Bollington

BOLLINGTON, RAINOW

Distance: 8.5 miles.

Difficulty: Easy

Weather: Cloudy with some rain

Walkers: Colin Davison, Alan Hart, Phil Welsh, George Dearsley, Nigel Crank, Chris Corps, Julian Ross, Steve Courtney, Peter Beal, John Laverick, Lawrie Fairman, Tom Cunliffe

Apologies: George Whaites (returning from his Spanish holidays), Mickey Barrett (mopping a flooded house), Jock Rooney (w*r^ing in the Black Sea)

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

Leader: Fairman (with usurping by Davison)  Diarist: Dearsley

Starting point: Public car park opposite the Spinners in Bollington.

Starting time: 9.30am. Finishing time: 1.23pm

After last week’s carnage, this was a more sedate walk.  A “white handbag” walk as Mr Cunliffe eloquently described it.

We welcomed a new debutant, Steve Courtney, a friend of Mr Ross, and we hope he joins us on a regular basis.

Mr Fairman was back from his trip lecturing on a cruise ship. He had meticulously prepared a detailed talk, supported by Powerpoint slides, of a series of stopovers in the Mediterranean.

Unfortunately, he was allocated a voyage to Norway.

The walk was also notable for a sign outside a house which read “never mind the dog beware of the wife”.

We set off from the car park opposite the Spinners in Bollington at 9.30am, turned left, making the obligatory stop at F Smith’s wonderful pie shop.

Suitably stocked with piping hot sustenance, we continued along the main road and then took a right turn, passing the Viceroy Indian restaurant on our left.

At a Y junction we took the road to the left, with a signpost showing “to Pott Shrigley”. This turned out to be Spuley lane.

We turned right at the newly refurbished house with its immaculately erected dry stone wall and after about 150 yards we swung left. Our route took us over a little bridge and then we began a steep climb, passing not one but two duck ponds on our right.

At the second pond we went through a gate on the right and crossed a well-defined path which cut our own route at 90 degrees.

White Nancy was to our right but shrouded in cloud or mist.

           Mr Fairman and Mr Beal indulge in that rather foreign practice, pre-walk preparation

                                                    The interior of F Smith’s marvellous pie shop in Bollington.

At 10.05 am we reached the top of the hill and an unusual “hot Pie Time” was declared.

Mr Welsh had scoffed his F Smith’s pie on the move so could not enjoy the luxury afforded to some of the other Wanderers as they bit into the delicious crust and tasted the succulent gravy, meat and potato.

The unbridled pleasure - as is often the way of it -  was limited to just three minutes and we were on the move again.

We walked down to a metalled road, over a cattle grid and straight on, over a stile.

Negotiating a 5-bar gate we turned right onto another metalled road and past Brink Farm Cottage. (10.29am).

At a T-junction we crossed the road and went straight on, heading up a hill.

We swung right and then left following a sign which said “permissive footpath” but there were no hippies, free love, Country Joe and the Fish or any sign of the spirit of Max Yasgur.

On offer was a steep climb for five minutes and then a turn to the right at the top of the hill, reached at 10.45am. Mr Welsh celebrated by opening a huge golfing umbrella.

To be fair, a fine rain had begun to fall, rather ahead of the weathermen’s schedule.

We must not make light of the landowner who has generously made this new route available, despite it not being a public right of way.

The East Cheshire Ramblers seem to have played an integral part in getting the new Permissive Footpath opened. But there is little information on its history.

In better weather it would have afforded spectacular views – we were told – of Birmingham and the Welsh hills.

In the event it afforded what appeared to be views of a giant slate grey tarpaulin. As my photograph shows.

                                 The breathtaking views afforded by the new “permissive path” we negotiated

But were we downhearted?   Well, yes.

We went over one stile and then a second on the left.

At 11.03am “official” Pie Time was declared.

With Mr Cunliffe keeping the sort of eye on his watch more akin to Sir Alex Ferguson, we were off again at 11.10am.

At 11.20am a certain amount of confusion ensued as we took a diagonal path across a field full of cattle and sheep, which seemed to have more sense of their location than many Wanderers.

