My Adventures 3: Wheel Stones

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So on Tuesday the 13th of April 2021 I awoke after a good nights sleep in the car in the car park of The Ladybower Inn to -3 and ice on the inside of the windscreen. But I'd been cosy n warm under my duvet.

After scraping my cars windscreen I drive off down the Snake Road, but I suppose due to lockdown, no café van here now. So I turn around and drive up to the road that runs alongside the Ladybower Reservoir. Trying Bridgend Car park first £3 parking, bugger only have £2 in change, so I drive on passing another Pay to Park before Bingo, I find a free car park!

I park in the Derwent Overlook Car Park, pull on my boots and head off.

I drop down and follow the waters edge.

I walk pass the Visitor centre at the top, where the café here was open. So I bought a coffee and walked on.

Shortly after I reach the Dam Walls of the adjacent Reservoir of Derwent Reservoir.

I walked on and saw a path that leads up to the East Tower. It ran through my mind, I have a lot of climbing to do today and my legs were still aching a bit from yesterday. But hey I know I'd regret it when I get home later so I walked up, and boy was it worth it!

Derwent Reservoir is the middle of three reservoirs in the Upper Derwent Valley. The River Derwent flows first through Howden Reservoir, then Derwent Reservoir and finally through Ladybower Reservoir. Between them they provide practically all of Derbyshire's water, as well as to a large part of South Yorkshire and as far afield as Nottingham and Leicester.

Dambusters

During the Second World War, the reservoir was used by pilots of the 617 Squadron for practising the low-level flights needed for Operation Chastise (commonly known as the "Dam Busters" raids), due to its similarity to the German dams. Today there is a commemorative plaque to 617 Squadron on the dam, and one of the towers on the dam houses the Derwent Valley Museum. The exhibition, which was owned and run by the late Vic Hallam, tells the tale of Squadron 617 and its training for Operation Chastise and also has a display on the history of the Derwent valley and the lost villages of Derwent and Ashopton. Occasional flypasts of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight at the reservoir are also staged to commemorate the events during the war. In September 2014, a unique flypast took place with the two remaining airworthy Lancasters, one from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, and one from Canada, flying three passes in formation.

I walk back down the path and back along the Ladybower reservoir again.

A rather tame Pheasant sitting on the wall.

I walk along the Derwent Lane.

Ladybower was built between 1935 and 1943 by the Derwent Valley Water Board to supplement the other two reservoirs in supplying the water needs of the East Midlands. It took a further two years to fill which was done by 1945. The dam differs from the Howden Reservoir and Derwent Reservoir in that it is a clay-cored earth embankment, and not a solid masonry dam. Below the dam is a cut-off trench 180 feet (55 m) deep and 6 feet (1.8 m) wide filled with concrete, stretching 500 feet (150 m) into the hills each side, to stop water leaking round the dam. The dam wall was built by Richard Baillie and Sons, a Scottish company. The two viaducts, Ashopton and Ladybower, needed to carry the trunk roads over the reservoir, were built by the London firm of Holloways, using a steel frame clad in concrete. The project was delayed when the Second World War broke out in 1939, making labour and raw materials scarce, but construction was continued due to the strategic importance of maintaining supplies. King George VI, accompanied by his wife, Queen Elizabeth, formally opened the reservoir on 25 September 1945.

I continue walking down the road, suns out now and its warming up nicely.

I pass a once church it seems, now a private residence.

The building of the reservoir resulted in the submergence of the villages of Ashopton and Derwent, including Derwent Woodlands church and Derwent Hall. Ashopton stood roughly where the road to the Snake Pass met the Snake valley. The buildings in Ashopton were demolished before the reservoir was filled, but much of the structure of Derwent village was still visible during a dry summer some 14 years later. The narrow stone Packhorse Bridge over the Derwent was removed and rebuilt at the head of the Howden reservoir. The clock tower of the church had been left standing and the upper part of it was visible above the water level until 1947, when it was seen as a hazard and demolished with explosives on 15 December.

In 1976, 1995 and 2018, dry conditions caused the water level to drop and the village of Derwent to once again be exposed. In 2018, this caused unprecedented crowds to visit the rarely visible site. On 3 November 2018 a man had to be rescued by a mountain rescue team after getting stuck in extremely thick mud around the ruins of the village. On 17 November 2018 it was reported that the site had been vandalised by some of those visiting, with park rangers forced to stop visitors removing items from the site and with graffiti scrawled on some buildings.

I now take a path that heads steeply upwards.

I follow the path up and up the Derwent Edge.

Derwent Edge is a Millstone Grit escarpment that lies above the Upper Derwent Valley.

I can see the Wheel Stones up high on top of the ridge.

To the left of The Wheel Stones sits White Tor.

I made an error now, looking at my map the path continues on and I'' have to go back on myself to reach the Wheel Stones and then back again down the same path. So I thought I'd take a short cut, well don't its steep and the path disappears in the heather! It's very very steep, so stick to the path, maybe a little further in distance but it'd be easier!

Anyway I head up the steep hillside through the heather, scaring Red Grouse out of their hiding places!

I eventually make it up to the Wheel Stones. They are impressive indeed.

Grid Ref: SK 2019 8852

The gritstone rocks have been shaped by the harsh wind and rain on the top of the Derwent Moors. The stones are also known as the Coach and Horses as they resembles a coach and horses on the horizon when viewed from the Snake Pass A57 road.

I leave the Wheel Stones and head down the path I should of walked up instead of the steep bank and head towards The Hulkling Stones.

Looking back to the Wheel stones.

I now reach The Hulkling Stones.

Hurkling or 'Herlin' means to crouch and comes from the old Norse language. The legacy of the Danish Viking settlement of this area.

Once the meeting place of shepherds and their flocks, and also the scene of some infamous boundary disputes, where the boundary Manors of Holmesfield, Padley and Baslow, all met at this point. If you look closely you can just make out various boundary markings of the 18th century. One infamous dispute involved the Duke of Rutlands stewards, who on the order of the Duke were instructed to obliterate the mark of either MB for Manor of Baslow or H for Holmesfield, we will never know. Suffice to say on the riding of the boundaries, order was restored and the mark reinstated elsewhere on the huge stone. The most obvious mark to be seen today is a small cross with the letters MB, sited low down at the Northern end of the Hurkling stone face.