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When? Started: 1993 Who? Started with staff and friends from U H S, Chester. Organiser: Martyn Harris We walk every Wednesday and Saturdays, New Years day and May Day. How many walk? Walks take place as long as there are at least 2 wanting to walk on that day. More walk on a Wednesday than on a Saturday. Most ever: 29. Current group size walking: 2-10 in mid-week and 2-4 on Saturday. Where do we walk? Saturday: Anywhere in North and Mid-Wales, Peak District, Shropshire and the Long Mynd and as far North as the Trough of Bowland. Thursday: Anywhere within about 40 miles of Chester. Type of walk: Distance: 6 – 14 miles (but usually under 10 miles). Climb: up to 4000’ (but usually very much less!). People involved on walks in 2020:- Martyn Harris, Fran Murphy, Sue and Michel Pelissier, Mike Dodd, David Savage, Wendy Peers, Celia de Mengle, Wendy and Ian Peers, Roger Smith, Paul Collinson, Ed Meads, Nigel and Elaine Taylor, Celia de Mengle, Sue Pearson.

Sunday 11 September 2016

Holmfirth and the Last of the Summer wine 10th September 2016

Starting at Sid's Cafe.
The Royal Oak at Upperthong.
Looking across the Holme Valley from West of Upperthong.
View across Digley Reservoir from our lunch spot its North side.
Mentioned in the Doomsday Book - Holme.
A waterfall on a steam leading into Brownhill Reservoir.
Looking across Ramsden Reservoir towards Holme Moss.
A new friend wants to follow us!
Ending with the location of Comp and Nora Batty's Houses.
Walk stats: Distance: 10.2 miles. Climb: 1465'.
Time: 6 hours 55 minutes. On the move walking average: 1.9 m.p.h. Overall walk average: 1.5 m.p.h.
Group: Martyn, Mike and Celia.
 Overall this was a good day for walking, despite at times it feeling a little on the humid side. Distant views at the start were a little misty, but cleared up as the day progressed.
 The walk was a little longer than we expected as we started the walk with a 0.7 miles extension to visit the local facilities.
 Once on the walk proper, we soon gained height on the Northern side of the valley where we had superb views over Holmfirth.
 The first area of visited was Upperthong, where the Royal Oak was the only place of note. The parish church that we had hoped to visit was a little off route, so on this occasion was left for another day.
 The descent from Hogley Green to Digley Reservoir involved lots of different stiles, some of which had obviously been designed with the thinner man in mind.
 Lunch was taken on the banks of Digley Reservoir where we enjoyed about 45 minutes in the warm sunshine with fine views across the water towards Holmbridge.
 Celia usually likes fruit at lunch time, but unfortunately dropped both tangerines and could do nothing but watch as they raced down the bank into the water and float away.
 After lunch we came to a rather awkward stile, and decide to use the nearby gate, only to be chastised by the owner of the field. At least one of their horses was friendly enough and only  ran away when I mentioned that Mike had already eaten his apple!
 We arrived back at Holmfirth, having had a good leisurely walk in quite varied terrain and ready for refreshments.
 Birds seen or heard today included: Common chaffinch, Rook, Jackdaw, Common kestrel, Woodpigeon, Mallard, Stonechat, European robin, Meadow pipit, Goldfinch, Barn swallow and Goosander.
 After walk drinks were enjoyed at Netherton Hall in Frodsham, where the Lees bitter went down well The Chester Race traffic had cleared and l managed to get home without any of the anticipated crawl through the city.

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