Chapel-en-le-Frith

CHAPEL-EN-LE-FRITH, BOWDEN HALL, SLACK HALL, CHESTNUT CENTRE, FORD HALL, BOLEHILL CLOUGH, WANTED INN AT SPARROWPIT, BARMOOR, BOLTEDGE FARM, BLACKBROOK, ROEBUCK INN AT CHAPEL

Distance: 10 miles.       Ascent/descent: 2,100 feet.

Difficulty: Moderate.

Weather: Very wet at first, dryer later and bright at the end.

Walkers: Peter Beal, Colin Davison, George Whaites.

Apologies: George Dearsley (Turkey), Alan Hart (Spain), Jock Rooney (working abroad).

Leader: Davison. Diarist: Beal

Starting point: Public car park below the Co-op in Chapel-en-le-Frith.

Starting time: 9.45 am. Finishing time: 2.20pm.

We were not exactly sure why so few of us – apart from those with legitimate excuses - assembled for this week's excursion from Chapel-en-le-Frith, but it may not have been entirely unconnected with the rather dire weather forecast.

As it was, after enduring a soaking in the first hour of walking, the rain eased and the day became quite bright as we enjoyed splended views on the moors above Chapel and visiting a trio of historic Derbyshire halls along the way.

Our small but select trio left the car park below the Co-op in Chapel by what your diarist and George identified as a prickly bush but what leader Colin insisted was a footpath. He did prove right and an unusual and very overgrown path brought us out through an archway at the back of the Roebuck Inn, our eventual finishing point.

We turned left at the Market Place and into Burrfields, an alley which led us past Chapel Parish Church, where – after pausing briefly for shelter under conifers as the rain became heavier - we took a left on a footpath which led us downhill into a modern housing development. The old winding footpath through the town has been preserved despite the new building. We did a left then a right through the new houses and then followed the path with Morrison's supermarket on our right, before the path dipped over Blackbrook and up the other side, still through housing.

We crossed the old main road linking Chapel and Chinley and another stretch of footpath ahead brought us to the A6 Chapel by-pass (20 minutes). This route is worth remembering as a way out of the town avoiding roads and traffic almost completely.

We hurriedly crossed the busy by-pass and followed a grassy path immediately opposite through fields. This took us through two metal kissing gates before we  came to Bowden Hall on our right. This imposing Grade Two listed building with its own private lake – currently on the market for £1.2 million – will be familiar to viewers of the gloomy TV series The Village as the home of the wealthy industralist family before they upped sticks to Lyme Hall at Disley in the recently-screened second series.

We emerged on a lane (27 min) and turned right for a short time before taking a track on our left, which saw us walking along the other side of the Hall, whose tower clock once adorned Chapel Parish Church.

The track reduced to a footpath which we followed until coming to a stile on the left (32 min)with a four-way Peak and District Northern Footpaths sign giving us the options of Wash (the way we had come), Bagshaw, Chapel and Slack Hall. We turned left up a field towards Slack Hall, and crossed a stone stile near a copse of trees (40 mins). We crossed this and continued along a grassy track before emerging on a minor road leading to Wash (50 min).

In front of us  was the Chestnut Centre, an otter and owl sanctuary, and to our right Slack Hall, one of the five halls in the area of Chapel that were the home of former squires.

We took a lane on the left, crossed a bridge over a stream (56 min) and soon reached Ford Hall and its surrounding buildings. This was once the family home of non-conformist minister William Bagshawe (1628-1702), who became known as The Apostle of the Peak and was vicar of Glossop before being ejected from his living after the Restoration.

He came from a landed family prominent in the Chapel area but decided to preach and chapels in the area were built for him, notably one at Chinley. Several warrants were issued for him but never enforced and he died at 74 to be buried in the chancel of Chapel Parish Church.

We continued up the lane left and after Bridge House took a cobbled path to the right which led to a gate and a track bearing left (60 min).

After a small gate we continued right up a track alongside a wall and between regular planted trees. This is marked on the map as Peat Lane, and Colin informed us it was the old turnpike route leading to the Hope Valley before the modern road was built.

At a stile just before the pleasant wooded ravine of Bolehill Clough, with a small waterfall, pietime was declared at 10.57am (72 min).

We crossed the stream, where a large fallen tree – split in two and possibly struck by lightning – partially blocked the bank and continued along a track to Bettfield Farm (84 min). We dropped down the track to cross a stream at Bettfield Clough Cottage and slanted right up a concreted track to reach the A624 Chapel to Castleton Road (91 min).

