Eyam

February 26, 2025

 

 

FREE CAR PARK IN HAWKHILL ROAD, EYAM, THE NOOK, HIGHCLIFFE, SIR WILLIAM HILL, STOKE FORD, BRETTON CLOUGH, BARREL INN AT BRETTON, BOAR’S HEAD AT FOOLOW, FIELD PATHS TO EYAM.

 

 

Distance: ​8 miles​Ascent/descent:  1,320ft

 

Difiiculty: Moderate

 

Weather: Mainly dry with some sun. One brief shower.

 

Walkers: Peter Beal, Steve Brierley

 

Alternate walkers: Andy Blease, Russell Spencer, Keith Welsh, Jock Rooney, Keiran Rooney with Milly

 

Apologies: Chris Owen (dentist with toothache), Simon Williams (hospital scare, possible angina), Alastair Cairns and Neil Millington (Eyam rather too far), Clive Rothel (domestic work going on), Mark Enright (w@*king), Mike Cassini (away from home), Tom Cunliffe (dodgy knee)

 

Leader: Beal​​Diarist: Beal

 

Starting point: Free village car park, Eyam

 

Starting time: 9.51am​Finishing time: 2.00 pm

 

During the plague helpers would take money left in holes filled with vinegar in stones like the one above and bring food.

 

 

Sparsely-attended would be a kind way of describing the return to the once-popular starting point in the historic village of Eyam in the White Peak.

 

The only two Wanderers on the starting line at the appointed departure time were your diarist and Steve Brierley. It transpired that three other walkers – Andy, Keith and Russell – were delayed by faulty satnav directions. They were however able to join us at the refreshment stop of the Bull’s Head in Foolow, together with Jock and Keiran Rooney and Milly, and the seven of us – eight with Milly - were able to complete the return walk through the fields to Eyam.

 

The tragic history of Eyam – pronounced ‘Eem’ – is worth recounting briefly. In 1665 the bubonic plague, or Black Death, killed a tenth of London’s inhabitants. In Eyam the dead numbered 259 out of 76 families, a total population of about 350, which meant that only one villager in four survived.

 

The plague arrived in the village in cloth sent from London to a travelling tailor, George Vicars, who was lodging in a cottage near the church. Within four days he was dead. One of the village’s two ministers, young rector George Mompesson, took the initative, later questioned as perhaps unwise, to basically seal off the village from the outside world to prevent the disease spreading. The last victim died thirteen months later. They included Mompesson’s wife Catherine, whose tomb is sheltered by a yew in the churchyard.

 

We left the extensive free village car park, bizarrely sited right next to a smart pay-and-display operated by the Derbyshire Dales Council at £6 a day, turned right up Hawkhill Road and soon bore left in to the lane of The Nook, where a newly-resurfaced track took us sharply uphill to join the road running along Eyam Edge at Highcliffe.

 

Here we turned right and after around 400 yards we took a stone stile on the left in to a field. Ahead of us on the left was the towering TV mast and the trig point marking the top of Sir William Hill, at 1,407 feet the highest point of the walk.

 

No-one seems to know with certainty after whom the hill was named, but it was most likely one of four Dukes of Devonshire who bore the name William. What is certain is that it was not in honour of the well-known bookmaker of the same name.

 

Passing the mast we reached two more stone stiles taking us across a track and on to heather moorland with panoramic views of the White Peak countryside, the village of Grindleford visible below us on the right.

 

The narrow path through the heather took us past a cairn marked as of historic significance on the OS map and dropped down to Stoke Ford in the steep valley of Bretton Clough, where we paused for pietime.

 

We did not cross the ford but turned left to follow the line of the stream down on our right, along a quite muddy track for around half a mile. This brought us to a steep stream valley where we crossed on a bridge to climb the opposite bank towards two ruined buildings.

Here we bore left up the valley before the path swung right uphill and continued on firmer ground to eventually reach a distinct track.

 

We turned right here to reach two cottages where the track became tarmac and continued for another half-mile to reach the Barrel Inn at Bretton, the highest pub in Derbyshire at 1,300 feet. The views from here are magnificent and we were given clear, sunny weather to make the most of them.

 

It was too early to break for drinks, so we turned left along the road, taking an immediate left to start the downhill walk of just over a mile to the village of Foolow. At the Bull’s Head we found Andy, Keith and Russell waiting for us, having walked across country following their late arrival at the starting point. We were joined soon after by Jock and Keiran, with Milly, also having wandered from Eyam.

 

After a pleasant break with Black Sheep and Abbeydale Moonshine beers (both over £5 a pint), we left the pub, turned left on the road towards Eyam for around 100 yards before taking a stile on the right in to fields for an easy walk of some 45 minutes back to our starting point.

 

The walk was gentle but did involved a succession of some 20 stiles and small gates typical of this part of the Peak.

 

Back in Eyam your diarist, Steve and Jock and Keiran enjoyed further refreshment at the welcoming Miners’ Arms in the village centre.

 

Next week’s walk will start at 9.40am at the top end of Ridgegate Reservoir, near Langley in Macclesfield. We will climb the peak of Shutlingsloe before heading for the Ryles Arms for refreshment around 12.30pm. Further drinks can be had at The Leather’s Smithy pub at the foot of the reservoir.

 

*Please note. At the time of writing the Whaley Bridge to Macclesfield road was still closed by a landslip above the village of Rainow, so some Wanderers may need to vary their route to the start to take this in to account.

 

Happy wandering!