St Paul's Rambling Group Heaton Moor

Torrs River Park & Goyt Valley Traditionally this usually a short walk followed by a long Christmas lunch. We started from the Torrs River car park in Hague Bar, New Mills and made the short decent to the river valley below. From here we continued along the path by the Goyt looking forward to making the crossing by the Millenium Bridge.Unfortunately on arrival we found the bridge closed and had to make a detour up the hill and into New Mills so we could only view the spectacular bridge from the road above. Eventually we found our way back down to the river where we stopped in the gorge for coffee. The ramble then continued along the river until we met the bridge across and the pathway to the Peak Forest Canal. We then walked along the canal to Hague Bar and returned to the car park. A distance of 4.5 miles. The important part of the day followed when we retired to the Pack Horse Inn, New Mills to enjoy an excellent three course Christmas lunch complete with Christmas Pudding

Ashworth and Norden, Rochdale. St Jame's Church, Ashworth A party of six set out from Norden, Rochdale for this 5 mile ramble through the local countryside.From the car park we turned into Black Pits Lane and very soon arrived at the footpath alongside Naden Brook. At the bridge next to remains of the old mill, we crossed the river, and then began the climb out of the valley to a farm track which leads up to the ancient church of St James Bamford and the former pub known as the Chapel House, which is now a private residence. Here we stopped to admire the old church with its interesting grave stones and the views across Lancashire to Manchester and Derbyshire. We then crossed the fields to the old schoolhouse before joining Ashworth Rd to take us down to Simpson and Gelder Cloughs. Unfortunately we found the road closed because of a landslide and we had to retrace our steps and take an alternative path down to the valley. Not wishing to miss out the scenery

Lymm - Byeways and canals On a sunny Saturday morning eight of us set off from the Henry St car park in the centre of Lymm for a walk around the surrounding countryside. For the first leg of the route we followed the tow path of the Bridgewater Canal heading towards Manchester. After about 1.5 miles we left the path to join the B5159 which took us under the canal. After continuing along the road for about half a mile we reached a stile on the left which took us into a field of sugar beet where we made a stop for a coffee break. The path then continued along the sides of the field and eventually we entered  Spud Wood. After a short walk through the trees the route followed along the byeways of Lymm until we finally arrived at St Mary's church. From here we joined the pathway  to walk around Lymm Dam and finally back to our start in Lymm.The walk was about 5 miles and there is plenty of interesting scenery and wildlife along the track. Lunch was at the Spread Eagl

Barley Circular Village Hall Barley   We left St. Paul’s Church under a threatening sky towards the beautiful village of Barley in Lancashire only to find the rain had set in on our arrival about an hour later. Six of us left the car park for the old water works building which now boasts a glorious conversion to apartments.Next over the footbridge to our first climb of the day over a rather boggy, clumpy set of fields. As expected, the path proved a little difficult to follow here but after a bit of team work, we were back on track passing a farmhouse and over the hill towards Newchurch, The village is famous for its ‘Witches Galore Shop’ and usually has three old stuffed crones sitting outside but their absence probably reflected the extreme weather conditions that proved too much, even for them! Originally the village was called Goldshaw Booth but the Newchurch name came into use in October 1544 when John Bird, Bishop of Chester, consecrated the new church of St. Mary.

Marple Bridge A slightly larger than normal group of 11 walkers started the 3.5 mile circular route from Brabyns Brow Park in Marple Bridge. The walk took us past the site of the demolished Brabyns Hall which had been used as a military hospital in the First World War. We followed the course of the River Goyt, taking time to look at a discarded foundation stone from Monsal, to stop and admire the listed Iron Bridge. This was built in 1813 by the Salford Iron Works. A team of Friends of The Park were hard at work on keeping it free from weeds.  We took a short diversion to look at the point of confluence of the rivers Goyt and the Etherow before crossing the river at Compstall and continuing into Redbrow Wood. After heading across farmland we reached the steps leading up to the Marple Aquaduct which is 100ft above ground level.  Following the Canal, we passed the start of of Marple’s 16 locks and descended a path back to Brabyns Park. After the interesting walk the group adjour