Old Glossop

 GLOSSOP LOW

 

July 5,2023

 

 

OLD GLOSSOP, HOPE STREET, CHARLES LANE, COCK HILL, GLOSSOP LOW, CLOUGH EDGE, REAPS FARM, TRANS PENNINE TRAIL, THE ANCHOR AT HADFIELD, PARK ROAD, GLOSSOP CEMETERY, B6105, SWINESHAW RESERVOIR, CASTLE HILL, QUEEN’S ARMS IN OLD GLOSSOP

 

 

Distance: 8 miles​Ascent/descent: 1,720ft

 

Difiiculty: Moderate. One long climb

 

Weather: Fine, dry and warm.

 

Walkers: Peter Beal, Mike Cassini, Tom Cunliffe with Daisy, Mark Enright, Chris Owen, Dean Taylor, Dave Willetts, Simon Williams, Cliff Worthington,

 

Alternative walker: Jock Rooney with Milly

 

Apologies: Micky Barrett (sailing Dalmatian coast), Alastair Cairns (Canada hols), Alan Hart (returning from Canada), Andy Blease (domestic duties), Keith Welsh (guide dog training)

 

Leader: Beal​Diarist: Beal

 

Starting point: Rough car park opposite The Wheatsheaf, Old Glossop

 

Starting time: ​9.45am​​Finishing time:1.54pm

 

 

Today’s route was a repeat of the one devised and first walked nearly a year ago, following the decision of the farmer at Blackshaw Farm to close the concessionary footpath to Glossop Low following trespass and vandalism.

 

It was decided then that the new route was a better alternative anyway, taking in the trig point of Cock Hill and crossing open moorland to the remains of the shooting box at the summit of Glossop Low.

 

For the second successive week the forecast of a heavy shower proved faulty and we met merely a few isolated spots of rain lasting seconds. We were rewarded with good views down Longdendale and its string of reservoirs.

 

We turned right out of the car park opposite The Wheatsheaf, yet another pub hopefully advertising itself as ‘To Let’, an all too familiar sight.

 

We ascended Hope Street and turned left in to Charles Lane, where at a private drive leading to Moorlands, we took a narrow and partly concealed path on the left signed to Access Land.

 

A rocky ascent at first on the enclosed path brought us on to the open moors where we followed the path to eventually emerge at the trig point on Cock Hill (1,398 feet) after a steepish final climb. From here the gradients eased and we soon reached the familiar ruins of the shooting box at the Glossop Low summit (1,574 feet), the highest point of the walk.

 

We were only 53 minutes and two miles in to the route here but an early pietime was voted for, failing anywhere else as an obvious resting point for some way.

 

Resuming, we took a faint track through the heather northwards of the ruins, which soon dropped down to reach the Pennine Way at Clough Edge, with the deep cleft of Torside Clough far below us. We turned left here and followed the narrow path, with steep drops immediately on our right. 

There were fine views from here up Longdendale with Torside Reservoir and its sailing club below us, and above it Woodhead Reservoir. Together with Rhodeswood, Valehouse and Bottoms reservoir just below these formed the largest expanse of artificially-constructed water reserves in the world when they opened in 1877. They provide around a quarter of Greater Manchester’s water.

 

The path dropped steeply as Reaps Farm came in to view. We reached a broad track at the foot and turned left to reach and cross the B6105 road to join the six-and-a-half mile long Longdendale Trail, which also forms part of the Trans Pennine Trail between Liverpool and Hull. 

 

The trail follows the route of the Manchester to Sheffield rail line, which closed in 1981.It is also part of the 2,900- mile-long E8 European trail between Cork and Istanbul, although we saw not a single Turk or Irish person on our hour-long trek to Hadfield. We were however met by Jock, with Milly, who had parked at The Anchor in Hadfield and reached us soon after we joined the trail.

 

Bottoms Reservoir came in to view below us on the right and beyond it the village of Tintwistle (pron. Tins’l) birthplace of punk fashion designer Dame Vivienne Westwood, who died aged 81 last December. She spent the first 17 years of her life here and went to school in Glossop.

 

We reached the end of the trail near the station and went straight ahead, ignoring the right turn in to Station Road and carrying on to Hadfield Road, where we turned right to reach The Anchor pub, whose choice of cask beer was Tetley’s or Tetley’s. We were however relieved to find it was more than drinkable, at £3-75 a pint, in contrast to our visit of a year ago, which proved to be a beer disaster.

 

We turned right out of the pub and walked uphill along Hadfield Road, Park Road, and Cemetery Road, turning left in to the extensive Glossop Cemetery on top of the hill. As the lane through the cemetery swung right we head to the left to reach a shallow stile in the wall to cross in to a field, turning right to cross a cottage garden and recross the B6105, where we did a right and immediately left over a stile in to more fields.

 

At the end of the second field we turned right to follow the line of a broken wall. The path descended through three fields to emerge in Castle Hill in Old Glossop, from where it was a short walk downhill to our starting point.

 

Your diarist, Dean, Dave and Mark repaired for further refreshment to the Queen’s Arms nearby, where Ossett Brewery’s White Rat pale ale was very welcome at £4-10 a pint.

 

Next week’s walk, researched and led by Tom, will start from the far-flung outpost of Tissington Village, north of Ashbourne, where there is a free car park, at 9.45 am. The nine-mile walk will take in part of the Tissington Trail and call at the Sycamore in Parwich.

 

Happy Wandering!