Monday 9th September, A Saddleworth Saunter

This Blog hasn't been kept as up-to-date as I would have liked of late, mainly because of other stuff going on. I'm making a valiant attempt at putting some of the more significant recent events so earwiggo.......
 

Alistair's Birthday Walk

Alistair, in common with Norman, has a birthday on the same date every year. Like Norman, he tries to celebrate his birthday with a walk. This year he struggled to find suitable company for his birthday walk and so he ended up asking me to join him.
Rather chuffed at being asked to join him on this auspicious occasion, I jumped on the train from Altrincham to Stockport where Alistair collected me for the drive over to Dovestones Reservoir, east of Oldham.
The day was ideal for walking, bright and sunny but not too hot. This area of Saddleworth is really quite lovely, the edges make for gentle walking – once you've actually got up to them. My last visit here was last November when I'd been out for a run with Cheshire Tally-Ho. Now the colours of the countryside were quite different and it was much warmer.
Our route started at the car-park by the reservoir dam. Other than dog-walkers, a couple of cyclists and two runners, we seemed to be the only people out that day.
We headed out west, which the navigationally switched on will quickly note is NOT east. East is Good. Heading west was A Warning. We had planned to climb to the top of Alphin, a pleasant enough looking hill. We picked out what appeared to be an easy zig-zag route.....except that it wasn't. It was a bit of an uphill battle over heathery, boggy, overgrown upness. There actually wasn't a zig-zag route so we just ended up aiming for the top and going straight for it. Such fun.

Pots and Pans, above Uppermill

Close Encounter of the Frog Kind

The Birthday Boy climbing up the side of Alphin

Up until a couple of years ago I’d always thought that walkers carrying carabiners about their person were poseurs….wanalooklike climbers. Until I walked with Denis Pigeon. He pointed out that a carabiner is simply a brilliant way of holding down the top rung of a barbed-wire fence so you don’t catch your rude bits as you clamber over. Sooo…here’s the Denis method of dealing with a barbed wire fence:

Another very useful, er, use for a carabiner is for securing your pack on the well-overloaded luggage rack of the train from Glasgow to Fort William and the start of your TGO Challenge. It also earns brownie points from the train conductor / tickety person who would otherwise get very grumpy. 

Anyway, once at the top of the hill we found a pleasant spot and stopped for a quick cuppa and a gawp at the views which were spectacular, the Manchester skyline in the distance, the reservoirs in the middle distance and weirdly shaped rocks along the edges.

 Manchester in the far distance

Alistair trying to look a year younger than he actually is

Suitable refreshed, we wandered off south east-ish, sticking closely to the rocky edges above Chew Brook and north of Wimberry Moss.
I lived not a million miles from here in the 1970s and one of the annual delights was picking wimberries, they make the most wonderful fruit pies. The only drawbacks are that you end up with blue fingers and they take ages to pick.
The paths were generally good but there were the odd soft and soggy bits to negotiate, nothing life-threatening like wot you get on Kinder Scout though. After crossing one of these soggy bits, a steaming peat desert, Chew Reservoir became our next target.

  Chew Reservoir

We trotted merrily across the Chew Reservoir dam (the Dam Chew Reservoir?) and looked across the water. Emley Moor TV mast was quite clearly visible in the distance. A bit of a cool breeze had built up so we found ourselves a nice sheltered spot for lunch. Butties and flasks were produced....and Alistair was presented with his no expenses spared £1 birthday card. I would have bought a Gregg's birthday cake....but there isn't a Gregg's on the Saddleworth Moors. Oh well. Egg butties and malt loaf had to suffice. Oh, and it rained, but only a bit.

Wandering off in a sort of north direction, we crossed some boggy ground until we spotted a good path along the edges. We followed this easy path until we drew level with Greenfield Reservoir, stopping only to gawp at the wonderfully shaped rock formations. And to photograph them:

    The person in blue is Alistair, not a rock. It’s just that he’s a year older.

The sticky-up thing on the horizon is the Emley Moor TV mast. 

