Simon English
England Revisited

On a sycamore tree on north side of Longdendale Valley 2 1/2 miles S.E. Stalybridge.

On the same Sycamore tree at the bend in the path that I used in 1971. The tree is recognisable, once cleared of Himalayan Balsam, but much has changed around it.

The path must have once served Thorncliffe Hall, cobbled and with sandstone walls between park like fields fringed with a stand of beech trees, this looks unchanged to the north. To the south the land drops into the Longdendale valley with views of the hills on the other side. On this land Longdendale Community Language College has been built. The fields have been dug out and levelled to make two big playing fields. The original hillside remains as a shoulder of land between these playing fields on which many of the original of trees still stand although the big beech that was in my old photograph has fallen and lies as a de-limbed trunk where it fell.

At the northern boundary of the college the new steep bank has been planted with young larch trees. Along the path straggly remains of the old field hedge exist in places. To the north, on the other side of the path above the wall, a big ridge of topsoil has been built up. On this bare earth a great patch of Himalayan Balsam has established itself and has spread to what must have been original undisturbed ground. Maybe this bank was built to reduce the sound of cheering at school sports events. The fields beyond are used for grazing the horses from the riding stables at Thorncliffe Farm.

Down the hill at the corner of the entrance to the college are the remaining walls of a now partly demolished chapel. Next to this is a small cemetery fairly kept with decorative gravestones. Although the boundaries of these two places are delineated, their presence, curiously, is not marked on the 1:25000 O/S map.
Points 26 & 31