Want to know the weather on the Roaches? click here This weather station is about 2.5miles from the Roaches
Want to know what you are looking at from the Roaches? From Long Mynd to Shutlingsloe. check this website. click here You'll need to click the magnifying glass to get good images.
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Roaches Appreciation Society
HEADLINES -updated 15 Jan 2012 SITE updated 28 Jan 2012
There's been an addition to the wallaby memories page.
Staffordshire Wildlife Trust has been selected by the Peak District National Park Authority to take on a 125 year lease of the Roaches estate starting in spring 2013 more
Great news Mrs Pickford saw a wallaby under Ramshaw Rocks at the end of August 2011!
"Ramblings" on Radio 4 15-00hrs 9 Sept 2011 featured the Roaches and Lud Church. Clare Balding et al seemed to think the last confirmed sighting of a Wallaby on the Roaches was in 2001. We know it was in 2009.
An article about the private zoo of Courtney Brocklehurst at Roaches Hall was written in the Leek Post & Times in 1938. Click to view this interesting piece of history of the Roaches area. Article kindly provided by Alan Weeks
The last confirmed sighting of a Wallaby was by
David Hobson of Buxton at Hanging Stone on August 2nd 2009 and Kate Cooper and family saw another at Wetton mill See photo and short videos on Wallabies page
The Roaches where Buzzards fly and Wallabies still roam. The Roaches (or Roches) is a wind-carved outcrop of gritstone rocks straddling the parishes of Leekfrith and Heathylee in the Peak District National Park about 4 miles north of Leek, Staffordshire and 8 miles south of Buxton, Derbyshire. See Google Earth image
The name Roaches has evolved recently from 'Roches' as the area used to be known only 100 years (or less) ago. 'Roches' is the french word for rocks.
To get to the Roaches take the A53 road from Leek, Staffordshire towards Buxton. After about 4 miles and about half a mile past the Three Horseshoes pub take a left turn signposted Upper Hulme. After a hundred metres take the left fork. Follow this road for about one and a half miles. Park in the lay-byes - you can not miss the Roaches! To avoid a ticket make sure you park as signed!
The only two centres of a sparse population are the Villages of Meerbrook and Upper Hulme. Facilities include a tea room, a village hall, holiday cottages, furniture maker, vehicle repair and a visitor centre.
The Roaches are particularly popular with climbers because of the diversity of the climbing routes there. Also there are many miles of paths to satisfy the most seasoned rambler. see the Walks page
The Roaches area includes Hen Cloud, so named because with a little imagination it looks like a roosting hen. The name could also have been derived from the Anglo -Saxon 'Henge Clud' meaning steep cliff. Also Ramshaw Rocks which includes the weird rock formation called the Winking Man.
For many years, from the 1930's to the early 2000s, a fairly large group of Wallabies roamed the Roaches. We believe only one is left now. They had been released from a private zoo. 3 Yaks were also released at the same time but they died out in the 1950's. I am trying to build up a library of memories of the Wallabies and Yaks. See the Wallabies page.
