Buxworth

Buxworth

February 19, 2020

NAVIGATION INN AT BUGSWORTH BASIN, STATION ROAD, KNOWLTOP FARM, DOLLY LANE, SHEDYARD PIECE, OVEN HILL ROAD, OLLERSETT MOOR, COTE BANK, THE OLD HALL INN AT WHITEHOUGH, PEAK FOREST TRAMWAY TRAIL, BUGSWORTH BASIN

Distance: 6.5 miles

Difiiculty: Easy but very muddy underfoot

Weather: Dank and overcast, rain in later stages

Walkers: Micky Barrett, Peter Beal, Andy Blease, Tom Cunliffe and Daisy, Jock Rooney and Tip, Alan Hart, John Jones, Chris Owen, Dean Taylor, John Wigley

Non-walking drinker and cyclist (electrically aided): Colin Davison

Apologies: Laurie Fairman (lecturing on Artic cruise), Alastair Cairns (flooding worries at home), George Whaites (medical appointment), Julian Ross (Antipodes), Hughie Hardiman (Texas), Mark Gibby (familial duties in Ripon)

Leader: Jones Diarist: Beal

Starting point: Navigation Inn, Bugsworth Basin

Starting time: 9.39am Finishing time: 1.32pm

Given the recent rainfalls of Biblical proportions, it was no surprise that today's route through the countryside above the Goyt Valley was extremely wet underfoot – so much so that it slowed our progress.

Nevertheless, we were cheered by a visit to one of the Wanderers' favourite pubs – the Old Hall – and were spared the worst of the weather until some rain in the later stages.

The walk involved a rare start for the Wanderers from Buxworth, a small village in the valley of the Black Brook, with an interesting history. Until 1930 it was called Bugsworth – formerly Buggesworth - a name disliked by its residents, who were referred to by those in surrounding villages as 'Buggies'.

A campaign led by the local headmaster and the vicar resulted in the name change – although the beautifully restored canal basin still carries the old name. And those living there are still called 'Buggies'. A ballot in 1999 on whether to revert to the traditional name resulted in a vote against by 233 votes to 139.

Our ten-strong group turned right from the car park of the Navigation Inn – once owned by the late Coronation Street actress Pat Phoenix – in to Brookside and climbed the road to join Station Road.

We turned right again, passed under a railway bridge and soon after turned left up a track marked by a footpath fingerpost which brought us in to the yard of Knowltop Farm (14 minutes). A footpath sign on a gate led us out in to a series of open and extremely muddy fields, some with awkward stiles to negotiate.

After four such fields, with the path mostly well-marked, we descended slightly as the path ran alongside the Manchester to Sheffield rail line, with its embankment on our left. Here we attracted the attentions of an inquisitive young Gloucester Old Spot pig (see Alan's picture).

We came to a track which passed under the railway but continued on the path, soon climbing another tricky stile on the right to head uphill through a field. This brought us to Dolly Lane (34 min), where we turned left and immediately right over a another stile to make a steep and muddy climb up another field.

At the top we followed a broken wall in to a copse of trees and bore right again steadily uphill to reach a well-defined track (71 min). This is known locally – and correctly – as Oven Hill Road, although marked on OS maps as Over Hill Road. Interestingly, the Ordnance Survey recently admitted to putting deliberate, but inconsequential, mistakes,

in to their mapping as a way of checking whether their copyright was being breached. Could this be an instance?

We turned left along the track, down a dip, and climbed shortly to a crossroads, where we turned right at a bridleway sign. Shortly afterwards pie time was declared (86 min). After a welcome infusion of port supplied by Alan, we followed the wet path, fed by a spring, to a gate, where the way ahead climbed sharply to bring us to another five-barred gate and another bridleway (101 min).

A path ahead would have taken us on our intended route to Big Stone and Cracken Edge, but our leader for the day John, with an eye on the clock, decided instead to turn right along the bridleway, which descended to bring us again to Oven Hill Road, now a metalled surface, near the farmstead of Throstle Bank (128 min).

We turned left along the road and soon reached a stile on our right, which took us down through fields and included a stretch where it ran straight through the garden of the house at Cote Bank. We bore left here, past the farmhouse at Tithe Barn, and turned right to drop down to the Chinley Road. We turned left here and shortly after took a road on the right signed to the Stephanie Works plastics factory. We crossed a dip on the road and climbed to soon reached The Old Hall Inn at Whitehough (151 min).

Here we found Colin waiting for us, having travelled from home on his e-bike, joining the Peak Foest Canal in Disley. Wainwright Golden Ale was on offer at a very reasonable £3-20.

The Old Hall, run by landlord Dan Capper with his parents' help for several years, has always proved most welcoming to the Wanderers and today, although young Dan was not in evidence, was no exception.

Refreshed, we resumed our brief walk back to Buxworth. We turned right out of the pub and retraced our steps down the road until reaching a sign on the left signalling the Peak Forest Tramway Trail.

Original plans for the Peak Forest Canal had been to extend it as far as Doveholes to give access to the many quarries in the area. However, this idea was abandoned, the terminus built at Bugsworth and a six-mile tramway constructed to move the stone. The rails can still be seen on sections of the trail.

The completion of the canal in 1798 transformed sleepy Bugsworth in to the largest inland port in the country, with moorings for 100 barges. It was restored by volunteers to reopen in 2005 for leisure boaters and is now a Grade 1 Industrial Archeological site.

We turned on to the Trail which initially runs through the plastics factory site, where on its former mill pond we saw a lone black swan. There used to be two here for many years. The fate of the other is unknown but the couple obviously never produced cygnets.

Alan span me the unlikely tale that this could be because large numbers of the breed (cygnus atratus if you want to know) are in fact gay. But sure enough brief research revealed the fact that a quarter of black swan couplings are in fact of a homosexual nature.

Male pairs have been known to 'adopt' cygnets from a flock or to form temporary relationships with female swans to gain access to their offspring. It is amazing what you can learn on a Wednesday walk.

We continued along the trail with Black Brook on our right, swollen by the rains which by now had started to fall again, causing us to igmore lunch and press on, reaching the Navigation only 22 minutes after leaving the Old Hall (173 minutes), at an earlier hour than usual at 1.32pm.

Pints of Timothy Taylor Landlord at this traditional and pleasant canal pub were a rather steep £4-20.

Next week's walk will start from Dane Bridge,near Wincle, at 9.40am. Parking is on the road just before the bridge. We will walk over Minn End and Croker Hill, calling at the Ryles Arms around 12.30pm before returning for refreshment at the Ship Inn around 2.15pm.

Happy wandering!

Pictures by Alan Hart