THE QUOTE IN THE HEART of this pagegives some
backgroundto the state of affairs which obtained onthe
Derbyshiremoors prior to the 1932 Mass Trespass. Stanage High
Neb’snot the highest of hills, barely exceeding the 1500-foot
contour (458m). Some might arguethat it’snot a hill at all,being no
more thanthe highest point on what for me is the most appealing
and varied of all the millstone grit edges of the Pennines - the
four-mile escarpment of Stange Edge. Butit’sa huge presence,
majestic,brooding, spacious, prominent, and visible formiles
around among the Peak’sbrownand purple, grey-outcrop-fringed
landscapes.
We’re on crossover terrain
here between rock climbing
and hillwalking territory. High
Neb, for all its dubious status as
independentsummit certainly
features on some memorable
Pennine walking itineraries, or
variations to them. at was
how I first encountered it. On a
June weekend over 60 yearsago
my regular walking companion
of the time, the Oldham
outdoor columnist Len
Chadwick, decided that next
weekend’sobjective for his
club, the KindredSpirits, was
to be a version of the70-mile
Colne-Rowsley route thattook
in as one ofits collection of OS
pillarsthe one that stands demurely a little behind the edgeat
Stanage High Neb. Visitors hereeven in the early 1960s needed
to be a little discreet. rough the early decades of the 20th
Century there wereclearer threats. Here’sByne & Sutton again:
“[e keeper] would fetch his gun and his dogs and come
charging across the strip of moorland to the base of the rocks...
Usually therewere enough climbers to allow a defiant gathering
on the topof the edge, and a violent argument would ensue with
flaming temper and ridiculous threats onthe one side, and a
stubborndesire to climb on the other. Such occasions wouldusually
end with the keeper pleadingthat this job was his livelihood, and
eventually the climbers would clear offto other rocks.”
I like the magnanimity from our side implicit in thatlast
sentence. Land-tenure politics aside,the high belvedere of which
High Neb is the centrepiece is a ravishing, scintillating excursion. It
was along this walk thatI first registered the climbingactivity here:
how much of it there was; of what apparentquality;the relaxed and
humorous demeanour of the participants in those days, the
barrackingbetween them, which contrasted so starkly with its
modern acquisitive rather than play-orientated counterpart,or
with the driven quality and exhausting nature of Len’sweekend
objectives. Also,with Len there was little time to look around and
observe. I recall my excitementon this long-gone June morning at
seeing ring ouzels scuddingacross the slope beneath MississippiButtress;also at watching the kestrel that hung on the wind above
the ‘popular end’(the one nearest the road). Here's Gerard Manley
Hopkins:
“Highthere, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
As a skate’sheel sweepssmooth ona bow-bend: the hurl and
gliding / Rebuffed the big wind.”
e first time I walked here I was at a point ofdivergence – away
from a fascinating, educative association with the man who had
not only overseen my induction into whatEwan McColl called “the
hard moorland way” and into
what became a decades-long
obsession with steep rock and
the culture of that sport.
Len Chadwick – “that tramp”,
as my father tersely called him,
but he was far more than that –
had also given me my first sense
of socialjustice, inequalities of
opportunity, internationalist
and Chartist beliefs. I’m still
grateful to him forhis teaching
and his anti-materialist example,
but I was tooyoung for the
physical rigour of his lessons.
Enough of autobiography. I
had many more teachers in years
to come through the association
with climbing. I even managed
to add new climbs of my own on
this great edge, the best ofthem on a fierce buttress wherethe
existing routes wereall by heroes of mine: JoeBrown,Don
Whillans, BarryWebb, Colin Kirkus. But whatI need to tell you as
walkers is ofthe best ways to reach High Neb.
It’sprobably the simplest ascent(exceptingthe rock-climbs on
its fine, prominentbuttress) of any in this series. Approaching it
from Moscar Lodge onthe A57 road to Sheffield will bring you toit
in a few minutes; the track up from the plantation beneath, where
long-eared owls nest, is even shorter;or you can arrive by way of
the long succession of edges leading south – Burbage, Froggatt,
Curbar, Baslow. Whichever way youchoose, siton top ofHigh
Neb Buttress in the sunset facing west, or amidst the abandoned
millstones stacked beneath, watch Bleaklow beingabsorbedinto
pastel-blue shadows; and if you stay long enough and climatic
conditions are right, perhaps you’ll see the mysterious flicker of the
Northern Lights over this wide landscape, peerless of its kind.“The keeperingof the edges during this
period [between the two world wars]
was strict and there were many clashes.
Stanage High Neb was only accessible
during bad weather in winter...
In the Robin Hood area the bane of the
climbers was a red-haired keeper who
lived at a nearby cottage. His blood-
curdling threats roared from the lane
below generally had little effect. ”Byne & Sutton, High Peak (1966)MOUNTAIN PORTRAIT
Jim Perrinpraises the high point of Stanage Edge, a landscape
where hillwalkingand climbing cross over in spectacularfashionSTANAGE HIGH NEBMAP: Ordnance Survey1:50,000 Landranger 110 Sheffield& Huddersfield
FURTHER READING: Patrick Monkhouse, On Foot in The Peak(1934); Eric
Byne & Geoff Sutton, High Peak(1966); Gordon Stainforth, The Peak(1998)
FACILITIES: The national park campsite at High Lees above Hathersage is
popular and convenient. Hathersage has plenty of cafés, pubs, equipment
shops and other such allure. And Sheffield, with its excellent curry houses
along the Ecclesall Road, is only just over the hill.32 The Great OutdoorsAugust 2021