Longdendale Tales

From wool to cotton; Kate Raine paints a picture of how the area surrounding Bottoms Reservoir looked before and during the building of the reservoirs. Including Crowden Bleach Works, Bottoms Lodge and the mystery behind Torside Paper Mill…was it actually a pub?!

And - what connects Rhodeswood Reservoir with the Victoria Hall in Glossop? Spoiler alert: It’s Herbert Rhodes, one of the owners of the many mills in Hadfield and Padfield, and once mayor of Glossop.

Plus, how did the reservoirs get their names? Your daily dog walks will never be the same again!

For more fascinating history about the mills of Glossop and Longdendale, it’s worth reading Kate’s series about Glossop’s Lost Mills via the Glossop Heritage Trust website: https://glossopheritage.co.uk/ghtarchive/lostmills/ 

The Longdendale Tales project was supported by Glossop Creates as part of their Pairings programme, matched with Matt Ross at the Peak District National Park’s Longdendale Environmental Centre in Tintwistle.

Visit LongdendaleTales.co.uk to see our digital interactive map. 

Special thanks to Holly Close (assistant producer), Harry Heart (series theme music ‘Begging’), Owain Paciuszko (videos and visuals), Lauren Riley (logos and artwork) and Kate Raine (Glossop Heritage Trust research library).

Sped up, slowed down, turned round and round - today’s Sunday soundscape is recorded walking along Crowden weir. Enjoy listening to the sound of the gushing fast flowing stream as Clare Savory turns in circles, allowing the water to move all around us. (Best listened wearing headphones!)

The week’s conversations about adopting a sense of play with the children in the brook; to the issues around safety in encouraging more women to enjoy walking the park have been rumbling around Clare’s mind. Something she ponders over, with the wise words of Dr Kerri Andrew’s book ‘Wanderers: The History of Women Walking’ to hand.

The Longdendale Tales project was supported by Glossop Creates as part of their Pairings programme, matched with Matt Ross at the Peak District National Park’s Longdendale Environmental Centre in Tintwistle. 

Visit LongdendaleTales.co.uk to see our digital interactive map. 

Special thanks to Holly Close (assistant producer), Harry Heart (series theme music ‘Begging’), Owain Paciuszko (videos and visuals), Lauren Riley (logos and artwork) and Kate Raine (Glossop Heritage Trust research library).

The party has opened and indulged in the hamper’s delights, what next for Thomas Barlow’s day-trippers enjoying a wet and wild summer’s day out in Woodhead? Cordelia Howard provides the third instalment of ‘A Picnic At Woodhead’.

The Longdendale Tales project was supported by Glossop Creates as part of their Pairings programme, matched with Matt Ross at the Peak District National Park’s Longdendale Environmental Centre in Tintwistle. 

Visit LongdendaleTales.co.uk to see our digital interactive map. 

Special thanks to Holly Close (assistant producer), Harry Heart (series theme music ‘Begging’), Owain Paciuszko (videos and visuals), Lauren Riley (logos and artwork) and Kate Raine (Glossop Heritage Trust research library).

Listen closely as the year 6 pupils of Parochial Primary School in Ashton Under Lyne find their feet walking in wellies along Crowden Brook! Peak District National Park community ranger/oracle Matt Ross returns to the podcast to tell us how he inspires the future generation using stories of stoneflies and nymphs.

This episode includes a cringe worthy joke about the Oasis hit Don’t Look Back In Anger. Sorry. But a cool fact about a stonefly called Yellow Sally...

To find out more information about the school visits Matt runs, email [email protected]

The Longdendale Tales project was supported by Glossop Creates as part of their Pairings programme, supported by the Peak District National Park’s Longdendale Environmental Centre in Tintwistle. 

Visit LongdendaleTales.co.uk to see our digital interactive map. 

Special thanks to Holly Close (assistant producer), Harry Heart (series theme music ‘Begging’), Owain Paciuszko (videos and visuals), Lauren Riley (logos and artwork) and Kate Raine (Glossop Heritage Trust research library).

Helen Thornhill from Move More Glossop, a community partnership project led by The Bureau, encourages more of us to get fit by building activity into our everyday life.

Clare Savory and Helen take a popular loop around Bottoms Reservoir to talk about who, why and how she helps people get started - no matter their mobility.

Plus, they bump into a local chap called Jimmy by chance - who it turns out used to work on the reservoirs some 30+ years ago. He shares a few tales about climbing down the steps in the valve houses and walking the aqueducts underneath the waterways to clear the silt and tree roots!

Plenty more info about the groups Helen talks about, including the Reservoir Ramblers here: https://the-bureau.org.uk/move-more-glossop/ 

The Longdendale Tales project was supported by Glossop Creates as part of their Pairings programme, matched with Matt Ross at the Peak District National Park’s Longdendale Environmental Centre in Tintwistle. 

Visit LongdendaleTales.co.uk to see our digital interactive map. 

Special thanks to Holly Close (assistant producer), Harry Heart (series theme music ‘Begging’), Owain Paciuszko (videos and visuals), Lauren Riley (logos and artwork) and Kate Raine (Glossop Heritage Trust research library).

