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Hope Valley Train Crawl, 30th September 2006

A party of 11 travelled by train to visit the Hope Valley in Derbyshire, west of Sheffield.

After changing at Leicester & Nottingham, and standing between Nottingham & Sheffield, we arrived, on schedule, at 1038.
Tickets for the Hope Valley were purchased and we were off on the 1114 to Edale, the plan being to travel to Edale & work our way back towards Sheffield.

After a slightly longer than foreseen walk at Edale we reached our first pub, The Old Nag's Head. There were no other customers, well it was only about 1245, we stood outside in the sun to enjoy our first pint. There was a choice of Gray's ales: Best Bitter, LS Lowry & Well Hung; plus Cornish One & All.

On the way back a few of us called at The Rambler, by the station, to try their Gray's beers.

Time was pressing here, so it was back to the station for the train to Hope. It was about now that the trip got renamed the 'Noe Hope Train Crawl' when it was realised the river in the Hope Valley was called the River Noe.

There were 4 choices in Hope, which again turned out to be a decent walk from the station. Our first choice, and furthest away was the Cheshire Cheese, the first GBG2007(p105) pub of the day.
It was obvious to all why this is in the guide; the beer is excellent and so is the welcome and ambiance. Beers on offer were: Black Sheep, Tetley's Imperial, Cottage Golden Arrow & Hartington Bitter. The food also looked excellent.
Next call was the Woodroffe Arms, offering Black Sheep & Timothy Taylor's Landlord, again both on fine form.

Pressure of time meant we had to forego visits to the other two pubs in Hope, including the Old Hall which we had to walk past to get to the station

Back to the station and on to the next stop at Bamford. Again we were faced with a steep climb up to the village. There were two pubs here, the Angler's Rest & Ye Derwent Hotel. The Angler's was first, it looked quite attractive from the outside, unfortunately not so from the inside, which was well past its best and obviously aimed at a younger age group than us! It turned out to be a Marston's house offering Marston's Burton Bitter & Jennings Cumberland Ale, both of which we see plenty of in Hinckley!
Ye Derwent Hotel, a splendid looking building, was only offering Ruddles County

Back to the train for our last village - Hathersage

Plenty of choice here, but the legs weren't so willing now! Most of us settled for the Little John, our other GBG2007(p105) entry of the day. This was a busy pub offering good ales and food. There were 5 offerings from Archers, including Mild, plus Theakston's Bitter.

One or two of our group made it up the hill to the Scotsman's Pack which was apparently a food orientated pub.

We caught the 1842 from Hathersage back to Sheffield, just as the first rain of the day began to fall.

We were back in Hinckley by 2130, after having to stand from Sheffield to Leicester!

Everyone felt it had been a good day & worth the trip, returning home tired and a least a little 'emotional'!
Report from Alan Cooke
Photos by Chris Davies

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