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!