Bosley

April 25, 2018.

BOSLEY LAY- BY, LYMFORD WORKS, TOFTGREENFARM, CLOUD HOUSE FARM, BOSLEY CLOUD, TIMBERS BROOK C.P.,OVEREDGE, DANE IN SHAW, MACCLESFIELD CANAL, LAMBERT’S LANE MANY STREETS THROUGH CONGLETON, CONGELTON TOWN PARK, CONGELTON INDUSTRIAL PARK, CHESHIRE BREWERY, HOUSING ESTATES (VARIOUS) MACCLESFIELD CANAL, LYMFORD WORKS, BOSLEY

Distance: 11 miles.

Difficulty: Hard then Easy.

Weather: Sunshine and showers

Walkers: Chris Owen, Tom Cunliffe,Mick Barrett, Laurie Fairman and visitor Dave.

Non-walking drinker: None

Apologies: Generally no idea except for Alan Hart (Taiwan), Peter Beal (Theatre), Colin Davison (indisposed) and Steve Kemp( gym workout) George Dearsley (Turkey)

Leader: Owen Diarist: Fairman

Starting point: Lay-by opposite the church on A523 Bosley.

Starting time: 9.50am. Finishing time: 3.45pm.

This as a new route ably conducted by Chris (god knows how he remembered it). Badly reported by Laurie who with typical scientific training had both neither pen nor paper (and in truth little inclination as for most of the route he concentrated in not losing the leaders being at the back with Mick)

A note for future walks – the lay-by is always nearly full as there is no car park at the school; so it is used by teachers and other staff. We managed to get 3 cars in and set off across the A523 to the parish church. The footpath lies between the church and the vicarage and falls away down a muddy track to the yard of the mill. (15mins)

The mill is on the R.Dane and in times past there were two water mills by the bridge. These were demolished and replaced by Wood Mills who were producing fine powdered wood for the plastics industry

Just after 9am on Friday 17th July 2015 the Service was called to a report of an explosion at a wood mill in Bosley

Confirmation has been received that there were 35 people who have been directly affected by the incident. Four were treated at the scene for breathing difficulties and a further four were taken to hospital for treatment – one of those was in a serious condition.

There were 15 fire engines at the scene dealing with the aftermath of two explosions. It is believed at an early stage that four people were trapped.

The incident involved the collapse of a four storey building. There was a fully developed fire in several areas.

A further four people remained unaccounted for. A safety cordon was been set up around the scene and nearby Bollin Mill Road was shut.

It is not until the 20th July that two bodies were found and a third on the 23rd.

The firefighters did not extinguish all the blaze until the 20th August when they handed the site over to the Cheshire Constabulary, the remains of the 4th man were never found.

The inquiry has not yet been completed.

Oddly enough the remaining buildings were being used by a pallet (plastic) company for storage!

We crossed the bridge and continued up the country lane a steep climb towards Toftgreen farm where we turned left and took the footpath on the left directly up the hill to Pedly lane passing a new substantial bungalow guarded by two black bulls that obviously preferred food to sex or fighting and studiously ignored us. When we reached Pedly lane we turned left and followed the road to the steps leading to the Cloud. The summit was reached at 11.50 exactly 60 mins since the start.

Leaving the beautiful views of Cheshire in the showery rain we followed the Gritstone Trail to Timbersbrook C.P. where we enjoyed a break on a newly provided picnic table – Chris dispensing damson gin (120mins).

We set off following the G T towards Congleton until we reached the outskirts of the town on the Macclesfield canal. Here we turned left along the canal passing the Queens Head (a sometime watering hole) at opening time but Chris couldn’t be stopped. On and on we went reaching Lamberts lane before turning right for the town (150mins)

When the lane ended we followed various roads to the centre of the town.

Congleton became notorious in the 1620s when bear-baiting, as well as cockfighting, were popular sports. The town was unable to attract large crowds to its bear-baiting contests and lacked the money to pay for a new, more aggressive bear. The town used money it had saved to buy a Bible and it replenished the fund with the income from the increased number of spectators. It became legend that Congleton sold its Bible to pay for a new bear. The chorus of 20th-century folk song "Congleton Bear", by folk artist John Tams, runs:

Congleton Rare, Congleton Rare

Sold the Bible to buy a bear.

