High Lane

HIGH LANE

November 23,2016

11, CARR BROW, HIGH LANE, LOMBERHEY FARM, RIDGE END, PEAK FOREST CANAL, ROMAN BRIDGE, COWN EDGE WAY, MELLOR GOLF CLUB, FOX INN AT BROOKBOTTOM, STRINES, DISLEY GOLF COURSE, CARR BROW

Distance: 8 miles

Difficulty: Easy

Weather: Dry and bright, wet underfoot

Walkers: Peter Beal, Colin Davison and Tip, Laurie Fairman, Steve Kemp, Julian Ross, George Whaites

Apologies: Alan Hart (Barbados), Micky Barrett (injured and away), Jock Rooney, Tom Cunliffe (bad back), George Dearsley (still in Turkey), Mark Gibby (La Palma)

Leaders: Davison and Fairman ​Diarist: Beal

Starting point: Colin's home at 11, Carr Brow, High Lane

Starting time; 9.29am​Finishing time: 2.02pm

Apres le deluge, as someone nearly said. Following the torrential downpours of little more than 24 hours earlier our six walkers enjoyed clear skies and pleasant views of the Cheshire and Derbyshire countrysides on a gentle ramble from Colin's home in High Lane.

There was evidence of the earlier heavy rain however in the very boggy ground and the piles of debris left, not least in front of our watering hole at the Fox Inn in Brookbottom.

Our journey began with a brief trip in to suburbia. We left Colin's house, turned right and immediately right again in to Beechway. A left turn took us in to Thornway, then a right in to South Meadway, which became Meadway (theme developing here), bringing us out briefly in to Andrew Lane.

We turned right (8 minutes) in to  a lane that took us past the Wybersley Water Treatment Works. We took a drive that led us past Lomberhey Farm, past a house and through a gate in to a track that turned into a path taking us to a second gate and down through a gap in a second large metal gate that proclaimed 'Stags in Field'. We failed to see any.

We passed a large house on the right and went through another gate in to a field (14 min). A kissing gate took us down in to a boggy field bottom, where we climbed up to a metal gate (25 min) and on to a metalled track that brought us out on a minor road at a house called Kitling Ridge. This was, as it said on its sign, the former Romper pub, closed a few years ago after a disastrous attempt to turn it in to some sort of bistro establishment.

We turned left on the road, then immediatley right down a track on the right that became a metalled footpath bringing us downhill to a bridge over the Peak Forest Canal (40 min).

We turned left along the canal and five minutes later reached a footbridge, where we took a footpath to the right, bringing us out on the Marple to New Mills road (46 min).

We turned right along the pavement, and very soon left, at a footpath sign taking us downhill on wooden steps through woods down to the River Goyt. At the river, still swollen from the rains, we turned left along the bank and almost immediately reached the Roman Bridge over the river.

This is a 17th century packhorse bridge and has no connection with the Romans. Until the 1860s it was known as Windy Bottom Bridge (please insert own schoolboy joke here).   

The nearby Roman Lakes - originally called Bottoms Reservoirs - were formed when canal pioneer Samuel Oldknow diverted water from the Goyt to serve his Mellor Mill. The mill was destroyed by fire in 1892 but the lakes then became a pleasure park with a dance hall, boating and penny slot machines.

We climbed from the canal in to Barlow Wood, a site of Special Biologlical Interest, up steps to a junction and turned left at a Roman Lakes sign. Here we saw a male and four female ducks that Laurie pointed out were goosanders, a fish-eating duck that is apparently quite rare in our neck of the woods, especially in winter months.

Before reaching the Roman Lakes we turned right (60 min) up a footpath with wooden steps, at a green sign reading: Mellor, Cobden Edge (Cown Edge Way). The footpath swung right up more steps, then left over a green-painted metal bridge over the New Mills- Manchester railway.

A path led us to the Mellor and Townscliffe golf course (66 min), where we carried on before swiinging left at a footpath sign, across three fairways, before crossing a small stone bridge to a scout camp.

We turned right here and at a stone-walled bank opposite the clubhouse declated pietime (85 min). 

After a leisurely 12-minute break we continued up the drive and turned right, tham straightaway left up another track which turned in to a footpath taking us along the top edge of the golf course. This emeraged on  a track (98 min) that brought us to a junction where we continued on the track immediately opposite.

This brought us in to a field that can only be described as a quagmire, despite Colin's assurance that 'it's not as bad as it looks'. It wasn't, it was worse.

There were however great views of Manchester and the Cheshire countryside from here. We crossed a stile and turned right down a path between a wall and fence, bearing left on to another path, and over a stile to bear diagonally right over a field. This brought us to a series of stiles skirting Shaw Farm.

After the farm we took a track (102 min) and then with New Mills golf course in front of us took a sharp right down a stony track that brought us out on a minor road (113 min). We turned right down the road and arrived with precision at the 18th century listed building of the Fox Inn seconds before it opened. The Robinson's Unicorn at £3-05 was pronounced acceptable.

We resumed 43 minutes later and turned right then right again down a bridleway that brought us to Strines station (117 min). This station on the New Mills to Manchester line is the subject of hotly-disputed claims that it was the inspiration behind Edith Nesbit's The Railway Children, beloved by all those who recall the film version with Jenny Agutter waving her red knickers in the air (it's OK, she was 17 at the time).

What is known is that Edith visited her sister-in-law in nearby Mellor regualrly and Jenny Agutter visited the house at Three Chimneys, Mellor, that is mentioned in the book. It was in fact next door to where Edith stayed at Paradise Farm.  

We followed the cobbled road from Strines station, past a beautifully restored clock and the dovecote at the former Strines printworks and had lunch at a picnic area on the left (123 min).

Strines was once famous for its annual bullshit competition. A local farmer would divide his field in to 100 squares and excited locals would buy tickets and enjoy picnics and brassbands while waiting to see which square the bull would decide to dump on. But let's face it, not much else happens in Strines.

We crossed the main road and carried on up a track to take us under the canal (133 min). This brought us to a junction opposite a footpath where not long ago some of the walkers had a confrontation with a man forever known as Mr Angry. Happily, Mr Angry's footpath - the subject of the heated debate - has now been cleared and we were able to carry on unmolested.

We strujck off left across a field with a mill chimney on our left and up a slope on the other side, which brought us to a path through Disley golf course (146 min). This emerged on Jackson's Edge Road (155 min), where we turned right to reach Colin's house shortly after (164 min).

Next week's walk will start outside the Pack Horse in Hayfield (parking on road) at 9.45am, with enroute refreshments at the Lamb Inn, returning to the Pack Horse at 2.15pm.

Happy wandering!