Hayfield

August 31, 2016.

HAYFIELD, SHOOTING LODGE ON MIDDLE MOOR, THE KNOT, MILL HILL, PLANE WRECK SITE, BURNT HILL, MATLEY MOOR, THE LANTERN PIKE AT LITTLE HAYFIELD, CARNIVAL FIELD, AND THE GEORGE AT HAYFIELD

Distance: Nine miles.

Difficulty: Moderate.

Weather: Light drizzle at start, one brief shower and bright sunshine to finish.

Walkers: Peter Beal, Mike Brockbank, Ron Buck, Lawrie Fairman, Mark Gibby, Alan Hart and the late Steve Kemp.

Apologies: Micky Barrett (yachting in Turkey), Tom Cunliffe (pub duties), Colin Davison (motor-biking), George Dearsley (in Turkey), Chris Owen (domestic duties), Julian Ross (dental appointment) and George Whaites (held up in traffic en route).

Leader: Beal. Diarist: Hart.

Starting point: Car park of The George at Hayfield, Derbsyhire.

Starting time: 9.38am. Finishing time: 2.31pm.

Another week and another birthday. This time it was one of our youngsters, Ron Buck, celebrating the68th anniversary of his birth with a round of drinks. The publicity prior to Lawrie’s 81st birthday celebrations led to a bumper turnout. Ron played his cards close to his chest by announcing the event as we arrived. Consequently there were no carpetbaggers cashing in on his generosity.

At the end of our walk in The George he was promised 68 kisses by the barmaid. One can only wonder what might be on offer next year.

Before we move on from our walk on the 24th, I should say that Lawrie tells me four different people claimed that the absent Mark had told them they could have his birthday pint. This is disgraceful behaviour and I hope the other three walkers are also ashamed of themselves.

I am indebted to Tom for reminding me to include a few words about the gallant local soldier whose name was given to the Wetherspoons pub in Hazel Grove where Lawrie entertained us.

Private Wilfred Wood, aged 21, was in the 10th Battalion of the Northumberland Fusiliers when they fought in The Battle of Vittorio Veneto in Italy in October, 1918, just two weeks before the Armistice brought an end to World War I. His unit was being held up by hostile machine guns and snipers.

Private Wood worked forward with his Lewis gun, enfiladed the enemy machine gun nest and caused 140 soldiers to surrender. The advance then continued until a hidden enemy machine gun opened fire. Private Wood charged the machine gun Rambo-style, firing his Lewis gun from the hip as he ran forward. He killed the machine gun crew and enfiladed a ditch from which a further three officers and 160 men surrendered.

He was awarded the VC “for most conspicuous bravery and initiative”. After the war Private Wood, who lived in Hazel Grove, returned to his job as a railway fireman and later became an engine driver. In 1922 he had a LNWR locomotive named after him. He died in 1982 aged 84.

Contrast his heroism with the behaviour of two deserters on this walk. It pains me to name one of them as Lawrie, the previous week’s birthday boy, who abandoned his colleagues and his grandson – still wearing short trousers – to catch a bus and reach the pub before us. He was aided and abetted in this treachery by this week’s birthday boy, who flagged down the Buxton-bound bus.

Rest assured they have both been warned that this is the sort of behaviour we expect from the S.O.B. team and not from the alpha males. It was pitiful to see Lawrie’s grandson Mike sobbing as the bus pulled away, saying “What am I going to tell grandma ?”

Our start was delayed by heavy traffic, which caused George to abandon his efforts to give Mark and your diarist lifts from Poynton. Roadworks had also held up Steve, but we did not realise he was on his way.

From the car park of The George we turned right uphill and left into Valley Road (1min). Then we turned left downhill to cross the Kinder River and pass a children’s playground on the left (6mins). At the end of a row of cottages we turned right up stone steps (7mins) and turned right along a lane (8mins).

