Furness Vale

June 7, 2017.

FURNESS VALE, GOW HOLE, HOPE VALLEY RAILWAY LINE, OLLERSETT MOOR, BIRCH VALE, SETT VALLEY TRAIL, HEXT FARM, ASPENSHAW HALL, BLAKE HALL, CARR NOOK FARM, THE PACK HORSE INN, NEW MILLS, THE TORRS, OLD MILL LEAT, GOYT VALLEY AND THE SOLDIER DICK AT FURNESS VALE

Distance: 9 miles.

Difficulty: Moderate.

Weather: Dry with cloudy start giving way to sunshine.

A walkers: Peter Beal, Alastair Cairns with Daisy, Tom Cunliffe, Colin Davison*, Lawrie Fairman, Alan Hart, Steve Kemp, Chris Owen, Jock Rooney with Tip, and George Whaites.

Apologies: Mickey Barrett (yachting off Turkey), George Dearsley (living in Turkey), Mark Gibby (caring for sick parents) and Julian Ross (w*^king)

Leader: Beal. Diarist: Hart.

Starting point: Car park of The Soldier Dick at Furness Vale.

Starting time: 9.36am. Finishing time: 2.16pm.

To the old adage “The sun shines on the righteous” should be added the words “and the Wednesday Wanderers.” Once again the weather gods smiled down favourably upon us. After two days of lashing rain and gale force winds they relented and we enjoyed excellent walking conditions. Even the mud we had anticipated failed to materialise.

We welcomed a debutant into our midst. Daisy, an eight-year-old Jack Russell terrier with a fearsome reputation, made a ladylike appearance and contrary to expectations she struck up a respectful relationship with Tip. Daisy did let her peaceful mask slip on one occasion when a white Pomeranian had the temerity to yap half-heartedly at her as we passed its house. Daisy turned back and barked back menacingly in the style of Robert de Niro in Taxi Driver. Then, as if she had forgotten her manners, she rejoined us as if to say “Sorry, but I can’t let a challenge go unanswered.”

Peter led us on what proved to be a rollercoaster ride of a walk up and down hills as we explored some new territory and visited a pub which to the best of my knowledge had not enjoyed the privilege of our company before.

*Colin, who had been absent from our starting line-up because of a dental appointment, met us when we were just 15 minutes short of this first watering hole, thus taking our numbers into double figures, plus two dogs.

Leaving The Soldier Dick car park we crossed the A6, turned left for a few yards and then went right downhill along Old Road to join a track under the Manchester-Buxton railway line. We turned right and emerged on Station Road (4mins) where we turned left along the road bridge over the Peak Forest Canal.

We turned right at a green public bridleway sign (9mins) which took us through Gow Hole cottages to a T-junction where we turned left and immediately right at a green footpath sign ((10mins). After two wooden gates we walked through a tunnel under The Hope Valley railway line linking Stockport with Sheffield (13mins).

After crossing a stone step stile we turned left (16mins) then went right at a broken footpath sign (17mins) which led us through first a wood and then a farmyard (26mins). We carried straight ahead where footpaths crossed (34mins) and went over first a stone step stile, a gap stile and then a short ladder stile (37, 38 and 39mins)

Another stone step stile and a wooden stile brought us to a lane, where we turned left past Moor Lodge (45mins) and then right at a wooden public footpath sign (46mins). We crossed a ladder stile (48mins), went through a wooden gate (53mins) and entered Ollersett Moor. Our route involved heading for an electric pylon and then crossing a wooden stile beyond it (61mins)

After going through a wooden gate (67mins) we headed downhill towards The Grouse in Birch Vale. Just before we reached it Daisy had her brief confrontation with the Pomeranian, who ran away from its gate to yap its protests from a safe distance.

