High Lane

HIGH LANE, LYME PARK, LYME CAGE, LYME HALL, DEER PARK, MONKHOUSE MEMORIAL, BOWSTONES, HANDLEY FOOT, MOORSIDE HOTEL, RINGSTONES CARAVAN PARK, THE SOLDIER DICK AT FURNESS VALE, THE PEAK FOREST CANAL, HIGGINS CLOUGH, DISLEY, AND THE HORSESHOE AT HIGH LANE

Distance: 12 miles.

Difficulty: Moderate.

 Weather: Dry and warm, but cloudy with a gentle breeze.

Walkers: Mickey Barrett, Nigel Crank, Alan Hart, John Laverick, Jock Rooney plus Tips, Julian Ross and George Whaites.

B walkers: Tony Job, Peter Morrall and Ken Sparrow.

Apologies: Peter Beal (narrowboating), George Dearsley (Turkey hols), Colin Davison (Welsh hols), Geoff Spurrell (French hols) and Mike Walton (wounded knee).

Leader: Hart. Diarist: Hart.

Starting point: Outside Colin's home at 11, Carr Brow, High Lane.

Starting time: 9.17am. Finishing time: 2.43pm.

Senior moments are a natural hazard and occasional source of joy for the Wednesday Wanderers. There have been many occasions when Lawrie has arrived the best part of an hour early, only to discover at the last moment that his boots were standing on the drive of his home 20 miles away. This usually happened on an extremely muddy day. The same affliction was suffered by George W.

One time your diarist emptied his entire rucksack to search for the walking socks he clearly remembered packing, only to find he was already wearing them. Jock once set off but had to return with an empty lead after 200 yards when he remembered that Tips was still in the car.

On this occasion it was John who provided the entertainment. While marching metaphorically to the tune of The Happy Wanderer, long before the Valderee, Valderah, let alone the Valderahahahahahahahah section, he reached the line "And as I go, I love to sling my knapsack on my back." He was then heard to mutter: "Oh bother. What a silly boy I am."  - or words to that effect, before returning to George's car to pick up his rucksack

Holidays had once again taken their toll on our numbers, but Mickey made a welcome return after his sailing trip off the coast of Turkey to buy us a belated drink in celebration of his 63^rd birthday last month. For he's a jolly good fellow, and so say all of us.

                                     Free parking provided by Colin.

From outside Colin's house we walked back to the A6, crossed the road and turned left until we reached Park Road and turned right downhill (8mins). After awaiting John's return to complete The Magnificent Seven, we went left into Woodlands Road (10mins) and along a path leading to a T-junction. We turned right downhill (12mins) and then left over a wooden stile towards Bollinhurst (13mins) along the Ladybridge Trail. After crossing a stream on our left via a footbridge, we went right over a ladder stile and into Lyme Park (24mins).

We turned right at the ticket cabin and soon left the road by a path on the left which led us to Lyme Cage (28mins), pausing to admire the view and catch our collective breath after a continuous climb. Continuing (31mins), we passed the entrance to Lyme Hall on our left, the foyer and the picnic area to aim for the left corner of the car park.

This brought us to the entrance to the deer park (43mins) and another opportunity to admire the view across the lake to the hall. This is now known as "Darcy's Lake" since it was the setting for Mr Darcy's plunge in the BBC adaptation of Jane Austen's novel, Pride and Prejudice. After passing the lake on our left we spotted a small group of fallow deer grazing a few yards to the right of our path.

Spot Mr Darcy

After reaching the exit gate to the deer park (53mins) we turned right uphill and climbed over a ladder stile (54mins). Another long climb brought us to the memorial to Alan Monkhouse, literary editor of the Manchester Guardian (72mins). We continued ever upwards until we reached Bowstones Farm (88mins) and paused for pietime.

             Mr Hart trying to educate, (not sure about the dodgy shorts)

In the absence of the impatient Tom, we lingered for 15 minutes before following the footpath sign for Whaley Bridge via Handley Foot. This took us down through a series of fields and stiles until we reached a road by the side of a farm (103mins). We turned left, passing Handley Barn Farm on our left (109mins), before heading right at a public footpath sign on our right (110mins). This soon led us across a footbridge over a stream and a choice of footpaths.

We followed the one heading left, numbered 54, and walked through fields until we came to a gravel track running across our route. The Moorside Hotel, in the process of being converted into a home for wayward juveniles, was to our left covered in scaffolding. We can only suppose the authorities were adding pool tables, plasma TV screens and bidets to make the facilities acceptable.