                                                                        Real Pie Time

The rain grew heavier and Mr Welsh’s umbrella more enviable.

We went over two more stiles, found a track and turned right onto a road. Just past Harcourt Barn we turned right again.

This was Ewrin Lane, which led onto Smith Lane.

We crossed the B5470, entered a field and climbed a wall on the left after 75 yards.

We went through a gate and turned left past Lower House and took a path to the left.

At 12.04pm this brought us to the Robin Hood pub.

All the ale was £3.05 a pint, that was a beer called Endless which ran out, as did the Cumberland.

Black Raven was still available.

We left the pub at 12.55pm, turning left down Stocks Lane and heading to the Virgin’s Path.

At 1.03pm it started to rain again.

Lunch was taken at 1.19pm opposite Waulkmill Farm, looking at the picturesque waterfall on the River Dean. We have been here many times before.

The River Dean flows from Rainow and over this waterfall before passing through Bollington.

                                                                               Luncheon, with a view of the waterfall

                                                                The aforementioned waterfall

We set off at 1.26pm heading to the deserted Ingersley Vale Mill.

Before we got there some Wanderers decided to break away and return to Bollington via White Nancy.

The original Ingersley Vale Mill building was seriously damaged by fire in November 1999. The remains and the preservation of this listed structure are presently a major concern and ideas are proposed in the recent (2002) Kerridge Ridge & Ingersley Vale Heritage & Countryside Project (KRIV).

The mill is located across the narrowest part of the steep sided vale, being only about 150 feet across.

A huge wheel house adjoins the mill . A very narrow lane, clinging to the hillside, passes the mill and provides access to properties further up the vale.

A large number of very poorly constructed 1960s industrial buildings adjoin the mill on both sides up and down the vale.

There is also the remains of older out buildings - behind the mill one looks as though it might have been the Apprentice House that is known to have been built on the site.

A part of the building on the extreme right of the picture is the warehouse built in the 19^th century on the location of much earlier mill workers cottages and the mill manager's house, all now gone.

You can learn more of the mill’s history here.

http://www.happy-valley.org.uk/history/mill-ingersley.htm

We reached the cars at 1.23pm, debooted and headed for the Dog and Partridge.

There we met up with the B Walkers who had started out from Bollington and followed our initial route to the newly renovated house.

They then headed to Little Harrop Farm and from there to the shell of what was once the Highwayman pub.

From there they walked to Blaze Hill and then to the Poachers, before heading to the Robin Hood. It was a distance of around five miles with climbs totalling 650 feet.

Next week’s walk will start at 10 am from the public car park near the allotments at Youlgreave.

We hope to stop at the Flying Childers Inn in Stanton in the Peak.

http://www.flyingchilders.com/section426232.html

The finishing point will be the George in Youlgreave.

Bollington

BOLLINGTON, WHITE NANCY, RAINOW

Distance: 8.5 miles

Difficulty: Easy

Weather: Overcast, showers, sunshine later.

Walkers: Alan Hart, John Laverick, Colin Davison, George Whaites, George Dearsley, Lawrie Fairman, Nigel Crank,

Apologies: Jock Rooney (wo^ki*g), Peter Beal (cruising), Tom Cunliffe (wo^ki*g), Julian Ross (dentist)

B Walkers: Geoff Spurrell, Tony Job, Mike Walton, Pete Morrall

Leader: Fairman Diarist: Dearsley

Starting Point: Main car park, Bollington

Starting Time: 9.30am. Finishing Time: 1.50pm

The Wanderers welcomed yet another new member, Nigel Crank, who has spent the last 27 years living abroad in Switzerland and latterly Portugal.

Coincidentally, many of the Wanderers would be catching a plane to Portugal the following day for some continental perambulation.

A keen skier, Nigel’s initiation to our Wednesday ramble was nevertheless a somewhat arduous one, asking him to climb to White Nancy and get soaked in a shower in the first hour.

Hopefully he will be back.

Having stocked up with the famous pies from F Smith’s, the local pie shop, our group moved off along the main street, past the church and eventually onto Cow Lane.

We were met by a South American looking gentleman on a bicycle, wearing tight fitting lycra, who attempted to enter into conversation with us.

