Flash and the Dane Valley, Staffs-Derbys-Cheshire border

Where Staffordshire, Cheshire and Derbyshire rub up against one another, it’s beautiful walking country. Wild moors, steep little valleys, sparkling rivers, lonely sheep farms and villages – the western edge of the Peak District has them all.First published in: The Times Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window

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We didn’t really know the area well, but we didn’t need to; a random jab of the thumb on the map alighted on the hilltop settlement of Flash, and we were in for an absolute treat of a walk.

In spite of its racy name, Flash is a modest place. In 1820 Sir George Crewe judged this moorland hamlet ‘dirty, bearing marks of Poverty, Sloth and Ignorance’. Nowadays the New Inn’s sign proudly proclaims it the ‘highest village pub in the British Isles, 1518 feet’. The views from here across the Staffordshire moors are immense, a curve of green meadows rising to sombre uplands of bracken and heather, their skyline broken by jagged, wind-sculpted sandstone tors.

This morning the sky raced blue and silver, trailing thick grey belts of rain. The wind shoved us impatiently away from Flash, scurrying us up and over Wolf Edge with its canted rock outcrop. A dip on a rubbly path through dark heather and we were skirting Knotbury Common where peewits creaked and tumbled like toy stunting planes. The road to high-perched Blackclough farm lay gleaming with water and humpy with rain-pearled sheep.

Blue sky now, glints of sun and a big boisterous wind. Huge grassy spoil heaps and an ancient industrial chimney marked the long-defunct colliery at Danebower. We dropped down the steep, winding valley of the infant River Dane, a lovely green dell with a flagstone path across rushy bogs, the hills tightly enclosing the river which sparkled and gushed over step-high falls it had shaped in its sandstone bed. By the twin bridges at Pannier’s Pool the Dane dashed in cascades through a miniature gorge, a perfect picnic spot.

We crossed the open moor, its walls as loosely assembled as Connemara stone walls, and came down to Gradbach bridge. A handsome cream-washed house with a circle of crocuses on the lawn; a Methodist chapel beyond, very plain and dignified; the stone-built bridge over the rushing river. Simple and perfect, this whole assembly.

Back through pony paddocks and sheep pasture where a Swaledale ram with tremendous curly horns followed us a good step of the way. Then a last stretch where the wind, now at our backs like a comrade rather than in our faces like a bully, pushed us all the way up the lane to Flash.

Start & finish: New Inn, Flash, Staffordshire SK17 0SW (OS ref SK 025671)
Getting there: At Rose & Crown, Allgreave (on A54 Buxton-Congleton), take side road (‘Quarnford’) to Flash.
Walk (8½ miles, moderate, OS Explorer OL24): With your back to the church, take lane that forks right past New Inn. In 150m, right (fingerpost, yellow arrow/YA) to pass houses; right (YA) up field, aiming for post. Continue over wall stiles (YAs). In ¼ miles, left (024676; YA) past stone outcrop and over Wolf Edge. Aim for fence; follow it down to road (020681). Left; in 100m, right up farm lane. Opposite Knotbury farm, right through gate (017682; fingerpost) on gravel track that bears left over Knotbury Common, down to road (015689). Left over cattle grid; up road past Blackclough farm. Follow track north beside wall for ½ mile to walk through Reeve-Edge and Danebower quarries. Descend to cross stream by stepping stones (014699; YA). Up bank and turn left (fingerpost, ‘Dane Valley Way’/DVW). Follow track nearly to road, then slant left downhill by chimney (010700). Path by River Dane (stiles, YAs, DVW) for ¾ mile to the two bridges at Pannier’s Pool (009685).

Here DVW crosses bridge; but you keep ahead on right bank of river on permissive path under Three Shires Head. In ⅓ mile ignore YA pointing left; continue uphill on main track to road at Cut-thorn (002681). Forward past house; left over stile (‘Access Land’). Follow wall, then path over moor. In ¼ mile, just short of gate in wall ahead, fork left to cross stile (998683). Follow left-hand of two YAs by fence, following track as it curves left across Robin’s Clough stream and runs south over moor. In ¾ mile follow track past house and down to road at Hole-edge (001671). Right past Bennettshitch house. In 100m, left off road (fingerpost), steeply down to road by Methodist chapel (001664).

Left across River Dane; round left bend; immediately left (fingerpost) past Dane View House. Through gate (fingerpost) and follow path with wall on left for ¾ mile through 6 walls. Just before corner of 7th wall, by a ‘Peak & Northern Footpath Society’ notice on pole (009671), turn right downhill. In 200m, left at another PNFS notice (‘Flash’); aim across fields to pass Wicken Walls farm (014672). Ahead with wall on left; down across stile; steeply down rocks to river (016672). Cross footbridge (‘Flash’); steeply up bank, over stile; bear right up path which curves to left with wall on right (YAs). Follow path to drive of Axe Edge Green farm (020672). Right for 100m; left up to road (021671); left to Flash.

NB – Detailed directions (recommended!), online map, more walks: www.christophersomerville.co.uk. Click on Facebook “Like” link to share this walk with Facebook friends.

Lunch: New Inn, Flash (01298-22941) – open daily evenings, Fri-Sun lunchtimes and evenings (no food, BYO sandwiches); or picnic by Pannier’s Pool.
More info: Leek TIC (01528-483741; www.visitpeakdistrict.co.uk)
http://tourism.swale.gov.uk/isleofsheppey.htm
www.ramblers.org.uk www.satmap.com www.LogMyTrip.co.uk