Hayfield

 

March 12, 2025

 

HAYFIELD

 

 

KINDER ROAD, HAYFIELD, NEAR SPORTSMAN INN, THEN KINDER ROAD, HAYFIELD VILLAGE, SETT VALLEY TRAIL, BIRCH VALE, MORLANDS ROAD, OLLERSETT MOOR, BIG STONE, CRACKEN EDGE, MAYNESTONE ROAD, MONK’S MEADOWS FARM,LAMB INN AT CHINLEY HEAD, VORPOSTEN FARM, PENNINE BRIDLEWAY, DRAGON’S BACK RIDGE, ELLE BANK WOODS, SPORTSMAN INN

 

Distance: ​9 miles​Ascent/descent:  1,750ft

 

Difiiculty: Moderate to hard with one long climb

 

Weather: Mainly dry with a little sun. One sharp hail shower

 

Walkers: Peter Beal, Andy Blease, Steve Brearley, Mike Cassini, Julian Ross, Russell Spencer

 

Alternate walkers: Jock and Keiran Rooney with Milly

 

Apologies: Clive Rothel (building work at home), Mark Enwright (teaching), Alastair Cairns, Mark Gibby, Greg Owens, Jim Riley, Simon Williams (all unspecified), Chris Owen (away)

 

Leader: Beal​​Diarist: Beal

 

Starting point: Kinder Road, Hayfield, next to Sportsman Inn

 

Starting time: 9.42am       Finishing time: 2.30pm

 

 

Today’s route was decided after a particular request from Julian that it should take in the Dragon’s Back, the undulating ridge dropping from the height of Mount Famine to the woods of Elle Bank above Hayfield.

 

A substantial list of apologists still left us with six walkers who gathered on the road near the Sportsman Inn above Hayfield village.

 

It was a largely clear day for a walk with some rewarding views, except for a quite violent hail shower that struck just as we were leaving the refreshment stop at one of the our favourite watering holes, the Lamb Inn, on the roadside of the A624 Glossop to Hayfield road above Chinley.

 

Our walkers for the day assembled promptly and we turned down Kinder Road in to Hayfield village, passing the row of terraced cottages bearing a blue plaque dedicated to Arthur Lowe, the celebrated Coronation Street and later Dad’s Army actor who was a native of the village.

 

We passed the sad sight of the deserted former Royal Hotel in the village centre. This is on the market after its owners, an offshore-based property company allegedly levered out its former long-standing tenants.

 

A local group backed by the Parish Council has had it declared a community asset and two offers to buy it have reportedly been made but apparently remain unacknowledged by the owners, a company with a track record for this sort of thing.

 

We walked past the church and crossed the A624 to come in to the car park in the former yard of Hayfield rail station, the terminus of a branch line from Manchester and New Mills that closed in 1970.

 

In the 1920s and 30s trains would carry more than 5,000 people every weekend from the textile mills of Manchester in to the village, to walk the moors as an escape from the smog of the city.

 

The former railway line now forms the Sett Valley Trail, a 2.5 mile scenic route for walkers and cyclists between Hayfield and New Mills. We followed the track for a mile to the village of Birch Vale, where we took a short path uphill on the left to emerge on the Hayfield to New Mills road, which we crossed to reach the foot of Morlands Road. On the right was the former pub of The Grouse, which closed five years ago and is now two houses.

 

Ahead of us was a climb of two miles and an ascent of almost 900 feet. We set off up a fairly steep rise between houses and soon reached the open hillside with a TV and communications relay mast on our right. The surfaced track ended and we emerged through a gate on to open moorland where the path continued upwards towards the heights of Ollersett Moor.

 

Now more than an hour in to the walk, we reached a crest in the hill, with a gate in front of us. Here we swung left and shortly reached another gate, which we went through to immediately take a stile over the wire fence on the right. The path dropped down and climbed again to reach the edge of the moor, which we followed for around a quarter of a mile to reach the prominent rocky outcrop known as Big Stone.

 

On our left were commanding views towards Kinder Scout, with the rocky cleft of the Downfall clearly visible. In the other direction were views across the Cheshire Plain towards the hills above Frodsham on the Mersey estuary and behind, the distant outline of the Clwydian Hills in North Wales.

 

We delayed our pietime to reach the shelter of a dip to the left, just before a large stone stile, clearly once used by the quarrymen who used to work the area. We continued after around 15 minutes and followed a narrow path down to join a track that runs below Big Stone, and turned right here towards the cliffs and outcrops of Cracken Edge, all scarred with the marks of the extensive 19th century quarry excavations.

 

Faced with a badly eroded descent on a narrow path, we swung right and then left to follow the line of the edge, before soon reaching a sharp left turn downwards. This took us to another track where we sloped gradually down to the left, dropping down to a large stile in to a field. A gate at the bottom brought us to a flight of stone steps which we descended to the quiet lane of Maynestone Road.

 

We turned left here and a walk of less than 15 minutes brought us to Upper and Lower Lodges, both large houses on the right, just beyond which a small step stile led in to a narrow path between fields and gardens, emerging at the bottom in to a field. We climbed up to a gate and turned left to another gate leading to a track uphill on the left, that soon emerged on to the Hayfield to Chapel-en-le-Frith road with the welcoming site of the Lamb Inn just across the road on our left.

 

Jock and Keiran, having done a canalside walk from nearby Bugsworth Basin, were awaiting us in the small and cosy bar of this always busy pub whose trade is mainly in foodies, thankfully leaving space for drinkers of the good selection of beers, which some of us enjoyed, leaving some of our number to teas.

 

We left at 1.15pm to be greeted by an outbreak of hail that assailed us harder and harder as we climbed, We turned back down the road and immediately took an open gate on the left, through a smaller gate and through a clump of gorse bushes to climb steeply up a field. The track slanted left through heather and climbed less steeply to reach a gate into a grassy path through a field. 

 

A short distance along here we cut left across the field and  swung left again to take a gate diverting us past Vorposten Farm on the left. The hail began to ease now. The track continued through an open field to a cattle grid, where we joined a gravelled track descending downhill to our left.

 

After less than half-a-mile this reached a crossroad of tracks, where we took a gate on the right in to a field, which we crossed to reach another gate leading on to the ridge running down from Mount Famine on our right. To our left was the start of the Dragon’s Back.

 

This is deceptive, in that on the other side of the wall on our left were gentle grass fields, but beneath us was a narrow rocky path across rugged rock scenery, dropping steeply on our right down to the valley floor.

 

We descended the undulating ridge gradually before finally coming to a stile that led in to the woods of Elle Bank, with Hayfield camp site seen below us on the right. We dropped down gradually on the path through the woods, turning sharply right to take a path down to another track that led us to a path slanting uphill to the right to emerge on Kinder Road opposite the Sportsman.

 

Your diarist and Steve entered for a last refreshment, to find Jock and Keiran again waiting, this time with Milly, who would have been banned from the earlier stop at the Lamb.

 

Next week’s walk will start at 9.40am from the car park in Rowarth village, near New Mills. On the road down to the Little Mill pub take take the last turn on the left towards the village and the car park is soon reached on the right. We will walk north towards Matley Moor and descend to Hayfield via Carr Meadow and Twenty Trees. Refreshments will be taken at the  Kinder Lodge in Hayfield before returning to Rowarth by Harthill Farm.

 

Happy Wandering!