New Mills

NEW MILLS, STONYPIECE FARM, HUMBLETON FOLD FARM, MELLOR CHURCH, ROYAL OAK AT MELLOR, PRESCOTT OLD HALL FARM, ROMAN LAKES, EXCAVATIONS OF MELLOR MILL, MANCHESTER-SHEFFIELD RAILWAY LINE, GOYT WAY, PEAK FOREST CANAL, GOYT VALLEY, BARLOW WOOD, ROMAN BRIDGE, STRAWBERRY HILL, LINNET CLOUGH SCOUT CAMP, MELLOR AND TOWNSCLIFFE GOLF CLUB AND NEW MILLS GOLF CLUB

Distance: 9 miles.

Difficulty: Moderate.

Weather: Blues Skies and Sunshine, with Cool Breeze, Darkening Later.

A walkers:  Tom Cunliffe, Alan Hart, Phil Welsh and George Whaites.

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

Apologies: Mickey Barrett , Peter Beal and George Dearsley (various hols), Steve Courtney (professional sailing), Colin Davison (motor-cycling round East Anglia), Lawrie Fairman (cruise lecturing), John Laverick (gas leak, waiting for engineer).

A walk leader: Welsh. Diarist: Hart.

Starting point: Car park at New Mills Golf Club, Derbyshire.

Starting time: 9.39am. Finishing time: 2.42pm.

Phil used this walk to apply for his provisional leader’s badge and he showed his mettle is just as polished with a traditional flappy thing (map) and wotchamacallit (compass) as it was the previous week with a GPS augmented with a Maverick app.

In ideal walking conditions and perfect visibility, we enjoyed some stunning scenery as we went on a rollercoaster-style journey, plunging into valleys and climbing hills. Despite our ups and downs we were agreed it had been an eye-opening hike along unfamiliar routes within familiar territory.

As a further break from tradition, we held our customary refreshment stops at two golf clubs, which had relaxed the old rules demanding ties and jackets at their bars.

On the nature front we saw two herons fishing on the banks of the Peak Forest Canal, and on an historical note we saw the excavations which are unearthing the site of Mellor Mill.

Suffice to say young Phil (he’s 43) has earned his wings and in 20 years times who’s to say he won’t earn his full leader’s badge. (Unlike your diarist, who is only allowed to lead certain walks with the unanimous approval of the General Synod)

From the car park we passed the clubhouse on our right and crossed at the junction to ascend Castle Edge Road. We passed Stonypiece Farm on our left (3mins) and Coal House Farm on our right (11mins) just before we turned right down a stony track with a row of trees on our left. On reaching a road (17mins) we turned right downhill and then left (19mins) at a sign for a restricted byway.

We turned left at Briargrove Road (25mins) and headed uphill. After 30 yards we turned right at a wooden public footpath sign. This brought us to a gate, before which we turned left to climb uphill and then turned right to go through a gate marked with a yellow arrow (27mins).

On reaching a farmyard we turned left uphill (35mins) and reached a road. We turned right downhill for 25 yards and then went left at a green public footpath sign (38mins) which pointed up steps to a path. After crossing two wooden stiles we entered a field through a metal gate (41mins) Two stiles, one wooden and one of the stone step variety, took us into another field which we exited by a stone step stile and turned left up a lane (43mins)

At a T-junction we turned right downhill (44mins) and carried on along a footpath where the lane swung right towards Humbleton Fold Farm. We went straight on again through a wooden gate into a field (49mins), which we left by a similar gate and followed a stony track uphill. After going through another gate (54mins) we started the descent towards Mellor Church.

We reached the entrance to the churchyard (60mins) but diverted to the right where a plaque described the finding of ancient relics from the Iron Age, Bronze Age and Roman occupation. We learned that among the things the Romans did for us was to introduce roses, lilies, lavender and box to our indigenous flora.

After crossing a wooden stile we were able to inspect a replica thatched roundhouse, which Phil photographed with two ancient relics standing in the foreground. We then retraced our footsteps to enter the churchyard. St Thomas’s Church stands on the site of Christian worship from the 14thCentury. Its tower dates from the 15th Century. Inside the church yard are the remains of a Saxon Cross (now a sundial) and the village stocks.

We examined the Masonic symbols of Thomas Brierley to the left of the main church door, and read the headstones of some children who had died tragically young. Tom was in an uncharacteristically melancholic mood as we paused for reflection, pies and port (70mins)

Resuming, we left the churchyard by descending a steep flight of steps leading to a field, crossing a wooden stile marked with a yellow arrow and a gap stile to go through the left side of a farmyard (76mins) and pass Mellor Primary School on our right (85mins). At the end of Knowle Road we turned right (86mins) and passed The Royal Oak pub. Coincidentally we had been eating our pies on a bench placed there in memory of a former landlord.

