27/02/2014

Langley

LANGLEY
Distance: 8.5 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Weather: Sunny with a chilly wind at times
Walkers: Colin Davison, George Dearsley, Lawrie Fairman, George Whaites
Apologies: Jock Rooney (Isle of Man), Alan Hart (Malta), Peter Beal (Bath), John Laverick (Driving home from Surrey), Tom Cunliffe (wo*k^ng),
Leader: Fairman Diarist: Dearsley
Starting Point: Lay-by near Ridgegate Reservoir
Starting Time: 9.27am. Finishing Time: 1.37pm

Fingers crossed the worst of the winter weather is now behind us.
Building on the intermittent sunshine of last week’s walk around Eyam, the Wanderers enjoyed a bracing day, often bathed in sunshine, on one of the group’s “old favourites” – around Shutlingsloe.

                                                                 Ridgegate reservoir


We left the lay-by near the reservoir and followed the trail past a sign on the left to “Forest Office”.
The early part of the walk – entering Macclesfield Forest -  involves a steepish climb.
We followed a sign for Shutlingsloe which took us in the direction of the so-called Matterhorn of the Peaks.
It was clear many trees had been uprooted since last we were here.
At 9.44am, we stopped for Mr Davison to remove his jumper, such was the temperature.
We reached the top of the climb at 9.57am, emerging from a tree lined path to enjoy the full unabridged beauty of Piggford Moor.

                                                                   Macclesfield Forest




                                        The Three Must-get-Beers (pic courtesy of C Davison)


                                       Now where’s that Matterhorn thingy? (pic by C Davison)



                                                                  Piggford Moor



We decided not to go to the top of the formidable crag. But instead of taking the usual boggy path to the left Mr Fairman had the bright idea of walking along the wall until the base of Shutlingsloe and then veering left.
This also avoided the steep and slippery gulley where a few Wanderers have come a cropper in recent years.
Mr Davison was initially sceptical but the manoeuvre was so successful that he was moved to tell our leader: “You are right. It is better”.
The new route also clipped a few minutes off our running time.
In the past we have reached the Crag pub at 10.47am.
Today it hove into view at 10.30am. So early, if fact, that Mr Fairman called Pie Time.
With no Tom Cunliffe to mither us…a full 11 minutes of ruminating was completed.
The ever resourceful Mr Davison then told us a story of how he’d bartered with a shopkeeper to buy tins of Cherry Blossom shoe polish for 50p instead of a pound on the basis he was bulk buying. (He had ordered two tins).
It just shows you the customer really is King! Although that’s probably not the four letter word the shopkeeper used to describe Colin.
We set off again at 10.41am, negotiating a stile on the right just past the pub and crossing several fields.
On a previous trip (in November 2012) this route took us through a field of turnips. But today there wasn’t a vegetable in sight.
We followed a sign for Oakenclough. A stile in the wall on the right led us to a metalled road which circumnavigates a hill on the right.
We followed the road and turned right onto a track just before the road rises sharply.
Then we veered left at a Y-junction, the other track leading up a further hill.
We passed George Osborne’s old home.
The Chancellor’s former constituency home, which was part-funded by his MP’s expenses claims, was sold for an estimated £400,000 profit, it has emerged.
The Chancellor bought the second home near Macclesfield, Cheshire for £445,000 a year before he was elected MP for Tatton in 2001.
He quietly sold off the property in January 2012 when it looked as though changes to constituency boundaries might mean he might lose his seat.
A neighbour told a national newspaper at the time that the house was sold for an estimated £800,000 to £900,000 without going on the market.
So much for “we are all in it together”.
Mindful of the good progress we had made and anxious not to arrive at the pub too early, Mr Fairman then came up with a second diversion to our usual route, this time with less success.
The Wanderers deemed it a little less enjoyable (mainly due to being on the road) than the usual route

Instead of going overland he suggested we follow the road (effectively turning left after the Osborne house).
At a T-junction we turned right and eventually reached a second T-junction where we turned right again.
The Hanging Gate now hove into view and we reached the hostelry at 11.45am.
Happily not only was the pub open but Luda was still in situ, her move to the Rose and Crown having been put on hold until Hyde’s Brewery finds her replacement.
Luda met us at the door with a plastic washing basket full of “socks and smalls”.
But soon she was pulling pints. Hydes Original was £3.00 a 25p increase from when we came this way in November 2012.
Luda urged us to try a new (stronger) ale called  L.S.Lowry.
“It has more of a kick,” she urged, “right up your jacksy!”
But there were no takers among the Wanderers.
I wonder if there are other painters who have had a beer named after them and whether it’s a successful marketing ploy. Somehow I can’t see people asking for “a pint of Caravaggio and lemonade top.”
I also wonder if people would drink a pint of Lowry if they knew that Laurence Stephen Lowry (1 November 1887 – 23 February 1976) lived with his mother, was a timid voyeur in a buttoned-up mac and died a virgin.
There was no time to ponder this, as Luda began regaling us with a story about a local landlord.
Confided Luda. “I call him Nosey Parker. 
"Anyway he’s 52 and he’s going out with a 25-year-old,” she claimed with a look straight out of Les Dawson’s Ada Shufflebotham  repertoire.


Shutlingsloe

At that moment who should walk through the door but the B Walkers. And as luck would have it Terry Jowett was celebrating his birthday (cue free ale) on March 1, another Piscean.
As every schoolboy astrologer knows, we are reaching the end of Mercury's retrograde phase. The communication planet moved only a few 'minutes of longitudinal arc' between February 25th and February 26th.

But it was enough to persuade stout fellow Terry to put his hand in his pocket.
As Jonathan Cainer writes on his website:  ‘Imagine Mercury as a train reversing into a buffer, then trundling ahead once more. Though it won't be till March 21 before it gets back to where it was on February 7, some can feel the sense of change already!’
I know I can! Can you?



                                                                Moor the merrier.


Anyhow, Terry’s star was certainly in the ascendance as far as the Wanderers were concerned.
We left the pub at 12.47pm taking the usual route down.




                                                          Lawrie’s second detour.

We turned left out of the pub and descended some steps, negotiating a stile on our right.
Luncheon was taken from 1.03pm until 1.10pm.
We wandered through some farm buildings following a sign marked “Gritstone Trail”.
We passed Fran Cotton’s palatial house.
According to the Sunday Times Rich List (2012) Fran Cotton is the 30th richest British sportsman with a personal fortune of £30m.
We reached the cars at 1.37am.
There was no inclination for further libations in the Leather’s Smithy, so we headed off home.
Next week’s walk will start from the Soldier Dick at Furness Vale at 9.30am.
The half way point will be the Swan at Kettleshulme.
Happy Wandering!




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