left.
You may choose to go through the gate and follow this to visit the outcrop of Wolf Edge. This is an excellent early excuse to stop and admire the great expansive landscape of the Staffordshire Moorlands. Their character is nowhere better displayed. (The location may have a folk connection with a breeding place of the wolf – a flashback to that nipping dog!)
Backtrack and follow the footpath heading on north. Waymark posts will keep you on course beyond a ruin. Spot a caravan and mast on top of Oliver Hill over in view to the right; at 513m (1683ft) this is the highest point in Staffordshire. The path descends through three stiles, leading along a strip of improved pasture to the left of Oxenstitch Farm to climb up onto the road at a fence-stile, which replaces the old stone stile above. Turn up right, branching left at the junction rising to Hilltop and then bear up left again passing through a cottage row with a red ‘Private’ notice to a final cottage.
Go through the succeeding gate and follow the gravel track, declining gently along the slopes of Axe Edge End. ‘Axe’ is an old term for ‘principal spring’ and directly below is Dove Head Farm, source of the Dove. After a galvanised gate cautiously cross the A53. (The Travellers Rest advert is a bit premature in the context of the walk.) Pass down and round to the left of Wallnook, through gates and hand-gates to enter a pasture. Go straight downhill with a wall to the right. After a stile the path becomes a shallow hollow way (sunken track) and after another you pass a concrete block pump house. The descending drove way becomes an irregularly walled passage, finally entering a very damp access to a wicket-gate onto a metalled lane, beside an upgraded drive to Mount Pleasant.
Wolf Edge
Walk up the roadway ahead, passing the tidy entrance to Sycamore Cottage, to a road junction. There go straight across into the rising green lane, which narrows and turns sharp right. Descending easily to the former schoolhouse go left onto the road by the letterbox. Turn right, passing the former Brand Top school, now an occasional community hall, with a remote telephone kiosk and, a few paces on, a poignant sheltered war memorial. Cross the cattle grid and pass just beyond the ruined farm with a caravan behind.
A red footpath sign directs half-right from the fencelined track. Aim downhill to the far corner of the pasture, where a broken-walled passage leads towards a barn and then bear half-left to a stile with distinctive tall posts. Cross the stile into the rough valley side below Howe Green. The path largely contours, guided by waymark posts curiously wrapped in barbed wire! Wading through the bracken come to a stile and keep along the edge to the ridge-end, where you meet up with another path and descend the nose of the ridge to a stile and flagstone bridge over the side stream just before its confluence with the Dove. The path clings to the wooded edge of the Dove gorge, towards the end accompanied by a fence to a wicket-gate into Washgate Lane.
Axe Edge from Wolf Edge
Turn right downhill. The name Washgate confirms that this was once the site of a sheep-wash – wool cleaned before shearing featched a higher price.
The sadly disturbed cobbling of the ancient track here is all too evident – the result of ‘for fun’ off-road vehicles over the last dozen years. In September 2008 the stone inserted earlier in the year at the start of the ford to block vehicular access had already been maliciously uprooted. The intention of the National Park Authority is to reinstate the cobbling now that the ‘road’ has officially been redesignated a footpath only.
The route turns acutely left immediately on the south side of the bridge. (The map shows a footpath climbing the steep bank ahead but it ain’t worth following!)
Keep to the packhorse way, and avoid fording by keeping tight to the bank. The rock-stepped lane shows more evidence of tyre tread before levelling and capturing rainfall in deep pools. Where the lane emerges on the road at Tenterhill Farm a large boulder bars all vehicular traffic, the apparently temporary ‘road closed’ sign contradicting the permanent ‘bike and car’ sign, which has yet to be removed. The farm’s name comes from ‘tenterhooks’, which were once set on frames here to stretch woollen cloth.
Follow on up the road to Golling Gate, ‘the road flanked by marsh marigold’. At the junction turn right at the footpath sign into what becomes a narrow green lane. As it bends left it looks more like a stream than a path and water is quite awkward to dodge. After a hand-gate switch acutely right up to another hand-gate and continue within a sunken lane, walling largely absent on the left, rising to a hand-gate onto the road on the upland pastures of Colshaw.
Turn left, following the road unswervingly to the junction with a rising road. If your thirst and hunger can bear it no longer go right to visit Flash Bar (pub and adjacent tearoom). Go straight across through the wicket-gate, left of a renovated stone shed. Cross the paddock to go through a second wicket-gate, now bearing half-right over a lost field boundary to a recessed hand-gate with access land sign in the fenced field corner. Contour forward along the bank top overlooking the Manifold valley with lovely views back to the upper Dove hills and Hollinsclough Moor. Slipping through light gorse descend on a clear path to the farm track at Nield Bank. Follow the open access track, which duly crosses the youthful Manifold and sweeps uphill on tarmac to a cattle grid where you once more cross the A53.
Two stiles give entry into horse pasture. Keep the wall close on your right. Two further wall-stiles lead onto a track and galvanised gate. Keep up to the right of the large barn, following waymarking through the farm buildings. Walk behind the stone buildings of Northfield Farm in a lane below the churchyard. At the end turn up right to end the walk conveniently at the door of the New Inn.
Nield Bank in the upper Manifold valley
WALK 2
Morridge and Upper Elkstone
| Start/Finish | Rey Memorial on Morridge |
| Distance | 8km (5 miles) |
| Time | 3¼ hrs |
| Terrain | Hilly, with tracks and field-paths and at least one bog to cross in the dell below Upper Elkstone |
| Refreshments | The Mermaid Inn, in an isolated position on the Morridge ridge-top road |
| Parking | (GR 028596) A hugely popular scenic viewpoint, surveying the beginnings of highland Britain, with The Roaches and Hen Cloud gritstone scarps prominent |
Simply told, the central limestone plateau of the White Peak is flanked to east and west by gritstone moors. But they are not mirror images. The scarp/dip formation of the eastern edges fails to materialise on the west. On that side the millstone grit was subjected to pressure, which created a folded structure. The outcrops that do occur do not face east despite the north/south axis of the folding. In the main, this is moorland country: the domain of grouse, curlew and sheep, a splendid place to wander. Far-ranging views, obtained particularly from the Rey Viewpoint, Merryton Low and Royledge, complement serene moments experienced when delving into the attractive headwaters of the Hamps and Warslow Brook valleys. Morridge (‘the moor ridge’), that long arm of high ground extending south from Axe Edge, discreetly defines the southwestern limits of Peakland, a horizon between the populated plain and the lonely heartland. The walk explores the source catchment of the Hamps, visiting two fine viewpoints – Elkstone Hill and Merryton Low – whilst not forgetting the start point itself, a popular casual viewpoint of motorists. The road section during the latter part of the walk is ameliorated by the wider views of heather moor and accommodating verges.
The topograph, a splendid epitaph for any true lover
