Who owns the roaches

As the new managers, we promise to: Promote enjoyment and understanding of the Roaches and ensure it is a fantastic place to visit Protect its unique and wonderful wildlife.

Offer opportunities for everyone to get involved Why is the Roaches so special? Love the Roaches? Want to Get involved? Learn new skills, meet people, get fit and enjoy the outdoors by joining our conservation volunteer group.

Become a member of Staffordshire Wildlife Trust. Call or visit www. Habitat Woodland Upland acid grassland and rush pasture. Contact us Staffordshire Wildlife Trust. Contact number: Contact email: info staffs-wildlife. Image by kevin Palmer. Support us The work on our Nature Reserves would not be possible without our members. To release the stone the mason would have to cut out underneath. It seems a pretty inaccessible place to fashion a millstone being almost as high as you can go and part-made millstones can be found in the quarries much further down the valley.

These millstones are made from boulders which seems to be a much less arduous and obvious way of making them. Archeologists John Barnett and Adam Russell have suggested that it could possibly be where a Victorian telescope was mounted. Irene Kirkpatrick, a local historian, has found a reference to the carving in Sir Philip Brocklehurst's book 'Swythamley and It's Neighbourhood' published in This is the reference "a few yards from the rocking stone is a circular cutting, level with the ground, about which many conjectures have been raised: it is in the solid rock, but why or wherefore it was made is still a mystery.

Above the seat is a plaque carved in the rock declaring that the Prince and Princess of Teck visited this site on Aug 23rd Sir Phillip Brocklehurst of Swythamley invited the royal pair. Roachend Farm Roachend farm at Roachend is a rather unusual derelict cottage. It is unusual because it has the shippon where the cows were kept underneath the house. This had the great advantage that it heated the house in winter because cows give off an incredible amount of heat.

This property is at ft so this layout would be a distinct advantage. The story goes that the coal fire smoked very badly, which is not unusual for houses located under the lip of a hill. It was so bad that that the resident -a Mr Kirkham- decided to solve the problem by hand digging a trench up the field to the back left of the building up to the wall at the top of the field.

He lined the trench with stone flags to make a pipe and back filled the trench. He built an outlet into the dry stone wall. Come the day to try the fire using his new chimney the fire smoked just as badly. However all was not lost when the chimney warmed up it did work, but he had to keep a fire going 24 hours a day or it would cool down and smoke again. The outlet can still be seen in the wall above the house.

Apprentice's Hut On access land on the north west slopes of the Roaches is an artifact of the quarrying which was a major industry in the valley. This small building - now with no roof- is thought to be a workman's hut and also to be an exercise for the apprentices who were being educated at the quarry. Within living memory the roof was still on and of heather. The slabs of stone involved are huge and it makes you wonder how the lads lifted and moved them without the assistance of machines.

The Hanging Stone Hanging Stone is a precarious rock outcrop on Back Forest Ridge overlooking Swythamley Hall, which was the home of the Brocklehurst family who owned the Roaches estate until the death of the last in line in You can get to Hanging Stone along back Forest Ridge.

The Rock is extra special not just for it's weird aspect but because it has two inscriptions one for a much loved dog and the other for Lt Col Courtney Brocklehurst - the man responsible for the presence of the wallabies on the Roaches. The inscription for the dog is professionally carved into the rock and says : "Beneath this Rock August 1st was buried BURKE a noble mastiff black and tan faithful as woman braver than man a gun and a ramble his hearts desire with the friend of his life the Swythamley squire" The squire obviously loved his dog!

The other inscription is a plaque with an epitaph to the Lt Colonel and a poem in the handwriting of Courntney's brother Philip Brocklehurst. The trust of all dumb living things he won and never knew the luck too good to share.

His were the simple heart and open hand and honest faults he never strove to hide. This she divided into two compartments, one for day and the other for night, and through which flowed a small ice-cold stream of water. In her weird bedroom was a secret outlet,. Conducting among the wild crags at the back of the dwelling, and through which she assisted smugglers and deserters to escape from soldiers sent to capture them.

A young handsome girl, her reputed daughter, lived with her, but about whose history much mystery and doubt existed. The girl had a fine voice and could be heard on summer nights among the rocks singing sadly to herself songs that sounded foreign to English ears.