There were entirely unsubstantiated suspicions that he might have been carrying some white powder, talcum obviously to prevent chapped inner thighs.

Waving the hombre farewell, we squeezed through the familiar stone stile and up some steps.

This is the Wanderers’ traditional route to White Nancy, which we reached by 10am.

Soon afterwards the rain, which the BBC website had adamantly insisted would not happen, began to fall, to the chagrin of Mr Hart, especially.

                                     It’s grim up North. Rain and wind during the first part of our walk

We took the usual path for a few hundred yards and then headed down hill to the main road, where we turned right and within a hundred yards or so swung left up some stone steps.

We crossed a number of fields and on reaching a metalled road turned right. This turned out to be Bull Hill Lane.

At the top is a T-junction and there we turned left.

There were further stone steps on the right and a sign denoting the Gritstone Trail.

This trail actually links Disley all the way to Kidsgrove, Staffordshire.

At 10.42am Pie Time was declared.

As if to show off to our newest recruit, Mr Fairman led us to not one but two fully operational picnic tables and in the absence of Tom Cunliffe a full  12 minutes of mastication was enjoyed.

I’m indebted to m’learned friend Mr Laverick, the application on whose smart phone informed him that to that point we had covered 2.8 miles at an average speed of 2.26 mph.

Our elevation had increased by 1000 feet and we had reached a high point of 1,288 feet.

We set off again at 10.54am, going through a gate and crossing a field as if heading for the 11 o’clock point.

We went over a stile and found ourselves on a road, where we turned left, passing Windy Way Animal Sanctuary on our left.

The sanctuary is part of the Windy Way Trust, initially a group of animal loving friends who formed into an organisation and gained charitable status in February 2005.

We joined a road and turned right.

A mere 50 yards further on we turned left and then diverted off the path to the left.

We went through a gate and turned sharp left.

At 11.25am the rain, which had stopped, began again.

We passed some tastefully renovated farm buildings, turned into dwellings and went over a stile to our left.

Our route took us to the Robin Hood which we reached at 12.01pm.

By now we had completed 5.8 miles with a maximum elevation of 1400 feet.

The B Walkers were not far behind us.

They had started in Bollington, headed along the High Street and walked via Kerridge to the hostelry.

The B Walkers’ exact route was shrouded in a fog of obfuscation and there was a scurrilous allegation that much of it may have involved bus travel.

Mr Walton, whose mobile phone has the same application as Mr Laverick’s, hinted that the B Walkers’ average speed had been around 25 mph, as he had not turned it off on public transport.

In the absence of a steward’s inquiry the allegation was left on file.

Meanwhile Black Sheep was £3 and Cheshire Cat £3.05

We left the pub at 12.55pm and turned right into Stocks Lane.

Traditionally we have taken the Virgin’s Path to the cars.

But today we went a different route.

We stopped for lunch at 12.59pm, setting off again at 1.08pm.

We turned left at Lower House Farm, which has a lot of history.

In fact if you would like to mug up on the history of the village of Rainow you can do so here.

http://www.rainow.org/TheStoryOfRainowRedux.pdf

For our final stretch the sun came out and we enjoyed the kind of weather one might expect in May. My photograph includes a pointer to White Nancy on the skyline.

We reached the cars at 1.50pm. Your diarist was sadly unable to join in the post walk frolics at the Dog and Partridge.

Next week’s walk will start from the Farmers Arms in Poynton, starting at 9.30am.  If you’re wondering where the apostrophe is even the pub’s own website has omitted it.

http://www.farmersarmspoynton.co.uk/

At the moment our putative leader Mr Laverick has not had time to work out where the half time stop will be but it could be the Boars Head or the Horse Shoe. Doubtless a plan will emerge from the uncertainty.

