Hayfield

 HAYFIELD

July 3, 2024

SPORTSMAN INN AT HAYFIELD, SETT VALLEY TRAIL, BIRCH VALE, MORLANDS ROAD, OLLERSETT MOOR, CRACKEN EDGE, MAYNESTONE ROAD, MONK’S MEADOWS FARM, CHINLEY HEAD, LAMB INN, VORPOSTEN FARM, HIGHGATE HEAD, HIGHGATE ROAD, VALLEY ROAD, SPORTSMAN

Distance: 9 miles Ascent/descent: 1,880ft

Difiiculty: Moderate

Weather: Cloudy but dry

Walkers: Peter Beal, Andy Blease, Mike Cassini, Tom Cunliffe, Mark Gibby, Simon Williams, Cliff Worthington

Alternative walker: Jock Rooney with Milly

Apologies: Alan Hart (car problems), Dean Taylor (cash and carry duties), Chris Owen ( preparing for golf), Keith Welsh (dog training duties), Alistair Cairns (domestic duties), Julian Ross (unspecified), Mark Enright (w#?king)

Leader: Cunliffe at first, then Beal Diarist: Beal

Starting point: Sportsman Inn, Kinder Road, Hayfield

Starting time: 9.40am Finishing time: 3.10pm

The Sportsman Inn

Despite a forecast of some rain, we enjoyed dry weather throughout today’s walk except for a few short-lived drops as we enjoyed drinks on the outside terrace of the Lamb Inn, one of our favourite lunchtime watering holes.

Your diarist for the day feels guilty for dodging the first mile-and-a-half of the walk and waiting near his home in Birch Vale for his WW companions to reach him.

After leaving the Sportsman and descending steps opposite to reach Valley Road, the initial band of six, led by Tom, went through Hayfield village to join the Sett Valley Trail towards Birch Vale.

The two-and-a half mile long trail between Hayfield and New Mills is the trackbed of the former railway branch line that closed in 1970. In the 1920s and 30s an estimated 5,000 workers from Manchester used the trains every weekend to escape the pollution of the city and enjoy the countryside. The record number of passengers was 13,000 on a Good Friday in 1926.

On reaching Birch Vale the walkers were joined by your diarist and climbed a narrow track to emerge on New Mills Road, opposite the former Grouse pub, sadly no more, which we crossed to start the 800-foot ascent of Morlands Road towards Ollersett Moor (31 minutes).

At the end of the recently-tarmaced track we went through a gate on to a path climbing the open moorland with a TV relay mast to our right.. After a stiffish climb to the crest of the hill we ignored a gate ahead of us to turn left and soon after went through another gate to take a stile on the right. This brought us along the escarpment leading to the distinctive rock outcrop of Big Stone (80 min).

A short distance further along we dropped left to seek shelter from the breeze in to a hollow formerly used by quarry workers and declared a delayed pietime (90 min).

We then dropped down to the nearby path running beneath Big Stone and turned right through a small gate to head towards the crags of Cracken Edge above us to the right. Evidence of the former quarrying and mining works was everywhere here, making for a striking landscape.

We turned right, then shortly after took a left down an incline to begin our descent from the Edge (120 min). In a slightly complicated manoeuvre, we continued dropping down until coming to a large stone stile, which we crossed in to a field. We took a metal gate below us and soon were able to go through two more small wooden gates to drop down by tricky steps on to Maynestone Road (140 min).

A walk over just over half-a-mile on the road brought us to the large stone house of Upper Lodge on our right (157 min) shortly after which we followed a footpath sign on the right through a gap in the wall.

This led us down a seriously overgrown narrow path and after an uncomfortable 300 yards we emerged through a small rickety wooden gate in to a field. We followed this up the left hand side, climbing slightly and came to a gate, where we turned right to soon come to a large metal gate bringing us to a lane near Monk’s Meadows Farm. A short but steep climb brought us to the main A624 Glossop to Chapel-en-le-Frith road, with the welcome sight of the Lamb Inn nearby on our left (180 min).

Jock and Milly joined us here, having walked 4-5 miles in the Goyt valley and along the Peak Forest canal. We enjoyed beers and teas on the pub terrace, particularly a new blonde beer called Summer Sovereign from the Peak Ales brewery in Ashford-in-the-Water at £4-60 a pint.

Here we had our only few spots of rain of the day but it was short-lived and the donning of waterproof jackets soon brought a speedy halt to it.

After a leisurely hour-plus here we resumed by heading back along the road for a few yards before taking a left through an open gate and right through another small gate to climb through gorse bushes in to a steep open field. We bore left at the top of the field along a path that took us through a gate along a grassy track.

We bore left again and struck off left once more to bring us to a junction at the foot of Mount Famine. We took a path left along a wall to reach a gate that saw us skirt Vorposten Farm. A track across a cattle grid saw us reach the top of a bridleway that descended to reach a junction. Here a discussion led to a vote to shun the dragon’s back ridge to the right and instead head directly downhill to join Highgate Road (220 min).

We headed down Highgate Road and as we reached Hayfield village took a right in to Valley Road, to retrace our steps to the short, sharp climb to emerge at the Sportsman. Your diarist, Tom and Mike enjoyed a further refreshment here.

Next week’s walk will start at 9.55am from the lay-bys just below Curbar Gap above the village of Calver in the Derbyshire Dales. This is reached by taking the A623 through Stoney Middleton and at the Bridge Inn at Calver turning right uphill. We will walk to the Wellington Memorial then along White Edge, stopping at the Grouse Inn and returning along Froggatt and Curbar Edges.

Happy Wandering!