Bradwell

July 19, 2017.

THE WHITE HART AT BRADWELL, LITTLE HUCKLOW, DIRTLOW RAKE PIT, PEVERIL CASTLE VICINITY, GOOSEHILL, THE BULL’S HEAD AT CASTLETON, HOPE CEMENT FACTORY, ST BARNABAS’S CHURCH, BRADWELL, AND THE OLD HALL AT HOPE

Distance: Seven miles.

Difficulty: Easy after early climb.

Weather: Dry and warm but mostly cloudy.

Walkers: Colin Davison, Lawrie Fairman, Mark Gibby, Alan Hart, Steve Kemp and Jock Rooney with Tip.

Apologies: Mickey Barrett, Peter Beal (narrow-boating), Alastair Cairns (walking in Northumberland), Tom Cunliffe, George Dearsley (in Turkey), Hughie Harriman, Chris Owen (hols) and George Whaites (eve of hip operation)

Leader: Davison. Diarist: Hart.

Starting point: Road outside The White Hart at Bradwell, near Hope, Derbyshire.

Starting time: 9.55am. Finishing time: 2.02pm.

After the dizzy heights of 12 A walkers and three dogs last week, our numbers fell to six and one dog for this week’s hike. Predictably, one of the absentees was Tom, who suggested the walk. There is a pattern developing here !

There was also a parting of the ways when leader Colin unilaterally decided to change the venue of the first watering hole in Castleton. Instead of calling for a bracer in Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, as agreed the week before, our leader opted for The Bull’s Head, a charmless establishment selling Robbies’ Unicorn at an eye-watering £3-70 a pint.

Jock and Tip voted with their six feet and walked to The George instead. We can only hope that the B team had not made a special effort to meet us in the Cheese which we totally by-passed.

As I write this report on Thursday morning, George Whaites is scheduled to have his long-delayed hip operation and I am sure you would all want to join me in wishing him a speedy recovery.

From the road where we had parked we headed uphill and turned left up a flight of steps by the side of a wooden public footpath sign (1min). We crossed two lanes (5 and 7mins) before forking left uphill (9mins). This brought us to a metal kissing gate through which we reached a lane (13mins)

We turned right and then immediately left at a wooden public footpath sign to a path which brought us over a stile made of concrete (25mins) into a field with a drystone wall on our left. We crossed a stone step stile (26mins)and turned right along a lane until we reached a road, where we turned left (27mins)

Happy Walkers

At a sign for Little Hucklow we turned right (33mins) and then went left at a wooden public footpath sign into a field (36mins). We aimed for a wooden marker post and continued to the corner of the field where a wooden stile was marked with a yellow arrow (43mins)

We crossed a stone step stile into a field with a drystone wall on our right (46mins) and squeezed through a gap stile (60mins). Tip, now suffering from middle-age spread, had to be lifted over the obstruction and we were grateful for Tom’s absence.

Tip

After crossing one wooden stile (63mins) we crossed another which brought us to a gravel track (67mins) where we paused for pies and port.

The track overlooked Dirtlow Rake Pit at its junction with the Long Rake fault lines which were mined for limestone over the centuries.

Resuming we turned right along the gravel track and turned left over a wooden stile (76mins) into a field with a drystone wall on our right. The path continued over another wooden stile (79mins) until we reached a rocky footpath (86mins). We crossed this and headed uphill to go through an open gateway (88mins)

This was the start of a long descent into Castleton, passing close to Peveril Castle without being able to see it behind a copse of trees.

Peveril Castle is an 11^th Century ruin. It was the main settlement of the feudal barony of William Peverel, founded sometime between The Norman Conquest in 1066 and the survey documented in the Domesday Book of 1086. At the end of the 14^th Century the barony was granted to John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. He had little use for the castle and ordered some of its materials to be stripped and reused, leading to its rapid decline.

In the 19^th Century Sir Walter Scott featured the castle in his novel, Peveril of the Peak, which was a name given to a well-known pub in the centre of Manchester. The castle is a Grade 1 listed building in the care of English Heritage.

We reached the outskirts of Castleton (107mins) and exited Goosehill (109mins) over the River Noe, heading left before The Little Shop to emerge at Cross Street. We headed uphill but Colin immediately stopped at The Bull’s Head on the left and declared it to be our first watering hole (119mins). Jock was not amused, taking Tip and his custom elsewhere before rejoining us for the final lap of our journey.

Turning left out of The Bull’s Head, we crossed the road and went right up Castle Street (120mins), passing The George on our right and the parish church on our left. We turned left into Market Place and then headed left downhill before stopping for lunch (130mins)

Continuing we turned left at a bridle-path (131mins), passing the rear of Hope Cement Works (137mins), crossing a road and following a path marked Footpath and Bridleway (142mins). We reached a lane and turned left (147mins)

This brought us to Town Lane, (152mins) where we continued downhill to reach the main road (154mins). We turned right, passing Bradwell Post Office on our right, through a set of traffic lights and St Barnabas’s Church on our left (159mins) before reaching our cars (162mins)

After de-booting we drove to The Old Hall at Hope. This started life in 1719 at The Old Stone Daggers, later changing its name to The Cross Daggers before assuming its current name in 1873.

Next week’s walk will start at 9.45am from the layby near the entrance to the cement works at Topley Pike, on the A6 road out of Buxton opposite the Wye Valley car park at the start of the Monsal Trail. We will head along the valley before passing the Anglers’ Rest and The Waterloo to reach The Church Inn at Chelmorton about 12.15pm. We expect to return to our cars at about 2.15pm and drive to the Wetherspoons’ Wye Valley House Hotel in Buxton around 2.30pm.

Happy wandering !