Words & Photos Dennis Kelsall

April 01 2010

Standedge, pronounced round here as ‘Stannige’, lies on the Pennine watershed. Offering one of the shortest routes across the top, it was an 
obvious choice for road, canal and railway engineers.

Blind Jack Metcalf followed the Romans in building his Huddersfield to Manchester turnpike in 1760, a line still largely followed today. Benjamin Outram began the longest, deepest and highest waterway tunnel in Britain, opened in 1811 for the Huddersfield Canal, and during the summer you can take a three-mile boat trip 650 feet beneath the moor. The first of three railway tunnels opened only 37 years later, cheekily using the canal tunnel to ferry out the spoil.

All this helped put Marsden on the map, a homely mill town tucked at the head of the Colne valley and the start for a moorland wander around the catchment, rich in historical interest.

Leaving the canal just before the eastern portals at Tunnel End I followed the lane to Hey Green, the site of the town’s first mill in 1710. Close Gate Bridge, perhaps recognisable by early Last of the Summer Wine fans, took me onto the moors, climbing steadily along Willykay Clough past occasional old boundary stones towards the distant watershed.

Joining the Pennine Way at the head of Haigh Gutter I turned south, cresting a shallow rise to the lip of Standedge. Until now, the views had been behind, but suddenly the ground fell away in front, revealing the vast sprawl of Manchester, for the present at least, still checked by the steep Pennine slopes.

It is a grand, airy walk along the edge, which somehow ignores the conurbation far below. Beyond the trig point, I wandered down to cross the main road, remaining with the Pennine Way as it climbs above a deep cutting. I’m told it was dug by Italian POWs to reduce the summit of Blind Jack’s original route. Curving once more across the open moor I reflected on its wonderful feel of remoteness, despite the proximity of ‘civilisation’. Above Redbrook Reservoir, I struck off to Black Moss, where the higher reservoir of the two straddles the watershed and unusually has dams at each end. Like the others up here, it was built to supply the canal.

Blakely Clough funnels the path into Wessenden Valley, its watery staircase filling the taps of Huddersfield. I strolled beside the two lower reservoirs and avoided the road by a long flight of steps into the valley. After passing Bank Bottom Mill, where 1,000 looms produced blankets for WWI Tommies, it was then just a short walk back past St Bartholemew’s, whose graveyard was raised in 1798 to accommodate the dead from an outbreak of black fever.

Distance: 10 miles/16km Ascent: 1600ft/488m Time: 4-5 hours Start/finish: Opposite The Station, Marsden (GR: SE 047118) Map: Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer sheets OL1 (The Peak District – Dark Peak area) and OL21 (South Pennines) Information: Huddersfield, 01484 223 200 Travel: Buses and trains to Marsden

Technical Spec
Head W along canal, crossing bridge before tunnel. Climb to Tunnel End Inn then L on Waters Road. After half a mile, leave L along Redbrook Clough to Close Gate Bridge. Bear R up Willykay Clough, crossing moor to A640 above Haigh Gutter. Join Pennine Way to Standedge and then SE to A62, crossing to continue above cutting. Swing E above Redbrook Reservoir, climbing R after quarter of a mile to wind between Black Moss and Swellands reservoirs. Strike E across Black Moss into Blakely Clough, dropping to head of Blakeley Reservoir. Follow Kirklees Way N to lane, immediately dropping L back into valley. Continue past mill, resorting to streets via church back to canal.