Disused Railway Walk in High Peak - The Hayfield Branch

Disused Railway Walk in Derbyshire High Peak - The Hayfield Branch, Sett Valley Trail from New Mills to Hayfield.
Today’s explore comes from just south east of the city of Manchester. A region once bursting with lines.
We are starting in the town of New Mills and ending at Hayfield. Although not technically in the Peak District National Park, we’re so close we can just about touch it.
This line opened in 1868 and was the joint property of the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway and the Midland Railway. It closed in 1970.
After leaving New Mills Central, the Hayfield Branch leaves the Hope Valley line to Sheffield. We can see a two tunnel portals. The left hand portal is our Hayfield branch, and this is the 200 yard long Hayfield tunnel.
After a quick walk down the Millennium Walkway, Torrs Mill and the wonderful array of old bridges that New Mills has to offer, we pick up the Sett Valley Trail again at the Eastern portal of the tunnel.
The line here ran 2.5 miles down the Sett Valley to Hayfield. After around 1.5 miles, we reach the former station site of Birch Vale. Nothing left of the station now, which was a wooden platform. However we can still see the entrance to the old goods station and station house on the road.
Another mile along the route and we arrive at our final destination - for passengers that is. We pass another Calico Print works - one of many on the line - before pulling into Hayfield station. Sadly the site of the station and building was cleared not long after closure in the 1970s.
The station was very popular with walkers, especially during the summer. In 1932, over 400 ramblers alighted at Hayfield before taking part in the Mass Trespass on Kinder Scout.
The only thing left to admire these days is the retaining wall and buttresses.
One more thing to mention on the line, which at one time ran through Hayfield town centre. The extension of the railway up to the Kinder reservoir & dam construction site only ran between 1908 and 1912. Exactly like we saw with the Bamford & Howden Railway and the building of the Derwent Valley dams, the railway carried workers and materials from the town to the construction area below the dam. Very short lived, but a lasting legacy.

[@john-pu5uy]

Love it chaps.... great day out there... some good things to see... nice area... and F n Chips and a pint.. just lovely

[@WobblyRunner]

😄 Great day out

[@brucefletcher9327]

My grandad, Herbert Fletcher, was a signalman at Hayfield from around 1914 to 1954. He and my gran brought me up and I remember visiting the signal box to take him his meals in the late 1940s & early 1950s.

[@WobblyRunner]

👍 Good to hear from you Bruce. Great memories there.

[@tunflin6805]

Thanks 😀

[@maestromanification]

Another great video Paul, cheers Russ

[@WobblyRunner]

Cheers Russ 👍

[@highpeaklad]

As a resident of Hayfield it’s always nice to see people visiting and enjoying themselves. The Torrs in New Mills is a lovely spot to explore, and almost totally hidden if you drive through the town. I think the remnants at Slack’s crossing are the only bits of old railway left. It’s sad that it’s gone but it’s still well used as a trail. There’s a few bits left of the extension to the reservoir - the embankment along the side of the cricket pitch and some wooden bits of the trestle bridge by the campsite (in one of your pics in the video). There’s even a book - Kinder reservoir and railway by Brumhead and Rangeley if you ever come across it. Keep up the good work!

[@WobblyRunner]

Thank you very much for your kind words. Beautiful part of the world you've got. I'll have a look for that book as I'd love to learn more about the Kinder end of the railway 👍

[@majorpygge-phartt2643]

I've been to Hayfield and there's a house there backing right onto a river at the top of a nearby weir, it must be a HUGE flood risk, surely they must be unable to get insurance there, I'm glad it's not my house. And there's a great scenic bus route from Hayfield to Glossop, or there was, does it still run? When I went on it it was the 360 bus.

[@seamusmcevoy2011]

A really nice video, a beautiful peaceful walk, the beginning of the video around the old mill was stunning. The tunnel in New Mills looks interesting, it's a shame they didn't fence off the station end and leave the far end for people to explore. Some nice crossings with a bit of structure to see, I'm pleased you spotted the old railway van. I reckon the box-like structure beside that crossing may have been for a phone, in case anyone got into trouble at the gates. It was also nice to see the old posts still in place, and what was left of the goods yard in Birch Vale with the station house👍.

[@WobblyRunner]

👍🙂. Hard work to dig out any left overs this one, but yeah the little bits left like the box and van were great to see. A lovely walk though in a stunning part of the world.

[@seamusmcevoy2011]

@@WobblyRunner Definitely stunning.