The legend earned Congleton the nickname 'Beartown'.

Here with the troops getting restless Chris informed us the Weatherspoons was down the road left, but he had a treat if we continued on. Down across the main roads right along the A336 then a few shimmies around the houses . At this point being lost and almost dying of thirst the names escape me. However we found the town park and after it the industrial estate. Passing alone a hedge in one of the lanes I saw a sign “Beer turn left” we were nearly there!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So we were the brewery, (Cheshire brewery)located in an industrial back street, it  had a bar and beer “garden” but best of all a lovely clear hoppy brew named IPA for £3 a pint (185mins).

Reluctantly leaving, having avoided a shower, we made our way through playing fields, housing estates etc till we reached the Macclesfield canal at bridge 65. We followed this northwards i.e. turned left, to bridge no 57 where we left the canal crossed a field by the river to reach the mill ( 260mins). We retraced our steps up to the church and the cars de-booting in heavy rain after a long interesting walk (290mins)

I write this with a warning – do not take this account as a guide – se Chris for details or you will get lost

Next week’s walk will start at 9.30am from the road outside the Cock inn at Whaley Bridge. We intend to reach Shady Oak to knock the froth off a couple around 12.2 5pm before returning for a final pint at Cock at about 2.25pm.

Happy wandering !

Rowarth

April 18, 2018

Rowarth and Mill Hill

LITTLE MILL IN AT ROWARTH, KNARRS FARM, BURNT HILL, MILL HILL, PARK HALL, LANTERN PIKE INN AT LITTLE HAYFIELD, CLOUGH MILL, HIGHER HARTHILL FARM, ROWARTH

Distance: 9 miles

Difficulty: Fairly hard

Weather: Dry and bright, very warm later

Walkers: Peter Beal, Tom Cunliffe, Colin Davison, Laurie Fairman, Mark Gibby, Hughie Harriman, Alan Hart, Chris Owen, George Whaites

 Apologies: Micky Barrett (Turkey), Alastair Cairns (domestic duties), Steve Kemp (gardening), Jock Rooney (injured), Julian Ross (w^*king)

Leader: Cunliffe Diarist: Beal

Starting point: Little Mill Inn, Rowarth

Starting time: 9.43am Finishing time: 2.30pm

Our nine walkers were blessed with kind weather for what can be one of our more arduous regular excursions (albeit in reverse) - the ascent of the Kinder Scout outlier Mill Hill and the following descent over rough ground.

Our route allowed Tom a return visit to his former hostelry of the Lantern Pike Inn, where the beer at £3-85 for a pint of Taylor's Landlord caused some of us to reflect we might have been a little harsh on his pricing policy during his tenure.

We left the car park of the Little Mill Inn, turned right and immediately right again up a concrete track that soon narrowed to a rocky path bringing us to the attractive hamlet of Rowarth.

Here, at the doorless village 'phone box, we turned right through a gate on to a path that brought us to a stile which we crossed to reach a lane and a ford over a stream (6 minutes). Just after the ford we turned left across the stream on a wooden footbridge.

We followed the stream through a section of sparse and muddly woodland, crossed another stile and reached another ford (14 min). A short section of track led to a gate and broken stile, on the other side of which was a road giving access to two houses and a farm.

We followed the lane uphill with the upland of Cown Edge over on our left before reaching a turn-off to a track rising on our right (20 min). At the top of the track (27 min) we turned left through a gate giving access to the short expanse of Matley Moor. This path emerged on a bend on the same lane we had followed, at a makeshift barn with hay for horses (34 min).

Here we turned right through a gate and crossed a stile in to a field churned up by the horses and climbed gently to another stile, through a second field and over a shallow stile to bring us to Knarrs Farm, where extensive building work is under way (42 min).

We took a track to the left, which brought us down to the familiar Monks Road, used in former times by the clerics of Basingwerk Abbey (48 min). We turned right and soon reached the junction with the main Hayfield to Glossop road (54 min).

