Buxton

October 21, 2015

BUXTON

BUXTON TOWN CENTRE, FORMER LIGHTWOOD RESERVOIRS, HOGSHAW BROOK, FLINT CLOUGH, ROUND THE BEND, WHITE HALL OUTDOOR PURSUITS CENTRE, OLD ROAD, OVER HILL FARM, THE SHADY OAK AT FERNILEE, GOYT VALLEY, PARK WOOD, TAXAL, TODDBROOK RESERVOIR, WHALEY BRIDGE, HOCKERSLEY, RINGSTONE CLOUGH, THE SOLDIER DICK AT FURNESS VALE

Distance: 10 miles

Total ascent: 1550 ft​Descent:: 1950 ft

Difficulty: Moderate, challenging at times

Weather: Rain and mist with strong wind on high ground

Walkers: Peter Beal, Ron Buck, Colin Davison, Mark Gibby, Alan Hart, John Jones

Leader: Davison Diarist  Beal

Apologies: Tom Cunliffe (Anglesey), Laurie Fairman (cruise ship lecturing), Jock Rooney (Turkey), Micky Barrett (injured), Ken Sparrow (weather wimp-out), George Whaites

B walkers: George Fraser. Tony Job, Geoff Spurrell

Starting point: Buxton town centre​Finish: The Soldier Dick at Furness Vale

Starting time: 11.23am​Finishing time: 4.17pm

The ambitious plan to achieve a rare linear walk with the help of public transport to Buxton resulted in the latest start and finishing times in anyone's memory.

Persistent drizzling rain and mist with boggy ground on the 1,600-foot heights of Combs Moss led some of our number to muse whether they had mistakenly enrolled for some form of SAS training exercise.

This feeling was reinforced when our leader Colin took us on a precarious Krypton Factor-style scaling of a reservoir dam that had been closed off.

Our start was delayed when for complicated reasons the four walkers travelling from Hazel Grove on the 199 airport bus service had to transfer to a replacement bus at Doveholes. They then had to link up in Buxton town centre with your diarist for the day and Ron, who had unknown to each other travelled on the 61 bus from Little Hayfield and Birch Vale.

Our group of six joined together near the Aldi store near Buxton station and left the town centre along Charles Street, which brought us on to Lightwood Road, where we turned left. This turned in to a track (15 min) which took us alongside the former Lightwood reservoirs, now a nature reserve.

The decision to drain the two small redundant reservoirs was made in 2004. A report said that while the area around was used by picnickers and dogwalkers there were also "less desirable activities, such as outdoor parties, camping and swimming with associated problems such as alcohol and drug abuse". Sodom and Gomorrah apparently had nothing on Buxton.

We crossed a bridge near the stonework at what had been the top of the higher reservoir and climbed up a very steep and eroded footpath alongside the ravine of Hogshaw Brook, the spring at the top of which is from the same source as the acclaimed Buxton mineral water.

We became enveloped in heavy mist as we neared the top of the climb, to emerge on the Combs Moss plateau at Flint Clough (30 min).

Here we turned left in to a strong headwind along a faint boggy path through the sodden peat alongside a drystone wall. Visibility here was little more than 30 yards.

We passed a spinning wind turbine on our left at the other side of the wall - presumably used for power to an unseen renovated barn down the slope (43 min).

Where the wall turned sharply left ( 52 min) we took advantage of the meagre shelter it provided to declare pietime and reflect on the gloomy conditions, only alleviated by rations of port kindly provided by Alan.

We continued northwards after a 15-minute stop and reached a rocky outcrop appropriately named on the OS Explorer map as Round the Bend (63 min). As the escarpment swung right along Combs Edge (78 min), we descended from the plateau down a steep grassy slope, the White Hall Outdoor Pursuits Centre becoming visible to our left as we emerged from the mist.

We reached a footpath at a small gate (84 min) and turned left to reach the Old Road just behind the centre. This track, dating from Roman times, was for 1800 years the only passage from Whaley Bridge to Buxton, before the introduction of the turnpikes.

When Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned in Buxton spies posted by Lord Walsingham would patrol the road and while Mary remained in the town no strangers were allowed in for fear of plotting against Elizabeth 1.

