In Memoriam: Voices from the past on Saddleworth

The edges of Saddleworth Moor climbing above Dovestone Reservoir could never be described as a wilderness. The proximity to the industrial behemoths of Salford, Manchester and Oldham, have ensured that almost every square metre of this landscape has been marked by human existence in some way. Yet it is this fact, which makes this northwest corner of the Peak District so fascinating. The landscape breathes a history of agricultural and industrial change, the memoirs of the local people, and the shadows of the renaissance of recreational climbing in the 1950’s and 1960’s. It is here that Don Whillans and Joe Brown, later Jim Perrin and other “Greenfield Lads” would come, on the Corporation bus from Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester to Greenfield, from there walking to Chew Piece Plantation, to camp, have larks, and climb on Wimberry Rocks.

Beginning the walk at Dovestone, the first two kilometres read like an historic essay in water management features. Many of these channels and sluices date from the 1880’s when the first reservoir, Yeoman Heys was built to quench the growing thirst of industrial growth in the Tame Valley below. Greenfield reservoir was added in 1902, followed in 1914 by Chew Reservoir, at 474m, still the highest reservoir in England. As progress is made along Greenfield Brook, one reaches what appears to be a railway tunnel in size, but is in fact the gaping entrance to the aqueduct, which feeds water from Birchen and Holme Cloughs, through the hillside to Ashway Gap and into Dovestone Reservoir, added in 1967.

Scrambling up Birchen Clough is exceptional fun, first on the right, then fording the stream to tackle a small rock step on the left bank, where a faint path leads above the largest cascade of water. Carefully fording the stream over slippery rocks to the far bank, one can ascend the steep side along the line of a faint stone gully to reach the main edge path which leads northwest to Ravenstones and the famous Trinacle.

Numerous little tracks bear off from the Ravenstones, mostly contouring around Ashway Moss, past Ashway Cross, memorial to James Platt, Member of Parliament, killed in 1857 by the accidental discharge of a gun, to reach the clough which divides this section of the edge. An alternative approach is to take a bearing of approximately 240 degrees for 150m to locate Major’s Cairn, ostensibly built in remembrance of a once loved dog of the same name, but perhaps too large for one bereaved individual to build, the mound beneath it bearing rather the appearance of a Bronze age burial site.

From here the walk continues to take on a ghostly air. On Fox Stone above Great Dovestone Rocks there stands another memorial, in memory of Brian Toase and Tom Morton, two climbers killed in the Italian Dolomites in 1972. With a pause at Bramley’s Cot for refreshment, one soon reaches Chew Reservoir and beyond the clough, Wilderness Rocks, where early in 1963, Graham West and Spike Roberts, members of the Manchester Gritstone Club, were killed in what is thought to have been the biggest avalanche recorded in England. Above the gully, yet another memorial, not in memory of West and Roberts, but rather Walter Brookfield, a Rambler and campaigner for rights-of-way. How pleased he would be that since open access, the remainder of this ridge is now accessible.

Continuing above Wimberry Rocks to the cairn and trig point at Alphin Pike, one can find no clear descent route and in order to avoid retracing ones steps it is advisable to hacked down the heather covered slope on a bearing of 25 degrees, along a partially collapsed wall to eventually meet the Oldham Way, which can be followed back underneath the ridge to Chew Piece Plantation.

Sitting in contemplation by the large boulders, enjoying a well-earned drink of tea, ones eyes are drawn to the outcrop of Indian’s Head on Wimberry Rocks above. One can almost hear the voices of the Greenfield Lad’s amongst the leafless oak trees, still awaiting the first new shoots of spring. Little wonder that the Municipal District Council have designated three areas of ground along the shore of Dovestone Reservoir for the “Life for a life” campaign, whereby people can plant a tree, and place memorials, in remembrance of their departed loved ones.