We came across Ashway Cross:

‘Here, by the accidental discharge of a gun, James Platt Esq., MP for Oldham, lost his life, 27th August 1857’
James Platt, Liberal MP for Oldham, was out shooting grouse on the moors when he lost his life. The Platt family were big in the textile industry, at one time Platts were the world’s largest textile machinery manufacturers.
There were clouds:

The descent wasn't quite as straightforward as the earlier part of the walk. There wasn't much of a path so we just followed the stream that flowed down Birchen Clough to pick up the Land Rover Track that served the reservoirs.

All was well until I took a tumble, nothing serious – my pride was more damaged than my body, although my bruised legs ended up being quite multi-coloured for a couple of weeks!
Fortunately the Land Rover Track, which soon became a tarmac-surfaced road, made for easy walking and my bruised pins didn't slow us down too much and we were back at the car soon after.

Enroute to the car

A lovely day out in good company, I'll have to see if I can drag Alistair out for a walk on my birthday!
Alistair reckons with walked around 18km with a total ascent of 500m. I reckon we walked a bit more than 11 miles and climbed around 1600ft.
If you want to know what we REALLY did, have a look at Alistair’s blog. He’s got a map too!
More pics here. – loads more rock formation stuff.

Saturday 7th September, Thelwall

Thelwall Morris are a fine bunch of lads, always up for a bit of fun and a leap around. Every year they invite a few Morris sides to Warrington to join in the fun and leaping around. This year was my first Thelwall Day of Dance – and what a cracking day out it was. A bus was commandeered hired for the day which provided transport around the various venues. This was a good plan….most of these venues seemed to provide lots of rather good beer.
Just some pics from the day….and more pics here.

 

  A grand day out Grommit!

Wednesday 4th September, Norman’s Birthday walk

A Breath of Fresh Air

Norman’s birthday always falls on 4th September, every year. Funny that.

As well as being famous for having his birthday on the same date each year Norman is responsible for a rather pleasant 22 mile walking route just to the south of Lancaster entitled ‘A Breath of Fresh Air’. By way of a birthday ‘celebration’, Norman decided to burden his mates with a 15 mile variant of his invention. And just to make it interesting he led the walk in reverse.
It was a lovely morning for a walk, warm yet pleasantly fresh. 19 walkers, well 20 walkers if you include the dog, met up at Conder Green at the appointed hour and girded their respective loins in preparation for the walk ahead.

 Norman, 74, outside Conder Green public loo

Off we jolly well went, down the disused railway track towards Lancaster. Dr Beeching has a lot to answer for, but the footpaths & bridleways left behind after the widespread butchery of the British Railways network are now very well used by walkers, cyclists and horseriders. Good as these Rights of Way are, a comprehensive railway network might just have helped improve the overcrowded roads of today. 

Artwork adjacent to the disused railway line – looks like one of Oliver Postgate’s creations!

Our Glorious Leader led us down to the Lancaster Canal at Aldcliffe where lunch break No1 was enjoyed:

Lunch break No2

Especially for Alan

Our route took us to Galgate, over to Cockerham and then to the coast. It was on this leg that we came across The Black Knights Parachute Club’s airfield. Jumping out of aeroplanes it what this lot do and they were doing it with gusto. The airfield had an excellent café which was open and many cups of tea were quaffed as we watched the Black Knights do their stuff.

 
The aerial display was really impressive, unfortunately the bright sunshine made it difficuIt to keep an eye on the tiny specks jumping out of the plane. It was only when the brightly coloured parachutes were a few hundred feet above us that we could really watch their manoeuvres.
It would have been easy to spend more time at the airfield – but we had a walk to do! 

Cockersand Abbey

A Big Lad!

Plover Sands Lighthouse

  Another one for Alan

Glasson Dock

The finish was perilously close to a pub and, er, well…..it would be rude not to. So we did.
The 15 mile walk varied in length depending on which GPS you checked, 16 or 17 miles (ish) is about the mark.
The walk was good, so was the company. And the beer at the end. If you scrunch up your eyes you might be able to see where we went:
Oh, and it was flat.

Tuesday 3rd September, Another Curry Walk

An email from the Long Suffering Rick gently hinted that a Curry Walk was overdue. I fired off emails to those well known Curry Walk aficionados, Martin & Alan. Alan was predictably enthusiastic, Martin was willing but the flesh it was weak – a particularly painful back problem meant he was virtually immobile. The decision was taken: we’d do the walk and eat Martin’s curry for him. Oh, and drink his beer at the end.

