January 10, 2018.
BRABYNS PARK, MARPLE BRIDGE, LOW LEA ROAD, MELLOR MILL, ROMAN LAKES, BOTTOMS HALL, MELLOR SPORTS CLUB, KNOWLE FARM, ST THOMAS’S CHURCH, MELLOR, HOLLYWOOD, HAMBLETON FOLD, PODNOR FARM, THE ODDFELLOWS ARMS, THE DEVONSHIRE ARMS AT MELLOR, MELLOR AND THORNCLIFFE GOLF COURSE, LINNET CLOUGH SCOUT CAMP, OLD HALL FARM, THE NORFOLK ARMS AT MARPLE BRIDGE
Distance: 8+ miles.
Difficulty: Easy but muddy.
Weather: Dry buy cloudy and misty.
Walkers: Peter Beal, Alastair Cairns, Tom Cunliffe, Lawrie Fairman, Alan Hart, Jock Rooney with Tip.
B walkers: Phil Burslem, George Fraser, Tony Job, Terry Jowett, Geoff Spurrell and Barry Williams.
Apologies: Colin Davison (having ECG), George Dearsley (in Turkey), Mark Gibby (packing for US trip), Hughie Harriman (Gran Canaria hols), Steve Kemp (Hong Kong and Thailand hols), Chris Owen (recovering from blood clot), George Whaites.
Leader: Fairman. Diarist: Hart.
Starting point: Brabyns Park car park, Marple Bridge.
Starting time: 9.35am. Finishing time: 2.09pm.
Unhappily the most memorable feature of this walk was the mud we encountered near a farm at Hambleton Fold. Not since The Battle of Passchendaele more than 100 years ago have brave Brits had to endure such ankle-deep slime.
But just like our forefathers on the fields of Flanders we kept our heads and our stiff upper lips to conquer the elements and smile in the face of adversity.
Some mud was to be expected after recent rain and snow, but the odious ooze we encountered had clearly been exacerbated by the efforts of the farmer, either by accident or design. Our visibility from the heights of Mellor Church was also impeded by the misty conditions. Nevertheless our Fuhrer, ably assisted on occasions by Peter, led us successfully to our targets.
From the car park we walked down to Brabyns Brow, turned left for a few yards then went right to cross the main road and enter Town Street. We proceeded past the Royal Scot and local shops to reach Low Lea Road, where we turned right (7mins). This had a cobbled section as we climbed steadily, then going downhill and passing Goyt House on our right (16mins). The track descended further and became Bottoms Mill Road (17mins)
This was the site of the massive Mellor Mill, also known as Bottom’s Mill, built by Samuel Oldknow between 1790-92. It was six storeys high, 400 feet long and employed 500 people. Of these 100 were orphans, obtained as cheap labour, who were housed at Old Hall, or Bottom’s Hall, on the site of a 12th Century building. The mill, which was the biggest in the world, was destroyed by fire in 1892. In 2009 local archaeologists obtained Lottery funding to excavate the remains, but the money appears to have dried up and the work ceased.
We turned left into Lakes Road (19mins) and followed a sign for Prescott Old Hall Road (22mins). After passing the former orphanage at Bottoms Hall on our right we turned immediately left uphill (23mins). At the end of Old Hall Lane (30mins) we went straight on. This brought us to a road where we headed uphill and turned left into Knowle Road (34mins)
This took us past Mellor Sports Club on our right and Mellor Primary School on the left, passing Slackwood House on our right (40mins) before turning right at Knowle Farm through a gap stile (47mins). From here you can normally see Mellor Church at the top of the hill, but on this occasion it was swathed in mist. We went over a wooden stile across a field and climbed a set of stone steps to reach St Thomas’s Church (53mins).
A church has been on this site since the 15th Century although the present edifice was rebuilt in the 18th and 19th Centuries. The pulpit inside is carved from the trunk of an oak tree which was felled in the 13th Century. Artefacts found nearby indicate there was a Roman influence here and further evidence of an Iron Age settlement. In a field nearby is a replica of a roundhouse from that era. Completely demolished is Mellor Grammar School, which had been a seat of learning here from 1639-1881.
We exited the graveyard and went left over a wooden stile marked with a yellow arrow (59mins), passing the replica roundhouse on our left, leaving the field by a wooden hurdle marked with a yellow arrow which we followed left (61mins). Turning right into a field at a sign for Hollywood (62mins) we crossed a wooden stile with a yellow arrow which indicated we were on the Cown Edge Way (70mins)
We emerged from the footpath at a road opposite Bridge House (79mins) and stopped on a bridge next to Hollywood End Farm for pies, port and sloe gin kindly provided by Alastair. Resuming, we walked between Bridge House and Hollywood End Farm and passed through a metal gate (81mins). At a wooden gate we followed a sign for Cown Edge via Ludworth Moor (88mins)
Passing Hollywood Cottage on our left, we went through a gap stile after ignoring a yellow arrow pointing left. After going through a metal gate we turned right uphill (90mins), reached a road and turned left uphill (93mins). We went straight on, avoiding a public bridleway, and then the path turned into deceptive, cloying mud.
To escape it we turned right, with a drystone wall on our left, but could find no exit from this field so we performed a quadrille to return to the mud where we had started (118mins). We then tried a left turn but soon passed a sign indicating that Mellor could be reached by going back and turning left. We did so and went through a gap stile (124mins) and a path leading past a derelict farm building on our left.
We crossed a stone step stile (126mins), then another and went straight across a field (129mins). By crossing another stile on our right (131mins) we reached Podnor Farm (134mins) and turned left down the track. This brought us to the rear of The Oddfellows Arms at Mellor. We skirted left around it and passed the open front door (137mins), walking downhill to the end of Moor End Road and reaching The Devonshire Arms on our right (143mins).
This popular Robinsons’ pub has been extensively extended and refurbished. Despite our muddy appearance we were welcomed warmly by the landlord and the Robbies’ Unicorn cask bitter was in excellent form at a cost of £3-40 a pint. We were soon joined by our B team colleagues, whom we left behind to start the final leg of our journey.
We went up Gibb Lane opposite the pub and turned right at Whetmorhurst Lane (147mins), passing Primrose Cottage and Rose Cottage on our right (152mins) to enter Mellor and Thorncliffe Golf Course (154mins). We headed for the main car park, passed Linnet Clough Scout Camp and followed a public bridleway towards Marple Bridge (159mins)
After passing Old Hall Farm on our left (170mins) we spotted goosander ducks in the lake on our right. We are indebted to our twitcher expert Lawrie for informing us that these are the only variety of duck which eat fish.
We swung left instead of retracing our earlier footsteps along Bottoms Hall Road (176mins) and stopped for a brief lunch at a bridge over the River Goyt. Continuing, we went up Lakes Road and emerged back in suburbia. At the end of Fayward Drive (188mins) we turned right into Arkwright Road.
At the bottom of Arkwright Road we turned right, crossing over the railway bridge at Brabyn Brow and turning left opposite The Midland to return to our cars (200mins). After de-booting we walked to the Norfolk Arms, where a selection of cask ales was available from £3-10 a pint. We were again joined by our B team comrades.
Next week’s walk will start at 10am from the car park at the miniature railway station to the south of Rudyard Lake, on the Leek road out of Macclesfield. It is anticipated that our walk will take us to The Holly Bush, (at Denford) by the side of the Caldon Canal, for a livener around 12.15pm. The walk should finish about 2.30pm and we will then choose a pub for a final pint.
Happy wandering !
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