Mellor Boundary

 July 6,2022

MELLOR BOUNDARY WALK

BRABYN’S PARK, MARPLE BRIDGE, LONGHURST LANE, TOWNCLIFFE LANE, MILL BROW, HOLLYWOOD END, SMITHY LANE, CLOUGHEND, PISTOL FARM, GUN ROAD, SHILOH ROAD, POLE LANE, CASTLE EDGE FARM, SHAW FARM, FOX INN AT BROOKBOTTOM, STRINES STATION, ROMAN LAKES, MELLOR MILL, LOW LEA ROAD, MARPLE BRIDGE

Distance: 10.5 miles Total ascent/descent: 1,550 ft

Difficulty: Moderate

Weather: Dank and drizzly at first, cleared later.

Walkers: Micky Barrett, Peter Beal, Andy Blease, Alastair Cairns, Tom Cunliffe with Daisy, Mark Enright, Hughie Hardiman, Chris Owen, Dean Taylor, Keith Welsh, Simon Williams, Cliff Worthington

Alternative walkers: Jock Rooney with Milly

Apologies: Alan Hart (in Lakes), George Dearsley (Turkey), Dave Willetts (France), Julian Ross (Cornwall), Mark Gibby (shielding before family wedding)

Leader: Beal Diarist: Beal

Starting point: Brabyn’s Park, Marple Bridge

Start time: 9.39am Finishing time: 2.38pm

A good turn-out of 12 walkers came to Marple Bridge for what was a new and fairly gentle route for the Wanderers, despite being over 10 miles. Dreary dank weather to start with lifted fairly soon and our walk was largely dry. We were also pleased to welcome Tom for his first full outing since his recent op and he reported completing it with no ill effects.

The Mellor Boundary Walk was conceived in May 1992 by the Mellor Society around the parish boundary, athough the route strays occasionally from Greater Manchester in to Derbyshire.

We left the Brabyn’s Park free car park, turned left at the road, and crossed at the pedestrian lights in to Marple Bridge Town Street. This led us to Longhurst Lane and at the brow of the hill, where a postbox was set in to the wall, we turned left then immediately right in to the roughly-surfaced Towncliffe Lane.

At the top of the lane at some cottages we bore left along a track signed Mill Brow. We soon came to a cobbled courtyard at cottages and went straight on, immediately taking a narrow path on the left. This went through a gate with the wooded valley of Mill Brook below us on the left. A second gate brought us in to an open field and we descended to reach a stile.

We crossed this to reach a track descending from our right. We turned left and left again at another surfaced track to cross a bridge over Mill Brook and ascend a surfaced lane. This emerged on a minor road opposite the Hare and Hounds pub in the hamlet of Mill Brow (34 minutes, 2 miles).

We turned right up the road here and where a road with a ‘no through road’ sign branched off on the left, we swung right to cross a bridge and took an unsigned track on the left past cottages at Hollywood End.

We went through a gate in to fields, where a distinctive green and white Peak and Northern Footpath Society sign on the stream bank pointed us towards Cown Edge via Ludworth Moor. The path went through a garden in front of two picturesque cottages and soon after we ignored a track in front of us and turned left to drop down to cross the stream on a small wooden bridge. The path climbed to a stile and through newly-planted saplings to a gate.

At the next lop-sided stile we ignored a small gate in front of us and bore left up a grassy field and right through a gate at the top, where we turned right to reach Smithy Lane (51 min). Immediately opposite was another path alongside farm buildings which we took, fording a stream and climbing on an indistinct path to skirt a house at Clough End (66 min).

We reached a minor road and immediately took a track on the right. Shortly after this swung sharply left we took an unsigned path uphill on the left that brought us to Gun Road which links New Mills and Charlesworth (74 min, 3 miles). We continued along the track opposite on a diversion on to Ludworth Moor that reduced the amount of road walking that was to follow.

We took the first path signed on our right and crossed a small ladder stile to cross moorland, took another stile and then a large wall stile on our right. Here we declared pietime (81 min) in rather a windy spot.

