Captain's Log

Longshaw

I was the first arrival at the National Trust’s Longshaw carpark. It would be rather different when I returned later in the day, with cars crawling around the site to try and find a vacant spot. As I togged up a biting wind chilled me to the bone. If it was this cold with trees protecting me from the wind, I reckoned that it would be freezing once I was up on the moors. I put a fleece on under my jacket.

Today’s walk would be a tour of the moors on the east side  of the Peak District. The moors list would include: White Edge Moor, Totley Moor, Blacka Moor, Houndkirk Moor and Burbage Moor. There would be more moors than you could shake a stick at. You couldn’t wish for more. I’d also visit the aircraft crash location of the Wellington Z8491 that crashed on White Edge Moor after a bombing raid in 1942. 

By the time I was ready to set off my fingers were already numb from the cold even though I’d got gloves on. I set off at a good pace to try and warm up.

White Edge Moor

I headed southwards towards the Wooden Pole. The location is called Wooden Pole because there is a large wooden pole plonked into the ground. The National Trust maintains the site and replaces the pole now and again. It is thought that the pole acted as a waymarker for an old pack horse route.  It was rather gloomy to get a decent photo of it. Even though the sun had risen, low level clouds prevented it from illuminating the landscape. Occasionally there would be a hole in the clouds and there’d be a few God rays breaking through. I’d brought my zoom lens today in the hope that I might see some deer on White Edge Moor. It is a good place to spot them although the rutting season would have finished last November. If I couldn’t find any deer, then I was hoping to get some other wildlife photos. 

I’d put off visiting the aircraft crash site of Wellington Z8491 since it is in a remote location on White Edge Moor (Big Moor) with no tracks to it shown on the map. There’s quite a story to the crash. On February 6th 1942, the Wellington was returning from a bombing raid to the French port of Brest. Unfortunately their target was obscured by clouds and so they returned to Britain with a full bomb load. The navigator thought he was over Lincolnshire and so he told the pilot that he could descend. Instead of Lincolnshire they hit White Edge Moor at 200 mph. The plane hit the moor, bounced upward and then skidded to a halt. The impact was such that the co-pilot Jack Seaman was catapulted out through a hatch and flung into a deep snow drift. Amazingly the seven 500lb bombs didn’t detonate and there was no fire. When Jack Seaman had sufficiently recovered he thought that he must be in occupied France and should be taking steps to avoid the Germans. He couldn’t see the Wellington because of the snowfall. Back at the aircraft it was left to the wireless operator Kit Carson to go and get help. He set off and ended up at Barbrook Reservoir to the east. From there he was able to raise help and the Home Guard were recruited for a rescue party. The rest of the crew were subsequently rescued. They also found Jack Seaman later in the day suffering from frostbite and cracked ribs. He’d later lose some of those fingers to frostbite. It is astounding that nobody died in the crash. Although, if you are going to crash a plane, then White Edge Moor is probably a better place than any, since it is very flat and boggy. If they’d actually hit  the crags along White Edge, then they wouldn’t have stood a chance. 

My route to the aircraft crash site was an out-and-back for about a kilometre into the middle of the moor. Fortunately I found a track that went in that direction and so I just followed it. Over to the east I could see the remains of Barbrook Reservoir where Kit Carson had headed for help. There wasn’t anything to indicate that there had been an aircraft crash when I reached the crash location. There was just heather, grass and bog, just like everywhere else on the moor. I walked back to the Hurkling Stone from where I’d started the out-and- back. From there I walked northeast and visited the Lady’s Cross. This is believed to have been a wayside marker for ancient packhorse trails across the moor. The top part of the stone cross has broken off and surrounds the bottom half. The stone debris made a handy seat and I stopped for a break. 

Totley Moor And Blacka Moor

The track took me eastwards to the busy B6054. A stone wall separated the moor from the road and I followed a track along this to Saltersitch Bridge. I crossed the road and plodded up a good track to the trig point on Totley Moor. This moor is the last moorland outpost before the suburbs of Sheffield. The whole city seemed  to stretch out before me. It was such a contrast with the desolate moorland. I headed northwards to Moss Road and then dropped down to a network of footpaths at Blacka Hill. I’d never visited this particular area before and so it was all new to me. It was an interesting collection of moorland and sparse woodland. Blacka Moor is a nature reserve and a Site of Scientific Interest. There were plenty of tracks and footpath markers too, but I found my gps quite useful to confirm which track I was actually on. It seemed popular with mountain bikers with some of them reaching high speeds on the bridleways and so it was necessary to remain alert. Eventually the paths brought me out onto the A625 Hathersage Road. My route took me down the road for about 300 metres and I came across a large stone sign for the Peak District National Park. One of the few things that I remember from my Junior School trips was seeing this stone sign from the bus window as it took us to Castleton and an adventure in the Blue John Cavern. It seems an odd thing to remember, but my memory of this stone sign is very vivid. I crossed the A625 and onto Houndkirk Moor. 

Houndkirk Moor And Burbage Moor

The track over Houndkirk Moor was bounded by heather on either side. It would have been tough going if the track hadn't been there. The OS map showed the footpath heading westwards to Houndkirk Road, but there seemed a better track going to the southeast and so I followed that instead. It also met up with the Houndkirk Road, just a little further south than my intended route. The Houndkirk Road is quite a wide track and is sometimes frequented by trail bikes and so this is another place where you have to keep your wits about you. I was only on it for about 100 metres today though before I headed off westwards again on a stalkers track. A view of the impressive Higger Tor and Carl Walk started to open up. Further north I could see parked cars glistening in the sun below the crags of Stanage Edge. I reached the track that runs along the western edge of Burbage Moor and started following it back towards the Longshaw Estate. There were plenty of other walkers using the path. Rock climbers and boulderers were out doing their stuff too. As I dropped down I came across the large stone trough that quarry men from distant times must have discarded. They had chiselled the external sides of the trough okay and had created a channel around the perimeter of the inside. Presumably they would have deepened the channel and then chipped out the middle to create the trough. There had obviously been a lot of work involved to get it to this stage and so there must have been some fault for them to abandon it (probably the huge crack on it). 

I continued on a boggy path to the Fox House public house. From there it was just a short distance back to the carpark. The owners of two cars waited impatiently as I took off my boots and put my kit away. I’m not sure which one got into my parking space once I’d reversed out. 

It had been a cold, but sunny day. Apart from Blacka Moor, it was all familiar territory, but I enjoyed the remoteness of the moors and the extensive views over Sheffield. I was glad that I’d at last reached the crash site of Wellington Z8491 and I that I can now cross it off my Dark Peak Aircraft Crash Site Venture list.