We turned right (116mins), heading slightly uphill. Some 20 yards before we reached a cattle-grid, we turned left uphill (119mins) and over a ladder stile (123mins). The route now afforded us splendid views to our right across the picturesque valley as we walked along a flat beaten path just below a ridge. We crossed a footbridge ((132mins) and went over a wooden stile (133mins) before crossing a stone step stile to reach a road (137mins).

After turning left for 80 yards we went right following a wooden footpath sign (138mins) which took us over a wooden stile (143mins). We exited a field on our left through an open gateway (148mins) and went through a farmyard (152mins).

Continuing downhill along a gravel track, we turned left at the entrance to Ringstones Caravan Park on our right (155mins). The track became a tarmac road called Yeardsley Lane, which we followed downhill until we reached the A6 (162mins). A left turn soon brought us to The Soldier Dick on the left (163mins).

B walkers Tony Job, Pete Morrall and Ken Sparrow had just arrived to avail themselves of a choice of well-kept cask beers, including Bad ToThe Bone, at £2-70 a pint. Just before we left, a group of kindred spirits arrived in the form of some retired railway workers sporting matching ties. I am indebted to John for discovering that they had all been employed by British Rail in Manchester in various capacities, and they all called for a tipple at 5pm before heading home from work. In comradely fashion, they continued to meet regularly for pub visits after their retirements. We salute them.

Suitably refreshed, we left the pub and turned right back to the traffic lights, where we crossed the road and headed left downhill over the level crossing. This took us to The Peak Forest Canal (166mins) where we turned left to walk along the towpath with Furness Vale Marina on our left. Lunch was taken on a bench near the Swizzels factory at New Mills (190mins).

As we continued past the factory on our right the aroma of Love Hearts was heard to bring nostalgic sighs from some of our group. We walked on until we reached Higgins Clough Swing Bridge (No. 25) where we turned left (217mins). This took us uphill under a rail bridge until we reached the A6 again and turned right (225mins).

There then followed a somewhat tedious walk along the A6 for more than a mile until we reached Carr Brow on our right (248mins) and turned right back to our cars.

After de-booting we returned to the A6 in our cars, turned right and reached The Horseshoe at High Lane on our right at the first set of traffic lights. Here we were reunited with the B walkers and enjoyed Robbies' Unicorn at £2-80 a pint after the Trooper cask bitter costing £3 had been rejected and replaced by the landlord. Mickey kindly stood the first round.

Next week's walk will start with a meeting at your diarist's home, 68, London Road North, Poynton, Cheshire SK12 1BY, at 9am with bacon butties, accompanied if requested by brown sauce. We will then leave around 9.40am for a walk led by John through the southern section of Lyme Park and Sponds Hill prior to a livener at The Boar's Head, Higher Poynton, around 12.20pm.

John will then lead us via Princes Incline to The Bull's Head in Poynton, arriving at about 2.30pm. I am reliably informed that sandwiches will then be provided.

   

Poynton Pool

POYNTON POOL, HIGHER POYNTON, MACCLESFIELD CANAL, LADYBROOK TRAIL, LYME PARK, LYME CAGE, LYME HALL, DEER PARK, BOAR’S HEAD AT HIGHER POYNTON, MIDDLEWOOD WAY, LADYS INCLINE AND BULL’S HEAD AT POYNTON.

Distance: Nine miles.

Difficulty: Easy.

Weather: Early cloud giving way to blue skies and sunshine.

Walkers: Mickey Barrett, Chris Corps, Nigel Crank, Tom Cunliffe, Colin Davison, Alan Hart, John Laverick, Julian Ross and George Whaites.

B walkers: Tony Job, Ken Sparrow, Geoff Spurrell and Mike Walton.

Apologies: Peter Beal (narrow-boating), George Dearsley (w*^king), Lawrie Fairman (Hungarian hols), Jock Rooney (w*^king in Turkey).

Withdrawal of apology: Colin Davison (not sailing after all).

Leader: Hart. Diarist: Hart.

Starting point: Poynton Pool car park off Anglesey Drive.

Starting time: 9.38am. Finishing time: 2pm.

We welcomed another newcomer to the Wednesday Wanderers on an ideal day for walking. Chris Corps made his debut, stepping straight into the A team, and appeared to find no difficulty in keeping up with a brisk pace.

This gave us a good turnout of eight A walkers, and we soon had one over the eight when we encountered a marooned mariner en route. 

