Hike report - 2017

As agreed during the 2016 hike we returned to the Peak District, ten years after our last visit in 2007, and again used the spa town of Buxton as our base.

Laurie arranged accommodation at the Queens Head Hotel in the High Street. There was a small car park at the back that was accessed by a narrow driveway. To avoid parking in the street we packed the cars in, which resulted in some tricky manoeuvres to get them out.

Drew and Malcolm were the first to arrive and had a drink in the bar while they waited for Graham B and Martin to turn up.

Although Geoff, who had still not fully recovered from his accident over a year ago, had planned on being there, needed to cancel at the last minute, due to his presence being required at home while some building work was done on the Friday.

Another notable absentee was Simon Hime, who had been a regular hiker over the last few years, could not make it. One of his other pastimes, which he enjoys with his family, is Cyclocross. With his best results from 10 -12 races each season needed to qualify for his league position; he had to compete over the hike weekend. He says that the races last for about 40 minutes during which he, and his bike, gets covered in mud. Although he has won a few rounds over the years and finished 2^nd and 3^rd in the league, he is still chasing a league title.

We went to the King’s Head pub for our evening meal, but Graham was not too happy as his duck was overdone. It was then off to the Old Sun Inn for a drink, where we were able to enjoy a Triple Taster, where instead of having one pint of a specific brew you can have 3 x 1/3 pints of different beers.

Friday

Graham B had planned two possible hikes for the day, depending upon the weather conditions.

The first choice was the Western flank of Kinder Scout from Hayfield, but the weather was not good enough and our attention turned to Plan B – Stanage Edge, a popular place for walkers and rock climbers, situated north of Hathersage. However, it was decided that we would prefer not to do a 17 mile car journey.

We eventually decided to tackle The Roaches (from the French les roches – the rocks) a prominent rocky ridge above Leek and Tittesworth Reservoir, about 8 miles south of Buxton and over the county boundary in Staffordshire. They form a gritstone escarpment, which is popular with hikers, rock climbers and freerunners.

We travelled down the A53 and made our way to the car park at Gradbach, not far from the Scout Campsite, that covers 48 acres.

It was very cold as we set off in a westerly direction, following the road for a short while before taking the concrete path to the north of the track leading down to the Scout Camp Site. At the end of the path we crossed the footbridge and followed the path into the wood, known as Back Forest.

We continued on the path heading west and went steadily up hill to a height of 310m before turning sharply south east on the upper path to Lud’s Church.

Not a church as we know it but a deep chasm penetrating the Millstone Grit bedrock and created by a massive landslip on the hillside above Gradbach. It is mossy and overgrown, wet and said to be cool even on the hottest of days.

The area has a place in Christian history: the Lollards, who were followers of John Wycliffe, an early church reformer, are supposed to have used this as a secret place of worship during the early 15th century, when they were being persecuted for their religious beliefs.

Lud’s Church may have been named after Walter de Ludank or Walter de Lud-Auk who was captured here at one of their meetings.

We clambered through the ‘church’ and eventually doubled back up to the footpath that we followed south east through the wood, before turning south to climb a hill across fields to the road at Roach End.

After crossing the road we took the footpath leading to The Roaches. As we slowly climbed it became much colder and at about 450m it was freezing and there was a thick mist. Here was no greenery to be seen – everything was covered in thick frost, including the Trig point at the highest point (505m).

They say that in clear conditions, it is possible to see much of Cheshire and views stretching as far as Snowdon in Wales and Winter Hill in Lancashire, but we could hardly see each other as we continued along the path.

Our next stop was Doxey Pool, about half way along The Roaches.  Legend has it that the pool is inhabited by a mermaid called Jenny Greenteeth known as the blue nymph and that she fell in the pool on a foggy day whilst walking along the top of the Roaches, and ever since has been enticing unsuspecting victims into the pool and to their watery grave.

There was no chance of that today as it was totally frozen over. However, it did give Martin the opportunity to invent a new sport (ski-skating) – a sport he was immediately better at than his brother Simon.

We followed the path to the end of the ridge and then descended to the col, where we enjoyed our packed lunch in the shelter of a dry stone wall.

After lunch we continued on our way. With the ice and mist having cleared during the morning descent it turned into better weather for hiking. Apart from the afternoon being an enjoyable walk there was little else of interest worth noting, apart from Graham remembering that the Goldsitch Moss Nature Reserve didn’t appear to have much wildlife in it, if any.

