Captain's Log

Underbank

I’ve had a bad back for over the last couple of weeks which has curtailed my walks. Well, not a bad back exactly, but it felt more like a muscular strain in my side. I just woke up one morning with it and so I don’t know if I’d laid funny in bed. It seems okay now though and so I decided to take an easy 7 mile jaunt this morning to see if it was ship shape. Today’s walk would start at the Underbank Reservoir near Stocksbridge. After a short walk across the dam, the route would climb up to Whitwell Moor, the high point of the day. It is here that I’d visit the crash site of Anson 9912 that came down on a training flight in 1941. I’d then drop down through fields into Stocksbridge where the walk would have a more urban feel. I’d then head back to Underbank Reservoir via the Fox Valley retail park and the Stocksbridge steelworks. 

A strong wind blew down the reservoir as I crossed the dam. The sun was out though which took the chill out of the breeze. It was actually perfect walking weather. There are usually some wildfowl and Cormorants on the reservoir, even Herons too, but there were no birds there today. I followed the reservoir trail around its bank to the Underbank Activity Centre. There wasn’t much activity going on in the centre. In fact, the place was all shut up. Even the climbing wall had been removed. Google says that the place is permanently closed. It seems odd since it always seemed quite busy when I’ve passed by it before. I turned away from the reservoir and started heading uphill to Whitwell Moor. 

Anson N9912

The track made a gradual ascent towards the top of the hill. There were fine views if I looked  back across the valley or westwards towards the Woodhead road. As I got higher, I could see Ewden Height and Pike Lowe across the moors. On reaching the broad ridge, the path headed towards the southeast. The added elevation gave extensive views over Stocksbridge to Hunshelf Bank on the other side of the Stocksbridge valley. I followed the path on to Whitwell Moor and soon found myself standing at the trig point. It was an excellent viewpoint of the extensive moors to the west. I’d only seen two dog walkers so far. I wondered why more people weren’t up here since it is a popular spot. I dropped down through dozens of cows that were laid down chewing their cud. There were quite a few young calves amongst them and I thought my presence wouldn’t be welcomed, but the mothers couldn’t be bothered to move. I took a diversion off the path, into a rough area, overgrown with ferns and vegetation, to the location of the crash site of Anson N9912.    

The plane came down on the 31st of March 1941 when the crew lost their way because of a failed wireless transmitter. The pilot was able to make a reasonable landing. Although the plane was wrecked, the crew of four survived with only a few scratches and bruises. They weren’t so lucky a few months later when they were flying a Hampden bomber on an operation. They disappeared on the 29th of August 1941, never to be seen again.   

I made a quick search for wreckage, but the area was so overgrown that I could have been standing right next to some and not seen it. I’d visited the site though and so I’ll tick it off on my Dark Peak Aircraft Crash Sites Venture. 

Urban Walking

Can I help you?’ A hippy looking fellow with a ponytail was walking towards me and had posed the question. I thought about the chores I was ignoring back home and wondered whether the chap would be up for helping out with them. ‘The footpath is on the other side of the wall’ he continued. I’d just left the road and followed a sign that I thought pointed along the track I was walking on. ‘Everyone makes the same mistake’ he said. I wondered why he didn’t just put up a sign at the start of the track clarifying it, if everybody did it. I backtracked and found a stile to the other side of the stone wall and continued to field hop my way towards Stocksbridge.    

I entered a housing estate and started heading down towards the valley bottom. I came across a street sign saying that ‘Cars should not leave their engine running.’ It was situated next to a small area of land, on which a car had parked with its engine running. I’m not sure whether the driver just wanted to blatantly ignore the sign for the hell of it.   

Most of Stocksbridge is built on the side of a valley and so its roads zig-zag their way to the valley bottom. I followed roads for part of the way, but there were footpaths too that linked the roads. Some of these went through pleasant woodland areas. Eventually one of these footpaths delivered me to the impessive Stocksbridge Clock Tower. I’d seen this before from afar, but never up close.

 It was built as a First World War memorial in 1923, but also now commemorates those lost in the Second World War. It is a delightful little tower.

Fox Valley

At last the footpaths and roads brought me to the valley bottom. I was glad I bought my phone map with me since it had been an intricate route down from the top of Whitwell Moor to this point. I crossed the Little Don River and then followed it upstream through pleasant woodland. I left this sanctuary of calm and entered the Fox Valley retail park. The large shopping area was built on the site of former steel works. Fox Valley takes its name from Samuel Fox, a 18th century industrialist. He made his name by developing the ‘Paragon’ umbrella frame and his umbrellas were sold worldwide. By the mid 1860s he expanded his company to make other products and created furnaces and rolling mills. For many years he made regular charitable donations to benefit the poor. At the entrance of the retail park, there is a large, bronze Grandad Fox statue. I’m not really sure what to make of it. It has a disney esque quality about it doesn't seem to fit in with the surrounding retail park and steelworks. The statue was designed by the Sheffield artist Pete McKee. I do like the simplicity of Peter McKee’s paintings, but I’m not sure about this statue. Grandad Fox is holding one of the Paragon umbrellas.  

I joined a footpath that climbed up the north side of the valley, almost up to the A616, the Stocksbridge bypass. I thought that there might be a good view of the Stocksbridge steelworks from here, but I was restricted by the surrounding vegetation. I could still see across the valley to Whitwell Moor. I followed the footpath westwards,  the route parallel to the A616. I could hear the traffic on the busy road, but it wasn’t intrusive. The footpath joined the Little Don Cycleway Link, although I only saw walkers, rather than cyclists. It turned out to be quite a pleasant trail with elevated views across the valley. Eventually, it brought me to Underbank Lane and a short walk from there delivered me back to my car near Underbank Reservoir. 

It turned out to be an excellent short walk. I’d managed to get around the route without having to call the emergency services to deal with my back. More importantly, I’d ticked off another Dark Peak Aircraft Crash Site. I’d also paid my respects to Grandad Fox. It had been a good mix of high level and urban walking. Oddly enough, although I’d walked through Stocksbridge, a lot of it had been along snickets and footpaths and it didn’t really feel that urban.