The ideal walking weather also produced perfect drinking conditions and we ended the day on a high note when Barbara and Sally Bromley once again produced two platters of sandwiches as a goodwill gesture. They hope to see us again. They surely will.

Poynton Pool was once an attractive feature in the estate of Poynton Hall, the home of Lord Vernon, who was lord of the manor. In 1850 Bagshaw’s Directory described Poynton as a compact village near the Macclesfield branch of the London and North Western Railway.

In 1841 it contained 152 houses and 854 inhabitants on 2,400 acres of good, well-drained land. “Its subterranean wealth far exceeds that on the surface,” the directory declared, following the discovery of rich seams of coal beneath the farmland. Although much of the coal was worked out at the start of the last century and its 71 pits closed down, Poynton continued to grow because of its proximity to Manchester (20 minutes by train for commuters) to the north and to the spectacular countryside of the Peak District to the south and east. It now has a population around 16,000.

From the car park we crossed Anglesey Drive and walked between the trees separating London Road North on the left from its houses on the right. This brought us out on Towers Road, where we turned right. After passing South Park Drive on our right we reached a bungalow on our right which was once the site of Towers Hall, from which Towers Drive derived its name. Like Poynton Hall, it has long been demolished, but one interesting remnant survives.

By turning left through a kissing gate (10mins) to join a public footpath, we soon reached a mound on our right. This hid a flight of steps down to a grilled door on the far side which had once been the entrance to “The Ice House” – a cool storage facility for the family and servants of Towers Hall.

We continued straight ahead through a series of fields via gates and stiles until we emerged at The Macclesfield Canal (42mins) and turned left along the towpath. At the first bridge across the canal (Bridge 13) we turned left to go back over it and there encountered Colin (47mins).

He explained that his catamaran trip across the North Sea to Holland scheduled to start on Monday had been postponed for four days because the boat involved was blocked by another vessel and could not reach any water to start its journey. Colin joined our group and before you could say “Hello sailor!” he was issuing orders.

For anyone who falls into obvious traps such as iced-over canals, it may have seemed cruel to lead Colin up the garden path, so to speak, but he does bring out the worst in your diarist. After crossing the bridge we rounded a World War 2 pillbox to follow the towpath with the canal now on our left. After 100 yards we reached a wooden footpath sign on our right and followed it into woodland which is part of the picturesque Ladybrook Trail.

The trail in turn crossed the Manchester-Buxton railway line (69mins) before leading us by a footbridge and a ladder stile into Lyme Park (72mins). Our journey had taken us gradually uphill, but now came a steeper ascent as we turned right at the entrance hut and made our way up to Lyme Cage (90mins).

By now the clouds were clearing and the sun was shining as we paused for pietime overlooking the countryside and landmarks below. Resuming, we walked down from Lyme Cage and passed the entrance to Lyme Hall, the ancestral home of the Legh family for more than 500 years until it was handed over to The National Trust in 1946.

It was decided to make a brief detour round the deer park, to the left of the hall, first passing the lake where Mr Darcy emerged with dripping breeches to melt the hearts of not only Elizabeth Bennett but also the millions of Jane Austen fans watching the series on BBC back in 1995. Continuing, we saw a herd of fallow deer grazing and sunbathing to our left before making two right turns to bring us back to our homeward route.

From the car park outside the kiosk and with the hall on our right, we turned left and followed the road round to the right. We forked right again to skirt the wall and headed downhill out of the park. Still going forward and still descending, we crossed the bridge over the Macclesfield Canal, passed the Nelson Pit museum on our right and reached the Boar’s Head on schedule at 12.15pm (146mins).

Here we enjoyed pints of Black Sheep, Thwaites or Wainwrights’ cask bitter at prices from £2-92 to £3-20. The B walkers had just pipped us to the bar from a stroll which had left Tony with a sore ankle. After the A Team had departed, three of them headed on a direct route to the Bull’s Head while Tony made his way by bus.

Meanwhile the main party walked back from the Boar’s Head to The Middlewood Way, which we joined and headed in the direction of Marple before stopping (152mins) at a bench for lunch. Resuming, we left at the first exit by going right and then left over a bridge leading into Green Lane.

We turned right along Green Lane, ignoring the first footpath on our left which would have led us to The Anson Museum. At the next footpath (162mins) we turned left and headed steadily downhill until we entered Woodside Road. At the end we joined the main road between Macclesfield and Hazel Grove and turned right.

We reached The Bull’s Head (189mins) at 2pm and enjoyed draught Bass and two other cask beers at £3 a pint. Barbara and Sally Bromley did us proud with two platters of home-made sandwiches.

