High Lane

High Lane

December 13, 2017

CARR BROW, DISLEY GOLF COURSE, STANLEY HALL WOOD, RIDGE END, PEAK FOREST CANAL, ROMAN BRIDGE, COWN EDGE WAY, MELLOR AND TOWNSCLIFFE GOLF COURSE, LINNET CLOUGH, FOX INN AT BROOKBOTTOM, STRINES STATION ,  RIDGE END, DOG AND PARTRIDGE AT HIGH LANE

Distance: 7 miles                Ascent/descent: 1,100 ft

Difiiculty: Easy but boggy underfoot

Weather: Dry at first, then squally rain

Walkers: Micky Barrett, Peter Beal, Alastair Cairns, Steve Courtney, Tom Cunliffe, Colin Davison, Laurie Fairman, Steve Kemp, Chris Owen, Jock Rooney, George Whaites

S.O.B Walkers: Tony Job, Terry Jowett, Barry Williams

Non-walking drinkers: Alan Hart, Geoff Spurrell

Apologies: Mark Gibby (Lanzarote), George Dearsley (Turkey), Alan Hart (back trouble), Julian Ross and Hughie Harriman (unspecified)

Leader: Davison                              Diarist: Beal

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

Starting time: 10.15am      Finishing time: 1.59pm

The Wanderer's annual Christmas lunch outing was dampened by some squally, unpleasant rain in the middle stages, but we were delighted to welcome back Tom after his prolonged absence with an Achiiles injury.

He almost immediately berated some member of our party for wearing snoods, prompting him to be labelled the Wanderers' own version of so-called style guru Trinny Woodall. This was an image he demolished later in the walk by producing a girly, Mary Poppins-type umbrella which was promptly reduced to wreckage by the Derbyshire weather.

Our host Colin was more than welcoming at his home, providing excellent bacon sarnies and a never-ending supply of mulled wine. We were particularly pleased to see him as he had recently emerged from a hospital stay following a heart episode. Investigations are ongoing.

After a very congenial hour or so were prompted by Tom to stir ourselves and left Colin's fuelled by a reported four litres of mulled wine (in total, not each). We turned left up Carr Brow and near the crown of the hill turned left on a footpath taking us in to Disley golf course, seemingly closed for play because of the recent snowfall and rapid thaw ( 11 minutes).

We turned left across the course and entered a footpath descending through woods. We crossed a stile in to a field and with an embankment in front of us, and bore right with the chimney of an air-shaft to the Disley rail tunnel above us.

With some ramshackle farm buildings ahead of us we bore left up a track to a gate (18 min). We reached a farm where the track became a metalled lane and passed a row of terraced cottages on our left.

At a footpath sign indicating Mellor and Cobden Edge we turned right (22 min). This brought us to Slack Hall Farm where a very muddy track took us down hill to a lift bridge over the Peak Forest canal.

We turned left along the canal and very soon took a footpath on the right at a sign pointing to Mellor, Werneth Low and Gee Cross, along the Cown Edge Way (37 min). We followed a track downhill, crossing two stiles and through a gate and passed house to emerge on the Marple to New Mills road (44 min).

We travelled a short distance along the road to the left before descending on a track to the right towards the River Goyt. We swung left along the river to soon reach Roman Bridge, a packhorse bridge across the river that, in common with the nearby Roman Lakes, has no connection with the Romans at all, but was an attempt by Victorians ro romanticise the area and promote tourism.

We crossed the bridge and immediately turned left at a sign pointing us along the Goyt Way towards the Roman Lakes. Almost straight away we turned right on steps uphill signed Mellor and Cown Edge (49 min). This muddy path brought us to a locked gate where we turned right up wooden steps and then left over a green-painted metal bridge over the Manchester to Sheffield railway line.

A half-hearted attempt to declare pie-time here was short-lived and the party soon moved on uphill to reach the Mellor and Townscliffe golf course. We continued with a line of trees on our right before turning left over the fairway to reach the end of a lane at the Linnet Clough Scout Camp and Activity Centre (62 min).