Crossing this, a stile lead to open moorland, up which a path climbed steadily to a fence and gate giving access to the National Trust's Kinder estate (65 min). Shortly after this the path became flagged with large setts, most of which have been recovered from Lancashire mills, stretching all the way to Mill Hill's summit.

We crossed the promontory of Burnt Hill (72 min) and continued up the heather-clad moor, pausing for pietime at a hollow before the summit, bearing the remains of one of the Dark Peak's many aircraft wrecks (92 min).

The story of this has been recounted before but is worth repeating briefly. It is the remains of a then-brand new US Air Force Liberator that on October 11, 1944, was on its maiden delivery flight from the US base at Burtonwood near Warrington to RAF Hardwick in East Anglia.

The pilot was the gloriously-named 2nd Lt Creighton R.Houpt, who had apparently ignored or misheard warnings from his flight engineer, Staff Sergeant Jerome Navjar, that he had spotted through a gap in the clouds that they were only 150 feet above the ground.

The plane crashed but the two survived to make their way the one-and-a-half miles to the Glossop road, where they were picked up by a lorry driver. The only injury was Creighton's broken jaw, which it was suspected had been inflicted by Jerome when he landed one on him in frustration at his woeful piloting skills.

We resumed and climbed the remaining short distance to the summit of Mill Hill at 1,761ft above sea level (99 min).

A large post once marked the top here, but now only the rocky cairn in which it was planted remains.

Here Tom demonstrated his leadership technique, which might be kindly described as gung-ho, by enquiring as to the general way downward and then plunging off through the heather, leaving some of the Wanderers scattered like chaff in the wind.

We  followed the boggy ridge downhill until reaching the head of a peaty stream where the last in a line of shooting butts (No 9) marked the point where we should cross (122 min).

We (or at least your diarist and Laurie, and initially Colin and George - the others now being mere specks in the distance) followed a faint path down through the moorland to reach the lowest of the shooting butts (134 min). Below this we reached a track (141 min) and crossed straight over on another path to descend to a stream, and just above it a large gate giving access to the Park Hall estate (153 min). Colin and George had wandered elsewhere off in to the moorland at this point, George having thankfully survived unharmed a fall in a steep peat grough.

We turned left to follow the track through the Park Hall estate, emerged on the Glossop road and turned right to soon arrive at the Lantern Pike Inn (159 min). Despite the lack of Tom's cheery bonhomie behind the bar the beer was generally deemed to be satisfactory, despite the eye-watering price. It must have been,as we stopped for two.

Resuming, we turned right out of the pub, immediately right again down Slack Lane, and through a gate taking us past Clough Mill apartments, the former residence of our blogmaster George.

We turned right across a footbridge and stile and ascended a flagged path across a field to reach a cottage, where we crossed two stiles and took a narrow path uphill to the right. After another two stiles we ascended with woods on our right to reach a stile where lunch was declared (180 min).

Here our party split again, our leader and five followers heading for the ridge to the right of Lantern Pike to reach a track where they descended to Rowarth. Your diarist, Laurie and George took the gentler option and crossed the moor to a six-way signpost and a gate leading to a track to the left (196 mins).

We followed this for a short distance, before bearing left towards the large gates of a house, but immediately taking a stile to the right, leading to a path through fields.

This brought us to Higher Harthill Farm (211 min), where we crossed a stile to take us on to a lane leading down to the ford we had crossed at the start of the walk. From here we retraced our footsteps to the Little Mill (228min), where the Jenning's Cumberland was a more reasonable £3-20.

Next week's walk, exploring new ground, will start at 9.50am at the Harrington Arms on the A523 at Bosley (postcode SK11 0PH). This must not be confused with the Harrington Arms at Gawsworth, not far away (who was this Harrington bloke?). Refreshments will be taken en route in Congleton at Wetherspoons (no dogs) or at a nearby pub around 12.30pm.

Walkers please note that your regular diarist Alan (in Taiwan) and his humble deputy (taking wife to theatre) have already tendered their apolgies so someone else will have to sharpen their ballpoint.

Happy Wandering!

   

Miller's Dale

April 11, 2018.

