By Paul Simms
A small but intrepid group of East Cheshire Ramblers recently walked a section of the Peak Pilgrimage route squeezed between storms Ciara and Dennis. The Peak Pilgrimage is a 39 mile long-distance footpath from the Church of the Holy Cross in Ilam to St Lawrence’s Church in the plague village of Eyam taking in ten other churches on the way. East Cheshire Ramblers have been following this path by a series of circular walks over the last few months.
This section started from Baslow taking in St Anne’s Church with its clock face celebrating Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee and then northward following part of the Derwent Valley Way. At Calver we paused for coffee at All Saints Church then on past Calver Mill where cotton was spun by water power until the 1920’s. A kilometre north of the mill is the weir which holds back the waters of the Derwent in order to feed the mill race which once powered the mill. The present weir, the third on the site, is a Grade 2 listed structure, was built in the 1840’s and restoration completed in 2010. It holds back a head of 3.5 metres and these high water levels help to sustain wetland habitats collectively known as Calver Marshes. We walked through this rare Peak District wetland and on to Froggatt Bridge and Grindleford.
Our walk was fairly gentle with only 1000 feet of climb in the 10 miles but all of it now came at once with a steep accent through Hay Wood to reach the top of the gritstone outcrop of Froggatt Edge. We were very fortunate with the weather given the storms just before and after our walk. Although it was a little wet and boggy underfoot in places we had no rain and indeed quite a lot of sunshine and only a very gentle breeze. The sun came out now as we walked along the gritstone edges with wonderful views into the Derwent valley below from snow-clad Lose Hill and Kinder in the north to the stately Chatsworth House and beyond in the south; the English countryside in its glorious best even in February.
We returned to our starting point via the Eagle Stone and Baslow Bar.
For more details of the Peak Pilgrimage go to peakpilgrimage.org.uk
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St Anne's Church at Baslow.[/caption]