Crossing the road we went through a gate and left along a track to reach a stile at the top of the hill (99 min). Immediately in front of us was Rushup Edge, leading to Mam Tor, and in the distance could be seen the conical outline of Win Hill.

We bore right here across rough pasture, effectively cutting a corner, and reached a track at a wall, where we turned right along a long shallow ridge leading us towards Sparrowpit.

After about a mile, and just before reaching a line of cottages on a minor road, we turned left over a wall stile and descended through a farm to reach the crossroads at Sparrowpit at 12.06pm, with our objective the Wanted Inn immediately in front of us (130 min).

The pub, a former farmstead that lies bang on the Pennine watershed at 1,217 feet, started its life as The Three Tuns in 1700 and became a key stop on the packhorse route between Sheffield and Manchester.

It was here in 1758, in the middle of the night, that two riderless horses galloped in, in distress. It emerged that their owners, runaway lovers Clara and Allan had been murdered in the nearby Winnats Pass with a pick by five miners from Castleton who had overheard them talking in an inn in the village and noted their obvious wealth. Their bodies were thrown down a pothole. Their killers were never caught but local legend has it that when the wind howls through the Winnats the young couple's souls can be heard begging for mercy.

The pub became the Devonshire Arms in 1839 after its owner, the eponymous Duke. But when the 10th Duke died in 1950, leaving massive death duties, it was put up for sale. It remained unsold and became known as "the unwanted inn", until being bought six years later by Mr and Mrs Jack Buswell from Whitehough, who gave it its new name. Their son Neville went on to achieve fame as Ray Langton in Coronation Street.

The pub has fairly recently changed hands and the welcoming staff greeted us with excellent Farmer's Blonde bitter, from the Bradfield Brewery, and Marston's Pedigree, both at £3 a pint.

We left the pub at 12.56 pm and turned left along the road for 50 yards before crossing a stile to the right into a field. We dropped down over another stile and past a smallholding, where pigs we had seen on earler occasion were not in evidence. We could only speculate why not. We crossed two more stiles and emerged at Higher Barmoor Farm (142 min).

We crossed the large farmyard (149 min) and followed the track to the right before reaching Boltedge Farm  where we took a stile on the right, another stile at the far side of the farmyard, and dropped through a field to join the A623 (151 min).

We turned left and almost immediately followed a footpath sign into a field on the right. This took us downhill to cross a small stream, where we turned uphill up an extremely steep slope. 
After much swearing and cursing from George and your diarist, which our leaader ignored while extolling the magnificent views, we came to the top of the hill near a television mast (167 min)

From here it was a simple walk down fields and a boggy track, through a series of gates and stiles, to bring us again to the A6 by-pass (175 min), which we crossed carefully just short of the turning into Chapel. We bore left into the town before rejoining the footpath of our outward walk.

We came into the cobbled Market Place just after passing the Parish Church, which became infamous following an incident in the Civil War. My trusty Peak District Companion (none of this Google rubbish here) tells me that a Scottish army under the Duke of Hamilton, supporters of Charles 1, were defeated by Roundheads at the Battle of Preston. Around 1,500 prisoners were taken to Chapel, crammed into the church and held there for 16 days, during which 44 men died. Hamilton was executed.

Sadly my Companion also reports that Chapel 'in spite of its  moorland environment and long, interesting history, is superficially drab and hardly a place to arrest casual visitors'.

However, the Roebuck Inn in the Market Place (216 min) proved welcoming, with Black Sheep Bitter on form at £2-95 a pint.

PS from Colin: An excellent account. Might I please add my two pen'orth? Magnificent though his leadership qualities are, Laurie, I feel, is as yet unable to lead walks from home. This may of course change in the future. (leader has now been edited).

 

The A624 now follows the route of the Chapel to Sheffield Turnpike which was built in the 1750's and passed so close to the original Slack Hall that the owner built a new hall down in the valley and leased the former out as Slack Hall farm. Peat Lane may well have originally been just that, a 'Turbary way' for the collection of peat from 'the wastes' of Colborne and Rushop.

 

Next week's walk will start at 9.45am at the Stanley Arms at Bottom-of-the-Oven at the top of Wildboarclough (parking permission sought and granted).  This is reached by minor roads half a mile or two miles west of the Cat and Fiddle on the A537 Macclesfield to Buxton road. Refreshments en-route at the Cat and Fiddle around 12.40pm.

The following pictures courtesy of Colin Davison