My old friend John had been cajoled into joining us. He’s not that old really, but he does enjoy a curry. And a walk. He’s quite partial to a few decent beers too.

Rick planned the route, it was his fault turn. A tram ride from Timperley whisked us up to our rendezvous point with Alan:  Prestwich on the north side of Manchester.

The Plan (Ho-ho!) was to follow the banks of the River Irwell into the centre of Manchester. To get to the river from our start point meant wandering down a short section of the busy A56 Chester to Broughton (North Yorkshire) road. You can often turn up some real gems if you keep your eyes open when walking through built-up areas, like the delightfully named ‘Railway & Naturalist’ pub:

The Railway & Naturalist, Prestwich

 

Leaving the busy A56 to walk through Prestwich village we passed the old church of St. Mary the Virgin:

The building has been extended over the years You don’t need to look too carefully to spot some of the alterations. Alan knows more about it (and the pub opposite), he and Sheila used to live locally.

 

 

After walking through the wooded graveyard we followed a very good path that took us through Prestwich Clough > Drinkwater Park and then the River Irwell:

Rick doing a map check…..John McN checking the location of his marbles

 

The River Irwell

Most people think that the course that rivers follow as they wend their merry way into busy city centres as being dreary at best. The route the River Irwell took was anything but – it was quite delightful.

The path was very pleasant indeed although there were constant reminders of our close proximity to central Manchester:
  The Manchester skyline, the 550’ 47 storey Beetham Tower on the RHS

 

Manchester City Council appear to have provided comfy seating on the route. Nice, eh?

 

 

I’ve no idea what this is, perhaps a tribute to the area’s industrial past?

 

I think this building may have some connection with the old trolley-bus system that was in use in Manchester until  1966.

A Manchester Trolley-bus in 1966. Pic taken from Wikipedia.

The weirs of the river began to sound unnaturally loud….then I realised I was hearing the rumbling of stomachs. It was getting towards 2pm and we were hungry, hungry, hungry.

Above: the view to Salford from the bridge below:

I can’t imagine local councils forking out for such elaborate signage these days.

 

A sadder-looking River Irwell. The building behind the bridge is the old sorting office. So Alan says. And he knows about these things.

 

Our bee-line to the luxury of ‘This & That’ took us past Manchester Cathedral, a rather magnificent building that is undergoing some restoration work. Whilst this work is being carried out a temporary building has been constructed to serve the faithful:

Manchester Cathedral with the Cathedral Pre-fab to the left.

 

No idea, but it goes to show that you should always look up when in a city centre. Not all the time though.

 

 Getting closer….The Urbis and The Printworks. I can almost smell the curry.

 

Inside the Printworks

 

Gotham City?

 

Moments later….well minutes later actually, (John McN and I found ourselves slightly lost) we entered the hallowed towers of ‘This & That’. No photos of our excellent meal, only the aftermath. We were too damned hungry to be messing with cameras.

 

I enjoyed rice with curried chicken, curried cabbage (wonderful!!), and dahl. All for £4.90.

John McN and Alan, hunger satisfied.

 

The process of rehydration was carried out at the very excellent Ape & Apple where destructive quality control tests were carried out on some of Joe Holt’s finest ales. The ale passed all tests with flying colours. I wouldn’t have expected anything less…but it’s best to be sure.

 

It was great to see Sheila who joined us for a short time before John McN, Rick and I headed off to the tram and then home. She had lager, but she’s a lovely lady.

 

Poor thing. Hot, sweet tea will help.

Alan reckoned we walked 13.3km, that’s around 8.3 miles in English. It was downhill. I know this ‘cos that’s the way that rivers flow.

A grand day out in excellent company. Oh, and we all thoroughly enjoyed Martin’s curry and beer. Thanks Martin, I’ll be down for a coffee in a bit.

You can read Alan’s report here, it has much nicer pics and a map.

More of my pics are here. No photos of the curries or the beer, we were too hungry and thirsty to be mithered.