Disley

DISLEY, COCKHEAD, MILLENIUM WOOD, BOLDER HALL FARM, BLACK ROCKS, BYROM HOUSE, PEAR TREE COTTAGE, THE PEAK FOREST CANAL, HAGUE BAR, THE FOX AT BROOK BOTTOM, STRINES STATION, STRINES HALL, WHITECROFT FARM, SUNNYSIDE COTTAGE, THE WHITE HORSE AT DISLEY

Distance: 8 miles.

Difficulty: Easy.

Weather: Cloudy but mainly dry with light showers.

Walkers: Tom Cunliffe, Colin Davison, Alan Hart, Julian Ross and George Whaites.

Non-walking drinkers: Peter Beal, Lawrie Fairman and Geoff Spurrell.

Apologies: Steve Courtney (crewing in Caribbean), George Dearsley (in Turkey), George Fraser (visiting sick son)

Leader: Hart. Diarist: Hart.

Starting point: Car park of The White Horse at Disley.

Starting time: 9.30am. Finishing time: 2pm.

Despite dire forecasts of heavy rain in the late morning and early afternoon, we enjoyed moderate weather with none of the teeming rain which had been predicted. Apart from a couple of brief light showers and a howling wind on Black Rocks ridge, we kept mainly dry and the temperatures remained above freezing

Most of the mud was successfully avoided as we negotiated the hills overlooking Disley on both sides of the A6. We also found the beer in The Fox to be outstanding. Tom gave it his highest accolade – “not bad at all.”

In fact Tom revealed he has started an amazing new diet which, if successful, could revolutionise the weight-loss industry. It seems you can drink beer, eat crisps between meals, and then have fish, chips and peas for lunch. The only sacrifice is to give five chips away at the end of your meal. These, apparently, are the ones which put on the pounds. So we look forward to seeing a sylph-like Tom within the next few weeks which will bring new hope for dieters throughout the world. I’ll keep you posted.

From the White Horse car park we turned right uphill along Ring O’ Bells Lane and reached the sign for the former pub which is now a Quaker meeting house. We turned right in front of it, crossed a bridge over a stream and headed uphill with the cemetery of St Mary’s Church, Disley, on either side of the path.

Beyond the graveyard we turned left through a field to cut off a corner and then crossed a stile through another field to take another short-cut, aiming toward Lyme Cage in the distance. After exiting the second field by a wooden stile we took the road ahead up towards a farm. Just before the farmhouse we turned left through a gate marked with a yellow arrow (12mins)

We followed stiles with yellow arrows to take a path alongside a wall with a reservoir on the other side of it. After passing the reservoir we crossed a wooden stile to enter a wood (20mins) We left it by a metal gate and crossed a dirt lane to head towards Duke Carr Cottage (27mins) With the cottage on our right we turned left through a wooden kissing gate(29mins) to enter Millenium Wood.

The path led us to a main road where we turned right (32mins) for 200 yards. After passing Bolder Hall Farm on our left we crossed the road and went over a stile by the side of a holly bush to follow a public footpath sign marked Black Rocks (36mins) We followed the path as it went first diagonally right and then diagonally left to reach the ridge (39mins)

Although this gave us misty views over Lyme Park as we looked backwards and the Kinder ridge straight ahead, a powerful, gusting wind whipped at our faces and clothes so we wasted no time in admiring the scenery before turning left along the ridge. We started our descent via a ladder stile and a metal kissing gate (58mins) before passing The Owls Nest, a bunkhouse owned by Manchester Grammar School for outdoor pursuits.

After crossing a wooden stile marked with a yellow arrow we went through two gates to enter and exit a farmyard, reaching a main road which we crossed (65mins) We went through a gate to the left of Byrom House and turned left downhill (66mins) along a path leading to a lane. Here we turned right, passing Pear Tree Cottage on our left (67mins) as we descended a rocky path down to the A6.

The A6 is one of Britain’s longest roads running from Luton, Bedfordshire, to Carlisle, Cumbria. It was made infamous in 1961 for what became known as the A6 Murder. A married man named Michael Gregston had stopped in a layby with his lover, Valerie Storey, 23. They were abducted at gunpoint and forced to drive to Deadman’s Hill, near Clophill, Beds.

Here the kidnapper shot Gregston dead, then raped and shot Storey five times. She was permanently paralysed but survived to give evidence identifying a 24-year-old man named James Hanratty as the gunman. He protested his innocence but was found guilty and executed in April, 1962.

Family and friends continued to seek a pardon for Hanratty long after his death. Eventually, in 2002, his supporters successfully applied for his body to be exhumed to check his DNA against sperm samples taken from Valerie Storey in 1961. The samples matched and the campaign for a posthumous pardon ended.

We crossed the A6 into Lower Greenshall Lane (77mins), walked through a tunnel under the Manchester-Buxton rail line and reached The Peak Forest Canal. We crossed a bridge (Number 26) over it and reached a bench facing the waterway where we paused for pies and port (83mins)

Resuming, we discovered the towpath had been closed for remedial work to the canal bank, so we were obliged to retrace our steps over the bridge and proceed along the path on the opposite bank until we reached the Higgins Clough Swing Bridge (100mins) After crossing the bridge we turned left along the towpath for just five yards before going right through a gap stile.

The path brought us to a paper factory surrounded by a wire fence. We turned right up a steep flight of steps (108mins) After crossing a wooden stile we went to the left of a fishing pond (112mins) and through a car park to reach a road. We turned left downhill for 20 yards before following a public footpath on our left.

Instead of going down to the River Goyt, we took a footpath on the right which followed its right bank until it emerged on a road with the Goyt still on our left (119mins) We turned left and walked past Hague Brow children’s playground which had been dismantled and was covered in machinery belonging to a gentleman named Murphy.

After crossing a road-bridge over The Hope Valley rail line we crossed a main road to enter Hague Fold Road (125mins) and the start of a steep climb. This brought us to a T junction (137mins) where we turned left to reach The Fox at Brook Bottom (139mins) The Robbies’ cask bitter here has not always been up to standard on recent visits buton this occasion our pints for £2-90 were in exceptional condition.

Resuming, we followed a footpath opposite the pub door going downhill. This took us past Strines Station (153mins) and Strines Hall and Whitecroft Farm on our left with a recently renovated lake complete with freshly-painted dovecote on our right. We crossed the River Goyt and took advantage of a picnic table in a field on our left to stop for lunch (158mins)

Continuing we crossed Strines Road and followed a track uphill which brought us back to The Peak Forest Canal (168mins) We turned left with the canal on our right and crossed to the far side via a lift bridge (177mins) Walking uphill we passed Sunnyside cottage on our right (181mins) and reached the A6 again to the right of The Dandy Cock pub (187mins)

After crossing the main road we turned left at the traffic lights and after 80 yards our final watering hole, The White Horse, was on our right (190mins) The 1892 mild here was £2-80 and quite palatable.

Photos by Tom Cunliffe

Next week’s walk will start from The Rose and Crown on the A54 at Allgreave, south of Macclesfield, at 9.45am. We expect to reach the Wincle Brewery at Dane Bridge around 12.15pm before finishing back at The Rose and Crown at about 2.15pm.

Happy wandering !