Allgreave

ALLGREAVE, EAGLE AND CHILD, QUARNOCK, GRADBACH YOUTH HOSTEL, BACK FOREST WOOD, LUD’S CHURCH, HANGING STONE, WINCLE BREWERY AT DANEBRIDGE, CLOUGH BROOK COTTAGE AND THE ROSE AND CROWN AT ALLGREAVE

Distance: 8 miles.

Difficulty: Easy.

Weather: Early mist disappearing to leave blue skies and sunshine.

Original walkers: Tom Cunliffe, Alan Hart and George Whaites.

Joined near Lud’s Church by: Lawrie Fairman and John Laverick.

B walkers: George Fraser, Tony Job, Ken Sparrow and Geoff Spurrell.

Apologies: Mickey Barrett, Peter Beal, Colin Davison and George Dearsley (various hols),  Steve Courtney (professional sailing).

Leaders: Hart/Fairman. Diarist: Hart.

Starting point: Car park of The Rose and Crown at Allgreave, Wildboarclough.

Starting time: 9.46am. Finishing time: 1.50pm.

In the absence of an approved leader, your diarist took the helm for this journey. His followers had already been warned to take out loss insurance, but in the event we managed to avoid any false trails. Nevertheless we were relieved, after leaving Lud’s Church, to encounter our fully-badged regular guide Lawrie for the rest of the walk.

The Indian summer continued to provide perfect walking conditions, and by the time we had paused for refreshment at the Wincle Brewery, we were basking in sunshine. As we did so we were obliged to sympathise with those chums who had failed to benefit from this glorious weather by the misfortune of booking holidays abroad.

They also missed out on a bit of history, a bit of poetry and a warm welcome from lovely Luda, the new landlady of The Rose and Crown.

From the pub car park we turned left following a sign for Quarnock. This was the start of a long, gradual climb which took us past Midgeley Farm on our right (5mins), a herd of alpacas grazing in a field on our left, past Helmsley Farm on our right (19mins) and a cottage on our left which was once a pub called The Eagle and Child (24mins).

This was one of the first country pubs, built in 1738, to fall victim to the breathalyser laws which no doubt saved lives but also killed off many historic hostelries in the heart of the countryside – the law of unintended consequences.

Continuing gently uphill, on our right we passed Burn’t Cliff Top (28mins) and reached Midgeley Gate Barn, where we turned right at a green public footpath sign (31mins). This led us through a farmyard which we exited by a stone step stile marked with a yellow arrow (33mins). With a drystone wall on our right we carried on until we soon crossed it by another stone step stile marked with a yellow arrow.

After a few yards downhill we headed right to follow a path which plunged steeply through ferns, heading toward the former Gradbach Youth Hostel. We crossed a footbridge over the River Dane to reach it (42mins).

The hostel, which was once a silk mill, is being converted into an outdoor education centre by Newcastle-under-Lyme College, Staffs.

Outside the front of the building was a wooden signpost pointing to Lud’s Church, Danebridge and The Roaches. The route was straightforward until we reached a stone step stile leading ahead, while the path swept left. We crossed the stile and a footbridge (54mins) to head uphill into Back Forest Wood. At the top our decision was vindicated by a wooden sign for Lud’s Church (55mins).

The path took us to a rock formation on our right which was covered in schoolchildren enjoying extra-curricular lessons. We swung left uphill following another wooden sign for Lud’s Church (61mins). We turned right at yet another sign for the church (71mins) and arrived at our destination (80mins).

Lud’s Church is a deep chasm penetrating the Millstone Grit bedrock created by a massive landslip on the hillside. It is believed that Christians known as Lollards, who followed the teachings of the Oxford philosopher John Wycliffe (1320-84), held secret services here.

Wycliffe was an early dissident who opposed papal authority and the corruption in monasteries. His views ultimately led to the Protestant Reformation. After he translated the Latin Bible into vernacular English from 1382-84, his followers were called Lollards, which was a derogatory name for those without an academic background. It came to mean heretic.