We turned right up the lane and passed the golf clubhouse on our left. At the top we carried straight on uphill across a stretch of the golf course and at a track again carried on uphill. We emerged at a junction near the 10th tee (81 min).

Here Laurie and five of our number opted to carry on up a track to the left to reach Cobden Cross, a prominent landmark erected by the local Christian community, but now mysteriously missing its central vertical spar.

Your diarist and four others decided to make a beeline through muudy fields in worsening weather towards the pub. This route took us across a series of stiles to reach a grassy ramped path which descended to deliver us to a track just above the Fox Inn, below us on the left.

We reached the open pub door on the dot of noon (105 min), to be joined minutes later by Laurie and his companions. The Robbie's Unicorn at £3-30 a pint was pronounced acceptable.

A leisurely 52 minutes later we braved the rain again and left the pub to turn immediately right down a track with a stream ravine below us on the right. The track brought us to Strines station (124 min), reputedly one of the locations for the book The Railway Children. In the current cultural climate it would be most inappropriate to make any reference to Jenny Agutter waving her red knickers in the air in the subsequent film.

We continued along the road, past a large pond with a dovecote on our right. This was the reservoir for the village's calico printing mill and at the end of the pond a clock orginally built by Thomas Bruce from the mill has been painstakingly restored.

We crossed the Marple road again (129 min) and headed uphill along a track that took us through a tunnel under the Peak Forest canal (137 min). This brought us back to our original outward route, which we followed back through the golf course and on to Carr Brow.

The main party stopped briefly at Colin's to deboot (165 min) while your diarist and George continued down the A6 to the Dog and Partridge (173 min), to pints of Wainwright and the Christmas carvery.

The three B walkers who joined us later - Tony, Terry and Barry - told us they had completed the remarkable feat of visiting a total of four pubs on a walk around Marple Bridge and Marple of little more than three miles, plus buses. A fine achievement.

B Walkers' diary

Apologies: George Frazer (Nativity play), Ken Sparrow (weather forecast), Phil Burslem (family business, Geoff Spurrel (protecting body against probable fall).

Distance walked: 3 or 4 km.  Buses used: 3 plus 1 taxi.

4 pints to sustain us.

We took the 9.44 bus to Marple Bridge, and walked through Brabyns Park to Etherow Country Park. En route, we learned that the George Hotel in undergoing conversion into luxury flats, and that the bowling green will not survive. We had a pleasan, albeit slippery walk round the dam, running through our repertoire of duck names as we hazarded guesses. On returning to Compstall Post Office, a 384 bus turned up, so we jumped on for a ride up to the centre of Marple, knowing that the Ring o’ Bells would not be open until noon, but recalling a previous Christmas walk when we took coffee at the Methodist Hall. On the way we passed the Samuel Oldknow (closed), but found the Bull’s Head 50 yards opposite ope, warm, and welcoming. After a pint of Robbies, we ambled past the Methodist Hall (open to all), up to the Ring o’ B ells, and found it open, cold and nearly empty. Our second pint of Robbies was not very good, and the rain was starting, so we followed the canal back to the centre, just in time to see a 394 arriving.  As it was judged to be too early (1.10) to get a ride to High Lane for lunch, we paused for more Robbies at the Navigation which we found warm and friendly. Our bus timetable promised another 394 at 2.10, but it didn’t materialise. Must get a new timetable! A Lynx taxi eventually turned up, and we got to the D & P for lunch about 3.00. Wainwright made a nice change from Robbies, and the food was up to scratch too. Alan provided transport back to Hazel Grove, much appreciated.

Next week's continuing festivities will see us convene at 9 am at Alan's house at 68, London Road North, Poynton, where mulled wine, sausage barmcakes and Christmas cake are promised  before a walk around the environs of Poynton, calling at the Boar's Head at Higher Poynton around 12.15pm. Drinks afterwards will be at The Fiveways.

::  Alan asks us to park at the Poynton Pool car park near the end of Anglesey Drive, a short walk from his house, to avoid congestion.