2017 07 20 The BBC Walk
Carpark at the start: Crowden
Torside Reservoir
Peter at the pulpit
Kissing stones
Looking down Longdendale
Towards Black Hill?
Carmel
Norman crossing a stream
Crowden and journey's end (photos from Steve)
After Bleaklow Head we made our way over the rough hilltop to Near Black Clough. The path down the side of the Clough was long but with a lot of beautiful scenery. From the Woodhead Tunnel at the bottom we went across to the other side of the valley and followed the Northern Horse Route back towards Crowden.
We stopped at St James Chapel. This is a curious place. The earliest record that has been found dates back to the year 1487, so it has existed since sometime before then. It used to be called the Blessed Virgin Chapel, and was situated about 3/4 mile further up the valley, but nobody can explain why, or when, these changes were made. There is still a service there on alternate Sundays.
We then went up, and into, the quarry, which was used to get stones for the Reservoir Dams.
Our route then took us down to, and along, Crowden Little Brook. This track, then path, eventually disappears, but just before it does we crossed the Brook. From that point there was not any path heading in our direction, so we had to pick our way uphill over quite rough ground to get to the wreckage of 2 Meteor jet planes on Siddens Moss. These crashed on 12 April 1951. Having flown to the Liverpool area from an RAF aerodrome near York, they had to abandon the mock battle they had intended because the clouds went up to at least 30000 feet instead of the 20000 feet that had been forecast. They headed back to York flying in 2 pairs. One of the pairs got lost. In a brief gap in the clouds the lead pilot saw a city below, which he thought was Leeds, so they started to descend to be able to land at their aerodrome. However, it was not Leeds but probably Manchester, so their descent brought them too low to get over the Pennines and, still in the fog, they crashed into the hilltop. There is still quite a bit of the wreckage lying on the hillside.
The walk then took us to Crowden Great Brook where, after a tricky river crossing we got onto the Pennine Way. Instead of following this all the way down to Crowden we went on a lesser known route below Laddow Rocks (these have an interesting history but I don't want to print it here - I will only tell it verbally).
The weather had been improving as the day went on. We had started the walk in the rain, but we arrived back at Crowden in the sunshine. It turned out to be a very worthwhile day!
Peter Woodland