The Pennine Way In The Peak
District National Park
  
In 1951 the Peak National Park became Britain's first National
Park. Before that, most of the highest and wildest parts of the Peak
were forbidden to the walker - 37 square miles of Bleaklow and 15 square
miles of Kinder Scout were uncrossed by a public path.
The Pennine Way was Britain's first long distance footpath and
remains its most popular.
In the 1950's
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The original idea of a Long Green Trail for walkers was proposed in an
article in the Daily Herald by the late Tom Stephenson in 1935. Officially
opened in 1965, the Pennine Way runs northwards for 275 miles from Edale
in the Peak District National Park, along the backbone of England to
the Scottish border.
Its route was planned to keep to the crest of the Pennines as far as possible
linking up old footpaths and bridleways, packhorse and drove roads, shepherds'
and miners' tracks.
The Pennine Way (Southern Section Route)
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Landscape
The Pennine Way runs through the bleak areas of open moorland
which form part of the Dark Peak landscape in the Peak District National
Park. The underlying gritstone and shale rocks give rise to an
acid infertile soil and a sparse vegetation mainly of grasses, bilberry
and heather.
On flatter land, deep peat has developed which has cotton grass and crowberry
as its typical vegetation. These open moorlands may appear as a natural
wilderness untouched by human hand.
In fact the formation of the peat bogs of the uplands was the result of early
people clearing woodland to graze their animals. This gradually impoverished
the soil.
The onset of a colder, wetter climate in the British Isles from about 600 BC
led to a decrease in tree growth and the formation of peat
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Popularity
The Pennine Way passes through some of the most spectacular
landscapes in the Peak District National Park.
These wild uplands were considered bleak and unattractive in earlier
centuries, but during the 20th century became popular weekend escape
routes for workers in the industrial cities such as Manchester and
Sheffield.
Over one million upland walks are taken every year in the Park, of
which nearly half are on the hills of the Dark Peak.
Over 10,000 people will walk the entire route of the Pennine Way every
year and 20 times that number will walk parts of it. The most popular
parts of the Pennine Way are those falling inside the Peak Park.
The Pennine Way is a challenging walk even for the most experienced
walker. It demands a good degree of fitness, stamina and suitable clothing,
including strong footwear. The Pennine Way can prove an endurance test
for the fittest person.
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The problem...
Erosion
Extensive areas of the Peak District now suffer severe erosion.
This is a particular problem on the deep blanket peats found on fragile
moorland plateaux like Kinder Scout and Bleaklow.
Wind, rain and frost are the natural forces of erosion and have greatest
effect on bare ground, where vegetation has already been removed.
Human influence is often the cause of the removal of vegetation.
There are a number of causes of widespread erosion:
- Atmospheric pollution from factory chimneys, domestic fires and
power stations, which turns to acid rain. Nearly all the sphagnum
moss, which formed the peat, has been killed. The sphagnum used to
form a giant sponge which protected the surface of the peat. Vehicle
exhaust gases are an increasing problem including nitrogen oxides.
- Accidental (or deliberate) summer fires which destroy the vegetation,
the dormant seeds in the peat surface and often the peat itself.
(Controlled winter burns to manage heather do not have these results.)
- Overgrazing by sheep which prevents regeneration by removing seedheads
and plucking seedlings from soft peat. There are now three times
as many sheep grazing the moorlands as there were in 1950.
- However the greatest cause of the erosion of the peat on and around
the Pennine Way is people pressure exerted by the many thousands
of walkers who cross the moorland every year. At the southern-most
end, on the Kinder Plateau in particular, the combination of heavy
pressure from walkers coming from the nearby cities for a day's walk,
together with those walking the full Way leads to severe damage to
the fragile terrain.
Other soils and vegetation may be able to cope with increasing numbers
of visitors but the fragile peat bogs cannot. A few thousand footsteps
a year may be enough to destroy the vegetation. Why should this be
the case?
- Moorland vegetation, such as heather and cottongrass grows very
slowly and is easily damaged by trampling. The low temperatures and
frost and snow in the winter do not allow the vegetation enough time
to recover each year. This leaves the peat exposed.
- When the exposed peat (the moorland soil) is wet it can be easily
churned up by feet and is washed away by heavy rain. When it is dry
it is blown away as a fine dust.
- Walking over soft waterlogged peat, particularly after heavy rain,
is difficult and unpleasant, even dangerous and walkers try to avoid
the worst sections by walking on the firmer ground to the sides of
the path. This increases the size of the damaged area.
- Some paths are not well defined and so the trampled area spreads
as walkers find the easiest path.
- Organised events such as sponsored walks and fun runs can put as
much pressure on a path as a year of normal use.
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Condition Survey
In 1989 a full Condition Survey was undertaken.
The purpose of the survey was to provide detailed information on the
condition of the route and the likely costs of restoration.
It was found that the area south of the M62 (which includes the section
in the Peak District National Park) was the most severely worn, with
an average worn or trampled width of 12.5 metres. On the Kinder Plateau,
trampling was evident over a width of 700 metres! The damaged area
was five times as great as that found in the last condition survey
in 1971. The Survey also found that almost a third of the route was
misaligned - it did not follow the official route of the Pennine
Way.
