Home
Walks
Wallabies
Bob's Gallery
Gallery
Climbing
Villages
For the Locals
Places of Interest
Things of Interest
Where to Stay
Things to do
Links
Contact us

Wallabies and Yaks

Five Bennett's Wallabies were released from a private zoo at Roaches Hall in the late 1930's.
The zoo was owned by Courtney Brocklehurst who tragically lost his life in World War 2. These few bred and became as many as 50.
They have been seen by many people over the years. Have you seen them? If you have, tell your story by contacting the webmaster and I'll publish it on this page-see Memories below
Contact Webmaster

Three Yak and a Nilgai antelope were also released at the same time. I have not heard stories on the Nilgai. So anything you know about it would be great to know.

Click this link for a Video of Wallabies - This footage was taken in about 1979 by Geoff Robinson in the wood near Rock Hall using a cine camera. The quality of this copy is not great but you can see up to three wallabies towards the end of the film. The file size is 2.8MB so it may be slow to load. Total video length is 90 secs.
You'll need Flash Player 6 or above to play the video if you have'nt got it you can download it free from this link www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/

THERE'S AT LEAST ONE WALLABY STILL ROAMING THE ROACHES!

Neil Caton has sent me two photos of the wallaby. They are from an old camera phone so are not high quality

wallaby nov 07

This is the e-mail I received from Neil Caton on Nov 25th 2007

Walking from Danebridge at 8am this morning, I came over the top past Hangingstone and came across a wallaby. it didn't move and allowed me to get within about 3 feet. It carried on down the path for about 100 yards.

MEMORIES OF THE WALLABIES AND YAKS

i was driving through kettleshulme, Cheshire around jan - feb 2007. both me and the driver in front had to stop our cars and allow the animal( a wallaby) a few seconds to cross over the road.

Dan

During the early 1980's my husband spent a weekend with the Territorial Army in the Peak District. On waking up very early one morning he couldn't believe his eye's when he crawled out of his tent and saw a group of three or four wallabies. I was telling some work colleagues of his experience the other day when they all laughed at me telling me not to be so silly. So I decided to google it and see what came up. I am so glad that i found your site as even i was beginning to doubt him. I have printed off this page so that i can prove them all wrong at work on monday.

Mrs J Lacey

Braintree

Essex

Hi from Canada.

Always searching web pages on the Peak and luckily found your very good web site.

Brings back many memories.

Always remember my first introduction to the area--it was a field trip from Kings School -bus to Cat & Fiddle--walk to 3 shires-swim in panniers pool--continue to Gradbach--Luds Church and over Hanging Stone for pm bus from Wincle. As a 13 year old I was completely taken by the area and spent many hours in the next months exploring the area. I am certain that I saw my first wallaby (to me it was a kangaroo) in a clearing in the wood between Luds Church and the river in 1957.

I continued to visit the area until my departure to Canada in 1981. Over the years I had many observations-although some years were very lean. Have a record of one walk--coming out the far end of Luds Church saw 3--sitting quiet in the heather, one passed me with a joey. Heading to roach end saw 2 more. Went over 5 clouds and going in the derelict woods below observed 4 more.This was in 1968 or 1970. In the late 70's when the estate was sold ( I attended the sale at Macclesfield Town Hall and still remember the scene of some tenant farmers losing their farms) and many sheep than should have been allowed roamed the area, I think that the Wallabies were affected and got dispersed--some were seen in the lower valley of the Dane below Wincle.

When the Peak Park finally got involved, I had the chance to be in charge of the part time Rangers covering the area, so spent many hours from 1979 to 1981 in the area. Never saw any Wallabies at Hen Cloud but the people who used to live at Roaches House said they would see the odd one. The main area seemed to be in Back Forest at the edges of the woodland/moorland. Would see 3 or 4 sometimes and other days nothing--you got down wind from them and they came close. At the time there was too much publicity and you would get groups of noisy people on Wallaby hunts.

I also used to count deer (originally from Swythamley estate) within the Dane area (mainly from the A523 to Danebridge) and sometimes at 6 am you got good numbers (had to watch for one farmer who never wanted anyone on his land). Also used to cover Gun Hill and some woodlands as far as Big Wood. On one occasion saw a wallaby in Gun Plantation -think about 1974/1975.

Glad to hear that some may still be alive-although the main feeling is that they had all died out by 2000.

Paul Dicken Montreal Canada

I was student in Manchester in the 1970s and I wrote my dissertation on the area. I met the wallabies on many occasions so I thought I’d send you a picture.

two wallabies

Geoff Billington Apr 2008

Just a note to inform you but about 26years ago I was part of a group
staying in a kids club down at Gradbach. We went on a wallaby excursion
and low and behold we stumbled across a group of them, cant remember
how many exactly but I seem to remember about 6 or 7..............Happy
days indeed

Dave Bancroft -April 2008

There were 3 Yaks - a bull, a cow and a calf. The cow and calf both died in the appalling winter of 1947. The bull died in 1956.

Frank Belfield -Feb 2007

I remember a Yak on the Roaches when I went to visit my sister. I must have been between 10 and 12 years old so that would put the date at 1959 to 1961.

Rose Robinson- Feb 2007

The picture here is of what was thought to be the first petrol lorry in north Staffordshire. It carted corn products for Dains Mill. Around the time of the first World War this lorry was overturned by a bull Yak at Upperhulme! This was not the bull that roamed the Roaches but one that was supposedly confined within the private zoo of Courtney Brocklehurst at Roaches Hall!! For those interested the lorry was a "Star"

Brian Ball- Feb 2007

In 1963, which was an exceptionally cold winter with day time temperatures below freezing for a number of weeks, I fed hay to the wallabies along with my sheep. However at the end of the cold spell, one night the foul weather returned with a vengence and the next morning I found 13 dead wallabies behind the north wall bordering Rock Hall wood. This is the same wall which has recently been renovated using a helicopter to cart the stone.

Frank Belfield - Feb 2007

In about 1988 my son was driving home late one night when a wallaby jumped over the wall on Roach Rd right onto his bonnet. The wallaby was injured so he drove about a mile home(at breakneck speed), related the situation to me and I phoned the vet. The vet arranged to meet us at the practice( Moorland Veterinary Centre in Leek). We rushed back to the Wallaby which was clearly in bad shape. My son scooped up the Wallaby and got into the back of the car - we needed to curl the tail carefully- they are a big animal. I sped off down to Leek. Unfortunately half way there the poor animal died. The vet briefly examined the corpse and found it was a female with a little joey in it's pocket. Tragic.

Bob Foster - Jan 2007

Joe Gold who used to live at Well Farm at the back of Hen Cloud can remember there being 3 Yaks - an adult pair and a young calf. They used to roam around Hen Cloud rather than the Roaches because unlike the Wallabies they could not jump the walls! One, presumably the calf, lived into the 1950's and was on it's own for a number of years. It once wounded a pony- which shared the land-with it's horns. The wound was under the belly about 2ft long and deep. The pony survived.

Joe Gold - Jan 2007

In July 2001 I saw a wallaby grazing by the concession footpath that leads from Lud Church to High Forest Ridge. It was only about 10yds away. On trying to get closer it kept the same distance of about 10 yards.

Geoff Robinson - Jan 2007