New link finally created in the Hope Valley

Our latest work day saw a small number of the group out in the Hope Valley with a very full work load for the day. We last visited NCR 6 in May 2018 and although we did a lot of re-signing on that day there was still much to do on this visit. David & Catherine and myself parked up at Hope Station and immediately started to put up new signage to direct cyclists from the station towards NCR6.

Last year we did not cycle from Hope to Castletong along NCR6 and so quite a lot of sign replacement had to be undertaken where the old signs had become very faded. Part of the day's tasks was also to address issues identified on the Earthlight map as a result of Sustran's recent route audit check. The section from Hope to Castleton had  aparticularly high incidence of issues and it took us quite a long time to identify the point on the ground where improvements had to be made. Eventually we got to the current end point of NCR6, which is in the centre of Castleton itself and we duly put up a red sign advising that no further signing beyond this point was available. One day they will perhaps complete a route over Wynatts and link up with NCR6 on the other side of the Pennines  where it already starts its onward journey up to the Lake District.

With our stocks of basic directional signs, as well as red NCR 6 stickers much depleted we headed back to Hope and the point at which the route turns up towards Aston. More stoppages for audit issues but eventually we arrived at Thornhill and the junction with teh Thornhill Trail. This has been a particularly difficult place to sign as somebody keeps removing or defacing signage we have put there previously. Some of the signs (but thankfully not all) we put at this point last year have been removed and had to be replaced. We also added extra signs showing onward distances from this point, as well as new signs offering cyclists the opportunity to use teh Thornhill Trail to access Bamford station (more of which later).

When we ran out of straight arrows Catherine had to get out her scissors and show some of her creative talents!

We found  a lovely picnic spot overlooking Ladybower reservoir and ate our sandwiches as we rested after a fairly full-on morning of activity. After lunch we found that more work with signage was required that we had expected in terms of getting cyclists up to and off the track across the dam wall. We will need to monitor this signage closely as I am sure we ensured it was all in place last year.

Having sorted out the dam wall we returned to the head of teh Thornhill Trail and were relieved to find that signage placed there before lunch was still there. The signage removers are not as efficient as us!

In May 2018 we started our efforts to get all the necessary permissions to use teh Thornhill Trail and Water LAne, BAmford to create a permitted link to Bamford station. It has taken us over a year to get the permissions (Peak Park, Quakers, Local businesses, DCC and Parish Council) and special signage. Armed with signs we cycled along the lovely wooded trail (old railway line used for constructing the dam) until we reached Water Lane at the bottom. I have agreed with the Quakers that we will erect special signs at the start and end of their property to advise cyclists that it is a permitted right of way and to take care. However, at the start of the lane we really struggled to find anything to attach the sign to. It was as much as we could do to affix directional signs onto a very rotten fingerpost, but for the time being at least there is some indication that there is an approved link to the station. At the road end things were only marginally better, and we were left with little choice other than to fix our special sign to a handily placed telegraph pole.

Finding street furniture along the road to which we could affix further signs was also difficult and whilst we did the best we could with what is available it is far from perfect.

Things just weren't going our way. The supply of directional arrows had long since been depleted, but Catherine was robotic in her ability to create temporary stickers from other signs we were able to cut up. We ran out of other adhesive stickers and had some tough decisions to make about where we should position the last one that either of us had. In the end we decide to put it high on a lampost in the hope that cyclists arriving at Bamford from the Sheffield direction woul dbe able to see it. We'll nee dto go back once we have refreshed our stocks of signs

So, all in all a busy, but very productive day with a bit of frustration thrown into the mix too. At least the link is now in formal existence after such a long time of trying to get it to be  areality. I wonder who'll benefit from it??