We crossed the field to cross yet another stile to join a track that brought us back on to Gun Road opposite Pistol Farm(91 min). We now faced an unavoidable mile-and-a-half road walk along Gun Road and Shiloh Road but dispatched it in 25 minutes of brisk marching. It took us past a development of smart apartments that some will remember as the Moorfield Arms pub before its closure many years ago.

It brought us to a road junction known locally as Five Lane Ends (125min, 5.5 miles), where we took the track immediately ahead of us marked on maps as Pole Lane. This took us past a covered reservoir on the left and arrived at a junction of tracks (137 min, 6 miles). We went straight on, on a surfaced road and almost immediately turned right towards Castle Edge farm.

We took a stile on the left, through a small gate. The path went through a series of small fields and over four stiles, after the last of which, at the foot of a copse of trees, we swung left downhill towards Shaw Farm. Here Chris made one of several attempts during the day to lead Wanderers off piste in directions wrong and unknown, but this was spotted and the situation retrieved.

At the farm buildings we crossed a stile in to the yard and at the other side went over a stile and took a small gate along a track. Here our way was blocked by a herd of large and severely incontinent cows. Chris to his credit took the initiative and forced his way thourgh, driving some of the beasts ahead of him. The rest of our band gingerly followed, not sure whether we should be more worried of being trampled or violently shat upon.

We were relived to soon reach a stile on the left which we crossed in to a wood and descended steeply to cross a wooden plank bridge. We climbed the bank opposite and went through a gap in the wall to descend on a stepped path, skirting a house, and going down a drive that brought us to the familiar sight of the Fox Inn in the hamlet of Brookbottom (163 min, 7 miles).

We enjoyed pints of Robinson’s Unicorn and a tasty new hoppy ale from them called Citra.

We were joined by Jock and his sheepdog puppy Milly, who had walked from Marple locks along the Peak Forest canal.

Resuming, we turned right out of the pub and immediately right again down a track signed as being the route of the Goyt Way, a 10-mile route between Whaley Bridge and the Etherow Country Park in Compstall near Marple. This descended to the railway station at Strines (187 min), where we crossed under the tracks on to cobbles.

The station and nearby New Mills Central station have been mooted as the inspiration for Edith’s Nesbit’s The Railway Children. She had visited her half-sister’s houses in Marple Bridge and later near Cobden Edge, Mellor, for holidays. Next to the Cobden Edge house was a property called Three Chimneys – the same name as the family house in the book. It is also said the location was more likely inspired by one in her native Kent – or probably a combination of the two.

At the end of the cobbles we took a track on the right, again signed Goyt Way. This climbed steadily to re-cross the Manchester to Sheffield railway line over a bridge, where we paused for a brief lunch, and at a track junction we bore left after some buildings. At another junction of paths we kept right, following a well-hidden Goyt Way sign down on a fencepost.

The path here had been much-improved recently, presumably by the local council. It took us again under the railway line and we soon reached the Roman Lakes on our right (223 min, 9 miles). These two lakes have no Roman links at all, but were so-named after being turned in to a Victorian tourist venue, following the destruction by fire of Samuel Oldknow’s nearby textile mill, for which they served as mill ponds. Similarly the so-called Roman bridge over the River Goyt which we passed a few minutes earlier, is in fact a 17^th century packhorse bridge.

The tearooms alongside the North Lake were open daily until recently but would now appear to restrict public opening to one Sunday a month, relying otherwise on private functions.

We continued along the good track, soon reaching remains of the mill, the largest of its kind in the world when it was built in1793. Some years ago the ruins were re-excavated and the site improved with information boards by the local historical society in an on-going project.

We turned right through the site along Bottoms Mill Road, which climbed before descending down Low Lea Road to the top of Marple Town Street (243 min, 10.5 miles). From here it was a short walk back to our cars.

Next week’s walk will start at 9.40am at the car park opposite The Wheatsheaf in Old Glossop, and climb Cock Hill on the way to Torside Clough. Refreshments will be at The Anchor in Hadfield around 12.30pm.

Wanderers may recall there was an abortive attempt on this route in January due to a path closure, so this time we will go for an alternative ascent.

Happy Wandering!