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Recently a Stone Carving has been revealed on Roach Ridge about 2 minutes walk or 200metres to the south of the Trig Point. Until a couple of years ago it was hidden under a blanket of heather, but the wind blew the growth back and the carving was rediscovered in 2004. The carving is very close to the edge of a cliff and consists of an area about 3 metres by 2 metres which has been levelled. A 36inch diameter circle has been carved in the middle of the levelled area. In the centre of the circle is a carved cup shape. Stoke Archaeology Society have put forward the idea that this is perhaps a mill-stone in the making. To release the stone the mason would have to cut out underneath. It seems a pretty inaccessible place to fashion a millstone being almost as high as you can go and part made millstones can be found in the quarries much further down the valley. These millstones are made from boulders which seems to be a much less arduous and obvious way of making them.
I've been doing more research on this carving firstly by consulting Archeologists John Barnett and Adam Russell - the former of the Peak Park - who are pretty sure the stone carving pictured is not a mill stone in the making but could possibly be where a Victorian telescope was mounted. Irene Kirkpatrick, a local historian, has found a reference to the carving in Sir Philip Brocklehurst's book 'Swythamley and It's Neighbourhood' published in 1874. This is the reference "a few yards from the rocking stone is a circular cutting, level with the ground, about which many conjectures have been raised: it is in the solid rock, but why or wherefore it was made is still a mystery."
So if nothing was known in living memory in 1874 of the origins of the carving then this puts the origin at least a lifetime earlier perhaps more, ie to before 1800. Telescopes were around in the 1700's so it could still be a telescope mounting, however it is unlikely to be Victorian.

Click on the images to enlarge.

At Roachend there is a rather unusual derelict cottage. (Take care it does not look too safe). It was Roachend farm. If you stand at the gate across the road looking towards Tittersworth reservoir, to your left you will see a delapidated barn. From this barn you can see the cottage. It is unusual because it has the shippon where the cows were kept underneath the house. This had the great advantage that it heated the house in winter because cows give off an incredible amount of heat. This property is at 1500ft so this layout would be a distinct advantage. The smell would be pretty bad though. The cows did not provide all the heat however because the story goes that the coal fire smoked very badly, which is not unusual for houses located under the lip of a hill. It was so bad that that the resident -a Mr Kirkham- decided to solve the problem by hand digging a trench up the field to the back left of the building up to the wall at the top of the field. He lined the trench with stone flags to make a pipe and back filled the trench. He built an outlet into the dry stone wall. Come the day to try the fire using his new chimney the fire smoked just as badly!! However all was not lost when the chimney warmed up it did work, but he had to keep a fire going 24 hours a day or it would cool down and smoke again. The outlet can still be seen in the wall above the house.

There's some pretty old graffiti too!

Hanging Stone is a precarious rock outcrop on Back Forest Ridge overlooking Swythamley Hall, which was the home of the Brocklehurst family who owned the Roaches estate until the death of the last in line in 1978. You can get to Hanging Stone along back Forest Ridge see walk 4

The Rock is extra special not just for it's weird aspect but because it has two inscriptions one for a much loved dog and the other for Lt Col Courtney Brocklehurst - the man responsible for the presence of the wallabies on the Roaches.

The inscription for the dog is professionally carved into the rock and says ---

"Beneath this Rock
August 1st 1874
was buried
BURKE
a noble mastiff black and tan
faithful as woman
braver than man
a gun and a ramble
his hearts desire
with the friend of his life
the Swythamley squire"

The squire obviously loved his dog!

The other inscription is a plaque with an epitaph to the Lt Colonel and a poem in the handwriting of Courntney's brother Philip Brocklehurst. The inscription reads---

LT COL HENRY COURTNEY BROCKLEHURST 10TH ROYAL HUSSARS
AND PILOT IN THE ROYAL FLYING CORPS 1916-1918
GAME WARDEN OF THE SUDAN
BORN AT SWYTHAMLEY MAY 27TH 1888
KILLED ON ACTIVE SERVICE IN BURMA
ON COMMANDO JUNE 1942

"Horses he loved and laughter, the sun, with spaces and the open air.
The trust of all dumb living things he won and never knew the luck too good to share.
His were the simple heart and open hand and honest faults he never strove to hide.
Problems of life he could not understand but as a man would wish to die, he died.
Now though he will not ride with us again, his merry spirit seems our comrade yet,
Freed from the power of weariness and pain, forbidding us to mourn or to forget....

Erected by his devoted brother 1949"

Obviously Courtney was an adventerer as was his brother Philip. Unfortunately the epitaph to the dog looks as though it will outlast that of the soldier even with the 75year head start.

Mount Pleasant is the derelict cottage on Roach Rd by the parking areas. It has been unoccupied since the 1970's. Notice there has been no electricity supply. It did not get up to many of these parts until the late 1960's.

Many people have wandered round this wreck over the years dreaming of living in a cottage in the country or perhaps opening a tea room. Unfortunately it is not for sale.

The owner has been offered very tempting sums from time to time but is adamant the cottage remains as it is.

There may come a time when it does come on the market but I suspect it never will and will remain as a memorial to the family which last lived there - The Plant family. This, I'm sure, would be the wish of the present owner.

How wrong I have been! Unfortunately the owner has died and the wreck is up for sale by auction -15th July 2008. Guide price £40,000. Agents Whittaker and Biggs Leek. The property went for £122,000!!! - this is with no water, electric or land. It does come with a fight with the Peak Park as reoccupation will be subject to planning permission. At the same auction a livable stone cottage with a barn down the road in UpperHulme went for only £190,000.