Longdendale is a valley in the

Peak District The Peak District is an Highland, upland area in central-northern England, at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. It is subdivi ...

of England, north of

Glossop Glossop is a market town in the borough of High Peak (borough), High Peak, Derbyshire, England, east of Manchester, north-west of Sheffield and north of Matlock, Derbyshire, Matlock. Near Derbyshire's borders with Cheshire, Greater Mancheste ...

and southwest of Holmfirth. The name means "long wooded valley" and the valley is mostly in the counties of

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

and

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...

Geography

The eastern part of the valley is in the

non-metropolitan county A non-metropolitan county, or colloquially, shire county, is a subdivision of England used for local government. The non-metropolitan counties were originally created in 1974 as part of a reform of local government in England and Wales, and ...

of Derbyshire and includes the village of Tintwistle and, further east, part of the Peak District National Park, with the last half-mile or so falling into the

Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley The Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley is a metropolitan borough in South Yorkshire, England; the main settlement is Barnsley and other notable towns include Wombwell, Worsbrough, Penistone and Hoyland. The borough is bisected by the M1 mo ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the north, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north-east, Lincolnshire ...

. The western part of the valley, including the villages of Broadbottom, Mottram in Longdendale and Hollingworth is part of

Tameside Tameside is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England, named after the River Tame, Greater Manchester, River Tame, which flows through it, and includes the towns of Ashton-under-Lyne, Audenshaw, Denton, Greater Manchester, Denton, D ...

in the

metropolitan county Metropolitan counties are a Subdivisions of England, subdivision of England which were originally used for Local government in England, local government. There are six metropolitan counties: Greater Manchester, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, Tyn ...

of Greater Manchester. The whole of Longdendale forms the easternmost extension of the lands within the historic boundaries of

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

. The River Etherow, a

tributary A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream (''main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which they ...

of the

River Mersey The River Mersey () is a major river in North West England. Its name derives from Old English and means "boundary river", possibly referring to its having been a border between the ancient kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria. For centuries it h ...

, rises south of Holmfirth and then flows through a chain of six

reservoirs A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of water, interrup ...

known as the Longdendale Chain: Woodhead Reservoir, Torside Reservoir, Rhodeswood Reservoir, Valehouse Reservoir, Bottoms Reservoir and Arnfield Reservoir. There was a seventh reservoir at Hollingworth, but it was abandoned in 1990 and now forms part of Swallows Wood Nature Reserve. Image:Longdendale4654.JPG , Bottoms Image:Longdendale4695.JPG , Valehouse Image:Longdendale4698.JPG , Rhodeswood Image:WoodheadreservoirDerbyshire.jpg , Woodhead

History

The Romans

There is a Roman fortlet at Highstones on the south-facing slope overlooking Torside Reservoir. It is an oval-shaped area, with an obvious ditch, and about across. A footpath runs immediately to the north of it, and to the west is Highstones Farm. A Roman road may have run along the valley connecting it with Melandra Castle (Glossop).

Feudal estates

The lordship of Longdendale was an ancient feudal estate encompassing the medieval manors of Godley, Hattersley, Hollingworth,

Matley Matley is a semi-rural area in the Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. It was formerly a civil parish in Cheshire between 1866 and 1936, when the parish was abolished and the area divided between Dukinfield, Hyde, Greater Manchester, Hyde, Lo ...

, Mottram, Newton, Staley, Tintwistle and Werneth. The lordship was created by the

Earl of Chester The Earldom of Chester () was one of the most powerful earldoms in medieval England, extending principally over the counties of Cheshire and Flintshire. Since 1301 the title has generally been granted to heirs apparent to the English throne, ...

in the late twelfth century; William de Neville was the first lord of Longdendale, as appointed by the Earl of Chester. Buckton Castle, near Carrbrook, was probably built by William de Neville in the late twelfth century and was also probably the centre of lordship of Longdendale as it is the only castle within the lordship. One of the privileges of the lordship was to carry out trial by combat. The lordship of Longdendale was passed from de Neville to his son in law, Thomas de Burgh, in 1211 on his death. The lordship reverted to the control of the crown in 1357, and remained under crown control until 1374. The lordship was given to Matilda Lovell and the Lovells controlled Longdendale until 1465 when control again reverted to the crown. The lordship was granted to Sir William Stanley in 1489, however the lordship once again reverted to the crown when Stanley was executed in 1495 as a supporter of

Perkin Warbeck Perkin Warbeck ( – 23 November 1499) was a pretender to the English throne claiming to be Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, who was the second son of Edward IV and one of the so-called "Princes in the Tower". Richard, were he alive, would ...

