Longnor - land of cheese! Trail Summary - Thedms.co.uk

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How We Ate........Longnor 5,000 tons Transport of cheese The aptly named Glutton Circular Bridge, walk a mile of from roughly 4½ Longnor, was home to a km cheese along factory moderately in the easy 1800s. 5,000 tons of cheese tracks a year through went downriver in 1813 Distance – and that doesn’t woodland include and all heather streamside cheese made to be eaten locally! 3 of the 4 farms 4 km moorland, including some at nearby Hollinsclough sold all their milk to the Glutton Bridge 3 cheese ascents. Option to add a 2½ miles factory. km round trip through the Allow National Trust’s Longshaw Estate via a tea room and 2hr shop in a former hunting lodge. Diffi culty Trail Summary Oats are not just for porridge! These days English people eat lots of wheat as bread, and most only have oats in breakfast cereals or flapjack. In the past, oats were a staple food. Our medieval ancestors farmed oats on the land around Longnor for many generations and this continued all the way into the 1800s. In 1725, the writer Daniel Defoe noted the region’s food was all ‘oatcakes, cheese and ale’. Traditional Staffordshire and Derbyshire oatcakes (below left) are similar to taste, but Derbyshire oatcakes are bigger and thicker than Staffordshire’s. 1. Longnor Market Place The Victorian market hall (right) was built in 1873. Look up above the entrance to see the original list of market tariffs. The hall is now a craft centre and coffee shop. It’s a great place to try traditional Staffordshire oatcakes and local cheeses, as well as lots of other tasty cakes and light meals. Stilton is the area’s most famous cheese (top left). Leave the market place and head left along the roadside. About 50 metres after the Cheshire Cheese Pub take the track on your right marked by a public footpath sign. 2. Folds End Farm Folds End Farm dates from the 1600s and was extended in the 1800s. The fields ahead are all sown with grass as pasture for livestock. The grazing on the lower land is good-quality grass, fit for cows. These fields once fed the dairy herds whose milk supplied the local cheese trade. You might see sheep here too. More sheep graze higher up where only rough grass grows, as sheep can live on grass that is too poor for cows. Head left across the yard to the metal gate at the end of the cow sheds, leading into fields. Walk over the field, heading towards the footpath sign. At the stile the path splits. Take the route straight ahead signed to Brund via Crofts Farm and Boothlow Hayes. 3. The shape of a field reveals its age! From here you have a good view down the Manifold Valley. You can pick out the line of the River Manifold from the wandering line of trees in the valley bottom. The landscape is criss-crossed with stone walls. The smaller narrow fields are the remains of medieval strip fields. The large square fields were created in the 1700s and 1800s, as a result of Parliamentary enclosure. At this time landowners passed laws to wall in the Common One of a suite of downloadable trails available from www.peak-experience.org.uk
How We Ate........Longnor Transport lands and keep them private − land where previously Circular everyone could graze their animals. km along moderately easy walk of roughly 4½ Look out for some old tracks hawthorn hedges Distance running woodland along and heather through streamside earthen banks, and for stone 4 km moorland, including some farmsteads and field barns. 3 ascents. Option to add a 2½ miles km round trip through the Keep the wall to your left and walk along until it Allow ends. Then carry on straight National across Trust’s the field Longshaw to a stile. Estate via a tea room and 2hr shop in a former hunting 4. Crossing the medieval lodge. strip fields This is the Diffi first culty of several stiles taking you across the strip fields. Medieval farming families ploughed their fields over the years into ridges and furrows. Now this land is used for animals, but the ridge and furrow traces reveal that medieval farmers grew crops here instead, almost certainly including oats. Trail Summary By the 1800s Peak District farmers grew vast quantities of oats. Oats grew better than wheat on high ground and because of this, they formed a staple part of poor people’s diets. Try our local oatcakes to make a tasty connection with Staffordshire farming history. After the last field, the path takes you past a barn and then passes in front of Crofts Farm and out into a field. Walk past the farm building on your left and head to a tree marking the corner of a hedge field boundary. Continue to follow this boundary hedge, passing over a stile and small stream, then continue with the boundary to your left. You’ll pass Boothlow Hayes hill up on your left and a ruined farm building. 5. Improving the land Farmers improved the land to grow better grass for cows, by adding lime to fertilize the ground. Look up to Boothlow Hayes on your left to see the difference between the rough grazing on the higher slopes and the improved grazing land you are walking through. The lower fields here are large and square because they were created in the 1700s or 1800s as part of the parliamentary enclosures. Continue following the boundary through the next field. In the following field head to the 2-storey field barn (still in use). 6. Stone field barns In medieval times, people’s narrow strip fields ran straight out from the back of their house. Farmers began to build field barns when fields were enclosed far from the house. Field barns save farmers time and energy because there’s no need to carry everything to and from the farmhouse each day. They use the barns to store equipment and shelter their animals. Follow the path from here across the field to Overbooth Farm, which dates from the early 1800s. The footpath goes through the farmyard and past the farmhouse. Follow the path diagonally across the field to a stile in the hedge halfway down the field. 7. Ridge and furrow, ancient farm traces Look at the fields rising from the River Manifold on the right, and you should be able to see lines of ridge and furrow running up hill. Our farming One of a suite of downloadable trails available from www.peak-experience.org.uk
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Longnor - land of cheese! Trail Summary - Thedms.co.uk

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