably Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Theosophy.

The religion's stated goal is to prevent the annihilation of the Earth by improving cooperation between humanity and various alien species.

Disciples believe a messianic figure will descend upon Earth in a flying saucer, possessing magic “more powerful than all the world's armies”.

Whether he can lower domestic  energy bills however is another matter.

We didn’t see any flying saucers but turning left at a sign pointing to the right for “Edale” we did spot the wreck of a B-24J Liberator, a US transport plane that crashed on 11th October 1944. Amazingly both crewmen survived.

http://www.peakdistrictaircrashes.co.uk/pages/peakdistrict/peakdistrict42-52003.htm

The aircraft was being flown from Burtonwood to Hardwick by a two man crew,  leaving the air strip near Warrington at 10:32.

At approximately 10:45 while in cloud and moderate to severe turbulence one pilot spotted a small gap in the cloud and saw the ground was only about 150 feet below him.

He then applied full power and began to climb, but before they could gain any meaningful height the aircraft struck the ground on Mill Hill some 1.5 miles from the Grouse Inn between Hayfield and Glossop.

The two men extricated themselves from the shattered cockpit and walked along one of the streams until they reached the Hayfield to Glossop road.

A passing lorry driver stopped and picked them up and took them to a nearby pub (could it have been the Lantern Pike?) where the pilot telephoned Burtonwood to report the accident.

                                

                                                           A downed aircraft from World War Two

Tom was fascinated by the wreckage and insisted on a closer look. This prompted a remark from Mr Jones, immediately refined by Mr Ross, that while “Pikey” Tom could leave two pals behind without stopping he couldn’t pass a load of scrap metal. Cruel.

This was Mill Hill and we soon found ourselves on a man-made path consisting of huge blocks of stone apparently ferried in by helicopter and laid by volunteers.

This took us to Burnt Hill. We went through a gate and descended to the road that links Chinley and Glossop.

However, Mr Cunliffe was not going to take the easy route back to base and we did a wide U-turn to go back up the incline, eventually swinging right for a bit more off –piste.

We came across a stone erection to one Thomas Boulger, who spent 42 years serving the Northern Counties Footpaths Preservation Society and died in 1963.

The Society started in 1894 and has worked hard over the years to keep paths open.

Thomas Boulger’s memorial

It was around here that Mr Welsh and your diarist bumped into an old friend, Mike Bradbury, mountain biking.

Mike’s father John, a long time salesman, now in his 70s is known for his enthusiastic self-promotion of his products which included - only a couple of years ago - bouncing down the road in Mellor wearing on his feet “kangoo boots” , like ski boots with giant springs on.

Phil Welsh meets an old pal, Mike Bradbury

By 12.39pm we were back at Park Hall and by 12.47 we were imbibing in the Lantern Pike, where Tim Taylors (when Tom wasn’t buying) was £3.30 and Theakston’s rather moreish Black Bull Bitter was £3.10.

We were soon joined by the B Walkers and by a rather tired Lawrie and George. Completing the party were Frank Dudley and John Eckersley.

B Walker's Diary:

Walkers: Geoff, Tony, Wally, Terry.        Apologies: Ken (vertigo)

Route: 199 bus (09.54) to Newtown, walk down to Robbies' pub on left, 61 bus (10.31) to Monks'Road, walk over Matley Moor towards Lantern Pike. We decided not to climb to the summit, instead we went round the Pike, and followed the track down to the road. This took us eventually to the Hayfield recreation ground, where a hurried (because we were thirsty) lunch was taken. Finally, a bridge over the river, across the bus station, and into the Kinderlodge for Black Sheep at £3.00 a pint. George W. and Laurie explained their presence and the circumstances leading to a C walk, before setting off on foot for Tom's. The B team rested awhile, before taking the 61 bus (13.40 ish) to Little Hayfield.

Tom's generosity beer- and chilli- wise was greatly appreciated, and we trust his 63rd year will be a good one.

We were preparing to leave to catch the 15.20 ish bus back to Newtown, when Geoff realised there were spare seats in George's and John Eckersley's cars, so a potential 5 bus walk was reduced to 3 buses. Sorry Ken!

As agreed, the December 11th the walk will start from Mr Davison’s house at 11 Carr Brow (bacon butties provided) and later in the day we will have Christmas lunch at the Dog and Partridge.

Happy Wandering!