This has raised the bar considerably for next week’s walk, which finishes at The Lantern Pike. At the time of writing Tom and your diarist are examining the logistics of an A team walk from Edale up along Kinder, ending in Little Hayfield, possibly starting with a train from New Mills Central station.

When arrangements have been finalised, you will be notified.

  

Furness Vale

FURNESS VALE, THE DIPPING STONES, MOORSIDE GRANGE, THE BOWSTONES, LYME PARK, LANTERN WOOD, LYME HALL, LYME CAGE, THE DANDY COCK AT DISLEY, THE PEAK FOREST CANAL AND THE SOLDIER DICK AT FURNESS VALE

Distance: 9-10 miles.

Difficulty: Strenuous becoming easy.

Weather: Crisp and dry with blue skies and wintry sunshine.

Walkers: Micky Barrett, Peter Beal, Colin Davison, Malcolm Halley, Alan Hart, John Laverick and George Whaites.

B walkers: Tony Job, Peter Morrall, Ken Sparrow, Geoff Spurrell and Mike Walton.

Apologies: Tom Cunliffe (man-flu symptoms), George Dearsley (w*^king again), Lawrie Fairman (driving campervan to French Riviera), Jock Rooney (w*^king in South Africa) and Julian Ross (family hols).

Leader: Beal. Diarist: Hart.

Starting point: Car park of Soldier Dick, on the A6 at Furness Vale.

Starting time: 9.33am.Finishing time: 2.18pm.

A late call from Tom reduced our numbers when he reported that he had awoken with a sore throat “and was sweating like a Scouser in a Job Centre.” 

Nevertheless we were left with a Magnificent Seven A walkers, and a record number of five B walkers created a Dirty Dozen back at our final watering hole.

Some of you may have noticed another theme developing with our choice of pubs, The Dandy Cock and The Soldier Dick. To complete the metaphor here follows the usual bo*^^*cks from your diarist .

Once again the weather gods were favourable to The Wednesday Wanderers, with a crisp, dry start in wintry sunshine. We also enjoyed minimal mud and excellent visibility.

From the Soldier Dick car park we turned right along the A6 for 30 yards, then turned right at The Imperial Palace. Lest there be confusion, this is a Chinese restaurant which has little in common with its namesake in Beijing.

Our route for more than an hour was a steady slog uphill, passing The Dipping Stones on our left. Legend has it that these large rocks, with two scooped out sections in their middles, were used for purchasing food in 1665 at the time of the great plague. 

Villagers where the epidemic was rife were discouraged from trading . But at The Dipping Stones, food was left on trust, and paid for with money left in vinegar in the dips in the rocks so it was germ-free.

Beyond The Dipping Stones we reached a road (56mins) where we turned left and then right (57mins) at a public footpath sign marked to Bowstonegate and Lyme Park. This path continued uphill until we made our first descent of the day with Moorside Grange on our right.

Moorside Grange

This former hotel, once owned by The Hilton Group and by Stakis, has a checkered history. It was the “love-nest” where Manchester United manager Tommy Docherty was caught enjoying a secret tryst with the wife of Old Trafford physiotherapist Lawrie Brown. 

After their illicit affair had been exposed by the tabloids, United fans enlivened the next home game with chants of “He’s up Mrs Brown: he’s up Mrs Brown. Eee-aye-addio, He’s up Mrs Brown.” That proved the final straw and The Doc was sacked.

It was also the venue chosen by Coronation Street actress Pat Phoenix to hold a party, paid for by The Sunday People, to say farewell to her cast colleagues after 20 years of playing femme fatale Elsie Tanner. 

In recent years a succession of entrepreneurs tried and failed to make it pay. Even the hiring of Peter B’s daughter as a waitress failed to halt the slide.

Local people objected to plans to convert the hotel into a retirement home. They were successful and instead it is to become a residential home for wayward juveniles. (Be careful what you wish for).

We crossed Mudhurst Lane (62mins) and continued our ascent following a wooden footpath sign for Bowstones passing Dissop Head Farm. The final section of our climb presented us with stunning views in every direction. We could see the highest points of three counties at Kinder (Derbyshire), Cheeks Hill (Staffordshire) and Shining Tor (Cheshire).

The Bowstones themselves are two shafts of late Saxon crosses which were probably landmarks or boundary stones as well as objects of devotion. Local legend has it that if you walk between the stones you will become pregnant (This only applies to women, I was assured).

