Black Hill, no longer a mass of black peat

A conservation group is appealing to outdoors enthusiasts for memories of a notorious walkers’ blackspot.

The Moors for the Future Partnership is staging an open day to celebrate the greening of Black Hill, formerly a gloopy quagmire on the Pennine Way, much of which has been transformed by specialist reseeding of the eroded top.

And the group is appealing for photographs and accounts of the time when the trig point, once the highest point in Cheshire at 582m (1,909ft) was surrounded by a mass of black peat.

The Moor Memories event, this Saturday, is part of the open day being held at Holme village, at the foot of the hill. Organisers are appealing for anyone with recollection of the former state of the summit to turn up. Other memories the group hopes to explore are the building of the new path in the 1980s; those who used to work on Black Hill; peat and bracken cutting on the moors, and the infamous winters when roads were blocked by snow and the nearby Holme Moss transmitter was covered in ice.

The route of both the Four Inns Walk and the now defunct Masters Hike cross the summit of Black Hill on their 65km (40-mile) challenges, so competitors from these events are likely to have memories of nightmarish crossings of Soldiers’ Lump, the name given to the triangulation pillar summit.

The free open day runs from 10.30am to 4pm in the village’s Sunday school, with the Moor Memories session starting at 2pm. There will also be a guided walk round Black Hill in the afternoon.

Those wishing to take part in the guided walk should book in advance by contacting Tegwen Roberts by email or by ringing 01629 816585 on Thursday or Friday.

Further details are on the Moors for the Future website.