The Leek and Manifold Valley Light Railway was a White Elephant by any interpretation of the phrase, opened as a narrow gauge line in 1904 to link the dairies of the Manifold Valley to the rails of the North Staffordshire Railway, it was never going to succeed as a passenger line as the valley it served had no significant habitation and tourist traffic would always be limited because, as one wag put it, 'the line starts in the middle of nowhere and ends in the same place.'. For thirty years its two locomotive transported milk to the wider world before the depression of the 1930s closed the dairies and put an end to the line in 1934, and Staffordshire County Council inherited the line, opening it as a bridleway in 1937, showing that practical thinking towards transport is not a modern phenomenon.
The Manifold Trail: Waterhouses to Hulme End 8.4 miles
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| Waterhouses Cycle Hire Shop |
The Peak District is so synonymous with the county of Derbyshire that many would forget that the national park actually covers parts of five other counties, and our ride out takes us into Staffordshire to Waterhouses on the A523 where my parents can drop me off at 10.40am under more glum skies. The site has what looks like an eccentric station building, suitable for a narrow gauge railway, but it is actually a cycle hire shop, situated on the site of the goods yard and the railway interchange itself was a little further along the path, marked with a cryptic cairn and a picnic site. The path descends rapidly down to the crossing of the A523, which must have been a fun incline for the little trains, and you have to walk alongside the main road for a while until the path takes is swing north and crosses over the River Hamps and follows the river downstream into the limestone gorge that is occupies. The path feel remote very quickly as the main road recedes and you start to feel like you are walking along a farm track that never quite gets to its destination.
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| The 'River' Hamps |
A dead level road running through the countryside is a very odd experience, as you expect a rural lane to go up and down for no particular reason, and as you carry on up the Hamps Valley and the wooded hillsides rise around you, it becomes apparent that this is the only path of note in the valley and you start to be grateful that Staffordshire County Council never chose to make this into a road. It would have been a damned twisty one if it had, as a narrow gauge line can take much sharper corners than a standard gauge line, and the many crossings of the river would have demanded a lot of reinforced bridges. Oddly, the River Hamps itself has disappeared, there's a bed and a lot of vegetation that indicates the flow of the river but no water, and I start to doubt that I saw water when I crossed it the first time. Turns out that it is only a seasonal river as it vanishes into a water sink just past Waterhouses every Summer, and we're clearly not late enough in the season, even after all that rain, to have the river return to water. I'll dedicate a song to the River Hamps then, how about 'Green River' by Creedence Clearwater Revival?
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| Beeston Tor & Caravan Site |
Lee House Farm is the last sign of civilisation that we see on the lower section of the trail, offering tea and ice cream in more clement times of year, and then its off along the curves along the fields, under the many trees and over the wooden bridges and alongside the completely dry river. I start to wonder if I'm going to have the trail to myself for the day, guessing that no one else wants to walk this out of the way path on such a glum day, and I've nearly gotten to the end of the River Hamps before I meet another pair of walkers taking their tea break. Notice boards along the way invite the walker to venture into the nature trails 'off the beaten path', but judging by the muddiness across the stiles, the beaten path id the safer place to be. The Beeston Tor caravan site is our next view of civilisation and it looks like it might be time-warped here from the 1950s, and Beeston Tor itself is a pretty impressive limestone crag that would be worthy of a closer look if I wasn't expected at my destination at 2pm. The trail swings away from the Hamps and into the valley of the Manifold and it's nice to see the river in water so the burbling can keep you company. Push on to the carpark at Weag's Bridge, and finally encounter more walkers and cyclists going in both directions, and know that I'm not alone out here as I stop for lunch.
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| Thor's Cave |
A read up on the history of the line indicates that there were eight intermediate stations along the line and it's quite shocking that there is so little evidence of them, the rule seem to be if there's a carpark there, it used to be a station. Push onwards as the terrain of the valley gets rougher and the path remains surreally level, and from under the cover of trees the crag that is the dramatic feature of the Manifold valley gradually emerges in the distance. It takes quite a long time to get there as it's so large it appears when you are still a long way from it, and the best view is just past it and taking a look backwards, that'll be Thor's Cave, a 10m high gouge high up on the crag, available for the intrepid to explore, but not for today. carry on as the rough crags at the valley side still dominate, and cross the River Manifold to find the section of the line that has been turned into a road, but there's little risk of injury as we're so out of the way, I only encounter two vehicles on the path, and both of them are near Wetton Mill, the most substantial building on the trail, and one that looks like it might be busy in tourist season.
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| Swainsley Tunnel |
Press on as the valley becomes less of a gorge and the landscape opens out a bit, the skies seem heavier and the feeling of rain comes on, so waterproofs are thrown on to provide cover and extra insulation, and then we find the largest railway relic on the trail, namely Swainsley tunnel. There wasn't a significant engineering reason for this 147m tunnel being here, it exists so one of the local landowners and investors in the railway wouldn't have his view spoiled, nowadays walkers have to share it with traffic, but I get to traverse it at leisure as there's no one else on the trail. Leave the road at Butterton and the trail reverts to bridleway, and beyond the old station site, the trail actually forms a cutting with some impressive limestone strata showing through, and this was probably the only piece of serious and intentional digging that had to be done on the whole line. Beyond we reach Ecton, the only assemblage of buildings significant enough to be called a village, and once home to the dairy which provided traffic for the railway and a copper mine which brought profit for much of the region in the 18th and 19th centuries. Now it's the only place along the line that looks like it actually had a railway station and goods yard.
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| Hulme End Station |
The last stretch takes us over the Manifold again and out of the top end of the valley, past fields of that terrifying giant rhubarb, and as the railway rises above the marshier land on its home stretch, I ponder just how poorly named The Peak District is, there are so few peaks in it after all, the should have called The Dales District, as there is an abundance of those. I'm a good quarter hour ahead of schedule as I arrive at Hulme End at 1.45pm, and the station building here is authentic, whilst the engine shed is a replica, and they are both closed, quite expectedly now but I'd still have gladly grabbed a pot of tea if one had been available. I take a peer into the village, all twelve buildings of it and note just how different Staffordshire farms look compared to Derbyshire ones, and then I retreat to shelter in the phone box to await my parents arriving to pick me up at 2pm. Thankfully they didn't get lost in the mist, and I'm glad to see them and they say how delighted they are that their children went out to do their walking and cycling even when the weather was deeply uninspiring, to that I can only say 'We're outdoors type now, it's what we do!'
1,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 435.1 miles
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Day Five of Jollies did not feature walking, but instead we had a get-together with family friends and a very nice meal at The Okeover Arms in Mapleton, providers of the kind of pub food that I would recommend to anyone, followed by much cake back at Knockerdown to mark Mum's 70th Birthday.
Day Six also failed to provide a walking opportunity, despite being a fresh and bright day, as our Friday-to-Friday let expired, and as there was no space in the car to travel north with My Sis and co, and my Parents had to keep an appointment in Leicester, I had to be dropped off in Derby for a disappointingly early end to the holiday and a return to Morley. Still, all walking targets were achieved and I'm already looking towards Dovedale and the High Peak trail for the future, and as there's still a whole weekend left before I had to return to work, I still have section 5 of the Calderdale Way to come.
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