New Mills

 May 3, 2023.

NEW MILLS, THE TORRS RIVERSIDE PARK, GOYT VALLEY, GOWHOLE FARM, OLLERSETT MOOR, LITTLE RIDGE FARM, THE KINDER LODGE AT HAYFIELD, THE SETT VALLEY TRAIL, THE MASONS ARMS AT NEW MILLS

Distance: 8 miles.

Difficulty: Easy to moderate.

Weather: Dry with blue skies and sunshine.

Walkers: Peter Beal, Alastair Cairns, Mike Cassini, Tom Cunliffe with Daisy, Mark Enright, Mark Gibby, Alan Hart, John Jones, Chris Owen, Dean Taylor with Tommy, Dave Willetts.

Alternative walker: Jock Rooney with Milly.

Apologies: Andy Blease (family commitments), George Dearsley (in Turkey), Jonathan Hart (w^*king), Keith Welsh (dog at vets), Simon Williams (unspecified), Cliff Worthington (back injury)

Starting point: Free car park outside New Mills Leisure Centre, Hyde Bank Road, New Mills (SK22 4BP)

Starting time: 9.55am. Finishing time: 2.35pm.

                                                     

Despite Tom's assertions to the contrary, this was a new walk never attempted before by The Wednesday Wanderers although several sections of the route were familiar territory.

Four of the group started with prior approval from the last leg of the journey, completing the Sett Valley Trail before meeting their seven chums in the car park outside New Mills Leisure Centre. They were thus able to complete the walk when they neared their homes in Hayfield and Birch Vale. The seven wanderers who started from New Mills then joined the Trail at Hayfield and returned to New Mills.

From the path at the back of the car park, we turned right with the Leisure Centre entrance on our right. We walked under the road bridge and turned left following a sign for The Torrs (1min) to enter The Torrs Riverside Park with the River Sett on our left. We crossed a footbridge on our left and crossed back via another footbridge.

River Sett at The Torrs

On our right was Torrs Hydro, a hydroelectric plant powered by the River Goyt turning a reverse Archimedes screw. It is sited at the confluence of the Sett and the Goyt and was the first community-run power generator of its type when it opened in 2008. Its original £100,000 cost was shared by 200 members.

The Torrs Riverside Park

We went left over a footbridge at the confluence of the two rivers and were now walking along the bank of the Goyt with the river on our right (15mins).At one point we spotted the traditional English spring lambs gambolling responsibly in a field on our left. On our right a lazy llama lay in a field far from its native South America. Clearly, life in North West England was preferable to the drudgery as a beast of burden in Patagonia.

The path took us through a metal gate and through a farmyard. Turning right past Gowhole Farm we turned left after 50 yards up a lane called Ladypit Road. We turned left at a green public footpath sign up stone steps to enter a copse via a gate. This path took us through Tunnel 125 under the Hope Valley Railway Line between Stockport and Sheffield.

It led onto a stone step stile which we crossed to reach a lane and turned left. After 50 yards we turned right at an empty footpath sign which took us uphill through trees. We walked through a farmyard and when we reached a crossroads we carried straight on, passing a rebuilt farmhouse on our right.

Lantern Pike appeared ahead on our left

When we reached a stone step stile we stopped for Pietime (60mins). Continuing the path now took us over a series of stiles leading to a lane. We crossed a wooden stile to enter the lane and turned left. At a public footpath sign on our right, we turned right by squeezing through a gap next to a gate. The path brought us first to a ladder stile and then a wooden stile.

Beyond this the path aimed towards a telecom mast at the top of a hill on Ollersett Moor which we reached by crossing a wooden stile.

Approaching the telecom mast on Ollersett Moor

We continued to follow the path downhill to a gate which brought us onto a lane Here we turned left downhill along Morland Road and turned first right to walk through the farmyard at Little Ridge Farm. After going through a gate into a field we headed right then left as we passed an open gate with a yellow arrow.

By heading slightly left through this next field we reached and crossed a combined wood and stone step stile. The path then took us past Ridge Top Farm as we headed steeply downhill. The track became a road as we reached the outskirts of Hayfield.

At the end of Chapel Street, we turned right and the Kinder Lodge was immediately on our left (113mins). Here we enjoyed pints of Timothy Taylor's Landlord cask bitter or two alternative cask-conditioned ales.

We were joined by Jock with Milly, but inexplicably lost Peter. His explanation that it was bit early to start drinking was a disgrace to British journalism and we were left to speculate what crime he might have committed to get banned from The Kinder Lodge.

Suitably refreshed we left the pub turning right and then right again to approach the former Hayfield railway station, now a bus terminus, at the start of the Sett Valley Trail. Picnic tables provided an ideal point to stop for lunch (115mins).

The Sett Valley Trail is a leisure facility for horse riders, cyclists and walkers along the two and a half mile trackbed of the former branch line linking Hayfield with New Mills via Birch Vale, Thornsett and Ollersett. The railway had opened in 1868 and closed in 1970.

After lunch we set off along the trail which crossed roads at various intervals.

A lake on the right of The Sett Valley Trail

At the fourth crossing, having arrived in the outskirts of New Mills, we turned right downhill to reach Hyde Bank Road. Here we turned right before swinging sharply left and heading uphill to reach The Masons Arms on our right (165mins).

By now, having left the Hayfield posse at The Kinder Lodge and with some deciding to eschew further refreshment, there were five of us who sampled the Wainwrights' bitter and other cask ales.

We then retraced our footsteps uphill to The Sett Valley Trail and turned right to reach the leisure centre car park (187mins)

Next week's walk will start at 0940 from the car park at Disley Station. We intend to pay another visit to The Masons Arms at New Mills for a livener around 1230 before returning to Disley at about 1420. For those still thirsty there will be the option of drinks in The Dandy Cock or The White Horse.

Happy Wandering !