The Houndkirk Moor Guide Stoop

Last week i saw a report from Peak District National Park Rangers with reference to an ancient guide stoop. I contacted the Rangers and got a rough position for it so we thought we would go and have a look.
We set off at 0:700 and parked up opposite The Norfolk Arms in Ringinglow. The weather was grey and miserable but it takes a bit more than that to stop us venturing out.

Kirkhound Moor Guide Stoop

Route from Ringinglow

The Grade II listed^[ octagonal former toll house built c1778 on the left and the Norfolk Arms Public House coaching inn (also Grade II listed) that was built c1840.

Houndkirk Road

Seams to be used a lot by trail bikers

Ike, Rob and Geoff with the reinstated stoop

 Peak District National Park rangers have helped re-instate an 18th century milestone on Houndkirk Moor after it spent nearly 70 years as a garden feature in nearby Dore, Sheffield.

The milestone, with its unusual skull and crossbones, was first removed from the old Houndkirk turnpike road in the 2nd World War when many guideposts were taken down to foil an invading force. At the end of the war it was piled in with a load of materials from a dismantled mock town that had been created on the moor as a night-time decoy for German bombers searching for Sheffield's steelworks. Some of the stones were used to create rockeries for new post-war houses in Dore, and that was how it ended up for nearly 70 years in the garden woodland of David Harrison, of Heather Lea Place.

 Last year, David took part in an open gardens event for charity, and a member of Sheffield Time Travellers archaeology group spotted the milestone and knew that its base was still standing on the moor. David said he would like to see it returned to its rightful place, and so he and his grandsons prepared it for reinstatement. It was finally replaced on top of the base by Peak District National Park rangers and members of the Time Travellers, using stainless steel rods and resin to make it secure. The milestone probably originated sometime after 1767 when such posts were made compulsory to guide travellers on turnpikes (toll roads). It has the distances to Sheffield on one side, and to Tideswell and Buxton on the other, with the skull and crossbones carved underneath – no-one knows why.

I think this is the outflow from Gods Spring

Another trail biker

This was the last pic of the day due to the weather changing for the worse

After we had visited the stoop we walked on a short distance to have a look at an old stone bridge and then back on the track heading back to the car.

The weather got worse with dampness and a biting cold wind as we went past Lady Canning's Plantation. We got back to the car and changed out of our boots then had breakfast.

It was only a 3 mile walk, we intended to make a detour to see the Oxstones on the moor but the weather put paid to that. Nevertheless it was an interesting walk having been somewhere fresh.

See you next week.