The community web site for
Glossop
in the High Peak
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The community web site for
Glossop
in the High Peak
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 Scaleable map at www.maps-for-free.com The Snake Pass is the name given to the higher reaches of the A57 road where it crosses the Peak District between Manchester and Sheffield in the north of England - particularly the section between Glossop and the Ladybower reservoir, where the road passes between the moorland plateaux of Kinder Scout and Bleaklow.  The highest point
- Snake summit,
where the Pennine Way
crosses the road - is 512 metres (1679 feet) above sea level.This section is exceptionally scenic - the view at the start of the descent into Glossop is quite remarkable, on a clear day offering spectacular views over the city of Manchester (over 10 miles away) and beyond. Writer and academic Germaine Greer has described this as her favourite view.  The road was built as
a turnpike
road in 1820 by Thomas Telford
for the Duke of
Devonshire. In the 20th century, the more northerly
route of the Woodhead
Pass, which is less steep and at a lower
altitude, became the primary road link between Manchester and Sheffield.The name derives from the emblem of the Snake Inn. The pub sign incorporates the serpent on the Cavendish arms of the Duke of Devonshire. The Snake Inn has since been renamed the Snake Pass Inn - so the pub is now named after the pass which was originally named after the pub! The Snake Pass passes through the National Trust's High Peak Estate, and lies within the High Peak borough of Derbyshire. Much it falls within the Hope Woodlands parish (population: 68). The road has a poor accident record. In winter, the road is often the first route between Sheffield and Manchester to be closed by bad weather. There are areas where the road surface has very poor skid resistance and a number of bends have adverse camber. The route was voted fifth most challenging in Britain in a poll by Airwaves chewing gum in May, 2008.  At the summit, on Bleaklow
Moor, is one of the country's best
preserved aircraft
crash sites where the remains of a Boeing
Superfortress RB-29A lie after crashing in poor weather on
November 3, 1948. There are others.
If you
plan to visit the site you should prepare for harsh conditions. A gun turret from the B29 Superfortress has been recovered by Peter Jozefczyk and Glossop Mountain Rescue Team. It will form part of a 60th anniversary exhibition at Glossop Heritage Centre in November 2008.
Ashopton Viaduct crosses the Ladybower reservoir, famous for its role in the Dambusters missions during the Second World War. The 1954 film, The Dam Busters, directed by Michael Anderson and based on the books by Paul Brickhill and Guy Gibson, used the Derwent reservoirs as a location. (There are clips here.)  A digitally remastered version of the 1954 film, starring Michael Redgrave and Richard Todd (left), was released in September 2007. (Video here.)Stephen Fry is writing the script for a remake of the film, which will be produced by Peter Jackson and directed by Christian Rivers, with a budget of $30 - $40 million. Sir David Frost is executive producer. The film is due for release in 2010. Jackson has said that filming would begin in April or May 2008 in New Zealand and Britain, including Scampton in Lincolnshire, where the Dambusters were based. Jackson promised his version would be "as authentic as possible and as close to the spirit of the original as possible". He will have access to details of the mission which were still classified in 1954. "They [the original filmmakers] weren't even allowed to show the bomb itself and had to create a fictionalised bomb," he said.  There
is a small museum of the Dambusters and the history of the reservoirs
set up by Vic Hallam in the western tower of Derwent
Dam - open Sundays. Look out for the
story of Tin
Town, the temporary navvy settlement at Birchinlee.The viaduct is named after the village of Ashopton which, with the neighbouring village of Derwent, was flooded by the construction of the dam in the 1940s. In extremely dry summers, when the water levels drop dramatically, the ruins of the old church steeple emerge from the water. There is a visitor centre in the Upper Derwent Valley at Fairholmes. The rectangular patchwork of heather that you see leaving Glossop is to create different levels of vegetation for grouse breeding. This habitat mosaic looks odd and geometrical due to being cut rather than burnt. More details can be obtained from the Natural England web site. On January 25, 2008, a landslip due to heavy rain caused the road to be closed to traffic between Ladybower and Glossop for three weeks. The pass is now re-opened but delays may still occur in both directions at Doctor's Gate Culvert. There are temporary traffic lights on Sheffield Road near the Hurst Road junction in Glossop. This work is due to continue until August 2008. The Derbyshire Road Safety Partnership is considering asking BT to install extra phone boxes on the Snake Pass, according to Richard Marsden in the Sheffield Star.  There is
just one phone box on the 14 miles
between Ladybower and Glossop - at The Snake Pass Inn
- and
mobile phones do not work on the moorland route. BT says: "If we receive a proposal to install further kiosks on Snake Pass, and the proposals when examined meet with the Ofcom criteria, then we would instal." Industry regulator OfCom says BT is obliged to instal pay phones in areas of "social need". BT is already consulting on the removal of the payphone at Crowden, on the A628 Woodhead Pass. Phones hope for 'no signal' Snake Pass - Sheffield Star, June 6, 2008 Concerns over lack of 999 phones on Snake Pass - Sheffield Telegraph, June 6, 2008
Disaster warning for Snake Pass - Manchester Evening News, February 8, 2008 Planning application for pole-mounted antenna - 13 July, 2007 Snake Pass closure (up-dated February 18, 2008) Petition to set a three-ton weight limit on the Snake Pass (open until August 18, 2008) |
The Snake Pass links Wikipedia  The National Trust  The Peak District National Park The Pennine Way  Moors for the Future Natural England - the Dark Peak Natural Area Profile (PDF) Map sources  Geograph photographs Snake Pass Inn  Cavendish serpent at Chatsworth House Snake Pass on DriversKnow.co.uk Cycling Time Trials Glossop Kinder Velo Bleaklow Air Crash Bleaklow air crash sites on flickr  Rod Holt's painting, Overexposed Peak District Air Accident Research Erosion in the Peak District National Park Ring-fencing Bleaklow's 'Desert' The Derwent Valley The Derwent Dams Derwent Valley reservoirs Upper Derwent Valley The Dambusters The Dam Busters film (1954) The Dambusters March by Eric Coates Dambusters memorial Dambusters Helicopter rides  YHA Crowden YHA Edale  Hope Cross Incident on Snake Pass video by John Shuttleworth Snake Pass electronic music by Squarepusher (Tom Jenkinson) Snake Pass MP3 ringtone Snake Pass poem by Emma Davies The Snake Pass - a 32-bar jig devised by Norman Churnside |
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