New Mills

May 6th 2015

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 shortened to around 7 miles

Difficulty: Moderate.

Weather: Overcast to begin, raining cats and dogs from lunchtime.

A walkers:  Tom Cunliffe, George Whaites,  Steve Courtney, Lawrie Fairman, John Jones.

Apologies: Peter Beal, Colin Davison, Julian Ross, Mike Barratt, Alan hart

A walk leader: Cunliffe. Diarist: Cunliffe (Hart.)

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

Starting time: 9.39am. Finishing time: 2.30pm.

This was a repeat walk form the 24th September 2014, no real need to reinvent the wheel so to speak, suffice to say the carefully crafted narrative expressed with such articulate detail and precision by Mr Hart from Sept last was so accurate in every detail that our group was able to follow every word (almost), albeit a slight deviation around the Roman Lakes area in order to get to the Golf Club for our well-earned refreshments ……………….. and to get out of the rain.

Mr Hart is acknowledged as the original creator of this piece since I wouldn’t want to be accused of plagiarising.

Next Week’s walk, May 13th, will begin from the main car park in Bollington taking in the marvellous sights of the Macclesfield environs, the half time watering hole will be the Robin Hood at Rainow at 12:15 finishing at the Spinners in Bollington by 2:15pm

A seating arrangement commemorating the untimely death of a child

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.

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 Doom Bar.

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 Shielanbefore 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.