Distance: 17.4 miles

Difficulty of the terrain: hard

Get the route via: Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox

Walk to Swains Greave the source of the River Derwent in the north of the Derbyshire Peak District. Walk begins from Glossop Railway Station and goes via Bleaklow, heading back to Hadfield Railway Station along the Longdendale Trail.

The Story

The Walk

Getting Back

The Trickle That Started the Industrial Revolution

Derbyshire’s River Derwent is a major tributary of the River Trent, the UK’s third longest river, and the lengthiest starting in the Midlands. Fifty miles long, winding almost the entire way down Derbyshire, from the rugged Dark Peak moorland in the far north west of the county, to the flat lands of the River Trent flood plain south of Derby where it joins the Trent at Derwent Mouth. The Derbyshire Derwent is vitally important to world history for being the first river to provide power to a modern factory.

As far back as the 1720s Derby’s Silk Mill (now the excellent – albeit flood prone due to its riverside location – Museum of Making) relied upon the flow of water down the Derwent from its source to drive the machines which spun the silk. This was a substantial manufacturing operation for its time, but on nowhere near the scale, volume or with the same strict organisation of labour which characterised later factories.

It was around fifty years later at Cromford higher up the Derwent on the edge of the Peak District near Matlock and Matlock Bath that Richard Arkwright’s company opened the first modern cotton spinning factory in 1770. Business boomed, powered by the River Derwent’s powerful falling water and earned Richard Arkwright and a small group of acolytes, not unakin to modern tech speculators, who copied his methods vast amounts of money. The effects upon the enslaved people in the Americas forced to grow cotton to supply the mills mushrooming across Midland and Northern England, the workers in the UK sucked into the emerging factory system, and ultimately the environment were pretty horrific.

This legacy, for better and for worse, is remembered today by the Derwent Valley Heritage Way which runs for most of the river’s course from Derwent Mouth up to Ladybower Reservoir. It takes around four days to walk the route.

The River Derwent was dammed several times in the first half of the Twentieth Century to provide water for Sheffield and parts of the eastern Midlands. However, north of the reservoirs the river flows from its source just below Bleaklow, Derbyshire and the eastern Midlands second highest peak after Kinder Scout, steadily gathering its strength, much as it always has.

The point where the Derwent rises is called Swains Greave, a hillside pock marked by the channel’s water has dug through the peat covering the hillside. From above there are spectacular views south across the heart of the Peak District, looking in the direction of the Derwent’s southwards progress. To the north a little way across the Longdendale Valley lies Yorkshire. The tall distant tower blocks of Leeds, as well as Barnsley and Huddersfield are visible on a good day, as is the hulking TV transmitter at Emley Moor.   

The River Derwent drove the industrial revolution. But for millenia prior to that it has stretched from the northernmost point of the English Midlands, in one of the region’s hilliest corners, south as far as the flat river plain which lies at the region’s heart.

The Walk

Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox

I create the Walk Midlands routes via Ordnance Survey Maps Explorer enabling me to take them on my phone. Subscribe yourself via the banner above.

This nearly circular walk to the source of the River Derwent via Bleaklow, and returning along Longdendale, begins from Glossop Railway Station. The return is via Hadfield Railway Station one stop up the line.

This walk is a classic Peak District ramble, with at least one long climb, a steep descent and lots of walking across sodden peat. For this reason appropriate footwear and other gear is advised.

Upon exiting at Glossop Railway Station turn left walking along Norfolk Street away from the town centre.

Continue straight along this road for some distance.

Presently you reach a crossroads with a small park on your left.

Cross over the road here and take a right hand turning, walking along a road of mostly inter-war vintage houses towards the area of Old Glossop which has a quaint old fashioned Peak District feel, not unlike Hayfield a little to the south.

Keep on along the road heading to the right into Old Glossop.

Soon you see the spire of Glossop Parish Church in front of you. 

Carry on straight ahead along a footpath which runs across the church’s graveyard and in front of its porch.

Past the church you step out onto Manor Park Road. Here, turn left and walk down the road for some distance.

