Sunday 28 October 2012

A walk on the Derwent Valley Heritage Way ...

The Derwent Valley Heritage Way is a 55 mile walk from Heatherdene [a car park at the southern tip of Ladybower Reservoir] all the way down the Derwent valley to Derwent Mouth [where the River Derwent flows into the River Trent].

It's a varied walk full of interest though some may say that the scenery becomes slightly less appealing the further south you go ... see what you think in the series of blogs to come.

I started off following the route on the 9th January 2011, nearly two years ago ... and I still haven't finished it, though I haven't got that much more to do. That's the way of things for me I'm afraid.

I started off from Severn-Trent's Heatherdene car park where an impressive carved wooden seat sits outside their toilet block ...

A first day on the Derwent Valley Heritage Way ...

I soon saw my first waymark ! How many more of these would I see I wonder ?

A first day on the Derwent Valley Heritage Way ...  

At the southern end of the path that stretches away from the car park I crossed the A6013 and leaned over the wall to see how much water was flowing into the Ladybower overflow that day ...

A first day on the Derwent Valley Heritage Way ...

We can all see that there was none.

After crossing the reservoir we turned south and soon picked up the old railway line that is now the Thornhill Trail ...

A first day on the Derwent Valley Heritage Way ...

A first day on the Derwent Valley Heritage Way ...

There were some good views across the valley towards Bamford Edge on the far side ...

A first day on the Derwent Valley Heritage Way ...

At the southern end of the Thornhill Trail, beside a Quaker Meeting House ...

A first day on the Derwent Valley Heritage Way ...


... we noticed some community gardens !

A first day on the Derwent Valley Heritage Way ...

The stonework over the entrance to the Meeting House indicates that it was once a meeting house for something very different ...

A first day on the Derwent Valley Heritage Way ...

... the Derwent Valley Water Board.

In fact it seems that although the building is used for Quaker Meetings there is a Quaker Community there too.

Even though we were moving away from it, we still had some great views of Bamford Edge ...

A first day on the Derwent Valley Heritage Way ...

After walking on the edge of a couple of fields we passed under the railway line ...

A first day on the Derwent Valley Heritage Way ...

... and walked through the grounds of High Peak Garden Centre to reach the A6187. 

We turned left along this road and left the Derwent Valley Heritage Way to walk south-east along the Mytham Bridge road to reach the main road near Bamford railway station. Here we walked up through the village of Bamford itself. 

Have I mentioned that my walks are sometimes not like other people's ? This may be because other walkers probably don't use as many roads and lanes as me. Ah well ... we love looking at other people's houses [we really do].


 We left the main road near the top of the village [somwhere between the two pubs] and walked up what is shown as Bamford Clough and Leeside Road on my OS Dark Peak Map and The Clough on Google Maps. 

I did say that we "walked up what is shown as Bamford Clough" didn't I. Well initially it was a gentle enough climb ...

A first day on the Derwent Valley Heritage Way ...

... though I think you can see from the photo above that it was pretty steep. 

It got steeper ... and rougher ...

A first day on the Derwent Valley Heritage Way ...

In fact, it got even steeper and rougher ... and slippery too ...

A first day on the Derwent Valley Heritage Way ...

We were glad to take a few breaks to admire the view towards Win Hill ...

A first day on the Derwent Valley Heritage Way ...

Then the track [which is in fact a road] got bumpy too ...

A first day on the Derwent Valley Heritage Way ...

We passed one of the five sculptures on the Bamford Touchstone Sculpture Trail. This one represents 'Air' ...

A first day on the Derwent Valley Heritage Way ...

All the way up this very steep track I had been concerned that we might have met something coming down ... a 4x4 or some motorbikes perhaps.

As we got near the top of the track we noticed a very poignant plaque beside the track ...

A first day on the Derwent Valley Heritage Way ...

Feeling tired and rather subdued we finally reached the top of the track and turned left down New Road with Bamford Edge above us on our right. On the roadside we passed an interesting old stone fencepost though it wasn't being used quite as it would have been used in the past ...

A first day on the Derwent Valley Heritage Way ...

As we descended we had Win Hill away to our left all the way ...

A first day on the Derwent Valley Heritage Way ...

At the bottom of the hill, on reaching the A6013 we turned right and retraced our steps back to the car. An interesting and sometimes taxing walk.

This walk was followed on the 9th January 2011
 
Length of walk ~ 5.6 miles *
 
Total mileage walked so far in 2011 ~ 10,8 miles
 
Total mileage between the 1st September 2009 and the 9th January 2011 ~ 539.85 miles
 
3 of 2011
* distance calculated on Ordnance Survey's Getamap

18 comments:

  1. reservoirs scare me but that owl is adorable,,could you slip it in your rucksack for me ; )

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    1. The owl comes with a rather large wooden seat attached eevee ... sorry. I agree though, it is very photogenic.

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  2. I like walks with some climbing involved, so this one was quite enjoyable!! The levels in the reservoir seemed quite low at that time. I really like those 'touchstone' sculptures, a great idea. As you know, I like the 'high grounds', so hope to see more of Bamford Edge and Win Hill in future posts.

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    1. I'm not sure whether I can promise you many high level walks Mitch ... but there are some canal walks to come !

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  3. What is noticeable about Blogger is that it isn't as busy as Multiply. However my Blogger blogs are also linked to Twitter [where I sometimes get retweeted] and on Facebook [where I am sometimes getting more comments than on Blogger].

    It's a funny old world isn't it.

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    1. I do the majority of my blogging on Blogster. It's a much more socially interactive place...wish you and Mitch would try it. There are a lot of Multipliers living there now.

      http://www.blogster.com/rivergirl/

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    2. As long as Multiply is still operating, I think this will be the case, folks are still reluctant to part with it. Traffic here will increase once it closes it's doors for good.

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    3. River, I've tried Blogster and was highly unimpressed with it. I prefer Blogger.

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    4. I will have a look at Blogster ... I do think Blogger is not so user-friendly as MUltiply was.

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    5. I've had a quick look and my initial reaction is that Blogster is a little messy ... not your site ... just Blogster generally. I think I may stay here River ... and soldier on. I like my all black site.

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    6. Blogster code is being completely rewritten as we speak. The pages will look more like Multiply as a result. I'll give you a heads up when it's complete. To be honest...it took me a while to get used to the set up over there....but the social interaction is much easier. I find Blogger very time consuming, hard to navigate and impossible to keep track of comments on friends sites.

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    7. I know what you mean about Blogger. The thing that struck me was how many good blopgs were being written and no one was commenting. I'm not talking about my blogs I'm talking about people I didn't know whose blogs I was drawn towards ...

      Will look forward to hearing from you to see if Blogster can pull itself together. Thank you River ...

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    8. Blogger is more of a serious blogging site, I agree. But they make it difficult to keep up to date and comment.. which is half of what I enjoy.

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    9. I certainlt don't want to spend all my time with a furrowed brow but Blogster will have to improve for me to consider it ... and it sounds as though they're trying. We'll see ...

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  4. Lovely views...wonderful owl. We have a Quaker meeting house a few towns over...but it's no where near as grand as yours.

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    1. Most Quaker Meeting Houses are fairly modest I think ... perhaps this is all that was available at the time.

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  5. I thought it was an old man with a beard,then realised it was a owl.Love the variety of the walk,done some of it at different times.The garden centre has a nice cafe if you need a break,and a really good book shop for old titles.Ann

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    1. Over on Facebook one of my friends likened the owl to Brian Blessed ... as for the garden centre I've been there a few times in the past. They have a good outdoor shop too. As for books I think I have enough to see me out.

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