The Permian Way

When I retired I wondered what I was going to do with all this time on my hands. After a lot of thinking, I eventually decided that it would be nice to go for a walk. Then I thought that it would be interesting to find a new walk and write it all up. In the past I have spent many happy hours driving up and down the A1 and I had noticed that the road sometimes goes through cuttings revealing a pale grey rock that I knew was the Magnesian Limestone. The geological map shows that it runs from Nottingham northwards to County Durham. What's more I lived not far from it, so, how about doing a walk along there?

I looked at the Ordnance Survey maps and found that there was a wonderful network of public rights of way and some named paths criss-crossing the area. All I had to do was work out a route using some of those and see where it led. All I had to do then was walk it and record it. Then I thought why not record all that I see on the way. Easy.

Two years later, here it is.

It was possible to use the existing paths all the way and take in lots of places of interest and with a lot of research and a lot of stopping, looking and listening , I was able to build up a picture of the landscape, the nature and the man-made environment in that narrow strip of countryside from Nottingham to Ripon. There were of course a lot of dead ends and places where you wouldn't want to walk that needed second thoughts, but I think that I have found the best bits.

It takes in castles, abbeys, large country houses, parks, canals and river-side walks as well as many village churches. In many places the underlying rocks show themselves in quarries and road and railway cuttings as well as in buildings and walls. Some of the area was once blighted by the coal industry but now all is green. Where there were once collieries there are now country parks and nature reserves.

Almost all the chosen paths were well-defined on the ground and easy to follow and although it isn't spectacular scenery, it's mostly pleasant countryside with some nice views. What's more it isn't too demanding, in fact it's a nice steady ramble. The O.S. describes it as "leisurely". There is no rush after all. There are sections that are wheelchair friendly especially where the route uses multi-purpose tracks such as the Sustrans cycleways.

I have broken down the walk into manageable sections and produced five books and route descriptions. Each covers about 50 km. I have included bits about wildflowers and trees, geology and architecture as far as I can, but I’m no expert. I’m hoping to encourage you to stop, look and listen to take in all that our countryside has to offer.

It is easily accessible from the A1, the M1, and from towns and cities in Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and much of Yorkshire.

There is quite a lot more of the Magnesian Limestone to the north but that is for another time.

I had a lot of help from friends and family, dog walkers and the local authority footpaths officers.

Oh, and why have I called it the Permian Way? Well that is because the Permian is the geological period when the rock was laid down.

Mike Cooper.