Just after The Queen Arms which stands on a corner, cross over the road and head to the left along a tree lined Shepley Street, passing a recently completed housing estate.

At the top of Shepley Street you pass the factories of Howmet Areospace and Firth Rixton Metals.

Just past the factories, Shepley Street ends, and a narrow track, leading out into open countryside, lies straight in front of you. Head up this track.

Continue along the track heading steadily uphill for quite some distance. 

Presently opposite a large farm the track veers sharply to the right.

Just after the track curves to the right, take an arm of the track heading sharply uphill on your left.

You pass through a series of gates and see a distinctive Peak and Northern Footpaths Society waymark pointing towards Doctor’s Gate which is where you want to go.

Soon just after a sheepfold the path forks. Here take the lower right hand fork.

Continue straight along the path crossing a sturdy, handy footbridge constructed by the Peak and Northern Footpath Society, and crossing some stone sets recently laid as a means of making it easier to traverse a section where the volume of water coming off the hillside often flooded the path.

Back onto drier terrain carry on the path as it winds steadily up the side of the clough.

Nearing the top the final section before reaching the ridge is a scramble up some stones to the right, eventually reaching a gate which leads out almost at the top of the ridge.

Head right up an ancient looking culvert, not unlike a holloway, which can be pretty wet underfoot.

There are spectacular views on a clear day to the surrounding hills and back towards Greater Manchester.

Soon you reach a well surfaced stretch of the Pennine Way just north of the summit of Snake Pass which leads from Glossop into the heart of the Peak District and then on to Sheffield and South Yorkshire.

Here turn left and follow the Pennine Way as it snakes across the moors approaching the Bleaklow Plateau. The distinctive ridge and brow of Kinder Scout can be clearly seen to the south behind you.

The moor is spectacularly wet, with the beginnings of brooks and streams everywhere. Some run north and west into the Mersey’s catchment area, others south and east into the Trent. A geographical and hydrological illustration of the divide between North Western and Midland England. 

Carry on along the Pennine Way as it works its way up onto Bleaklow.

This becomes steadily harder going as you encounter more and more of the peat which comprises the top of the plateau.

Upon crossing a stream the Pennine Way waymark points sharply to your right.

The path then runs through a wet channel cut by water through the peat which does not make for the easiest going.

Presently the landscape you are traversing dries out somewhat and ahead of you, you see the wooden stave sticking out of a mound of peat which marks the highest point on Bleaklow. Six hundred and thirty three metres above sea level, only three metres less than the highest point on Kinder Scout, and the most easterly location that high in the British Isles.

On reaching the stave and the little mound that marks the highest point on Bleaklow there is a path running off to the right onto the moor.

Turn right and follow the path onto the moor.

This path takes you slightly to the north where you ideally should be which is following the line of slight ridge. The location of the ridge is clear to your right as you walk, one tall and prominent part of it is known as Bleaklow Hill. Beneath Bleaklow Hill the River Alport rises, which eventually also flows into the Derwent and on into the Trent.

When possible turn right and pick your way northwards up towards Bleaklow Hill.

Here there is a well trodden, muddy path running to your left across the top of the plateau. It is marked with staves, some made of wood, some plastic, which help mark the route.

Keep following the path marked by staves across the peaty landscape.

You walk along the ridge amongst the peat for quite some distance.

Presently a cluster of smooth glacial rocks known as Bleaklow Stones perched on top of the ridge come into view.

From the stones there are brilliant views of the valleys which run down into the heart of the Peak District. To the left the course of the Derwent after it leaves Swains Greave is visible.

After Bleaklow Stones continue downhill towards Swains Greave and the source of the River Derwent. Continue to follow the path marked out by the staves.

Here you can see to your left across the top of Longdendale into Yorkshire. On the day I walked the route visibility was very good and tall tower blocks in Leeds city centre were visible in the far distance.

Should you stray from the staves route as I occasionally did, do not worry, it is possible to get back on track by heading north as best you can across the peat until you pick up the staves route once more.

