From Whaley Bridge to Buxton

Easter weekend, and a chance to return to - and hopefully complete - the Midshires Way.  The weather forecast was good, at least for the first half of the weekend. Richard was travelling from Norfolk while I was coming from Denver and we'd decided to leave home early,  and to meet in Buxton and walk this leg in reverse. This was largely because we were worried about finding parking on a fine Good Friday - and we'd decided there were more options in Buxton than Whaley Bridge (it is easier to search for parking in a place we don't know - in this case Whaley Bridge - when we are together in one car). 

The day did not start well; Richard had to leave home about 45 minutes before I left the flat, and as I was loading my car he rang from the A10 to say that he was having car problems and returning home. Our mistake had been to head away the day after the car had been serviced; we try to avoid doing this, but the car had needed quite a lot of work so the garage had kept it for an extra day. Fortunately, today's issue was just brake pads "bedding in" and after driving home, all seemed well. We started again, and met up in Buxton Station car park (SK059737) about an hour later than planned. The good news is that there was still space, though we had another moment of anxiety, a missed phone call from the residential home where Richard's mother lives; would we have to return straight back to Norfolk again? Fortunately this too was a false alarm, there was nothing to worry about.

We drove together to Whaley Bridge by way of Long Hill. Here, the small station car park was full, but there was plenty of space in the (free) "Canal Wharf" car park on Tom Brad's Close (SK013815). We'd be heading along the canal tomorrow, but this morning we explored the area just the other side of the River Goyt, the site of the former Goyt Mill, before visiting the toilets by the station and setting off on our walk,  climbing up the hill to the west of the town.  We couldn't make much sense of the route, either as shown on the OS Map or as described in the guidebook, and we suddenly realised that this was because the reservoir dam that the guidebook told us to walk along the base of  was the dam of the Toddbrook Reservoir that was much in the news in August 2019, when residents of Whaley Bridge had to be evacuated  because the dam showed signs of collapse. They are in a process of repairing it, so understandably the path has been rerouted. Later our route picked its way through the site of a new housing development, but all around there was glorious countryside and we soon left the town behind.

We were in the Goyt Valley, up above the river, and we reached the village of Taxal. We passed the lovely Church and continued past some cottages, agreeing with a local that this is a lovely, peaceful place. As we continued, glorious views opened up and - obligingly - there was a convenient bench on which to stop for lunch, with a couple of horses in a nearby field making the scene even more picturesque. Before we got to the Goyt Valley reservoirs, we had to negotiate a descent to Mill Clough, followed by a climb back to about the same height we'd started from. In anticipation, this felt like a bit of a nuisance, but it was actually rather a pleasant section of the walk. After a further wiggle around a farm building, we got our first view down to the dam at the end of the Fernilee Reservoir. 

The construction of the Fernilee Reservoir was completed in 1938 as a source of drinking water for Stockport and the surrounding area , and had necessitated the destruction of Errwood Hall and the hamlet of Goyt's Bridge. It was the first of the two Goyt Valley reservoirs; the second (the Errwood Reservoir) was completed in 1967. From the map, I'd expected that we'd only have occasional views down from our track to the Fernilee Reservoir, but tree clearance meant we could see the reservoir for most of our walk up above it. We could have taken a track running closer to the reservoir, but continued on the stony track that's the route of the Midshires Way. There were surprisingly few people about. 

We reached the road which in one direction heads out of the valley to the west and in the other direction heads east to cross between the two reservoirs. The main Goyt car park is here and this too was surprisingly quiet (generally a good thing, but I could have been quite interested in an ice-cream van!). We headed down and crossed between the two reservoirs. My parents loved it here , though unlike some of the places we have passed through on the Midshires Way which I have have memories of from my childhood, I have very few memories of the Goyt Valley - just one  persistent one of my Mum and Dad climbing up a hill. However, the photo to the right shows that we came here in 1978 to show it off to my university friends Penny and Sue. Photography at the same spot was difficult today because of the direction of the Sun and if I'm honest, today I was somewhat disappointed by the Goyt Valley reservoirs. Maybe this feeling was fuelled  by the fact that I'd hoped to have a break here but there was nowhere to sit, and by a large group of rather loud young people who came past as we passed a small and rather busier car park.

Richard, paying more careful attention to the map than me, spotted the fact that our route actually left the road at the car park. When I saw that we were now on a path than descended further, down to a beck, before climbing out of the valley, I was not best pleased. However this section of walking was perhaps the best of the day; a very pleasant surprise and a nice boost after the earlier disappointment. We were initially in delightful wood and just as we left the wood behind, there was a convenient stone for the break (and change of socks) that I had wanted. Our onward route crossed the beck on a footbridge then climbed steadily on a rather muddy path. We were passed by a fellrunner; not a sport that appeals to me (even assuming that I could manage to climb up and down hills on rough paths, which is unlikely, I prefer to take my time and fully appreciate the landscape) but each to their own and he seemed a pleasant man. 

We climbed up to the main A5004 on Long Hill, then crossed the main road and climbed some more, initially steeply. We reached flatter and attractive moorland up above a series of bends on the A5004 and emerged close to the White Hall outdoor pursuits centre. The clearly didn't want members of the public on their land, so we walked arournd it to what we had expected to be a minor road ("Old Road") heading down to Buxton. What was once a tarmacked surface, now has many holes in it.; so much for a "yellow road" on the OS map! This meant that walking  along it was rather slower than we'd expected, but it also meant that, apart from an occasional off road vehicle, we didn't have to worry about cars. 

We joined the A5004 just before Cold Springs Farm; after the farm, there was a pavement all the way to the town centre. We passed the Devonshire Dome which, when it was built (bizarrely, on top of what must have been a very grand stable block) it was the largest unsupported dome of this type in the worth. After serving as a hospital, the building is now part of the University of Derby's Buxton Campus, though it seems to operate mostly as a wedding and events venue. We crossed the road and finished today's leg by the Opera House, which we had also visited when we were here last August. At last, there was an ice-cream van....but it had a very long queue so we didn't bother, instead returning to the car via the Palace Hotel, another place of significance in my memory, as my Dad came here for work events and also post-retirement.