Back at the Queen’s head we freshened up and were joined by Peter, Graham H and Laurie who had all travelled there separately during the day. Laurie was in fact a day later than he planned as, amongst some other ailments, he was being bothered by Achilles Tendinopathy.  Having had to miss Friday he was keen not to miss Saturday as we planned to do a walk that he had chosen, over Combs Moss just to the North of Buxton with lunch in The Beehive in Combs.

We went to the Kweilin Chinese Restaurant for our meal. It was not there in 2007, during our last visit, but had built up a good reputation and had excellent reviews, but Laurie did not call it a ‘proper’ after he discovered that their sea bass was not the whole fish – just two fillets. Instead he had Singapore noodles and chips which he thought was very good.

There was of course time for a couple of pints before we retired for the night.

Saturday

The plan for today was a hike across Combs Moss, have lunch at Combs and then return via the Midshires Way, the route of an old Roman road.

After breakfast six of us made a short journey to just north of Buxton and parked at the end of a cul-de-sac just south of some waterworks.

Graham H and Laurie, despite his Achilles problem, had swelled our number, while Peter, although planning to join us for lunch, had decided to spend the day on his own visiting some local churchyards.

Although raining it was warmer than Friday as we set off north alongside Lightwood Reservoir before climbing Flint Clough.

The morning hike was fairly uneventful with nothing of great note to mention. Our route took north north-east along Black Edge, past the trig point at 507m onto Hob Tor. There we turned north west along Short Edge before we made a steep descent to the road that led to the Beehive Inn at Combs.

Drew had sausages and everyone else had steak and ale pie.

We sat in front of a lovely open fire, and enjoyed our meals that were supplemented with extra veg and gravy kindly provided by our host.

The weather was still unpleasant, necessitating our group photo being taken indoors.

Peter left us and we continued on our way, heading initially south west along the lane opposite the pub. We followed footpaths south and then south west to the Midshire Way. However, Laurie was finding it increasingly difficult to walk and had to make regular stops. As a result it was decided that Malcolm and Martin would stride out to get their cars and return to collect us somewhere along the Manchester Road (A5004).

We walked at our own pace, now in the pouring rain, with the two Grahams ahead of Drew and Laurie, and eventually stopped at the Best Western Lee Wood Hotel, located at the junction where Malcolm and Martin would arrive with the cars. After this occurred some of us took the opportunity of having a drink / afternoon tea in the hotel, before making our way back to the B&B.

We went to the Taj Mahal restaurant for our evening meal, the same Indian restaurant we had used in 2007. There was nothing special to report apart from the fact that they had trouble working out the 5% discount we were entitled to.

Laurie set off for home after the meal and the rest of us returned to The Old Sun Inn for some more refreshment and to enjoy some more triple tasters.

It had been an interesting day.

Sunday

We had breakfast, packed and set off for Over Haddon, a small village about 15 miles away, located south of Bakewell.

With Laurie having returned home on Saturday evening, and Peter continuing to do his ‘own thing’ there we just the five of us. We used the local car park to the south west of the village and prepared ourselves for the short morning hike.

It was a bright day but very cold with a heavy frost. We made our way to the main road and headed west through some lovely countryside.

Just before Haddon Grove we turned left and followed the path winding south into Lathkill Dale and down to the river. There was a lovely view upstream, beside which was the footpath leading to Monyash. However we turned east to start our return journey.

Lathkill Dale was ruined during the early 1800s as a result of extensive lead mining but is now one of the most beautiful valleys in Derbyshire. There are still plenty of relics in the area resulting from the mining industry including the ruins of an old mill that we could see.

However, the most curious of these relics is Bateman’s House – a house built over an unusually wide mineshaft and with a second shaft just outside the original building, that we were to see about half way along our route back, just on the other side of the river.

Water ingress has always been a serious problem for lead miners so water pumps needed to be installed to help with the drainage. The building was originally built in 1830 by the Lathkill Dale Mining Company and the house was initially the engine house. However, it is believed that the engines never properly worked and after two years it was replaced by a giant waterwheel.

James Bateman the company’s agent converted the house into living accommodation and moved in with his family.

By 1842 large scale mining ceased and the house was empty. Over the years it fell into ruin but recently it has been cleared and re-opened to public access by English Nature, becoming a bit of a tourist attraction.

There is an information board providing details of the pump, a crank handle to provide lighting to see down the shaft and a sturdy metal ladder enabling the adventurous to climb down onto the top of the mine, which most of us did.

After fully exploring the area we made our way back across the small bridge and resumed our hike along the north bank of the river. We met the footpath south of Over Haddon and followed it north into the village, returning to the cars.

Peter was there waiting to collect Drew. They were heading north to Penrith to meet their wives for a week long holiday in the Lake District. The rest of us said our goodbyes and headed home.