Brabyns Park

EeeFebruary 1, 2017.

BRABYNS PARK, IRON BRIDGE, ROLLINS WOOD, ETHEROW VALLEY, REDBROW WOOD, HYDE TUNNEL, HYDE BANK HOUSE, BURYMEWICK COTTAGE, ST CHAD’S WELL, CHADKIRK CHAPEL, CORONATION MEADOW, OTTERSPOOL HYDRO, HARE AND HOUNDS AT OTTERSPOOL, OLD MANOR FARM, THE RING O’ BELLS AT MARPLE, MACCLESFIELD CANAL, PEAK FOREST CANAL, MARPLE LOCKS, THE NORFOLK ARMS AT MARPLE BRIDGE

Distance: 7-8 miles.

Difficulty: Easy but muddy.

Weather: Dry, cloudy start followed by bright sunshine.

Walkers: Colin Davison, Lawrie Fairman, Alan Hart, Julian Ross and George Whaites.

B walkers: Phil Burslem, Terry Jowett, Tony Job, Ken Sparrow and Geoff Spurrell.

Apologies:  Mickey Barrett (foot injury), Tom Cunliffe (pub duties), George Dearsley (in Turkey), Mark Gibby (medicine making him ill !) and Steve Kemp (prolonged hols)

Leaders: Fairman and Davison. Diarist: Hart.

Starting point: Free car park at Brabyns Park, Marple Bridge.

Starting time: 9.33am. Finishing time: 2pm.

This walk was short but sweet as we enjoyed spring-like weather, learned some Industrial Revolution history, passed the site of the ancestral home of a former queen, visited a well and chapel named after a 7th Century bishop, heard two woodpeckers hammering away and learned some juicy gossip about an assistant chief constable involved in a national newspaper scandal dubbed “Titgate.” All in a day’s ramble for the Wednesday Wanderers – plus, of course, a visit to two pubs.

Photo by Colin

Our commiserations go to two of our injured comrades. Mickey is making progress towards a return after a prolonged absence with a foot injury. Now we have a further casualty as Mark is finding that a new medicine is making him ill. We wish them both a speedy recovery.

While the A team suffered these depletions, the B team was almost a full strength, fielding an equal number of walkers for a total of 10.

Colin, who will be celebrating his 65th birthday shortly, kindly stood the A team a round of drinks by way of an apology for his absence that week. Ken made a similar gesture for his chums in the B team. We wish them many happy returns.

From the higher Brabyns Park car park we headed left, going right at the path beyond a green barrier (3mins) and reached the Iron Bridge (12mins).

A plaque informed us that this was built in 1813 under the orders of Nathaniel Wright, a wealthy coal mine owner with pits at Poynton, who had bought the Brabyns Estate in 1800. It is listed as being a unique example of national importance and was restored to its former glory in 2008.

We continued along the path through Rollins Wood and reached a main road where we turned left (19mins). After crossing a bridge over the Etherow we turned immediately left (20mins) along its right bank to head for Redbrow Wood. After crossing two wooden stiles we entered a farmyard (37mins). At the far side of the farm we turned left over a wooden stile (42mins) and walked down a treacherously muddy slope towards the magnificent railway viaduct with the Peak Forest Canal aqueduct behind it.

Against all odds there were no fallers and we ascended a flight of steps to reach the canal, where we turned left (53mins). With the canal on our right we walked along the towpath, listening to two woodpeckers competing for attention, until we reached the entrance to Hyde Tunnel at Romiley (59mins). 

Hyde Tunnel is 308 yards long, has a minimum height above water of 6ft 8ins and is 16 feet wide so barges can pass each other. It was negotiated by bargees lying on their backs and walking along the roof to propel their boats – a technique known as “legging.” 

With the tunnel on our right we climbed a set of steps and past three large white houses on our right and Hyde Bank House on our left (63mins). We swung left at the end of Hydebank, passing Shetland ponies in fields to our right and left.

