Walk,Sat 5th July – Meet report

[Stephen Warwick]

Ten of us met at Ashford-in-the-Water, some of us having enjoyed a pre-walk coffee in the Aisseford Tea Rooms, for a 7.5 mile walk which took in historical features from Mesolithic to Modern. We began by spending a few minutes exploring the churchyard which has the stump of a 14thC preaching cross and (very) faint traces of the moat of a fortified house once belonging to Edmund Plantagenet, brother of Edward II. Passing the 17thC tithe barn, now a smart cottage, we crossed its contemporary, Sheepwash Bridge, and made our way along the river, spotting dipper and kingfisher, to reach the abandoned 18thC, water-powered corn mill at the foot of Great Shacklow Wood. Passing the exit to the Magpie Mine sough, constructed 1873-81, we made our way on to the foot of Deep Dale, once the site of a Romano-British settlement and close to the rock shelter in Demon’s Dale once used by Mesolithic hunter-gatherers.
Monsal Head via the 19thC Headstone Viaduct was next, now regarded as a picturesque feature but when the viaduct and railway were built it was not universally popular – John Ruskin, the Victorian artist and critic, railed against the damage caused by its construction, declaring
‘The valley is gone, and the Gods with it; and now, every fool in Buxton can be in Bakewell in half an hour, and every fool in Bakewell at Buxton’
After lunch overlooking the dale and a brief, light shower of fine rain, we moved on for a spot of jungle bashing to reach Fin Cop, an Iron Age promontory fort in a commanding position overlooking the Wye. Modern excavation of its banks and ditches has revealed much older origins and grim evidence of a massacre of women and children during its destruction around 300BC.
Retracing our steps, we followed the field paths back to Ashford, grateful for the sunshine and cooling breeze which had accompanied us for most of the day. Thanks for your interest and company everyone.

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