Among many legends surrounding Lud’s Church are that Robin Hood, Friar Tuck and Bonnie Prince Charlie were all reputed to have hidden from the authorities in the chasm. (After watching Tom fail to squeeze through one of the entrances, it is hard to imagine how Friar Tuck hid there).

Another part of folklore claims that a horse called Lud shied and threw his rider to his death in the cleft. Consequently the huntsman’s ghost, covered from head to toe in moss, still roams the woods, where he is known as “The Green Man.”

Around 1862 a wooden figurehead from the ship Swythamley stood in a high niche above the chasm. It was called “Lady Lud” and was supposed to commemorate the death of the daughter of a Lollard preacher. One night it mysteriously disappeared.

Within this historic setting, we paused for pies and port before heading back out of the chasm and retracing our footsteps to the rock formation and a sign for Swythamley (87mins). As we pondered whether to follow that route, the 7^th Cavalry arrived in the form of Lawrie and John. The former immediately assumed command and took us confidently in that direction.

We crossed a stone step stile on our right to enter a field (99mins) and the well trodden path took us to Hanging Stone (106mins). This distinctive rock stands on Back Forest Ridge, overlooking Swythamley Hall, home of the Brocklehurst family who owned The Roaches estate until the death of the last in line in 1978.

Below it are two plaques. The earlier one reads:

Beneath this rock on August 1, 1874, was buried Burke, a noble mastiff black and tan.

Faithful as woman, braver than man

A gun and a ramble his heart’s desire

With the friend of his life

The Swythamley squire.

The later one is a memorial to Lt-Col Henry Courtney Brocklehurst, of the 10^th Royal Hussars, a pilot with the Royal Flying Corps from 1916-18 and Game Warden of The Sudan. Born 1888 Swythamley and killed on active service in Burma on commando in June, 1942.

From Hanging Stone we walked steeply downhill to a gravel path where we turned right (115mins). After 80 yards we turned left over a wooden stile (116mins) and followed a wooden public footpath sign for Danebridge. Another wooden stile took us downhill through a wood (121mins). We reached a path and turned left (126mins).

The path brought us out on a road where we turned right, crossed the Dane and entered The Wincle Brewery on our left (129mins). Locally-brewed cask bitter, The Life of Riley, was bought for £2-80 a pint and enjoyed on picnic tables outside in glorious sunshine, where we were soon joined by the B team.

Leaving with some reluctance, we turned right uphill, passing The Ship at Wincle and turning right at a public footpath sign just beyond its car park (133mins). We entered a field and left it by a wooden stile to head through a copse (138mins). We crossed a wooden footbridge and exited the copse by a wooden stile.

Our quintet kept to the left side of a field before crossing a stone step stile on our left to go through a farmyard (144mins) and turned right along a lane. We went through a gate, turned left and then left again at another wooden gate (145mins).

This brought us to a kissing gate, where we stopped for lunch (150mins). Resuming, we passed Clough Brook Cottage on our right (155mins) and reached a road (156mins). We turned right, crossed the Dane and headed uphill (162mins).

One our left was a whitewashed cottage which had been built in 1746 and then the Allgreave Methodist Church. The steep climb ended when the road turned sharply left and The Rose and Crown was on our right (166mins).



                                
                                                       Who put Rohypnol in Tom's beer?

We were given a warm welcome by Luda, the formidable Estonian busty blonde landlady who used to be mine hostess at the nearby Hanging Gate pub. As luck would have it the guest beer on sale for a whopping £3-40 a pint was Worth cask bitter from Poynton’s own micro-brewery at the British Legion.

Next week’s walk will start at 9.55am from the car park of The Queens Arms at Taddington.  We hope to be led by Colin to The Church Inn at Chelmorton for a livener between noon and 12.30pm before returning to The Queens Arms around 2.15pm.

Happy Wandering!