The use of the name Hyde in Romiley is in acknowledgement of Anne Hyde (1637-71), who lived locally and became the first wife of King James ll of England. Two months after their marriage in 1660 she bore him the first of eight children, although six of them died in childhood. One of them, Lady Anne, married Prince George of Denmark in 1683 and she later became the first monarch of Great Britain following the Act of Union in 1707. Before that her sister, Lady Mary, at the age of 14 married her cousin William lll, The Prince of Orange, in 1677, and shared the throne with her husband from 1689.

We forked left to go under a low bridge (65mins) and rejoined the Peak Forest Canal at the other end of Hyde Tunnel. At the side of the left bank where we walked, a poster offered a £2,000 for information leading to the killers of a dog called Troya, which appeared to be a crossbred Staffie and pit bull terrier.

We left the towpath by turning left down stone steps (76mins) and turned left past Burymewick Cottage on our right. This took us past St Chad’s Well on our right, where a plaque informed us that St Chad was a 7th Century Bishop of Lichfield. As we swung left round the corner we reached the gardens of Chadkirk Chapel on our left where we stopped for pies and port at their convenient benches (81mins).

During the walk there was much discussion about the latest developments in “Titgate” – the scandal involving an assistant chief constable with Greater Manchester Police. It was alleged that the Cambridge-educated officer had become drunk at a function and exposed at least one, possibly both, her breasts to demonstrate how attractive they were.

She was found guilty of gross misconduct but kept her job. Julian was a former colleague of the ACC, or Rebecca as he inadvertently called her when his guard slipped. He insisted he had been overlooked as a plaything by the thrice-married officer.

Resuming our walk, we entered the path next to Coronation Meadow and turned left along the path running alongside it. This brought us to a road where we turned right (84mins). This led us to Otterspool Road (89mins) where we turned left and on the right hand side of the bridge over the Goyt we crossed to inspect the hydroelectric generator.

A plaque informed us this was the first community-owned hydroelectric scheme in Greater Manchester, costing £250,000. It was sited on a weir constructed by Jesse Howard of Stockport, a local mill owner who never got round to building the mill for which it was intended. Since October, 2012, we learned, it had created 834,000kws of electricity for 175 local residents. Pescadores will be delighted to know they also created a fish path for salmon wanting to leap upstream.

We continued our journey past the Hare and Hounds on our right (101mins), and reached the T-junction traffic lights, where we headed straight on towards Old Manor Farm (107mins). We proceded past a skip hire premises (111mins) and along a muddy path which brought us to a bridge over the Middlewood Way (126mins).

We walked straight on again into a housing estate and at the end of Throstle Lane we turned left (130mins). We then went right through a wooden gate on our right (131mins), which brought us to a main road (136mins) and turned left. We turned right into Lyme Grove just before Marple United Reform Church (140mins). At the end of this road we turned left and at the next junction headed right uphill past Marple Methodist Church (143mins).

By crossing the bridge over the Macclefield Canal we reached the Ring o’ Bells pub on our right (146mins). A few minutes later we were join by the B team in the “memorial room” containing the names of fallen soldiers. The Robbies’ Unicorn was deemed to be in fine fettle, as we would expect from a pub which has been awarded the WW seal of approval.

Suitably refreshed we crossed the road opposite the pub and went down by Bridge 2 to the Macclesfield Canal just before its junction with the Peak Forest Canal. After a breach stretch of road by the junction itself, we walked along the cobbled path under a bridge to emerge on the other side of Bridge 18 of the PFC. We stopped for lunch on a sunny bench (156mins).

We continued the final leg of our journey by descending Marple Locks, crossing a road to reach the right bank (165mins). We turned right again at a drained basin after Lock 11 (169mins) and crossed a bridge over the Manchester-Sheffield railway line with Marple Station below us on our right. A path on our left (172mins) brought us within sight of the car park.

Colin led us through a barrier of trees back to the cars (177mins), where we de-booted. We walked down to the main road, crossed over and turned left to reach the Norfolk Arms, Marple Bridge, on our right (182mins). We were joined one pint later by the B team.

Next week’s walk will start at 9.30am from the road outside The Crown in Bollington. We intend to reach the Robin Hood at Rainow around 12.15pm for a livener and finish our walk back at The Crown at about 2.15pm.         Happy wandering !