Walking: Be prepared

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Denis Eardley has devised the following two walks to help you make the most of Tissington and its surrounds.

FROM the village’s former railway station, the route follows the Tissington Trail before descending gently, by a series of fields, to Fenny Bentley.

After leaving Fenny Bentley, the path gradually climbs up through meadowland, passing Bassett Wood Farm on the return journey to Tissington.

Following the closure of the rail line in 1963, the former track bed of the London and North Western Railway’s Ashbourne-Buxton line was converted into the Tissington Trail by Derbyshire County Council.

It stretches from Ashbourne to Parsley Hay, where it joins the High Peak Trail. In its heyday, the rail line carried express trains from Manchester to London and, until after the Second World War, a daily train delivered milk from Peak District farms to Finsbury Park, London.

Fenny Bentley is two miles from Ashbourne, on the Buxton road, and is the southernmost village in the Peak District. On the eastern side of the road, stands Cherry Orchard Farm, originally the home of the Beresford family.

In the 15th century it was a moated manor house known as Bentley Old Hall and is unique in Derbyshire with its square tower and defensive slit openings in the walls.

It was from here that Thomas Beresford, his family and their retainers, provided Henry V with a complete troop of horsemen for the Battle of Agincourt in 1415.

The church of St Edmund has a dominant position in the village and dates back to the 13th century, although it has been heavily restored in later years.

It contains a most unusual alabaster tomb of Thomas Beresford, who died in 1473, and his wife. Their effigies are completely enveloped in shrouds and, on the side, in a similar fashion, are those of their 21 children, 16 sons and five daughters.

It is said that everyone with the surname Beresford is descended from the Fenny Bentley family. An annual convention is held in the village, which is attended by Beresfords from all over the country and abroad.

The Coach and Horses pub, situated in the centre of the village, dates from the 16th century and, as the name implies, was formerly a coaching inn.

The Bentley Brook Inn, on the southern side of the village, is where the quaintly named Leatherbritches Brewery was established in 1995. The brewery’s name originates from the Middle Ages, when one method of testing beer other than by taste was to pour a little on a seat and then sit on it for half an hour.

If the beer tester’s breeches were semi-stuck to the seat then the brew was deemed satisfactory!

Almost all of the agricultural land between Fenny Bentley and Tissington is pasture. Bassett Wood Farm, passed during the latter part of the walk, is a traditional diary farm, which also offers accommodation and afternoon teas. A number of other farms have also diversified with several caravan sites and a trekking centre.

THE ROUTE:

1. Leave the car park and follow the trail to the right in the direction of Ashbourne for one and a quarter miles.

2. About 100 yards past the end of the large car park, at what used to be the site of Thorpe Railway Station, take the path to the left signed “Fenny Bentley”.

3. Head down the field, keeping slightly to the left to cross a small bridge over a stream. Continue up the next field to cross a stile in the fence near the right hand corner.

4. Keep close to the hedge on your right and, after crossing a stile, head for the bottom left hand corner of the next field leading to a fenced path on the outskirts of Fenny Bentley.

5. On reaching a lane, turn left and walk towards the church. Go through the churchyard to the A515.

6. Cross the busy main road and walk to the right for a few yards before reaching a footpath sign for Tissington (the Coach and Horses can be seen further down the road).

7. Turn left up the lane, forking to the right in about 40 yards. After passing the last house in the row, angle to the left across the field.

8. Aim just to the right of the small side field and then, with the hedge on your left, walk to the stile in the top left-hand corner.

9. Once over the stile, bend to the left and follow the hedge across the field to another stile. In the next field, head for a stile that is situated just to the right of the gate.

10. Keeping slightly to the left of Bassett Wood Farm, the farm lane is reached after the next stile.

11. Follow the farm lane to the right and, after passing the entrance to the trekking centre, when the wire fence on the left gives way to a hedge, go over a stile on that side.

12. Keeping close to the hedge on the left, cross the field before going diagonally across the next field to a stile in the far right corner.

13. A short field track to the left leads to a tarmacadam road where, by turning left, Tissington is soon reached.

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