Immediately beyond the pub on our left, we turned left down a lane and turned left again into Old Hall Lane (89mins). After passing Prescott Old Hall Farm on our left (93mins) we emerged on a lane with the North Lake of Roman Lakes on our right.

Phil led us on a small diversion into Bottoms Hall Road, where excavations are taking place to unearth the foundations of Mellor Mill. It was created by gentleman farmer and entrepreneur Samuel Oldknow, who bought Bottoms Hall Estate in 1788.

Oldknow (1756-1828) is a fascinating local character. Born in Anderton, near Chorley, he was educated at nearby Rivington Grammar School. On completion of his education, his father died and he went to work at the draper’s shop of his uncle in Nottingham. His widowed mother Margery married farmer John Clayton and young Samuel became engaged to a wealthy heiress.

Oldknow clearly had an eye for business and a silver tongue. To raise money he went into partnerships with local merchants such as Richard Arkwright in 1784. Oldknow established a steam-powered spinning factory at Hillgate, Stockport, a bleaching plant at Heaton Mersey, and finishing factories at Bullock Smithy, Hazel Grove, and Waterside, Disley.

After buying land at Mellor he built the mill between 1790 and 1792 and it provided employment for 2,000 people. Mellor Mill was six storeys high and 400 feet long. To power it the River Goyt was diverted and three millponds created which were called Roman Lakes.

Oldknow’s seemingly unstoppable progress came to a shuddering halt when the muslim market fell at the start of the Napoleonic War. He was forced to mortgage and sell his businesses, and his engagement was broken.

Despite this setback, Oldknow continued to think big. He was a promoter of the Peak Forest Canal and the Peak Forest Tramway, and became High Sheriff of Derby in 1824. When he died a bachelor at Mellor Lodge in 1828, he had debts of £208,000. His factories, including Mellor Mill, passed to the Arkwright family. It was destroyed in a spectacular fire in 1892.

We retraced our steps to the end of Bottoms Hall Road and turned right. Immediately after crossing a bridge we went uphill at a post marked with a yellow arrow (102mins). This path took us over a footbridge across the Manchester-Sheffield railway line (105mins) and across a main road to steps marked “Goyt Way” (109mins)

We reached the Peak Forest Canal at Bridge 19 and turned left with the canal on our right. It was here we spotted two herons fishing on the far bank. Just before Bridge 21 we turned sharply left (127mins) away from the canal, crossing a wooden stile at a wooden public footpath sign and over another wooden stile marked with a yellow arrow (129mins).

After crossing a road we followed a green public footpath sign down steps into Barlow Wood (133mins). We reached the Goyt (137mins), turned left and crossed Roman Bridge. On the far side of the Goyt we turned left and followed a green public footpath sign on our right for Mellor and Cobden Edge (142mins).

The path took us to another footbridge across the Manchester-Sheffield railway line. On the far side was the sickly sweet smell of Himalayan balsam which dominated the area. The path brought us on to Mellor and Townscliffe Golf Course, where we followed a footpath sign leading just outside the course before it came back and we walked directly across it.

We emerged with Linnet Clough Scout Camp on our left (160mins), turned right and headed right again up a lane. Turning left at a sign for the club (161mins) we reached the clubhouse (163mins) for pints of Tetleys and Guinness. Because Phil was a member we were able to pay £2-65 (instead of £2-95) for the former and £3-42 (£3-80) for the latter. With the sun beating down and spectacular views from the terrace overlooking the 18th hole, it would have been rude not to stay for another pint.

Continuing our walk, we went to the left of an equipment shed and the 16th tee, then to the right of the 18th and 2nd tees. We exited the course (178mins), passing the rear of a house called The Shielan before turning left up a stony track. We carried straight ahead at a junction in the paths (183mins) and stopped for lunch (191mins) at a bench on the edge of the course’s 10th tee.

Instead of continuing to Mellor Cross uphill ahead, we turned right along a lane, entered a field and kept left before exiting via a stone step stile (199mins). We went down another stone step stile and after 20 yards stepped over a wooden stile on our left marked with a yellow arrow. We turned left with a drystone wall on our left (203mins).

After squeezing through a gap stile (206mins) we headed diagonally right through a field, leaving it by a series of three stiles. We turned left (210mins) and went into a farmyard. Once again Tom could not resist posing for a photo next to a slurry pit with a sign warning “Toxic Gas.”

We turned right and emerged at a road with New Mills Golf Club on the other side of a fence. We turned left along the road with the course on our right and entered the car park (218mins). After de-booting we joined the B walkers, George F, Tony and Geoff, in the clubhouse bar.

Next week’s walk will start at 9.30am at Poynton Pool car park off Anglesey Drive, Poynton.  It is intended to walk through Lyme Park in the direction of Bowstones, returning over the Macclefield Canal for a livener at The Miner’s Arms around 12.15pm. The walk will finish at The Bull’s Head, Poynton, around 2.20pm.