Whaley Bridge
June 21, 2023.
Tom Brad’s Croft Car Park Whaley Bridge, Taxal Edge, Windgather Rocks, Dunge Farm, Swan Inn Kettleshulme, Garden Centre, Coalhurst, Kishfield, Toddbrook Reservoir, Car Park
Distance: 10 miles.
Difficulty: Moderate.
Weather: warm and sunny with one almighty shower Walkers: Daisy Cunliffe, Tom Cunliffe, Dave Willets Apologies: Uncle Tom Cobley et al
Leader: Daisy Cunliffe Diarist: Tom Cunliffe Starting point: Tom Brad’s Croft Car Park Whaley Bridge. Starting time: 9.35am. Finishing time: 2.15pm
What a poor turn out with everybody seemingly on holiday or otherwise preoccupied with something higher up their agenda. It is what it is as they say!
Not to be deterred, the gruesome twosome set off in fine weather following the newly appointed leader for the day. She favoured the usual route to the usual Pie Time venue, Windgather Rocks but arriving at a ridiculously early time of 10:40 the leader decided it was far too early to stop so we marched on.
Arriving at Dunge Farm at 11:15 Pie Time was declared as the tall trees provided shade from the bright sunlight with a friendly stile doubling up as a good seat.
Refreshed, we proceeded along the usual route whereupon we heard a rushing noise from behind. We turned to see what the fuss was about only to discover that a shower was rapidly accelerating along the valley bottom towards us at an alarming rate, your diarist just had enough time to don his waterproof jacket and for the next 10 mins the rain was of biblical proportions. Sadly, Dave had neglected to bring a waterproof with him (a basic schoolboy error) and duly paid the price; soaked to the skin, our leader was also soaked but was able to shake it off.
We reached the Swan at 12.30 where the beer was found to be in fine fettle but was a wallet-smashing £4.75 pint.
The historical data on the WW blog-site shows price changes over the years:
16th May 2012 Marston’s Bitter 3rd May 2017 Marston’s Bitter 24th July 2019 Marston’s Bitter 21st July 2023 Wincle Bitter
£2.35 £3.30
£3.85 £4.75
Having emptied our wallets and slaked our thirst we carried on through the Garden Centre and of course, at this time of the year everything was blooming, lush and full, very nice.
On reaching the other end of the Garden Centre at the small church, we turned right and headed up towards Kishfield Bridge where the WW would ordinarily take lunch, however, nobody had any lunch so we pressed on.
Hopping over a stile we proceeded in the same direction as Todd Brook to discover that the weir had beed dammed, presumably in support of the leaky dam at Toddbrook Reservoir. The water had been diverted along the manmade channel, Dave thought the water was being diverted towards the canal. We needed to cross the weir but the crossing had been completely fenced off (in the name of Health and Safety), however, with discretion taking second place to valour, we inched our way across the dam and climbed up the opposite side whilst at the same time rounding a security fence.
Whilst the gruesome twosome deliberated on how to cross the weir, our leader took the decision to have a sniff round but got caught on a length of slippy tarpaulin that was covering the damming material, unfortunately she had mis-judged how slippy the tarpaulin was and couldn’t escape (see short vid on whatsapp). Your diarist felt obliged to rescue her (not all heroes wear capes)
Daisy trapped on the tarp.
Continuing, we eventually reached the Reservoir and inspected the repair work thus far. See pic on WhatsApp showing the steel piles in front of the section of the dam that had failed. We were reliably informed it would be another 18 months minimum before the great god fearing folk of Whaley would once again be able to sleep soundly in their beds.
Due to the diversions around the dam we were forced to carry on down Reservoir Road then under the railway bridge out on to the main Whaley Bridge thoroughfare. A pleasant surprise was to see that the Jodrell Arms, which had been closed for around 20 years had finally completed a total refurbishment from a derelict condition and was displaying signage offering a lease to some poor unsuspecting sod, good luck to him or her.
Our parked cars were one minute away.
Next weeks walk will be a Three Edge Walk with a choice of three pubs.
We’ll meet at the usual Curbar Edge lay-bys starting at 9:50 am. We’ll be taking in Wellington’s Monument, White Edge, Froggatt Edge and Curbar Edge. we’ll have a choice of three pubs - Fox House, (being the debutant visit with this particular generation of WW), The Grouse Inn and the Bridge Inn. Distance approx 10 mile.
Happy wandering
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