Monsal
Head Revisited
As an antidote to the Xmas
bustle Nic suggested we go for a walk on the Friday before Christmas.
I chose the venue/route but neither of us could sway the weather
gods. We woke to low cloud and mist only a degree or two warmer
than freezing fog but pressed on with our intention of a morning
walk, a good lunch and a browse in the Bookstore at Brierlow Bar
on the way home.
Outside the Stable Bar at
the Monsal Head
Hotel there was a forlorn air partly due to the mist and partly
to the building having temporarily lost electrical supply.
Across the road only the
immediate environs were visible - the almost hairpin bend of the
dale and surrounding hillsides were matters of belief and trust,
no evidence existed of their presence until closer approached.
There were some signs now,
however, that the mist was thinning in places. Slipping away down
the path we headed for the Monsal Trail up the valley and avoiding
the viaduct as there were no views yet from there to show Nic,
but there may be on our return. The cheery red of the rose hips
gave a seasonal cast to this part of the path and their damp surfaces
reflected what light there was.
By the time we reached the
valley floor the mist was starting to lift and we could admire
this solid stone built farmhouse ...
... and beyond to the footbridge
over the River Wye, complete with Magician's Assistant suitably
shrouded against the cold and damp.
Looking upstream: a moody
view from the bridge.
At the start of the floodplain
of Monsal Upperdale, where Cressbrookdale waters join with the
Wye, Sir Richard Arkwright's Georgian facaded Cressbrook
Mill was built in stages from 1785 and only ceased cotton
textile production in the 1960's.
These Grade II listed buildings
have been saved from total decay and eventual ruin by being converted
into apartments
and from what we can see from here it looks like they are going
to be self-generating electricity if I interpret the grey pipework
in the centre of the picture correctly.
Immediately above the mill
complex the River Wye was dammed to provide a controllable head
of water for the water wheel which provided motive power prior
to the adoption of steam. A new/reconstructed leat confirms my
observations about a new harnessing of water power.
From here the dale becomes
known as Water-cum-Jolly Dale and to continue upstream our path
runs along the base of the limestone cliff, which is a natural
not man-made feature. You may just about be able to discern dimly,
on the still misty skyline left of centre, the outline of the
mill-owner's residence perched above the dale.
The path alongside the still
waters can be flooded after heavy rain but never too deeply as
the weir regulates the water level. Teal, Mallard, Heron, Coot,
Moorhen and Dabchick were all present in and on the waters as
we passed. The sides of the valley, wooded on our northern side
with open fields above more limestone bluffs on the other side,
almost imperceptibly grew closer as we progressed.
In the distance another
weir which had an old leat and the remains of a cast iron water
wheel.
Beside the stream, my ever
observant Magician's Assistant spotted this colourful collection
of fungus, moss and rotting stump.
Continued
in Part II
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