MEAL MILL AT MILLER’S DALE, WYE VALLEY, RAVENSTOR YOUTH HOSTEL, LITTON MILL, CRANSIDE WOOD NATURE RESERVE, CRESSBROOK MILL, RAVENSDALE, TANLEY DALE, HOLBORN HOUSE, THE RED LION AT LITTON, HONEYPOT COTTAGE, TIDESWELL SEWAGE TREATMENT WORKS, TIDESWELL DALE, WYE VALLEYAND THE ANGLERS REST AT MILLER’S DALE

Distance: Eight miles.

Difficulty: Easy.

Weather: Cloudy but dry with some mist on the hills.

Walkers: Peter Beal, Tom Cunliffe, Colin Davison, Alan Hart, Chris Owen and George Whaites.

Non-walking drinker: Jock Rooney with Tip.

Apologies: Alastair Cairns (wife’s birthday), George Dearsley (in Turkey), Lawrie Fairman  (beauty treatment), Mark Gibby (exhausted), Hughie Hardiman (filial duties), Steve  Kemp  (poorly)

Leader: Davison. Diarist: Hart.

Starting point: Lay-by next to site of Meal Mill at Miller’s Dale, Derbyshire.

Starting time: 10.07am. Finishing time: 2.21pm.

The route for this walk along the Wye Valley took us past three historic mills, which each provided an insight into the history of this picturesque part of the Peak District. Any hills we had to climb were gentle and we were grateful that a large proportion of our journey was on tarmac rather than through the ankle-deep mud found on many footpaths at this time of year.

Colin’s leadership demonstrated two distinct styles. In the first half he resembled a sheepdog as he urged his flock along from the rear. After Pietime he shot off ahead with Tom leaving the rest of us to follow in their vapour trail. They had surged in front when a group of women arrived at a tricky part of the path from the opposite direction. As the rest of the Wanderers exercised chivalrous respect for the weaker sex (Julian: Is this PC ?), Colin and Tom weaved round them and disappeared into the mist.

Happily we chased them down and Colin remembered his duties to guide the group safely to the pub for a livener. In The Red Lion at Litton we were joined by Jock and Tip. We were pleased to see the former, who has long-term injury problems, and Tip was overjoyed to see us.

Earlier we had assembled outside the site of Miller’s Dale Meal Mill, whose water wheel is now stationary and covered in weeds. In its heyday it was used to grind meal for animal fodder. It was owned by the Duke of Devonshire and worked by several generations of the Dakin family. The freehold was bought in the 18^th Century and it was run by two brothers until they both died in the winter of 1912/13. The mill closed in 1920.

With the mill on our right we walked uphill passing The Anglers Rest on our left. Once again there was no apostrophe to indicate how many anglers rested there. Are the police powerless to stop this crime against English grammar ? When will the Home Secretary act ?

Soon the River Wye was on our right as we passed the entrance to Ravenstor Youth Hostel on our left (18mins) before reaching Litton Mill (23mins)

This was set up in 1782 by two farmers who found difficulty in hiring a workforce from the farm labourers in the sparsely-populated area. It became notorious for its use of The Poor Law Act of 1601 which provided for “the putting out of children to be apprentices.”

A churchwarden, or beadle, would agree with an employer to give work training to a pauper. At Litton Mill these urchins worked long hours in dangerous conditions, were given bad food and they were beaten and abused. So many children died that their bodies were taken to many churchyards outside Litton to be buried in paupers’ graves without drawing undue attention. The plight of such paupers was highlighted by journalist and author Charles Dickens in Oliver Twist.

Litton Mill was damaged by fire in 1874 and bought by Matthew Dickie, a Stockport millowner, in 1893. He also took over nearby Cressbrook Mill and set up The Litton and Cressbrook Mills Company. Dickie had Ravenstor built as his family home in Miller’s Dale and it passed into The National Trust in 1937 with 64 acres of land before being leased to The Youth Hostels Association.

After passing the mill building, which has since been converted into apartments, we continued along the trail into Cranside Wood Nature Reserve (31mins). Because of work on The Monsal Trail we were diverted left (45mins) and passed Cressbrook Mill on our right (48mins)

This was constructed alongside the Wye by Richard Arkwright, a pioneer of the Industrial Revolution, and later bought by Henry McConnel, who built a model village in Cressbrook. His descendant, David Cannon McConnel, emigrated to Australia in 1840 and established the Cressbrook Homestead in Queensland.

