Little Hayfield

February 4, 2015

LITTLE HAYFIELD, PARK HALL, MIDDLE MOOR, CARR MEADOW, HOLLINGWORTH HEAD,  KNARRS FARM, MATLEY MOOR, LITTLE MILL AT ROWARTH, LANESIDE FARM, LANTERN PIKE RIDGE, LANTERN PIKE INN AT LITTLE HAYFIELD

Distance: 8 miles​Ascent/descent: 1,755 ft

Difficulty: Moderate, tricky in snow and ice

Weather: Cold but sunny and clear

Walkers: Peter Beal, Colin Davison, George Whaites

Apologies: Micky Barrett, Tom Cunliffe, Julian Ross (all in a meeting), Laurie Fairman (Spain), Alan Hart (domestic chores following Benidorm trip), Jock Rooney (dodgy back)

Non-walking drinker: Hart

Leader: None needed​Diarist: Beal

Starting time: 9.40am​Finishing time: 2.20pm

Various commitments restricted the number of Wanderers to three, which was a great shame as the small band enjoyed blue skies, sometimes warm sunshine, and spectacular views of the snow-covered Dark Peak, and in particular the Kinder Scout plateau.

The paths underfoot bore testimony to the freeze that has now had the area in its grip for a week, resulting in some stretches of walking on firm snow, but in others on treacherous ice that claimed one of our number as its victim.

We completed a familiar circuit of the Hollingworth Clough Valley from the Lantern Pike Inn in Little Hayfield, leaving at least one of our party to muse that it was not the first time that landlord Tom had masterminded a route only to stage a no-show. His absence however was more than compensated for by a large bowl of chips.

We turned right from the pub and after a short distance crossed the Hayfield-Glossop road to enter the grounds of Park Hall, a wooded estate formerly the home of local-boy-made-good Joseph Hague, who started life as an itinerant boy pedlar, wandering the hills with his goods in a basket or on his back, until he made enough to buy a donkey.

In 1716 Hague went to London and made his fortune from imported cotton. It was also suggested a fair bit of his fortune came from the sale of loincloths to West African tribes in exchange for slaves. When he was 80 he bought Park Hall and became a country gentleman and benefactor. His bust is in Hayfield Church nearby.

A track took us through the estate to a gate (10min) and out on to Middle Moor, where a sign told us that work was still ongoing to rid the moorland of rampant rhodedendrons threatening the heather habitat.

We carried on up a narrow and eroded track through the heather, emerging on the Snake Path, which links Hayfield with the Snake Inn pub on the Glossop-Sheffield road(30min).

Here we turned left on the frozen but well-defined track and soon reached two white shooting cabins occasionally used by grouse hunters(40min).

We turned left over a wooden bridge spanning an area of bog and continued over the open moor, soon dropping down to cross a pronounced clough (60min). We dropped down on an eroded path covered in snow and ice to reach a bridge over Hollingworth Clough at Carr Meadow(70min).

We slanted right up a concessionary path not marked on the Ordnance Survey maps and on reaching a small quarry, whose materials are used for local drystone-walling, we declared pie-time (79min). In the absence of Tom and mainly because of the warm sunshine this lasted an unprecedented 18 minutes.

The refreshed Wanderers continued up the track to emerge at a stile at Hollingworth Head on the Hayfield-Glossop road(92min). We crossed the road and continued opposite along the minor road to Charlesworth known locally as the Monks' Road.

A short distance along here Colin led us off on a short track to one side to reveal a hollowed-out stone, almost covered in snow and undergrowth, but with a small sign declaring it to be the "Abbott's Chair".

Research reveals this was probably the socket base of a former monastic cross - the Charlesworth Cross. It was a boundary cross built by the monks of Basingwerk Abbey in North Wales, who were given the manor of Glossop by Henry 11. The monks, who gained a market charter for Glossop in 1290, used the road to reach Hayfield and surrounding villages. They eventually leased all of Glossopdale to the Earls of Shrewsbury.

A short distance further on we took a track to the left. At a fork we bore right and came to snowbound Knarrs Farm (102min). Here a stile to the right of the farmstead took us in to a field, where we carried on downhill to another stile and crossed another field to bring us out at a ramshackle barn on a minor lane(113min).

We turned left downhill here, past Kings Clough Head Farm on the right, and reached the end of the tarmac (124min). We went through a gate on to a track and reached a stream forded with the help of large stones while Colin waited expectantly, camera poised, for either your diarist or George to fall in.

With a bitterly disappointed Colin we bore left to follow the stream over normally boggy, but now largely frozen, ground before reaching a bridge on the left, which we crossed on to a farm track. We turned right through a ford and took a stile on the left along a path which brought us soon to the remote hamlet of Rowarth. We turned left then immediately right down an enclosed path which brought us past some cottages on the right to emerge opposite the Little Mill Inn (150min).

Fears that the pub might not be open because of the freeze were dispelled when the cheery Scottish manager told us that the local beer-loving farmers had ensured the lane that links it to the outside world had it cleared within hours of the snow falling.

He was looking after the pub while the tenants were on holiday. He responded to Colin's good-natured banter about frugal Scotsman by telling him: "You know what a Yorkshireman is - he's a Scotsman without his wallet." His Jennings' Cockle Warmer was £3-15 a pint.

We left and turned right to take the road to Laneside Farm (156min), where we continued up a rocky track, the bottom stretches of which were coated with ice. It was here that George took a tumble - an incident captured on camera by a gleeful Colin in no less than three images.

We continued up the track until it levelled out and reached a junction (176min), where we turned sharp left to reach a gate at the end of the Lantern Pike ridge (186min). From here we enjoyed magnificent views of the snow-clad Kinder plateau reflecting the sun.

We continued along the ridge and, where it dropped down to a gate leading the summit of the Pike, bore left to reach a stile, which we crossed to descend a path with Hey Wood on our left. This soon brought us to a stile in front of a  cottage (226min) and we took another stile immediately to the left to drop down through a snow-covered field to Clough Mill (231min). From here a short walk up the lane brought us to the Lantern Pike Inn at 2.20pm (236min).

Tom was still absent but Stella looked after us with pints of Theakston's Black Bull Bitter (£3-20) and a huge welcoming bowl of excellent chips.

Photos below by Colin Davison

Next week's walk will start at 9.35am at the Peak Forest canal basin in Whaley Bridge. There is a free car park alongside. Refreshments will be taken en route at the Swan at Kettleshulme around 12.15pm and back at the White Hart in Whaley at 2.15pm.