Distance: 8 miles.
Difficulty: Easy.
Weather: Dry with cloud and sunshine.
Walkers: Alastair Cairns, Tom Cunliffe, Colin Davison*, Mark Gibby, Hughie Hardiman, Alan Hart, Steve Kemp, Chris Owen and George Whaites.
Apologies: Mickey Barrett (New Zealand hols), Peter Beal (hols), George Dearsley (in Turkey) and Lawrie Fairman (cruise lecturing)
Leaders: Hart, Cunliffe and Davison. Diarist: Hart.
Starting point: Miry Meadows car park, off Station Road, Chapel-en-le-Frith.
Starting time: 9.54am. Finishing time: 2.20pm.
Birthday boy Colin set us some stern challenges for this walk, but the Wednesday Wanderers are nothing if not resourceful. A pattern is emerging of group members suggesting routes and then failing to attend. Last week it was Tom’s turn: this time Colin was the absentee after rejecting a proposal to start from Disley and advancing the cause of Chapel.
When he failed to arrive because of bus problems too complex to comprehend, we had no leader and no map. We also had no Steve, whose sat-nav had deposited him at Chinley railway station. Eventually we were able to guide Steve to the car park and we started after a 14-minute delay. Meanwhile Colin caught a bus to Doveholes and walked from there to meet us in the first watering hole.
Happily adversity often brings unexpected rewards. The weather was warmer than it had been in recent days and warmer than it would be in days ahead. We also discovered an attractive new route into Sparrowpit after being rescued from distress by a damsel.
On top of all that we were able to celebrate the 66th anniversary of Colin’s birth with a round of drinks bought by him in The Wanted Inn. Many happy returns to Colin. Our delight could only have been surpassed if the B team had turned up unexpectedly to share in his largesse.
Your diarist had volunteered to lead the start of the route from memory in the hope that others might take over the poisoned chalice later. In the event Tom stepped up to the plate by using a Ramblers’ app on his phone. He was assisted by a lady who emerged as we were enjoying a lively Pietime outside her house. Instead of admonishing us, she produced a photocopy of a detailed local map for our onward journey .
We walked out of the back of Miry Meadows car park and turned right along an informal path which went down to a cobbled road with The Roebuck on our right. We turned left, passing the church of St Thomas Becket on our left before heading right (4mins) and following a series of marked footpaths which took us down alleys, over two streams and through a housing estate until we reached and crossed the busy A6 (16mins).
The well-trodden path continued on the far side until we reached a T-junction where we turned right (23mins). We headed uphill past Bowden Head Fold on our left (31mins). When we reached a T-junction we went straight on following a wooden public footpath sign (34mins). A gate led us through the edge of a wood and when we left it by another gate we headed downhill, crossed a footbridge and turned left (45mins)
After going through a wooden gate marked with a yellow arrow (48mins) we reached a lane and turned right, passing Royche Farm on our left.
At this stage your diarist handed over the leadership to Tom who, after consulting the Ramblers’ app on his phone, advised us to ignore a wooden public footpath sign on our left (51mins) and continue along the lane which passed Malcoff Farm on our left.
Outside an impressive house called Cobstones (65mins) we paused for pies and port. As we enjoyed damson gin provided by Chris and a mature sloe gin from Alastair a lady emerged from a house to the right of a wooden public footpath sign. When we described our plight she returned indoors and emerged with a photocopy of a large-scale map and gave it to us along with verbal directions.
Resuming we followed the sign pointing uphill and went through a five-barred wooden gate into a field, keeping a drystone wall on our right (76mins). We crossed a wooden stile in the right hand corner of the field (82mins) and used stepping stones to cross a babbling brook. After climbing up the bank we crossed a wooden stile (85mins) and walked through a field before passing Bettfield Clough Cottage on our left (94mins).
The route brought us to a main road which we crossed and went over a wooden stile marked with a yellow arrow (99mins). After going through a metal gate (102mins) we turned left at a wooden public footpath sign (103mins) and crossed a stone step stile to reach a lane (105mins). After some debate, in which both the photocopied map and the map on the phone were turned round several times, Tom directed us left downhill.
We reached a house called Stonyford on our left (110mins) and a further check revealed that not only were we heading in the right direction but we were on the lane which would lead us into Sparrowpit. Let the bells ring, let trumpets sound and let joy be unconfined throughout the land !
We followed this winding lane until it passed the sign for Sparrowpit and its Methodist Church on our left (130mins) before reaching The Wanted Inn on our left (133mins). Colin was already in situ, having walked from Doveholes, and bought us all pints of Farmers Blonde and Pedigree cask bitter.
The pub, once called The Devonshire Arms, was put up for sale in the 1970s but attracted no offers and became known locally as The Unwanted Inn. When it was eventually bought and reopened, it was renamed The Wanted Inn. Sparrowpit stands on a watershed. It was said that if a bucket of water was thrown out of the front door of The Wanted Inn, it would flow westwards and make its way into The Irish Sea. If water was thrown out of the back door it would head eastwards to join The North Sea.
With Colin now leading we turned right out of the pub and retraced our steps past Sparrowpit Methodist Church but continued beyond the lane on our right by which we had entered the village. We passed a water trough which was the site of an old well on our left and turned right at the second of two wooden public footpath signs on our right (140mins)
This took us through a field towards a stone hut where we entered another field and crossed a wooden stile by the side of Goldfinch Farm (144mins). After crossing another wooden stile and a stone step stile (145mins) we stopped for lunch before crossing another stone step stile and heading downhill past Upper Bagshaw Farm (153mins)
We then followed a flagged path laid out in much the same way as The Virgins’ Path linking the villages of Rainow and Bollington, causing our new leader to speculate whether this was another centuries-old kindness by farmers to help local brides on the way to church in Chapel through muddy fields.
After crossing a wooden stile (165mins) and a wooden footbridge ((168mins) we turned right and emerged on a main road (170mins). We crossed it and turned left towards Chapel. As we did so we passed a sign “Chapel-en-le-Frith: Capital of the Peak: Home of Ferodo.”
Ferodo was founded in 1897 by Herbert Frood. It started the manufacture of friction products, especially braking materials, in Gorton in 1901 and moved to Chapel the following year. Ferodo UK became part of Turner and Newall in 1926. In 1998 Turner and Newall was acquired by automotive group Federal Mogul.
FM got into financial difficulties because of claims for death and illness caused by the use of asbestos in the braking products. It went into administration in 2001 with a pension deficit of £400million. FM is now part of Federal Mogul Aftermarket UK Ltd, which invested in £13million of new equipment in 2012. A UK Asbestos Trust was established to deal with further claims.
We passed The Shoulder of Mutton on our right and the Town Hall on our left before turning right up Church Brow (184mins) and passing The Roebuck (187mins) on our way back to the car park. After de-booting we returned to The Roebuck to enjoy pints of Tetleys’ cask bitter for £3.
Photos by Steve Kemp
Next week’s walk will start at 9.45am at Barber Booth on a car park on the road on the left to Upper Booth 200 yards beyond the railway viaduct. It is intended to stop for a stiffener in The Nag’s Head at Edale around 12.30pm before returning to the cars and driving to The Wanted Inn at Sparrowpit at about 2.30pm.
Happy wandering !
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