After passing the mill we reached a road and turned left uphill. When we approached the summit at a sign for Ravensdale we paused for pies, port and damson gin provided by Chris (57mins). Resuming, we followed the road marked “Ravensdale No Through Road” and crossed a wooden footbridge over Cress Brook (84mins)

We went through a wooden gate (95mins) and re-crossed the brook by a wooden footbridge on our left (102mins) to enter Tanley Dale. We went through a wooden gate marked with a yellow arrow(111mins). The path took us to a metal gate (114mins) which we went through and turned left for 30 yards before going right over a stone step stile.

After crossing a field we reached a row of cottages and turned left over a stone step stile to exit the field (118mins). We passed Holborn House on our left and forked right away from the main road to pass Litton Primary School on our right and reach The Red Lion on our right (121mins)

This was a traditional country pub which in recent times has adapted itself to the demand for meals. Bakewell cask bitter was in good form but cost an eye-watering £3-90 a pint.  A list of landlords showed that Thomas Sellers and his descendants had run the pub from 1787 until 1861.

Suitably refreshed we turned right out of the pub passing Honeypot Cottage, built in 1828, on our right. We reached a main road (135mins) and turned left, passing Tideswell Sewage Treatment Works on our right (139mins). We crossed the road to follow a wooden public footpath sign(140mins) which brought us to public toilets (144mins) Here we again encountered Jock, whom we had left in the pub, loitering with Tip.

After pausing for lunch at a bench next to the toilets, we continued, turning right over a wooden footbridge (149mins). The path took us through a wooden gate (157mins) into Tideswell Dale. We crossed another wooden footbridge (160mins) and went right through a car park (162mins) to reach a lane and turn left.

After passing the entrance to Ravenstor Youth Hostel on our right (168mins) we reached The Anglers Rest on our right (179mins). Here the Tetleys’ cask bitter and The Farmers Blonde were in fine fettle at £3 a pint.

Next week’s walk will start at 9.35am from the car park of The Little Mill Inn at Rowarth. We intend to reach The Lantern Pike Inn at Little Hayfield to knock the froth off a couple around 12.15pm before returning for a final pint at The Little Mill at about 2.15pm.

Happy wandering !

Wood Lanes

April 4, 2018

Wood Lanes

MINERS ARMS AT WOOD LANES, HARROP BROW, BIRCHENCLIFF, DALE TOP, SPONDS HILL, BRINK FARM, BRINK BROW, ANDREW'S KNOB, BERRISTALL HALL, HARROP BROOK, THE HOLLY BUSH AT BOLLINGTON, CLARENCE MILL, MACCLESFIELD CANAL

Distance: 10 miles

Difficulty: Moderate

Weather: Mainly dry with occasional spots of rain

Walkers: Peter Beal, Colin Davison, Laurie Fairman, Hughie Harriman, Alan Hart, George Whaites

B walkers: Phil Burslem, Tony Job, Terry Jowett, Ken Sparrow, Geoff Spurrell, Barry Williams

Apologies: Alastair Cairns, Mark Gibby, Chris Owen (all walking the Coast to Coast), Tom Cunliffe (heading to join them), Steve Kemp (poorly), Jock Rooney (back and knee trouble)

Leader: Beal Diarist: Beal

Starting point: Miners Arms, Wood Lanes

Starting time: 9.27am Finishing time: 2.21pm

Today's walk saw a new route, a first en-route refreshment stop in Bollington that anyone could remember and a new watering hole in The Holly Bush, which proved to be cosy and welcoming.

Gloomy weather predictions proved unfounded, as seems to happen so often of late, and our main hazard was thick mud on much of the route, which nevertheless failed to claim any fallers.

Alan, who made a weekend visit to the Yorkshire Dales, to join our three chums walking Wainwright's Coast to Coast, reported them fit and in good heart midway through their journey, although later they had to amend their route as blizzards swept Swaledale.

We left the Miners Arms (apostrophe sadly missing) car park, turned right and at the road junction turned left to cross theMacclesfield Canal, with Lyme View marina on our left. We continued along a metalled lane to reach a farm (9 minutes). Here we crossed two stiles in to a field, turned sharp right to reach a double stile and scale that in to another field, where we aimed diagonally right to reach a small gate leading us in to a hedged footpath.