We then turned left at a green public footpath sign towards The Snake Inn (9mins). As we started the climb towards Twenty Trees and Middle Moor, we were joined by a panting Steve. He had been able to follow us by catching glimpses of us in the distance.

We passed the 19 trees known bizarrely as Twenty Trees on our left (21mins). The light drizzle had now ceased so Lawrie enlisted Mike’s help in removing his waterproof trousers. We headed for the distinctive white shooting lodge on Middle Moor, tuning left along a path just before it (44mins) marked for Glossop and Carr Meadow.

Our group turned right up a parallel path made by tyre tracks (57mins). This led over rough moorland along the right shoulder of The Knot, where Peter led us past a series of grouse butts. They brought us ultimately to the cairn marking the summit of Mill Hill (104mins) where we paused for pies and port.

Resuming along the flagged path on our left we soon found the wreckage of an USAAF Liberator visible to the right of the path (109mins)

This was a brand new plane which was on its delivery flight from Burtonwood to Hardwick when it crashed in thick fog in October, 1944. Sgt Jerome Navjar told a subsequent hearing that he advised the pilot, a Polish second lieutenant named Creighton Haopt, that they were dangerously close to the ground. The pilot nodded as if he understood but didn’t alter his position and they ploughed into the hillside. Miraculously neither man was seriously hurt.

The flagged path took us down Mill Hill and up Burnt Hill. We exited the National Trust reserve (134mins) without seeing any of the golden plover, curlew or short-eared owls which frequent the moors earlier in the year. We did spot skylarks and three young grouse.

A wooden stile brought us to the A628 Glossop-Chapel Road which we crossed to head towards Charlesworth (146mins). It was at this point that Ron and Lawrie decided to catch a bus to drop them at The Lantern Pike. As we discussed this extraordinary development and comforted the abandoned grandson, Peter informed us that the road we were on was once known as The Monks Road.

This was because monks from the Cistercian Order, who had established Basingwerk Abbey at Holywell during the 12th Century, had been granted a manor near Glossop by Henry II. They were later given a market charter for the town and in the 14th Century a similar charter for Charlesworth. They used the road between to collect taxes from the local famers until the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII in 1536.

We turned left off the road at a wooden public footpath sign and headed up a track (152mins). We later took a left fork (158mins) and crossed a stile made out of a combination of stone and wood (160mins). We then crossed a wooden stile (165mins) and turned right at a T-junction (167mins).

This took us past Matley Moor Farm on our right (169mins) just before the lane swung left and we followed a wooden public footpath sign to go straight ahead for Hayfield via Little Hayfield at a junction called Five Lane Ends (177mins). We crossed three wooden stiles before reaching a farmhouse called Hallet Hey on our left (191mins).

Here we turned left over a wooden stile and made our way downhill to the Clough Mill apartments which we reached by crossing a stone footbridge (194mins). We then climbed the hill up Clough Lane to reach The Lantern PIke pub on our left (199mins).

Lawrie and Ron had arrived there some 40 minutes ahead of us. Ron made up for his desertion and for leading astray an octogenarian by buying a round of excellent Timothy Taylor’s Landlord cask bitter. Tom completed the party atmosphere by laying on two plates of bread and butter and two bowls of chips.

From the pub we turned right along the main road and right again into Slack Lane (201mins). We went through a wooden kissing gate (207mins) and followed a path leading to a road where we turned left (211mins). We then turned right into the Hayfield Carnival Field (217mins) and exited it by a walkway alongside the River Sett (219mins).

With the river on our right we emerged opposite The Pack Horse pub and turned right (221mins) to cross the Sett and reach The George on our right (222mins).

Pictures by Steve Kemp

Next week’s walk will start at 9.40am from the lay-by opposite Ridgegate Reservoir some 500  yards past The Leathers Smithy pub at Langley, Macclesfield. We plan to have a livener at The Hanging Gate, Lower Sutton, around 12.15pm, finishing back at The Leathers Smithy about 2.30pm.

Happy wandering !