Following the medieval trackway from Padfield towards Deep Clough, archaeologist Tim Campbell-Green and Clare Savory sift through the stone mason markings in the tunnels under the Longdendale Trail, as well as spotting two apotropaic markings on a bridge: “two inverted V’s”. These religious markings are believed to have been used to ward off evil or bad luck…and perhaps witches after the reformation?!

Elsewhere, we stumble across some more Victorian pottery, a ‘glacial erratic’ and Tim shares the vision for his Glossop Creates Pairings: ‘A Big Dig’!

Spoiler alert: We end this episode in a tunnel surrounded by mould, lichen and spider webs!

Link to Tim’s blog Glossop Curiosities all about the mason markings here: https://glossopcuriosities.wordpress.com/2018/04/24/masons-marks-and-apotropaia/

The Longdendale Tales project was supported by Glossop Creates as part of their Pairings programme, matched with Matt Ross at the Peak District National Park’s Longdendale Environmental Centre in Tintwistle. 

Visit LongdendaleTales.co.uk to see our digital interactive map. 

Special thanks to Holly Close (assistant producer), Harry Heart (series theme music ‘Begging’), Owain Paciuszko (videos and visuals), Lauren Riley (logos and artwork) and Kate Raine (Glossop Heritage Trust research library).

8 air crashes; 36 people killed, 2 survivors...That's just in and around the area surrounding Bleaklow moor between the years 1939 and 1956.

Yet most people have only heard of (and visited) the site where the Bleaklow Bomber met its fate - a US Air Force Boeing B29A Superfortress that crashed near Higher Shelf Stones in 1948.

Mountain leader Alan Clark joins Clare Savory for a second podcast episode looking into the many crash sites on the south side of the Longdendale moors. They were recording sat at the memorial site on Bramah Edge.

Interested in aviation crashes in the Peak District? Listen back to LT episode 9, where we discuss the 6 crash sites in and around Tintwistle Knarr - north side of the Longdendale valley.

For Alan’s guided walks, check out: https://www.walkingthewrecks.uk/

This pilot project was supported by Glossop Creates as part of their Pairings programme, matched with Matt Ross at the Peak District National Park’s Longdendale Environmental Centre in Tintwistle. Visit LongdendaleTales.co.uk to see our digital interactive map. 

Special thanks to Holly Close (assistant producer), Harry Heart (series theme music ‘Begging’), Owain Paciuszko (videos and visuals), Lauren Riley (logos and artwork) and Kate Raine (Glossop Heritage Trust research library).

Glossop Chronicle journalist David Jones walks from Hadfield Train Station along the Longdendale Trail recalling some of the stories he reported for the local newspaper.

From the opening of the trail, to walking the Woodhead train line tunnels to the many paranormal sightings in and around the valley… plus, rowdy football fans and a tale about Dick Turpin!

Many of the articles we talk about during this interview have been pinned to our digital map, available at LongdendaleTales.co.uk

This pilot project was supported by Glossop Creates as part of their Pairings programme, matched with Matt Ross at the Peak District National Park’s Longdendale Environmental Centre in Tintwistle.

Special thanks to Holly Close (assistant producer), Harry Heart (series theme music ‘Begging’), Owain Paciuszko (videos and visuals), Lauren Riley (logos and artwork) and Kate Raine (Glossop Heritage Trust research library).

For this week’s Sunday Soundscape, we walk beside an almost silent Woodhead Pass - usually filled with the deafening sound of lorries and cars driving all day and all night.

But today, with 7 inches of snow, the area surrounding Rhodeswood Reservoir and Didsbury Intake was filled with nothing but the sounds of long tailed tits, blue tits and great tits. Well, and lots of melting ice falling from the towering trees above...

This week’s poignant words come from the Scottish poet Thomas A Clark’s ‘In Praise Of Walking’.

For photos of Clare’s walk on our digital map check out: LongdendaleTales.co.uk 

This pilot was supported by Glossop Creates as part of their Pairings programme, matched with Matt Ross at the Peak District National Park’s Longdendale Environmental Centre in Tintwistle.

Special thanks to Holly Close (assistant producer), Harry Heart (series theme music ‘Begging’), Owain Paciuszko (videos and visuals), Lauren Riley (logos and artwork) and Kate Raine (Glossop Heritage Trust research library).

In the second of four storytelling episodes, actress Cordelia Howard continues reading the bard of Longdendale’s retelling of a wild day trip to Woodhead with friends.

Visit LongdendaleTales.co.uk for more information about our digital map and 28 part walking podcast series.

This pilot project was supported by Glossop Creates as part of their Pairings programme, matched with Matt Ross at the Peak District National Park’s Longdendale Environmental Centre in Tintwistle.

Special thanks to Holly Close (assistant producer), Harry Heart (series theme music ‘Begging’), Owain Paciuszko (videos and visuals), Lauren Riley (logos and artwork) and Kate Raine (Glossop Heritage Trust research library).