Helen Moat takes in a beautiful walk in and around Tideswell in the Peak District
Walking in the Peak District is a heavenly experience, whether you are taking in the grand scale of St John the Baptist in Tideswell or the glorious nature of its surrounding dales and hills.
This 8.5-mile walk takes you from Litton to Tideswell, along country lanes of drystone walls and the river Wye, past historic mills and up the dales of Cressbrook and Tansley back to Litton.
It’s a walk that will fill you with gratitude for the beauty of the ‘Cathedral of the Peak’ and its surrounding countryside.
1. Parking considerately in the village of Litton, head west along Church Lane, taking the alleyway on the left just before the bend where the road drops down to Tideswell. You’ll get a magnificent view of St John the Baptist Parish Church with the town spread out behind it.
2. Cross the road and detour to the church. Admire its intricate wooden carvings, its effigies, tombstones and stained-glass windows. While there, read up on the history of Cressbrook and Litton mills. You’ll visit them later in the walk.
Leaving the church behind, head south along the main street. Pause at the red telephone box, lift the receiver and listen to stories ‘of yore’ from the town’s previous inhabitants.
Enjoy the mix of architecture and call into one of the cafés or pubs for coffee and cake or a pint.
3. On the edge of town, turn right onto Richard Lane, then left onto a track, passing Elliott and Wragg Fabrications.
Slip left when you reach gates below a farm to drop down a narrow footpath to the B6049. Turn right and walk the pavement as far as Tideswell Dale.
Instead of entering the car park, follow the wooden fingerpost over a stepped drystone wall on the right, then the field boundary up an unnamed dale to the dilapidated Meadow Farm.
4. Turn left onto Meadow Lane, the narrow road funnelled between drystone walls, keeping left to stay on it, panoramic views open out over the White Peak and the Wye valley. The road descends to the B6049 again.
Turn right, then left onto the Litton Mill approach road. You’ll pass the Anglers Rest, a great spot on the riverside for lunch. The quiet road hugs the Wye, one of my favourite sections to walk in the White Peak, with the green-coloured cascading water on one side and great walls of pale limestone on the other. There’s a chance of seeing dippers and mallards.
Eventually, you’ll reach the isolated mill, a workplace of terrible child abuse in the 18th and 19th centuries – away from prying eyes. It’s hard to imagine nowadays in this tranquil and pretty riverside settlement of holiday lets.
5. Go through the iron gates and over the bridge to follow the concessionary path left between leat and river. Again, this is a beautiful stretch of the Wye that meanders alongside the water, where the steep-sided dale walls are covered in woodland.
A word of warning: the section alongside the dammed river at Water-cum-Jolly can be mud-logged. Wellies are recommended in all but the driest weather (and you may have to retrace your steps to the signed alternative route when the path is covered in water).
Hopefully, this section will be accessible because, mud apart, it’s a beautiful place where great limestone walls drop straight to the water’s edge. Here the dammed pond is a place of serene beauty.
Follow the alleyway that passes the Gothic gable at the end of Apprentice (or Pancake) Row. The terraced cottages, created for the workers sit opposite the imposing neo-classical Cressbrook Mill.
This somewhat kinder workplace was run by William Newton, the mill’s manager and poet known as the Peak Minstrel.
6. Turn left onto the road, keeping right where it splits to climb as far as the signed Ravensdale Cottages. Turn right down the lane, passing the Hardy-esque cottages under great limestone cliffs.
Continue alongside the brook until you reach a bridge. Cross it and continue through woodland, following the stream out into the open dale.
In summer the winterbourne brook disappears underground to leave a wide grassy pathway, the slopes of the dale sweeping down to the valley floor. It’s a place of tranquil loveliness.
7. Cross the footbridge and head up Tansley Dale. At the top of the dale, cut across a field to a farm track. Turn left onto it, then right to climb into another field that leads to the village. Turn left back into Litton.
COMPASS POINTS
Distance: 8.5 miles
Grid reference: SK1638 7517
Map: OS Explorer Leisure 24, The White Peak
Difficulty: Mostly easy with flat country lanes and dale bottom. There are a couple of gentle climbs up to Meadow Lane and through Tansley Dale.
Parking: Village (please park considerately)
Refreshments: Red Lion, Litton; multiple cafés and pubs in Tideswell; Anglers Rest, Millers Dale.
Shorter alternative: Drop down through pretty Tideswell Dale to cut out a couple of miles.
