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This lovely valley is right through the heart of Stockport. Its existence isn’t publicised by Stockport Council, which will make its destruction so much easier.
FACTS ABOUT THE GOYT VALLEY AT STOCKPORT
There are reputed to be
tunnels dug deep in the valley during Cromwell’s time connecting Bredbury Hall,
Goyt Hall and other large houses in the area, so people could move about in
secret.
The Valley is of Collyhurst
sandstone, as are the Stockport Air Raid Shelters and the Roman fort at
Castlefield.
The valley was formed by a
glacier circa 6 million years ago.
The Red Rock fault, where
the Pennine anticline meets the Cheshire Plain runs the length of the Valley at
Stockport. The weakest
point is just where you turn to follow the lane down to Middle Farm.
It can be seen from this old Google photo where the earth has moved along the Red Rock Fault giving the path the appearance of a broken bone.
Coalmines are recorded in
the area going back to the late 1500s.
There are earlier examples of bell coat pits, which people dug
themselves. There is evidence of
coalmines and a collapsed coal mine in the hillside just below Highfield Cemetery.
The Romans had a settlement
near Vernon Park
and marched along the Goyt Valley going up into Vernon Woods on their way to Manchester and down the Valley crossing the river at Otterspool
where there was a ford, on their way to Melandra Castle at Glossop.
A Mr. Marsden decided to
build a mill in the Valley at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. He planned to power it using water
power. He had dug out massive areas down
near the sewage works. He was involved
in some sort of land dispute, the whole thing took decades to sort out and by
the time he had got legal authority to carry out the work he wanted the Age of
Steam was here and his plans were obsolete.
Some of these trees are over
400 years old and are classed as ancient woodland.