. In 1554 the lordship was granted to Richard Wilbraham. Tollemache family inherited lordship of Longdendale from the Wilbrahams in the 1690s. It was part of the Hundred of Macclesfield. An estate survey, or 'Extent' of the lordship for 1360 was published by the Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire in July 2005.

Salt trade

packhorse A packhorse, pack horse, or sumpter refers to a horse, mule, donkey, or pony used to carry goods on its back, usually in sidebags or panniers. Typically packhorses are used to cross difficult terrain, where the absence of roads prevents the use of ...

route called a saltway was maintained from the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

onwards for the purpose of allowing the export of salt from the

'' wiches'' of

Nantwich Nantwich ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. It has among the highest concentrations of listed buildings in England, with notably good examples of Tudor and Georgian architecture ...

Northwich Northwich is a market town and civil parish in the Cheshire West and Chester borough of Cheshire, England. It lies on the Cheshire Plain, at the confluence of the rivers Weaver and Dane, east of Chester, south of Warrington and south of Ma ...

and

Middlewich Middlewich is a town and civil parish in Cheshire East, Cheshire, England. It is located east of Chester, east of Winsford, south-east of Northwich and north-west of Sandbach. The population of the parish at the United Kingdom 2021 census, ...

across the

Pennines The Pennines (), also known as the Pennine Chain or Pennine Hills, are a range of highland, uplands mainly located in Northern England. Commonly described as the "Vertebral column, backbone of England" because of its length and position, the ra ...

. The passing trade brought prosperity to settlements along the route. The importance of the salt trade along such saltways is shown by surviving placenames; for example Salter's Brook () is where the saltway forked, with one route leading to

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 109,766 in the 2021 census, up from 99,251 in the 2011 census. The city is the administrative centre of the wider Metropolit ...

and another to

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. It is the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. The town's population was 71,422 in 2021, while the wider boroug ...

. The stone Lady Shaw Bridge still exists at this point, as do the ruins of an old inn. The bridge is just wide enough for a packhorse, though it is suspected that the bridge may have originally been wider and was deliberately narrowed when the Saltersbrook turnpike was built, to prevent vehicles bypassing the toll barrier.

Turnpike road

The turnpike road from Manchester to Saltersbrook connected to further turnpikes for

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

destinations and was built in the mid-18th century, based on the older saltway route.

The reservoirs

The Longdendale catchment exceeds and has an annual rainfall of . The civil engineer John Frederick Bateman recognised the potential and conceived a plan to deliver this water to Manchester and Salford, while still maintaining the flow in the River Etherow that was needed to power the mills of Tintwistle and

. The six reservoirs have a capacity of . A tunnel was built at a depth of to carry the water from Longdendale into the valley of the River Tame. The Manchester Corporation Waterworks Act 1847 ( 10 & 11 Vict. c. cciii) (9 July 1847) was passed to allow the land to be acquired and construction to commence.

The railway

The first railway line between

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

and

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

was constructed between 1839 and 1845 on the south side of the reservoir chain by 1,500 navvies of whom many died and most suffered illness. The three-mile-long double Woodhead Tunnel was, for a time, the longest tunnel in the country. It was replaced by a single, larger tunnel in 1954. The first tunnel was subsequently used by CEGB to reroute the main high-voltage link up the valley and through the National Park underground. The railway line ceased to be economical, and in 1970 the passenger service ceased, followed in 1981 by the goods service. The passenger service was adversely affected by the requirement to keep the Hope Valley line open, whilst the freight service was affected by the falloff in Trans-Pennine coal traffic. The track was lifted in 1986. There have been plans to re-open the railway at various times since it was closed, but none have gained planning approval.

Recreation

Cycling and walking

After the rail line was closed, the trackbed was taken up and the Longdendale Trail constructed along its route. It is now part of the Trans-Pennine Trail (

Sustrans Sustrans ( ) is a United Kingdom-based walking, wheeling and cycling charity, and the custodian of the National Cycle Network. Its flagship project is the National Cycle Network, which has created of signed cycle routes throughout the United ...