It was estimated that restoration costs would be an average of £12 per
metre for the whole length of the Way. For the section lying in the Park,
restoration costs would be more than double this amount.
The outcome of all the studies, was a decision that an effective
restoration project should be set up to:
- Protect and restore the fragile soil and vegetation.
- Provide a durable walking surface by using established and experimental
techniques.
- Ensure all work is in harmony with the wild and unspoilt landscape.
- Ensure the route follows rights of way.
Restoration Team
In 1991 a full-time restoration team was set up,
consisting of the Pennine Way Manager, a Supervisor, a four member
Pennine Way Maintenance Team and a Pennine Way Alignment Officer
to handle the legal aspects. This team is employed by the Peak
District National Park and funded by the Countryside Commission.
The Team's brief is to investigate and implement restoration
projects on the southern end of the Pennine Way where it falls within
the Peak Park. Where the Pennine Way crosses National Trust Estates
some of the maintenance work is subcontracted to a five member
National Trust Estate Team. Very little of the work on the Pennine
Way is done by volunteers. Back
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Techniques For Restoration
Re-alignment
Work is concentrated on the moorland areas of
Kinder Scout Bleaklow, Black Hill and Saddleworth Moor. This stretch
of the Way, measuring about 40 miles, consists of severely eroded blanket
peat scarred slopes and worn gritstone edges.
Where possible, the route has been re-aligned onto the naturally more
durable terrain, such as stream channels, known as groughs, which criss-cross
the deep peat. Here natural erosion has removed the peat down to rock.
Small-scale repair works, such as drainage and landscaping have been
carried out wherever necessary - for example at Hern Clough a narrow
track has been handworked and repaired using locally derived stone
to provide a durable path.
For long stretches of the high moors however, there is no alternative
but to cross areas of deep peat. Peat has always posed a problem for
builders of roads or tracks because of its peculiar nature of expanding
and liquefying when wet, hardening and shrinking when dry.
Long trains of packhorses used to cross what is now the Peak Park carrying
goods across the Pennines. The ancient way of building a firm path
across the peat was to float a base of twigs in the peat bog and to
lay large stones over this sub-base. Recent work on the Pennine Way
copied this traditional method and involved floating a raft made from
substances varying from polystyrene blocks to wool clippings with the
aggregate path laid on top of the raft.
helicopter lift
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laying slabs
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Causey paths
In one summer 750 tonnes of recycled Pennine sandstone flags were airlifted in
by helicopter to provide the surface material for new stretches of path.
On firmer ground the stones can be laid direct, but on the very boggy areas a
membrane has to be laid down first to stop the stones sinking. These stones provide
a hard surface over the worst stretches of the route: Featherbed Moss (near the
Snake Pass), Alport Low and Torside Clough on Bleaklow and Wessenden Head Moor
near Holmfirth. Such a path is hard wearing, long lasting and blends well with
the landscape.
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Stone pitching
On the steeper slopes on mineral (non-peat) ground,
large stones are dug in to form irregular steps - a technique known as
pitching. Here again, ancient techniques are being rediscovered as best
suited to this type of terrain. The slopes at Ashop Head and Torside
have been repaired successfully using this technique. The result is a
well crafted path of natural appearance using local materials, which
will last for many years.
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Machine-built paths
Work has also been carried out on Devil's Dyke, a
ditch of about a kilometre long - thought to have been an ancient
boundary. The banks of this deep ditch had collapsed and the sides had
become badly eroded due to trampling. A contractor was hired with a large
excavator to excavate and restore the sides of the ditch. He then
created a sandstone path along the base of the dyke using the excavated
material and providing a drainage ditch at the side of the path to take
the flow of water. The result was a hard wearing path of natural appearance
produced without importing any materials.
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Revegetation
Once the trampling pressure has been confined to
these hard surfaces, attempts can then begin to revegetate the surrounding
bare ground. Lime and fertiliser (applied from the air by helicopter)
act to neutralise the effects of years of acid rain and to encourage
regrowth.
Reseeding with a first or nurse crop of grasses such as Rye-grass Bents and Fescues
should establish conditions suitable for other native species to start to re-colonise
the bare areas. In some places it is necessary to fence off small areas from
sheep and people to give the best possible conditions for regrowth.
In many places it is hoped that the relief of pressure from walkers (who will
be using the flagged paths) will be enough to encourage regrowth to take place.
after restoration
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Others parts of the Pennine Way
Throughout the whole length of the Pennine
Way work is now being co-ordinated to achieve the aim of restoration.
The technique of stone slab laying is being used on a large scale in
Calderdale and Northumberland on deep peat. Other areas such as the
Yorkshire Dales are using refined machine-built paths and aggregates.
Techniques depend on the individual characteristics of each place concerned
and the problems found there.
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The future...
Erosion on the Pennine Way will continue to be a
problem as long as walking remains a popular pastime. However there
is a strong commitment by all those involved in the management
of the path, to aim for a solution to this problem in keeping with
the nature of the Pennine Way.
The result in the end, it is hoped, will be a Pennine Way that
is a pleasure not an eyesore. It will be however, a far cry from
the vision of Tom Stephenson of an undefined route, which needed
a compass to navigate. Back
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