We went through a large metal gate and emerged on the Pott Shrigley road (17 min). We turned right here, passed the Coffee Tavern on our left and turned left along a lane leading to the hamlet of Birchencliff, a charming collection of restored cottages in former farm buildings (27 min).

Here, we went through a gate, crossed a ford and headed upwards with the outskirts of Lyme Park ahead of us. At a T-junction we turned left along another track and soon reached the tree-surrounded Keeper's Cottage (38 min).

We turned right here to climb steadily up the moorland, following the line of a broken wall on our left. We crested the hill at Dale Top (51 min), crossed a stile and descended briefly before climbing again with the white farmhouse of Bowstonegate visible over to our left.

After crossing another stile (68 min) we reached the track from Bowstones (71 min) and turned right towards Sponds Hill, the highest point on the Gritstone Trail. As we started to descend we found a hollow in a mound on the slope providing some shelter from the wind and declared pietime and port, kindly provided by Alan (91 min). There were excellent views here towards Taxall Nick and Windgather Rocks.

Resuming, we descended quickly to the mud-covered Charles Head to Pott Shrigley road and turned right to reach Brinks Farm. Here we turned left through a gate along a muddy track (100 min) before heading off over open fields, following a line of posts marking the route of the Gritstone Trail.

We slanted right uphill across a broken wall (108 min) to follow a path through trees, emerging on a driveway near a cattle grid (113 min).

We turned left here to follow a wall on our left taking us across the flank of Andrew's Knob, a medieval barrow. This modest hill featured recently in a poll of the rudest place names in the UK.

It was sadly outdone by (and readers of a sensitive nature should skip this paragraph) by:

Titty Ho (Hants), Back Passage (City of London), Fine Bush Lane (West London), Crapstone (Devon), Sluts Hole Lane (Norfolk), Penistone (South Yorks), Dick Place (Edinburgh), Pennycomequick Hill (Plymouth), Minge Lane (Worcester) and Butt Hole Road (West Yorks). End of childish sniggering please.

After two fields we turned left through a rusty gate and descended down a muddy path with a wood on our left. We came to a gate with the farmhouse of Berristall Hall below us and again followed Gritstone Trail posts down a slippy slope to reach the farm's duckpond (131 min).

We skirted this on the right on a very muddy track and then dropped down to a small packhorse bridge over a stream (136 min). We climbed through a field to reach a road at the house and cottages on the site of the former Cheshire Hunt pub (145 min).

We followed this a short distance to a road, where we turned left, bearing right at a fork, then right again at the Poacher's pub. This brought us in to Bollington, where we turned left, passed Smith's pie shop and reached the Holly Bush (161 min).

Here Hughie generously treated the company to pints of Unicorn (£3-30) to mark his recent 54th birthday, ranking him as a mere stripling among the Wanderers. Despite the apparent inability of the barmaid to replace a barrel of Guinness, the pub was generally regarded as a welcome addition to our drinking repertoire.

We turned right out of the pub down Bollington's main street and just before the aqueduct took a road on the right to climb to the Macclesfield Canal at the massive Clarence Mill (171 min), a former cotton spinnng works that had 320 looms, and opened three years after the canal was built in 1831. It now houses apartments, small businesses, a radio station and the Bollington Discovery Centre, a heritage project.

We crossed an impressive footbridge, built in 2009, to reach the canal towpath and turned right on the straightfoward three-mile route back to Wood Lanes, keeping on the towpath to the left of the canal all the way.

Back at the Miners Arms the staff were having similar difficulties with their beer barrels before finally producing pint of Wells' Bombardier and Jennings' Cumberland at £3-25 and £3-20 respectively.

We found the six B walkers already ensconced here, having completed a route of around five miles in to and out of Lyme Park, calling at the Boar's Head in Higher Poynton.

Next week's walk will start at the Angler's Rest in Millers Dale (parking on the road) at 9.50am. We will call at the Red Lion in Litton for refreshment at 12.15pm, returning to the Angler's around 2.15pm.