At 8.30 a.m. on
Saturday 10th August, 12 people from St. John’s climbed aboard a
coach bound for the small market town of Ashbourne with the Liverpool Road Methodist Church Rambling Club.
Ashbourne is
situated in the middle of England, in the county of Derbyshire, at the
southerly end of the Pennine Chain - the mountainous backbone of England.
After stopping
for a break en route we arrived at the car park, by the Leisure Centre in
Ashbourne, at about 11.30 a.m.
Having
disembarked from the coach, the 18 “walkers” followed David Wall to the
Tissington Trail whilst the rest of the party walked into Asbourne to enjoy
their day out there.
The Tissington
Trail runs for 13 miles from Ashbourne to Parsley Hay, where High Peak Junction
joins it. The High Peak and Tissington
Trails were formerly the Cromford and High Peak and the Ashbourne to Buxton
railway lines. The Buxton to Ashbourne
railway line opened in 1899 and closed in 1967. Once the track was removed, the route was
transformed into a recreational trail and opened to the public in 1971. You can walk, cycle or ride a horse on the
trails all year round.
Following David,
we walked out of Ashbourne along the Tissington Trail but, shortly after
passing through the tunnel, we left the trail and veered off across fields of cows
or sheep towards the Peak District National Park.
It was a really
lovely walk and for once conditions were ideal.
It was not too hot, not too cold and not even wet!
We sat down, for our picnic lunch, on a
ridge.
David told us that this was the border of, and looking out over, The
National Park.
After lunch we
walked on to, and through, the pretty village of Thorpe, which had been
mentioned in the Domesday Book with records from January to December 1086!
A little later
we heard the sound of gunfire and wondered what we had let ourselves in
for. However, being an intrepid band, we
continued to follow our leader.
We
spotted a red flag in the distance but marched on towards it! It turned out that we were passing right
behind a shooting range but, fortunately the targets were well off in the
opposite direction!
Eventually we
curved back onto the Tissington Trail for an easy walk back to the Ashbourne
Leisure Centre. The trail was very pleasant
to walk along – tree lined, well surfaced and virtually flat. However, the main hazard for walkers on the
trail was the cyclist of which there were many!
We rejoined the coach by 5.00 p.m. (15 minutes
later than we had hoped to be).
We all had a
lovely day and our thanks go to David Wall for choosing and leading the walk
and the Liverpool Road
Methodist Church Rambling Club for, as ever, being such excellent hosts.