Eventually you come level with the top of Swains Greave. Here water runs to the left downhill to Longdendale and the River Etherow which eventually reaches the Mersey, or to the right where it flows into the River Derwent and eventually after a long southwards journey, out into the Trent.

Continue following the route marked by the stakes beyond Swains Greave for a little distance.

You presently leave the peat for slightly drier terrain.

Here look out on your left for the cleft high above Longdendale where the clough that marks the start of Far Black Clough.

Upon spotting this head to your left downhill across the moor until you reach Far Black brook.

When you reach the river you find a well worn path beside it. Turn right and follow it downhill.

Presently you reach a ford, just before the clough starts to get very steep and craggy.

Here you can do what I did and cross the river then head to the right following a path used by grouse shooters. Or alternatively you can carry on along the path above the stream. Either path gets you there.

Pick your way along the path which twists and turns and undulates passing lines of grouse butts high above the deep gorge of a clough cut by the Far Black brook.

Presently to your right there is a flight of steps cut down the side of the clough leading to a bridge across the stream. Turn right and head down to this bridge.

Cross the bridge and on the far side you soon come to the top of a steep track which runs down to the bottom of Longdendale.

Turn left and begin walking down this track.

Follow the track as it twists and turns to the valley floor.

Presently you reach a ford where the track crosses the now quite wide Far Black stream just before it flows into the River Etherow.

On the far side of the ford turn right, and follow a wide unpaved track leading along the banks of the River Etherow.

Above you runs the busy A628 up the Woodhead Pass into South Yorkshire.

Presently at the bottom of the track you reach a bridge off to the right.

Cross the bridge and walk a short distance until you come to a gate on your left.

Turn through this gate and head down onto the Longdendale Trail.

Walk down to the remains of Woodhead Station which stand in front of the sealed off portals of the Woodhead Tunnels. Until its complete closure in 1981 this formed part of a major railway route, initially opened in the 1840s, and the first major stretch of line to be electrified with overhead wires in the UK in the 1950s, running up Longdendale linking North West England with Yorkshire. The Longdendale Trail which you will follow for six and a half miles, on the final stretch of the walk back to Hadfield.

Past the Woodhead Tunnels follow the line of the former railway. 

You are walking down towards the start of the Longdendale Reservoir Chain. The “Longdendale Chain” a network of seven reservoirs built between the 1830s and 1884 to supply Manchester and Salford with water.

Soon you are walking along the route of the former railway route, amidst the hilly terrain of Longdendale, which bizarrely was part of the Cheshire until 1974, above the top reservoir.

You approach the tiny hamlet of Crowden at the bottom of the highest reservoir in the chain.

Here you head up a ramp to a car park, which you cross, then head onwards back onto the trail.

Continue along the trail which is steady monotonous walking, but very easy going compared to the top of Bleaklow, for quite some distance.

Presently you cross the B6105 road.

This is roughly the halfway mark on this section between Woodhead and Hadfield.

Continue along the trail crossing over another smaller road a little way further on. This is the point where the Pennine Way also crosses the Longdendale Chain.

Hadfield comes into view and you pass into a final cutting section approaching the edge of the town.

Hadfield comes into view and you pass into a final cutting section approaching the edge of the town.

Soon you reach the end of the trail. Here turn right and head down onto the road near Hadfield town centre.

Once on the road turn left and walk towards the top of Hadfield High Street. If you are a fan of dark, gross late 1990s British TV comedy, this road might look familiar. That is because Hadfield played the role of the bleak, surreal, and often outright disgusting Pennine town of Royston Vassey in The League of Gentlemen.

Hadfield Railway Station is to the left at the top of the town’s high street.

Having crossed the station’s forecourt this is where the walk ends.

Getting Back

Hadfield is served by trains at half hourly intervals throughout most of the day which run to Manchester Piccadilly via Glossop. From Manchester Piccadilly it is possible to get trains across the UK and to pick up local public transport. Transport by bus around north western Derbyshire, across the Peak to Sheffield and throughout eastern Greater Manchester to places like Stockport can be caught from Glossop, and Hadfield is also served by some bus routes.