Day Shep drank at old trough oasis
THERE’S an old stone trough by the single track crossroads at Crowden, grown over and weed clogged these days, and even sometimes with no water in at all, while at others, full of frogs and tadpoles, or worse, ice-cream wrappers.
This would never have done in the days of Crowden Hall, which was built in 1692, and any of the Hadfield’s servants would have been up for a right old rollicking, if it wasn’t, just, overflowing and clear as a whistle.
This trough was for the horses, both those belonging to the hall and also to the many travellers who would have passed through.
Perish the thought that word got back to Sheffield, or Chester, about the Hadfield’s manky trough.
I’m talking late 17th century here, with the bubonic plague which had decimated the village of Eyam in 1665 still a living memory and palpable fear.
Cholera was prevalent and clean water was treasured, so much so that people drank ale instead. Not all bad then.
These days the spring which feeds the trough is often blocked further up the hill, whereas even in my day I would ensure that there was a steady flow and no weeds.
I’d let the occasional water-boatman get away with it, and would often just sit and watch as they dived into the water buoyed by the use of an air bubble, or even more impressive were the pond skaters, defying the laws of nature and walking on the surface tension of the water.
Many a hiker, filling their bottles, thanked me for keeping that trough clean, including, John Noakes, of Blue Peter fame, and he also let Shep, his famous side-kick, have a drink.
Noakes was being filmed walking the Pennine Way, the long distance footpath which opened in 1965, and depending which way you walk it, is either the last stop before Edale, or the first stop after Edale, which was Blue Peter’s preferred route.
Being the ‘water man’ and general warden type go-to-guy at the top end of the valley, I was asked to supervise the filming, or in other words, make sure they made no mess and kept out of the reservoir enclosures.
Noakes was filmed stroking the dog before setting off over the little wooden bridge traversing Crowden Little Brook.
Several years later, the ill-fated sitcom Bootle Saddles was filmed in the same location, complete with fake cowboy town and horses, and the latter were billeted in the outbuildings at Bleak House.
This was much to the delight of my late father-in-law, John Crean of Dinting, late of Athleague, County Roscommon, and a long-time employee of Glossop’s Lancashire Chemicals; all that manure for his garden, he literally was that happy chap in the proverbial.
The idea of a footpath from Derbyshire to the Scottish border area was first mooted by the late Tom Stephenson, secretary of the Ramblers Association, in 1935.
It took 30 years for this idea to come to fruition, and the route was officially opened in April 1965 after years of negotiation with the landowners along the route.
Since then many thousands of people have walked the route, which goes from Edale to Kirk Yetholm.