[@darrenray6934]

Looks a nice route we’re youstarted out Paul. A bit of history

[@WobblyRunner]

Stunning. I need to go back and have a good poke around.

[@darrenray6934]

@@WobblyRunner I’ll have to have a ponder over that way

[@mickd6942]

Finally got to do this , went from chinley on peak Forrest canal to new mills then set valley to Hayfield then to chapel en le frith to mam tor then Castleton then hope , epic bike ride , loved the abandoned mill area and bridges , always great to re watch one of your videos after visiting the place in it .

[@WobblyRunner]

That is some bike ride!!! New Mills is a fascinating place isn't it.

[@mickd6942]

@@WobblyRunner yes ‘only passed through it on train before, my mate got laid off and they are taking on at swizzles , he turned it down on grounds he’d be in a diabetic coma after his first shift lol

[@mickd6942]

Mate wanted us to do this on bikes so I typed it in and low and behold you’ve done it before so I can sit and watch it and see what we are in store for .

[@WobblyRunner]

👍 it's nice enough. Not very long though. Wouldn't take long on a bike.

[@andrewmarriott4033]

We did that exact walk last November but in reverse hayfield to new mills and back 👍

[@WobblyRunner]

👍👍🙂

[@mickd6942]

Always reminds me of the Keswick railway , both that and the Hayfield line would surely have been busy with walkers and tourists today , their closures were very short sighted .

[@WobblyRunner]

You're correct. And from what I've read, hikers we're already plentiful on the service before it was closed. Such a shame. Straight into the heart of a popular walking area

[@majorpygge-phartt2643]

Temporary extensions at the end of branch lines was common practice where reservoirs were being built, the same was done at Delph, another walkable branch and I've walked that one too, and the station at the end of that one is still there, it's someone's house now, or at least it was last time I was there.

[@TheShepster80]

There’s a KZbin video called New Mills to Hayfield train 1968. Which is an interesting watch.

[@WobblyRunner]

I remember watching that. I remember thinking how different and more open the line looked (tree and shrub wise that is)

[@TheShepster80]

@@WobblyRunner If you watch that video again, @7:26 it shows the open bridge on St George’s Road. Where the snake path leads up to it. (Which is now filled in) @8:08 on your video.

[@majorpygge-phartt2643]

I've walked this route way back 20-odd years ago. And I've got a suggestion, why not use a tripod for the camera instead of swinging it about so much, it makes it well nigh impossible to watch because it causes brutal dizziness.

[@eggy77]

Assuming that enough time passed between the railway closing and the council making the trail that all evidence of the railway was removed and infilled especially in the built up areas. Would have been nice if some signal posts or telegraph poles remained, and access under bridges, but there's often a lack of foresight by councils to keep railway history on the trails, there's wooden signs though that'll do right 😄 Reminds me of the 5 pits trail, it's based on the old railways but it's virtually all been relandscaped before the trail was made. Bloody councils!

[@WobblyRunner]

I understand the council got their hands on it pretty early after closing. Pretty much ripped everything out. I've since seen pictures in the last 10 years of more landscaping around those bridges.

[@eggy77]

@@WobblyRunner idiots. Unless the bridges were unsafe obviously.

[@rodsmith3911]

Hayfield looks much smarter than in the 1960s! Sad to see the line which was always busy now reduced to a footpath and the station just a car park. Everyone now comes by car and pollutes the air in order to park where the station was so that they can go into the hills to get some "fresh air". Last visited the branch a while before closure and it was obvious that br wanted it closed by then. Like all closures at the time it was ripped up and buildings bulldozed immediately after closing to prevent any reopening. Just like the Woodhead route and Macclesfield - Marple lines our government put its head in the sand and gave no thought to the future. Now we need new lines and so they spend huge amounts on schemes like HS2 which already existed as the Great Central, but they'd destroyed that and bulldozed its route through Leicester and Nottingham so now we have to spend billions ruining our countryside to build a new line. I note the infilled and destroyed bridges on the Hayfield Branch. A typically Highways England "let's dump 10,000 tons of concrete in the way of any future use of this rail route" tactic. They're still at it in 2022 and costing millions to remove the stuff when it's found to have been done without planning permission! Maybe one day we will value our heritage and keep routes available for future reuse whether as rail or pathway instead of the wanton destruction of the recent past.

[@WobblyRunner]

Very good points. I agree, we're very wasteful as a nation and no better point than all the disused lines I see. Closed to save money, but some of them needed protecting. Very short sighted at the time.