Pennine Way day 16: Hebden Bridge - Black Moss reservoir

Wednesday, 25 September 2019
Miles:  18.5
Total miles: 244.5

Set off just after 8.30am, weather dull and cloudy but not raining. My first objective was Stoodley Pike, that extraordinary monument to... well, I'm not sure exactly what. I've seen it a number of times before so did not linger long, impressive though it is, but set off towards my next objective, the White House pub at Blackstone Edge. I wanted to reach it in time for lunch, and was pleased to get there not long after 12. Not only is the food there excellent, it has a rather unusual system whereby you can't book, you just note your table number, order drinks at the bar, then order your food at the kitchen door. It works well.. and my Barnsley chops were just what the walker ordered.
Progress after lunch was a little slower, but I kept a steady pace and reached Standedge about 6pm. Unfortunately there is nothing there at all nowadays, no hotel or pub, not even a B&B. So I walked on another mile or two, to find a suitable spot for camping and am now ensconced in my tent, beside Black Moss reservoir.

This was my antepenultimate walking day. Crowden tomorrow, and then back to Edale.

Sorry for late publication of this (and following posts) but I have had no signal all day and there appears to be none in Crowden either.. and no wifi at the campsite.

Dawn view from my window at Hebden Bridge .. promising, I thought

Stoodley Pike is visible from miles away

You can walk up a spooky staircase inside, to the balcony

View from in front of the monument

Nice little bridge .. better than the Bronte bridge, but no photographers

This is a Roman road. Whether the paving stones are Roman is not certain, but they are very, very old

The Shap Fell M62 motorway, that the PW passes across .. it is quite a shock to the system. You can hear it from miles away.

Might still be a true statement but county boundaries are very confused around here nowadays, ever since that consummate idiot Ted Heath destroyed a thousand years of English history

You love this scenery or you don't .. I do