The Bowstones

After crossing a wooden stile to enter Lyme Park, we paused for Pietime (85mins). Continuing, we kept a drystone wall on our right and passed a memorial to Allan Monkhouse, the playwright, novelist and literary editor of the Manchester Guardian, who was born in Disley and loved these hills.

The memorial to Allan and his wife Dorothy was erected by their children, who clearly followed their father’s liberal leanings. Patrick Monkhouse (1904-81) was a Guardian journalist and a member of the Peak Park Planning Board; Rachel Natzir (1905-85) was a district county councillor and chairman of the governors of Styal Prison; John Monkhouse (1908-90) was a headmaster; and Elizabeth Monkhouse (1912-2011) was a lecturer and president of the Workers’ Education Association.

There was no mention of the black sheep of the family, Bob Monkhouse. He once told his stand-up audience: “When I told my parents I wanted to be a comedian, they just laughed. Well nobody’s laughing now.”

As we continued with the wall on our right, Lyme Hall appeared below us on our left. The building, now managed by The National Trust, is the largest in Cheshire. It is at the heart of a 1,300 acres estate in the Peak District National Park.

The estate was granted to Sir Thomas Danyers in 1346 by Edward 111 for his services to The Black Prince at The Battle of Crecy. It was passed to his granddaughter Margaret, who married Piers Legh in 1388. The Legh family then held it for more than 500 years until it was taken over by The NT in 1946.

Lyme Hall dates from the late 16^th Century with modifications in the 18^th and 19^th centuries which give it a predominantly Palladian and Baroque style with other fashionable influences added.

Historians among you may be interested to know that the original Piers Legh, who was granted his coat of arms by King Richard 11 in 1397, was executed two years later by Richard’s rival, Henry Bolingbroke. But his son, Sir Piers Legh 11, fought with Henry V at Agincourt. When he was wounded, Sir Piers’ loyal mastiff stood over him and protected his master for several hours as the battle raged.

The mastiff’s reward was to return to Disley and become the founder of Lyme Hall mastiffs, which were bred at the hall and kept separate from other strains until their purity died out at the beginning of the 20^th Century.

But I digress. We ignored a ladder stile ahead and turned left, again keeping the drystone wall on our right until we reach a step stone stile and crossed it into a wood (99mins). We passed The Lantern (106mins) on our left and exited Lantern Wood.

Here we encountered a stag party in full swing. A herd of some 40 red deer had congregated a few yards to our right and were totally unmoved by our emergence from the trees. However the sight of a wheezing jogger bearing down on them caused the deer to trot away.

Our group mustered for the final major ascent up to Lyme Cage (122mins), a former hunting lodge and gamekeeper’s cottage which was also used as a jail to hold poachers. The first structure in 1580 was knocked down and rebuilt in 1737.

The sundial on its wall had not been advanced to British Summer Time, as we had the previous weekend. The motto above it advised “Vive Hodie,” which, as all you Latin scholars will know, means “Live Today.”

We turned right downhill in the direction of Disley, reaching the park’s entrance hut from the exiting direction, and turned right. This took us to the gate leaving the park and into Red Lane (137mins). After a short climb, we headed downhill into Disley, crossed the A6 and reached The Dandy Cock (152mins). The Robbies’ cask bitter here at £2-65 was deemed to be in excellent form.

After a leisurely two-pint stop, we continued by turning right out of the pub and immediately right again down Hollinwood Lane before turning left into Sherbrooke Road (158mins). We reached the Peak Forest Canal and turned right along its right bank (160mins). At Bridge 20 we switched to the left bank (163mins) and stopped at a bench for lunch (164mins).

After passing the Carr swing bridge (197mins) and Furness Vale marina, we left the canal at Bridge 31, turning right (205mins) past The Crossings pub on our left. We turned right along the A6 for a few  yards, then crossed to The Soldier Dick car park to de-boot (209mins).

The B-teamers had arrived some five minutes earlier, having driven to High Lane, from where they walked to The Romper at Marple Ridge and along the Peak Forest Canal. They diverted to The Queens Arms at Newtown, New Mills, for a livener and strolled along the Goyt Valley before returning to the canal for the same route as the A team to The Soldier Dick, a journey totalling five miles.

Next week’s walk will begin at 9.30am from the Poynton Pool car park off Anglesey Drive, Poynton, heading up Princes Incline for the Macclesfield Canal, then towards Pott Shrigley to enter the other side of Lyme Park before dropping back down to The Boar’s Head, Higher Poynton, around 12.15pm. We expect to finish the walk at the Bull’s Head, Poynton, around 2.20pm.