One winter morning the hag was seen in great distress. Strange men had seized and carried off her child. The daughter never returned and at last the supposed mother was herself discovered dead in her lonely home. And if you can explain why this Pool on the ridge never dries out completely even in the occasional hot droughts let me know. Rockhall Cottage, albeit in a more primitive form than today, without mains water or electricity or drainage, was built in as the gamekeepers cottage for the Roaches area of the Swythamley Estate.

The last gamekeeper to live there allegedly brought up a family of twelve children in the cottage. You can imagine therefore, the problems in the early years of climbing pre the war and in later years of gaining access to the rocks and dodging the keepers, but nevertheless people persisted, succeeded, and their climbs are recorded in the BMC guidebooks as living proof.

If you do book the hut have a read of the letter from Sir Philip Brocklehurst to a Miss Mary Glynne from Oct that is on the wall by the fireplace in the hut, it is a copy and the original is owned by the Peak Park Authority.

It is doubly interesting, for the facts that it is a woman who is seeking permission to climb at the time and for the attitude to land ownership that is still widely held today in the 21 st century in these so-called enlightened times.

Just continuing the access theme for a moment, for a time in the inter war years, that is the first and second world wars and not any of the multitude of other ones before or since, it was possible to visit Ludschurch and the Roaches on payment of 2d old money at Manor Farm, Gradbach.

What is that in new money, less than half a pence, but a big chunk then of any spare cash for ordinary folk. These were made especially to hold a tent at the time of the famous visit of H. Another flat boulder nearby bears anchoring marks for a single cannon also fired to mark her visit. She must have been quite important even in those days and luckily for the future King George V the cannon missed her and one of her daughters later became his Queen Mary.

The occasion of their coming was to grace with their presence a picnic given by Mr Brocklehurst of Swythamley at his moorland shooting lodge. Rock Hall is situated in the midst of the wild romantic crags and rocky precipices of the far-famed Roaches. Flags floated in the breeze from different prominent positions. The royal standard waved conspicuously on the verge of the third summit above Teck Crack. Tents had been erected, one of which, having two huge pieces of rock forming the gable ends, the interior decorated with pink and white heather and carpeted with the skins of wild animals, was especially dedicated to royalty.

The Roach, ascended by the royal party, has as it were four divisions or summits which can be reached by means of a circuitous route up a flight of steep steps cut out of solid rock.

Facing the edge of the rock on the third summit, and immediately close to the royal standard, was the seat of honour for Her Royal Highness. Constructed by a huge hollow being hewn in the rock, in the hollow cushions were placed, the surroundings being covered with white satin, embroidered with the royal arms, and guarded round the face of the rock with a slender chain. Eat your heart out all you belayers at the top of Teck crack. The Royal party then proceeded on foot after a circuitous route- a route which it was evident within the past few days had undergone considerable alterations to render it safely passable- among the living rocks of the far-famed Roaches their Royal Highnesses and the distinguished party arrived at what we may call their destination, the third summit of the Roach.

The Princess displayed capital mountaineering powers and during a portion of the ascent the Prince of Teck gallantly adjusted a rope for her support.

The first roped ascent at the Roaches? Get it in the guidebook. Royal salutes were fired during the stay and having spent fully three hours on the Roaches, the Royal party descended to the cave, where they inscribed their names, and near the entrance of which the Princess graciously planted a Scotch fir tree to commemorate the visit. Bring back the good old days, eh what! A later episode of local history owes more to infamy than fame.

One of the persistent rumours surrounding this infamous pair is that their photographs often contained clues to the burial sites of their victims. Police have dismissed the possibility of any victims being buried in this area. Nonetheless the pair was here. Initially, much of the rest of the estate, most of which is now owned by the Peak National Park, was bought at the same time by some sheep farmers from the Macclesfield area who proceeded to overgraze it and seriously try to prevent access between and Doug and Annie bought the cottage to escape from noise and other negative aspects of modern life and to live close to the nature they both loved and valued.

The obvious clash between those wishes and the objectives of climbers and walkers visiting the estate led to several confrontations in the early days, not helped by the inconsiderate and insanitary behaviour of some climbers. Thankfully, after a few dramatic and legendary differences of opinion, those days passed and Doug and climbers established a way of living together that worked.

Indeed Doug became something of an expert at advising climbers new to the area on how to do certain routes on the Lower Tier, whether you wanted or needed the advice mattered not, you got it loud and clear.

In the garden area, the large boulder with steps cut in it also has a hole at the top. Doug told me that this hole was used by preachers who would climb up with a pole and stick it in the hole to steady themselves whilst they blew a horn to call locals to hear them preach.