From Sheffield to the Peak District

Saturday 21st July 2018

Keen to make the most of the fabulous weather that we enjoyed last summer, I thought a good walk to do would be somewhere that would normally be boggy. After all that hot and dry weather the ground was rock hard even where it is usually a bit of a marsh. The closest such place to my home that I could think of was the Dark Peak in the northern half of the Peak District, and then the latest alumni magazine for my University asked “When did you last visit the University? If it was more than five years ago you are in for a surprise.” That got me intrigued so I caught a train to Sheffield and headed through the city centre that has certainly changed a lot since I was there twenty-five years ago. I passed the church that I used to go to, now a Walkabout pub, and along West Street that now has tram lines on it, which were being built as I finished Uni, and they led me to the outskirts of the University of Sheffield. Walking up the hill I passed the Hicks Building where I spent a lot of my time and it doesn’t look like it’s changed much on the outside, but right next to the building is now a pedestrian crossing that I don’t remember and this would have helped me as I also spent some time, while at Uni, in the Dainton Building opposite, and was constantly moving between the two.

Now I used this crossing to visit the front of the Dainton Building before heading beside the road past the Alfred Denny Building and the Arts Tower until I reached the underpass that took me under the road and rather than turning left back towards the Hicks building, as I often used to do, I turned right past the Student’s Union where there has been a lot of development on top or in front of the old building that I would have remembered. The place does look fantastic as I walked back up to the road where the red-brick building of Firth Court stands grandly across the road. Leaving the University behind where I had spent three years of my life, I walked along Western Bank road to Broomhill, which is a social-hub for the students and doesn’t seem to have changed, and further along the road I came to Ranmoor hall of residence where I stayed during some of my time in Sheffield, and which has completely changed. Gone is the old prison-like building that I knew and hated, to be replaced with fresh, modern buildings that are much more welcoming. The best thing about staying at Ranmoor was a walk I did from the halls down the hill into Endcliffe Park and the Porter Valley.

Turning right when I reached the park I followed the Porter Brook into Bingham Park and Whitley Woods where a peaceful wooded valley plunges deep into the city and often provided me with a welcome refreshing all those years ago as I tried to survive the bustling city. I soon felt like I was miles from civilisation, though still in Sheffield. I have returned to the Porter Valley several times over the years, most recently in 2014 when I did the Sheffield Round Walk again, retracing my steps of when I first did it in 1992 to escape from the confines of Ranmoor prison. This delightful valley, through many wonders, eventually brought me to the edge of the Peak District where I turned right along the road that marks the boundary of the National Park with hazy views across the city behind me before coming off the road onto a permissive path that heads over Rud Hill and into the Peak District even though I was still technically in the City of Sheffield. Passing through an area of heather and bracken the ground was satisfyingly dry as I followed the clear path past White Stones and onto a byway that took me to the trig point at Stanedge Pole. I was now at the boundary of the city and finally left Sheffield behind to enter Derbyshire near the popular Stanage Edge, which I have visited many times in the past, and now I walked along the edge again passing over the highest point at High Neb.

It was a shame it wasn’t sunny for this walk and the views were murky, but at least it was warm and dry. Coming off the edge at Crow Chin I descended onto Moscar Moor where I had difficulty finding a route through a thick barrier of bracken. Although I was aided by the ground being dry, it was still difficult battling through the heather on Bamford Moor and it took me a while until I eventually reached Bamford Edge with the prominent top of Win Hill ahead of me, but across the gap cut by the River Derwent, with seemingly no route down. In the end I gave up trying to find a way down, although if I’d headed south straight away, instead of north, I may have found a way, but by then I had already decided to head home. On reaching the road I turned steeply down Bamford Clough into the village of Bamford and rather than following the main road to Bamford station I turned onto the minor Joan Lane taking a footpath around Bamford Filters and descended steeply into Hurst Clough before climbing even more steeply out of the deep valley, which was quite tiring at the end of a long day so from there I followed a road all the way into Hathersage and the railway station there.

It was good to return to my old haunts from my University days and I particularly enjoyed walking along the Porter Valley again, which is a fantastic place that will be drawing me back many more times. A lot of time has passed since I was at the University of Sheffield and although there have been many changes at the Uni since those days I have also changed a lot since those days. I do still have a lot of affection for Sheffield, but the University itself is very much in my past, while places like the Porter Valley are what interest me now. It is a pity the views in the Peak District were so poor, but this was still a good, long walk to travel from the centre of a large city all the way out into the moors of the Peak District National Park.

