For some time, I have wanted to cover the entire length of the River Tame, and decided to finally get started last Saturday seeing as the weather was glorious with 7.30 start from Stockport station, passing my old office en route to the river's end where it meets with the Goyt under the M60 to form the Mersey.
The first leg of the walk follows the Trans-Pennine trail through Reddish Vale, very peaceful at that early hour with only the sounds of birds and planes making their final approach to Manchester airport. The path takes you through the woods whilst the river itself meanders through the local golf course.
Emerging from the woods, the route took me past the edge of Brinnington and was surprised to see a few horses grazing there. Next up was the reservoir next to the country park visitor centre with magnificent views across to the railway viaduct. At this point the Trans-Pennine Trial meets with the Tameside Trail which I picked, taking me under the railway and then under M60 towards Denton.
The first road crossing over the day was at Stockport Road, just down from the Robinsons brewery where I was literally startled by a horse hiding in the trees before entering into Haughton Dale. I was quite thirsty by now so left the river to head into Haughton Green for refreshments, as the estate is dominated by 1950s overspill housing I was pleasantly surprised by the old cottages and the 19th century St Marys church.
Feeling much better after some cold lucozade and water, I returned from my detour and soon encountered a lost teddy. I assume someone had popped it up in the trees in the hope it would be reunited with it's owner. I also managed to find a butterfly that stayed still long enough for me to get a decent photo of it before A57 and M67 into Hyde.
Shortly after the motorway, the river passes through the sewage works and into Dukinfields large industrial estate so the trail switches across to the nearby Peak Forest canal which follows a parallel route until it, passes under the railway, crosses the river and meets the Huddersfield canal at Portland Basin.
My original plan had been to split the walk at Stalybridge but as I was on track to get there by mid-day, I decided to spend an hour relaxing in the park with a mate and then press onwards Saddleworth and see if I could do the lot in one day. This stretch is the one I know the best as it's a handy quick route from my home to Ashton that only takes half an hour climbing towards the moors as the river continues to wind amongst old mills and new factories, there was another abandoned teddy - Macca Pakka I believe - before I arrived in the park just in time for the arrival of the ice-cream van.
After recharging the batteries, I popped home to swap maps but annoyingly my Dark Peak map was nowhere to be found but never mind - how hard can it be to follow a river. Setting back off, there's no path alongside the river from Stalybridge - apart from a very small stretch giving me a chance to get a shot of the 400 year old bridge which gave the town it's name- but the Huddersfield canal continues to shadow it to Uppermill. By the time I'd reached Mossley, I was very much in need of food so called in Roaches lock which was proving to be popular on such a nice sunny day.
Although not the cheapest, the burger with swiss cheese was excellent as was the presentation. Feeling suitably refueled, I pressed on towards to Greenfield as the valley opened up with plenty of interesting sights including a village cricket match and scarecrow.
Approaching Uppermill, you get a good view of the war memorial on top of Pots and Pans, by all accounts a Rememberance Sunday service is held there each year which I would like to check out. As always on a good summers day, Uppermill was busy as I took to high street as the river ducked behind the houses and here is where it went a bit wrong as I paid the price for having no map.
At the split in the road, I carried on up the canal which ran parallel to what I thought was the river up towards Diggle. Unbeknown to me, the Tame had swung west under the road bridge and I was now following a nameless tributary and did not realise my error until I looked at a bus-stop map by which point I was five miles of course. Having covered over 20 miles at this point with two impressive blisters on my feet, I decided to call it a day and a couple of buses later was back at Roaches Lock enjoying a well earned pint of (ironically) Wainwright.
Setting off the following Saturday, the weather could not have been any different and on arrival in Greenfield station the rain was torrential and stayed that way all the way through Uppermill and until I reached Delph. I later found at that about an inch had been recorded in that hour and a house in Mossley had suffered a lightning strike.
My arrival in Delph coincided with the easing of the rain, for which I was grateful after a thorough soaking. The village itself is possibly one the best preserved in the area and some may recognise from the film Brassed Off. When it used to have it's own branch line rail service it was known as The Delph Donkey, legend has it the original service was horse-drawn but this has never been proven. At this point the river pulls away from the road and it's possible to follow it by path once more, noting how severe the rain had been in years gone by, this particular flood led to 50 bodies being evicted from Phillips Park Cemetary in Manchester when the Medlock burst it's banks.
It was nice to be back in the greenery and away from the tarmac and the local lambs were looking well washed including one fellow who had cracked the grass on the other side of the fence problem. I also passed the home of someone who clearly had a passion for restoring classic cars.
A little further along, I left the river bank to climb up Tame Lane to take advantage the excellent views before heading north to Debshaw along Slackgate before being renited with the river. From Denshaw I followed the Huddersfield Road towards the first of the reservoirs, New Years Bridge.
Unknown to me at the time, a mill lies under the waters - New Years Bridge Mill - which was the highest mill on the Tame until the reservoir was built in 1873. The other side of the road lies Dowry Water, built around the same time and beyond there I joined the Trans-Pennine Bridleway to make the final climb towards my objective at Readycon Dean Reservoir.
After brief brisk climb, I was afforded an excellent view of the two reservoirs I had just passed and after another halfmile I finally reached the official source of the River Tame at Readycon Dean. My original plan had been to walk back to Denshaw and get a bus back to Greenfield from there but as I was probably only an hours walk from Marsden along the old packhorse road known as Rapes Highway I decided to extend the walk a little further.
You get some excellent views as as you take the steep descent into Marsden, with Stanedge and it's railway and canal tunnels on the opposite side of the main road before arriving at Close Gate Bridge, where two brooks combine to form another river - The Colne.
The final mile of the walk took me along to towards the tunnel end at Stanedge, passing a water mill that generated the first domestic electricity in the valley before arriving at The Railway for a very well priced burger and pint of Cock a Hoop as reward before taking the train back home. Total mileage for the two days came in at just over 33 miles with total walking time of just under 10 hours, next time I'd like to see if I can manage it all in one day.
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