Alport

July 1, 2015.

ALPORT, BRADFORD BROOK, STANTON IN PEAK, STANTON ESTATE, THE FLYING CHILDERS , STANTON MOOR, CORK STONE, RED LION AT BIRCHOVER, HERMIT’S CAVE ON Cratcliffe Tor, ST MICHAEL’S CHURCH, BIRCHOVER, ROCKING STONE FARM, LIMESTONE WAY, ROBIN HOOD’S STRIDE ON HARTHILL MOOR, YOULGREAVE, ALPORT AND THE GEORGE AT YOULGREAVE

Distance: 8-9 miles.

Difficulty: Moderate.

Weather: Hot and sunny with brief thundery shower.

Walkers: Chris Corps with Fergus and Finola, Tom Cunliffe, Colin Davison, Alan Hart, Jock Rooney with Tips and George Whaites.

Apologies: Peter Beal (narrow-boating), Steve Courtney (job-hunting in Liverpool !)), George Dearsley (in Turkey), Lawrie Fairman (cruise lecturing) and Julian Ross (w*^king).

Leader: Rooney. Diarist: Hart.

Starting point: Gravel lay-by at the side of Cockpit Hill Cottage, Alport.

Starting time: 10.13am. Finishing time: 2.31pm.

It was the sort of hot sunny day which used to produce tabloid headlines such as “Phew: What A Scorcher!” On a trip further down Memory Lane your diarist was reminded by the sight of five wanderers in shorts of the time he covered the Knobbly Knees competition at Butlins for the Oldham Evening Chronicle during Wakes Week.

Who would have thought an illustrious Fleet Street career could be built on such a flimsy platform ?

Tom was the only member of our sextet in long trousers, which have become noticeably baggy. We do hope his diet is not turning into anorexia.

This walk led by Jock through pretty moors, streams and villages around Youlgreave would normally have been described as easy. But with the sun beating down relentlessly we were struggling in the unaccustomed heat which had arrived suddenly amid a disappointing summer.

We were almost relieved after lunch when a passing thunderstorm produced a brief, light shower to cool our fevered brows.

The start was delayed because three of us had been held up by two sets of temporary traffic lights in Doveholes and been obliged to make a lengthy diversion. Nevertheless our reluctant leader Jock achieved our accolades when he led us to our first watering hole just as its doors were opening for business at noon

From the cars we walked downhill, passing a red phone box which contains no phone but a heart defibrillator. We turned right and crossed Bradford Brook, observing a brown trout enjoying the shade of the bridge.

On the far side of the bridge we turned right uphill, and turned left at Back House (7mins). The footpath took us past a trailer park on our right (11mins) and through two gap stiles. At a second group of static caravans we made a diagonal right turn through them to follow a green public footpath sign marked Stanton (15mins).

This soon took us to a lane (16mins) where we turned left, and then right over a stone step stile marked with a wooden public footpath sign (17mins). We exited the field we had entered by a stone step stile and followed the road opposite towards Stanton in the Dale. The road took us past a sign for Stanton in the Peak (25mins) passing Stanton Estate on our right (32mins).

The road passed The Flying Childers pub (34mins) and Holy Trinity Church, Stanton in the Peak, both on our right. The church bells were ringing to welcome us, or possibly to warn the villagers to look out for six suspicious characters.

We took the left fork when the road divided (41mins), passing the Wesleyan Reform Church, built in 1828, on our left (42mins). We passed Stanton in the Peak Cricket Club on our left and stopped for pies and port (45mins) at convenient rocks just before the entrance to Stanton Moor.

When we resumed, any hopes we might have entertained of seeing The Nine Ladies Stone Circle and King Stone – a site for mysterious rituals carried out 4,000 years ago during The Bronze Age – were dashed when Tom took the lead along a path which by-passed this historic scene. We skirted to the right of the stones without seeing them and headed downhill into a wood (70mins).

On the far side of the trees we took a path up to The Cork Stone, a free-standing gritstone pillar in the shape of a cork and of ancient vintage (75mins). After pausing for a photo opportunity, we turned right down a track (78mins), turned right again at a main track (80mins) and crossed a wooden stile to reach a lane. Here we turned right for 50 yards and then left at a wooden public footpath sign (83mins).

The route took us past a campsite on our right and through a farmyard, where we turned right (87mins). As we continued down the farm track we were approach on our left by a curious herd of six alpacas. We entered the outskirts of Birchover and headed downhill into the village to reach The Red Lion on our right (95mins).

Here we enjoyed pints of cask ale, including Tinge of Ginge and The Nine Ladies, for £3-10 on the garden benches at the front of the pub. As we turned right to leave we passed Brimsbury Well, a horse trough, on our right and went through the car park of The Druid Inn on our right (98mins) to climb thepath leading up to the Hermit’s Cave on Cratcliffe Tor.

At the summit we stopped for an early lunch (102mins) before retracing our steps downhill, turning right and passing St Michael’s Church, Birchover on our left (107mins). The path then took us into Rocking Stone Farm (108mins) where we followed a footpath which led us over a stone step stile.

We turned right to cross a wooden stile (114mins), reached a road and turned left (117mins). We turned right and then right again to cross a cattlegrid and follow signs for The Limestone Way (120mins). Our group followed a wooden public footpath sign left (124mins) and ignored another local landmark, Robin’s Stride, on our left (129mins).

Robin Hood’s Stride, also known as Mock Beggar’s Mansion,  is a rock formation on Harthill Moor near Elton village consisting of gritstone boulders deeply seamed by water flows.

We proceeded to a stone step stile (131mins) which your diarist crossed and then realised his pen was missing. Appeals to inquire whether anybody had spotted the blue pen were in vain, so a forlorn walk was made back to Robin’s Stride.

Ten minutes were spent before my return empty-handed to the stile where Colin was beaming from ear to ear (141mins). He had thought it such a jolly jape to pick up the pen which had fallen out at the stile and to hide it while I wasted ten minutes of our lives. Hilarious fun or childish behaviour ? You be the judges, dear readers.

We went through a gap stile and crossed a road, following a wooden public footpath sign for Youlgreave (146mins). We kept to the left of a farm (149mins) and followed yellow arrows to continue towards Youlgreave. We reached the outskirts of the village (169mins) and crossed a stream before turning right along a path to Alport with a stream on our right.

This brought us back to Alport and our cars, where we de-booted and drove to The George at Youlgreave for pints of cask beer at £2-90. Tom, who reached the pub first, claimed to have spotted FA chairman Greg Dyke setting off on a walk from the pub.

Photographs by Tom Cunliffe 

 

 

Next week’s walk will start at 9.30am from the car park of The White Horse at Disley, calling at The Fox at Brook Bottom around 12 noon and returning to the White Horse around 2.15pm. Parking facilities in the pub car park have been arranged.

Happy wandering !