Bollington

BOLLINGTON, WHITE NANCY, RAINOW

Distance: 10 miles

Difficulty: Moderate

Weather: Overcast but dry

Walkers: George Dearsley, Lawrie Fairman, Phil Welsh, Tom Cunliffe, Julian Ross

Apologies: Jock Rooney (abroad), George Whaites (working), Colin Davison (dentist), Alan Hart (Barbados), Peter Beal (walking elsewhere)

B Walkers: Geoff Spurrell, Tony Job, John Laverick, Ken Sparrow

Non-walking drinkers: John Eckersley. Frank Dudley

Leader: Fairman Diarist: Dearsley

Starting Point: Main car park, Bollington

Starting Time: 9.32am. Finishing Time: 2.05pm

Any organisation – like Dracula - needs fresh blood. And this week the Wanderers welcomed a new walker, Julian Ross, plus two long absent enthusiasts Tom Cunliffe and Phil Welsh.

Tom claimed to be on a new fitness regime to shed some of his 18.5 stones. He is, of course, the ideal weight for a man of 9ft 11in. However this did not deter him from coming equipped with a substantially larger pie than the ones the Wanderers normally buy from the shop near the car park. Your diarist and Mr Welsh stuck with the Wanderers’ pie eating tradition.

In a week where Tuesday and Thursday were wet, the weather was kind to us and so was our leader with the route.

On one of the most recent times we have left from Bollington, in June I recall, two fearsome ascents (one to Andrew’s Knob) left your diarist almost in need of a defibrillator.

This time Mr Fairman led the quintet right onto Church Street and eventually onto Cow Lane, where we squeezed through a stone stile and up some steps.

This is the familiar route to White Nancy, which we reached by 10am.

The monument, we found, had been decorated with paintings to commemorate the two big events of the year, the Queen’s Jubilee and the Olympics. When Frank Dudley reaches 100 I suggest the Wanderers commission a portrait on the side of the Grade 11 listed edifice, built in 1817 to mark the victory at the Battle of Waterloo.

Our leader…

Mr Fairman shows off the route he’s mapped out for next week.

Copious photographs having been taken, we set off along the ridge and at 10.15am found ourselves on slightly the wrong track. We were faced with a dry stone wall, topped with barbed wire.  It is an error I recall we have made before. To rectify the situation we descended 50 yards and picked up the appropriate trail.

This took us down to the main road where we turned right and within a hundred yards or so swung left up some stone steps.

We crossed a number of fields and on reaching a metalled road turned right. This turned out to be Bull Hill Lane.

At the top is a T-junction and there we turned left.

There were further stone steps on the right and a sign denoting the Gritstone Trail.

This trail actually links Disley all the way to Kidsgrove, Staffordshire.

As if to show off to our newest recruit Mr Fairman led us to not one but two fully operational picnic tables for our Pie Time at 10.55am.

We set off again at 11.10am, crossing a stile.

Tegg’s Nose was away to our right.

We turned left, reached a road and turned left again.

Our route took us to the Robin Hood which we reached at 12.22pm.

Already in situ were The B Walkers.

They had started at the Sports Ground opposite the Pie Shop, headed down the High Street, passing the Redway Tavern and onto Kerridge Ridge.

Timothy Taylor’s was £3.05 as was Long Row (brewed in Poynton apparently). Headless was £3.

Ken Sparrow declared he has recently taken delivery of his first ever computer.

Let’s hope he has better luck than the “silver surfer” who became enraged because his laptop told him he was "bad and an invalid."

The technical help desk explained that the computer's "bad command" and "invalid" responses shouldn't be taken personally.

After further debates on – among other things – the joys of living or holidaying in Italy and who was the former Tory Grandee caught up in kiddie fiddling allegations, we left the pub at 1.17pm.

Doubtless emboldened by ale the B Walkers decided to take the long way home while Mr Fairman opted for the well trodden Virgins’ Path (sadly now well trodden only by walkers).

We took luncheon at 1.40pm by the spectacular waterfall opposite Waulkmill Farm.

The river here, by the way, is the River Dean. We set off at 1.46pm to pass the derelict factory and reach the cars at 2.05pm.

By 2.12pm we were in the Dog and Partridge where Messrs Dudley and Eckersley were already seated. Unicorn was £2.55.

Next week’s walk will start at the Old Cock, Whaley Bridge at 9.35am, with a stop at around 12.30pm at the Old Hall Inn, Whitehough. We will finish, of course, back at the Cock. Happy Wandering!