Looking for bluebells in the Charnwood Forest

Saturday 19th May 2018

Every year I like to do a walk through the Charnwood Forest in Leicestershire to see bluebells. I will usually use my Charnwood Forest Round for this, which is a walk that I devised some years ago and now do several times every year as a way of keeping my hillwalking fitness up, and passes through a few ancient woodlands that rejoice in bluebells in the spring. Last year I was delayed in doing my annual bluebell walk by being in the Lake District at the beginning of May, and when I was back I decided to do vary the walk by drawing inspiration from the National Forest Way and another bluebell walk that I did in 2017 that took in the three peaks of Leicestershire. However last year was very different to previous years and hot weather over the bank holiday weekend had sent the bluebells to seed very quickly despite a late appearance due to the late winter. Therefore the flowering period for bluebells last year was very short, which is a shame and severely affected this walk. Setting off from the village of Woodhouse Eaves on the course of the National Forest Way I could already see that the bluebells were going to seed and the prospects for the walk seemed bleak, though the weather was fabulous with cloudless skies and bright sunshine all day.

After passing through Swithland Woods I came into Bradgate Park where I found a welcome array of bluebells still shining in the full vigour of youth, late developers that had escaped the scorching weather earlier in the month. Climbing to the top of Old John I passed the folly and war memorial and descended into Newtown Linford continuing along the National Forest Way on a path that was decorated with stitchworts. A private wood to the right of the path had a great covering of bluebells with many still in good condition and only just past their peak so they were producing a splendid display. Being a private wood with no public access helps enormously in preventing bluebells being trampled underfoot by people eager to get a closer look, and I had to be content with staying on the other side of a barbed wire fence. The path continues through some wild flower meadows to reach Lady Hay Wood where I found a glade that was filled with bluebells, just as I’d remembered the previous year. Despite many of the bluebells starting to go to seed there was a fantastic display that was made even more special by the sunshine, which was a welcome change from the rain that had accompanied me when I had been at this spot the year before.

Continuing on the National Forest Way I crossed the busy A50 and entered Martinshaw Wood, which has never produced spectacular displays of bluebells in my experience, although I did find splendid displays of stitchworts. Soon after entering the wood I took a wide path that follows the northern edge of the wood, but soon I decided to abandon that and return to the National Forest Way, but I’m not particularly familiar with the layout of Martinshaw Wood so instead of heading south I actually headed west, which was completely the wrong direction. Eventually I came to the corner where the M1 motorway cuts the wood in two, and from that point I followed the fence beside the roar of the passing cars and lorries until I reached the bridge at the south-eastern edge where I finally managed to return to the National Forest Way. Now I stuck to the trail all the way through to Burroughs Wood where I was greeted by a great bank of cow parsley and red campion, but the bluebells had completely gone to seed and were no longer in flower, which was very disillusioning for me and left me with the realisation that it wasn’t worth my looking for for anymore bluebells on this walk.

However, there were still plenty of other wild flowers to me to see with cow parsley overgrowing the path beyond Burroughs Wood. As I continued along the trail stitchworts and red campion delighted me all the way to Thornton Reservoir, where the fields at the foot of the dam were filled with dandelion seed heads and buttercups adding to the beautiful scene that was reminiscent of last year. After passing the reservoir I finally turned off the National Forest Way (and my walk of last year) to follow the route of the Leicestershire Round along a path that I have not taken for many years so I was unsure of the route, although it proved to be pretty easy. After passing through Markfield I joined the route of my familiar Charnwood Forest Round passing bluebells in Ulverscroft Wood that were so far gone that it was quite depressing to realise I’d missed them at their best. Later I had a similar story in the Outwoods that are usually filled with bluebells at this time of the year but were now in a sorry state.

I had suspected I would see poor displays of bluebells and in fact these just seemed to get worse as the walk progressed, although I had hoped the late winter would have preserved them, but that had worked in only a small number of exposed locations. It is a pity I couldn’t enjoy this walk for it was rather than for what it didn’t have. I had fabulous weather and a great display of wild flowers including the red campion pictured above, but that was not what I had come out to see.