We turned right along the track, which shortly became a metalled lane (91 min). At a stile crosssing the wall we turned left (100 min) to cross two fields, bringing us to Over Hill Farm, where we took a short track to the A5004 Whaley Bridge to Buxton road. We turned right and took the pavement alongside to reach the Shady Oak (112 min).

Here Alan marked his 70th birthday two days before by providing pints of the oddly-named Dirty Tackle bitter (£3-40), served to us by a friendly and welcoming but otherwise absolutely unremarkable barmaid (your diarist is afraid you will have had to have been there to appreciate the significance of that bit). Mark kindly treated the party to two bowls of excellent chips.

As we descended from the mist there had been mutinous speculation about catching buses from the Shady Oak, but a second round of drinks completed the revival of our spirits and after a lenghty sojourn we left and crossed the road to walk through Folds End Farm. We crossed a stile and headed downhill

through two fields to reach a footbridge over the River Goyt, a short distance below its emergence from Fernilee reservoir.(124 min). The rain had stopped by now.

A sign told us we were now on the Midshires Way, last encountered at White Hall. This apparently is a 230-mile long route starting in Stockport and bizarrely finishing at Wain Hill between the villages of Bledlow and Chinnor in Buckinghamshire, taking in parts of Northamptonshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, and Derbyshire along the way. Why anyone chose to link those two places or whether anyone has actually ever completed this walk is far from clear.

We turned right and followed a pleasant path through a nature reserve alongside the river, soon stopping for a much-belated lunch just before 3pm (131 min).

We climbed up through Park Wood and then crossed a large newly-flattened field to come out on the narrow Whiteleas Road just above Taxal village and its picturesque church.

My Peak District Companion records that "Taxal has a pleasing air of privacy born of the prospect its secluded,arboreal setting commands." It also adds: "On the terrace outside its pub are church pews for the benefit of those who like a drink with a view."

The pub was the Royal Oak, later known as Chimes of Taxal, which is presumably now the imposing house callled The Chimes which we passed on our left as we continued on the lane out of the hamlet. Research has failed to reveal when it closed.

We took a path on the right (142 nin), which brought us to the Whaley-Macclesfield road, which we crossed and continued along Reddish Lane towards Todd Brook reservoir, built in 1831 as a feeder for the Peak Forest canal (147 min).

We turned right on a path which brought us to the top of the Memorial Park and down to the dam wall of the reservoir (152 min).

Here we found that the raised footway above the dam wall was sealed off by metal barriers, presumably for some very sound health and safety reasons. Our leader decided to treat this as a challenge and clambered round the obstacle and on to the railings at the side of the walkway.

The rest of our party decided this was not wise and followed the advice of a passing young lady, to cross a low wall on to the 45-degree concrete bank below the dam and climb upwards under the walk way to reach the equally steep bank above the water of the reservoir. This we inched our way along before reaching a seven-rung metal ladder, which we climbed up to reach safety.

Colin, under later cross-examination, admitted he knew of this obstacle but "had completely forgotten about it".

The excitement of this assault course over we made our way through the residential outskirts of Whaley, taking Hockersley Lane, which brought us out on a moorland track leading to Ringstones Clough (174 min).

Here we passed on our left a stone memorial and plaque in memory of David Hallworth, the 50-year-old farmer at Ringstones, who was crushed to death by one of hius own heifers while working in February 2007.

We passed the entrance to Ringstones Caravan Park and followed Yearsdley Lane down to the A6 at Furness Vale, where we turned left at the Imperial Palace Chinese restaurant to reach the Soldier Dick

a short distance away (206min).

The pub is named after a 17th wounded soldier who sought refuge here, probably after returning from the Anglo-Spanish wars, was nursed back to health by the landlady, and stayed on to become a local character who at the drop of a hat would regale drinkers with his experiences abroad. These days he would probably be called the pub bore.

The Wainwright's bitter was on fine form at £2-80 a pint.

Next week's walk will start at 9.30am at Brabyn's Park car park at Marple Bridge, stopping for refreshment at the Grey Mare in Charlesworth and returning for drinks in the Norfolk Arms in Marple Bridge at 2.15pm