Langley

The serene scene of the Teggsnose and Bottoms reservoirs soon calmed me down. I disturbed a Heron that was meditating just below the dam wall and it hauled itself across the reservoir to a quieter spot. This was an unexpectedly pretty place. I followed the road into the quaint village of Langley. There was a lot of building work going on. I could see why people would want to live there.  'Do you know where the footpath is to the small reservoir?' My OS map was a little vague and there didn't appear to be any footpath signs about. I'd directed the question to a woman walking her dog and as soon as I'd finished talking I could see the footpath sign over her shoulder; it had been blocked from my view by a wooden telephone post. I politely listened to her instructions and got on my way. My route took me across fields, to Ridge Hall Farm where one of the residents diligently ignored my presence.  Beyond the farm, the view opened up to include my Ethel goal of Croker Hill. I knew it was Croker Hill because there is a minaret of a communications tower on its summit. I descended down into the valley towards it.

Fox Bank

I joined the Gritstone Trail and this took me to the slope up to Fox Bank which is at the northern end of the ridge from Croker Hill. The Gritstone Trail is a 35 mile long footpath which follows the westerly peaks of the White Peaks from Disley to Kidsgrove. A lot of my route today would be along the trail. The whine of a chainsaw accompanied me up the track to Fox Bank. I could see a worker cutting up wood from the plantation on the hillside. Once I reached the broad ridge line of Fox Bank, the views opened up and I could see Manchester to the northwest and the huge bowl of Jodrell Bank Telescope to the west. The ridge gradually ascended towards Croker Hill with the huge mast getting ever closer. A couple of men were rebuilding a stone wall; one of them managed a languid wave, but the other didn't even look up. Looking onwards I could see that the mast was protected by legions of cows. My heart sank a little and I plodded on.  Over to the west I could see the hills of Gawsworth Common and Whitemoor. I had considered including those on today's walk, but there seemed to be quite a bit of excavator activity at the quarry on Gawsworth Common and so I decided to leave them for another day. I'm not sure what they were quarrying but they seemed to have removed about half of the summit of the hill.  Now that I was closer to the summit of Croker Hill I could see that the cows were all on the west side of a stone wall that led to the mast. Luckily my track was on the east side. Curiously I found that a gate was open and they could have quite easily wandered over to the eastern side. Obviously the grass was greener in the west. That huge mast wasn't that far away now and I trudged onwards towards it.

Croker Hill

It is reasuring to know that when Putin fulfills his threat of nuclear war, the Sutton Common BT Tower will still be standing. The 72 metre high tower is one of a few that were built out of reinforced concrete and designed to provide the UK and NATO with survivable communications during nuclear war. It is nice to know that the MPs and civil servants, hunkered down in their nuclear bunkers, will still be able to talk to each other. I thought there might be a general hum from all those transmissions but it was all eerily silent. I was surprised to come across a farm on the other side of the site. 'That's ideally situated in the event of a nuclear war'  I thought; just nip across to the tower and break in. Given that Russia's Satan-2 (appropriately named) hypersonic missile can reach the UK in a mere 6 minutes, there wouldn't be that much time to get stuff together and so I think I'd get a travel case ready in preparation for the apocalypse. I'm a bit dubious whether reinforced concrete would actually remain intact after a direct hit from a nuclear warhead. With these dark thoughts ricocheting around my brain I made my way downhill through fields to Buxton Road. It had escaped my attention that I'd ticked my 92nd Ethel; there were only 3 more to go.

'They won't hurt you!' I remained at the safe side of the gate as a Border Collie and two yappers barked through the grills. The farmer's wife started wandering back down the farm track towards her house. The Border Collie and one of the yappers followed her, while the other one remained guard at the gate. I wasn't particularly afraid of the dog, but more concerned about the consequences if I accidently stepped on it. In the end I gave up and made my way through the gate. As soon as I got to the other side the yapper scooted off towards its owner in a cloud of dust.

Field Hopping

The bridleway got a little vague along Rossen Clough. Evidently not many people use it. It was impossible to really get lost though since the brook running down the clough was a good navigational handrail. At Civit Hills House a horrible Great Dane bounded down to the fence and for one awful moment I thought it was going to leap over it and then on to me. The barbed top probably put it off. It barked aggressively and continuously as I walked along the track a few yards from its slavering jowls. I joined the farm track just beyond the house and started following it. Halfway along I had to make way for a builder's merchants lorry that was making its way from the house. It squeezed through the stone posts of a gate entrance with an inch to spare on each side. 

I picked up the Gritstone Trail again at Lowerhouse and continued field hopping. I'd follow the trail all the way back to the carpark. At Fernlee I talked to an elderly farmer who was waiting for his son to round up some cattle. He told me that they'd not been able to cut the grass because of the recent rain. 'As long as we get a dry stretch before the end of September, we should be okay.' Although there was a lot of field hopping on this walk, most of it was through easy access gates and so didn't feel much of a hassle. The landscape was quite varied too and so provided more interest than one might have expected. The Gritstone Trail led me back to the road into Langley.

'You fucking idiot!' I was taking a photo of the Bottoms reservoir at the time of this exclamation and so wasn't sure where the observation was directed at me. I turned around and saw an irate woman on a horse with a large lorry disappearing along the road. My initial thought was, 'I wouldn't fancy driving that huge thing along these roads.' The woman was looking at me and I felt I had to say something and all I came up with was a laughably, stupid 'Did he drive a bit close?' The woman's face went from a shade of red to purple at being presented with two idiots in as many minutes.

Negg's Nose

It was only about 1pm when I got back to the carpark and so I decided to extend my walk to include Negg's Nose. I started a direct ascent using the track from the back of the carpark. It was a pleasant woodland trail and got steeper as it broke away from the trees. A zig and a zag of the track ensured that the gradient to the top wasn't too much of a challenge. There was an excellent view southwards from the top with the reservoirs dotted immediately below and the ridge from Fox Bank to the mast on Croker Hill, in the distance. The OS map showed another viewpoint to the north and I followed a wide stone track to its location. A rather over-engineered stonehenge type arrangement supported an information board relating to the magnificent open view westwards. An wonderful, circular stone wall stile had been built at the summit with peep holes through the wall that pointed to distant hills. I'm sure I've seen a similar arrangement somewhere else, but I struggled to remember where. Looking down the steep east face I could see some brightly coloured machinery just below me. 'That's worth a look' I thought and started returning back on my ascent path, to make my way around to it. 

The area was actually the remains of an old quarry. Some of the cliffs had been converted into dedicated climbing areas with support bars running along the top. A couple of information boards near to the machinery informed me that the equipment had been used to move and saw stone. There was the remains of a crane and also a metal frame to allow cutting of the stone. Quarrying had started here as early as the 1500s. Many quarrymen died from silicosis before the age of 50 since the stone contained around 84% silica. It looked a hard life, not least because of the hard commute up to Negg's Nose to get to and from work. 

I started making my way back to Negg's Nose and then made the descent back to the carpark. It had been an enjoyable walk. My initial assessment of it being a mundane field hopping, Ethel bagging exercise was clearly wrong. It was a lot more interesting and picturesque than that.