With The Grouse on our left (79mins), we crossed the road and followed a wooden public footpath sign next to the sign for Station Road. This path led us through a wooden gate to the Sett Valley Trail, which we crossed and took a path to the right of an electricity sub-station (81mins). We reached a footbridge over the River Sett where we paused for pies, port and damson gin (85mins)

Continuing we climbed uphill to a marker post and crossed a field, going through a wooden gate and over a stone step stile to reach a lane, where we turned left uphill (88mins). This brought us to another lane where we turned sharp left (95mins), passing Hext Farm on our right (97mins). We forked right at a sign for High Walls Farm (103mins) and turned right at a flight of steps leading to a gate into a field.

We headed uphill through a gap stile, a stone step stile, and two wooden stiles either side of a copse (110mins) After crossing another wooden stile we turned left (115mins) and passed Aspenshaw Hall on our right.

Aspenshaw Hall was originally built in 1727 and was the home of the Buckley family. It passed to George Bower, who married Elizabeth Buckley in 1710. The Buckley family had become wealthy through the building of a fuller mill (a stage in clothmaking), a paper mill and a tannery yard at The Torrs around 1700. George and Elizabeth named their son Buckley Bower and he became a Stockport lawyer. He acquired hundreds of acres of land locally and inherited the hall in 1830. But he got into financial difficulties and it was sold at auction in 1836. The building has now been converted into nine apartments.

Beyond the hall we took the right fork (117mins) into Briargrove Road, passing Ladygate Farm (124mins) and Blake Hall (128mins) on our right. When we reached Carr Nook Farm on our right (130mins) where Colin awaited us, we turned left over a stone step stile to enter a field. We crossed a stone step stile (135mins) and headed right uphill. We reached Mellor Road and turned left (140mins), arriving at The Pack Horse Inn on our right (144mins).

This impressive stone building caters more for diners than drinkers although the Tetleys’ cask bitter at £3-30 was in excellent form. We were obliged to drink it in the pleasant beer garden at the rear of the pub because dogs are not welcome inside.

When we left the pub we continued in the same direction passing the sign for New Mills (150mins) and entering Dye House Lane (157mins).

 On the right was the former town prison with an interesting inscription on its wall dedicated to Thomas Handford  dated 1854 and headed A Drunkard’s Reform. It read: “A working man, a teetotaller for ten years who was formerly a notorious drinker and poacher has recently invested his sober earnings in the purchase of the town prison, which he has converted into a comfortable dwelling house. Frequently an inmate of the prison whilst a drunkard and a poacher, he is now owner of the whole occupancy of the premises.”

As your diarist perused the story of this man who liked his prison so much that he bought it, I realised that once again I had been abandoned by my comrades. What follows, therefore, is an account of the route I took to try to make my way back.

After the road swung left I followed a public footpath sign on the left (164mins), heading uphill with a graveyard on my right. At a footpath junction I turned right and reached a road which I crossed to follow a sign for the Sett Valley Trail (168mins). Crossing another road I followed a sign for The Torrs (170mins), passing New Mills Leisure Centre on my right (172mins)

The path ahead was blocked for 50 yards due to a rock-fall but it was possible to climb round the fencing and continue toward The Torrs. Just before reaching the Millenium Walkway I turned left to follow a sign for The Peak Forest Canal. This took me under a tunnel called Old Mill Leat with the River Goyt on my right (181mins).

 I walked under a viaduct (186mins), passed a field on my right containing a llama and passed a farm on my right, ignoring a sign for the Goyt Way. Instead I pressed ahead along the path to emerge on Marsh Lane by Gow Hole (201mins) and turn right. After crossing the Goyt this became Station Road (204mins) which I followed over the level crossing to the A6. By this time I had rejoined my fellow Wanderers, emerging on to Station Road from the towpath of the Peak Forest Canal on my right.

We crossed the A6, turned right and came to The Soldier Dick on our left (211mins). After de-booting we enjoyed pints of Wainwrights’ cask bitter at £2-85.

Next week’s walk will start at 9.40am from the plot of land opposite The Wheatsheaf pub in Old Glossop. Colin has promised to find us a pub open in Padfield where we will pause for a livener at about 12.15pm. We expect to finish back in The Wheatsheaf around 2.15pm. If that is closed we will seek another venue.

Happy wandering !