National Cycle Route 62) which, in its turn, is part of the

European walking route E8 The E8 European long distance path or E8 path is one of the European long-distance paths, leading 4,700 km (2,920 miles) across Europe, from Cork in Ireland to Bulgaria. Route After Ireland it crosses the Irish Sea into Wales and then in ...

from Liverpool to Istanbul.

Holme Moss Holme Moss ( Above mean sea level, a.s.l.) is high moorland on the border between the Holme Valley district of Kirklees in West Yorkshire and the High Peak, Derbyshire, High Peak district of Derbyshire in England. Historically on the boundary ...

and Woodhead Pass are on the chosen route of the 2014 Tour de France, during the second stage between York and Sheffield. The

Pennine Way The Pennine Way is a National Trail in England, with a small section in Scotland. The trail stretches for from Edale, in the northern Derbyshire Peak District, north through the Yorkshire Dales and Northumberland National Park and ends at Kir ...

crosses Longdendale, descending from Bleaklow to the south and ascending Black Hill to the north. The youth hostel at Crowden is a traditional stop after the first day's walk from Edale. The circular walk known as 'The Longdendale Edges' takes in the high ground (at about the level) on both sides of the valley. It is about long and is 'not recommended in doubtful weather'. The detailed route, clockwise from Crowden Youth Hostel, is given in ''Peak District Walking Guide No.2'', published by the Peak Park Planning Board.

Sailing

Torside Reservoir is home to Glossop Sailing Club.

Transport

Woodhead pass road

The M67 motorway starts at the

M60 motorway The M60 motorway, Manchester Ring Motorway or Manchester Outer Ring Road is an orbital motorway in North West England. Built over a 40-year period, it passes through all of Greater Manchester's metropolitan boroughs except for Wigan and Bolt ...

in Manchester and heads east where it currently terminates at Mottram in Longdendale. There were plans in the 1960s to extend it through the National Park to the

M1 motorway The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) motorway, A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the count ...

and

but it was never built. From here the A628 runs through the valley to join the A616. As of January 2008 there are advanced plans to improve the A628 route by bypassing Mottram and Tintwistle to the north with a spur to the

A57 road The A57 is a major road in England. It runs east from Liverpool to Lincoln, England, Lincoln via Warrington, Salford, Greater Manchester, Salford and Manchester, and then through the Pennines over the Snake Pass (between the high moorlands of ...

. Known as the 'A57/A628 Mottram-in-Longdendale, Hollingworth & Tintwistle Bypass' or Longdendale Bypass, the public inquiry has been adjourned four times and is currently adjourned 'indefinitely'.

Governance

The valley gave its name to the Longdendale Urban District, which covered the western part of the valley around Mottram and Hollingworth. That district was created in 1936 as one of the districts of Cheshire, and was abolished in 1974 when its area became part of the metropolitan borough of

in Greater Manchester. Traditionally, Longdendale was in the County palatine of Chester. Up until local government reforms in 1974, Longdendale Urban District, along with Tintwistle Rural District, formed part of the administrative county of Cheshire; the Municipal Borough of Glossop was in Derbyshire; and Penistone Rural District was in the

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire was one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the riding was an administrative county named County of York, West Riding. The Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire, lieu ...

. Today, the valley is split between the

in South Yorkshire, the Borough of High Peak in Derbyshire, and the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside in Greater Manchester.

Longdendale lights

The valley and the surrounding area has a reputation for strange phenomena, including unexplained lights and allegedly

supernatural Supernatural phenomena or entities are those beyond the Scientific law, laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin 'above, beyond, outside of' + 'nature'. Although the corollary term "nature" has had multiple meanin ...

apparitions and has become a centre of attention for UFO and

ghost In folklore, a ghost is the soul or Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit of a dead Human, person or non-human animal that is believed by some people to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely, from a ...

hunters. It has, however, been suggested that the lights may be " earth lights" produced by pressure on the underlying rocks.

References

External links

Community web site

{{Authority control Valleys of the Peak District Valleys of Yorkshire Valleys of Derbyshire Valleys of Greater Manchester Unparished areas in Greater Manchester Former civil parishes in Greater Manchester Geography of Tameside High Peak, Derbyshire