The Roaches

This is an area of rock and heather which once belonged to the Swythamley Estate. Swythamley lies on the Staffordshire side of the River Dane. Swythamley Hall stands in a fine park and was originally a mediaeval hunting lodge belonging to the Abbey of Dieulacres. The hall was granted to the Traffords by Henry VIII in 1540 and became their home and that of their successors, the Brocklehursts. Unfortunately the original house burned down in 1813, so the modern building is a rebuilding dating from then. The Hall now belongs to the Hari Krishna sect.

The Brocklehursts had an adventurous history, and one of them accompanied Shackleton to the Antarctic. On the edge above Swythamley there is a famous landmark - the Hanging Stone - with a fine view over the surrounding countryside and bearing a plaque to Colonel Brocklehurst, who was killed in Burma in 1942. A game warden in the Sudan, he started a private zoo at Swythamley when he returned to Britain, and during the Second World War the animals were released into the countryside because there was no food for them. The wallabies from the zoo survived and bred around the Roaches until the late 1990s when the last survivors seem to have disappeared. Sightings of these wallabies have surprised many walkers and climbers over the years. Following the break up of this estate, the area including the Roaches and Hen Cloud (an area of 975 acres) was purchased in 1980 by the Peak District National Park Authority in order to protect this unique area and guarantee access for the public.
The Roaches, with Hen Cloud and Ramshaw Rocks, form a gritstone escarpment which marks the south-western edge of the Peak District. They are best viewed from the approach along the Leek road (A53), where they stand as a line of silent sentinels guarding the entrance to the Peak District, worn into fantastic shapes by the elements. The pinnacles of rock have been weather worn into bizarre shapes known locally as clouds (from the Celtic ‘clud' for rock).

The Hanging Stone Hen Cloud from The Roaches The Roaches and Rockhall Doxey pool

Hen Cloud is an impressive, solitary edge which rises steeply from the ground below. The Roaches, facing towards the south, have a gentler approach than Hen Cloud and actually consist of two edges, a Lower and Upper tier, with a set of rock-steps connecting them. The Roaches get their name from ‘les rochers' – French for 'the rocks' – a name thought to have been given by French prisoners of war imprisoned at nearby Leek during the Napoleonic war.

The whole area is a favourite place with walkers and rock-climbers, and the edges provide formidable climbing grounds with such descriptive and forbidding names as The Mincer, Crack of Gloom and Death's Knoll.  The Roaches also have famous classic climbing routes such as Valkyrie, the Sloth and The Swan. In some ways the area has become a victim of its own popularity for the area is very busy at weekends. Below and to the west runs a lower edge known as Five Clouds.  Built into the rocks of the Lower Tier is Rock Cottage, a tiny primitive cottage which was once the gamekeeper's residence and has now been converted into a climbing hut. Below and to the west of the main edge is a line of small subsidiary edges known as the Five Clouds.

You can find the allegedly bottomless Doxey Pool on top of the Roaches, at SK003627.  It is higher than any other in district, and has two myths attached to it. According to one legend this is a bottomless pool that is said to be the home of Jenny Greenteeth, a seductive mermaid who lures travellers to a watery grave. In 1949, Mrs Florence Pettit visited this pool for a swim with a friend.  She wrote that just as she was about to get in:

a great thing rose up from the middle of the lake . . .
25 to 30 feet tall . . .
and those eyes were extremely malevolent.
It pointed its bony fingers menacingly at me so there was no mistaking its hostility . . .

Another legend says that Doxey Pool is named after the daughter of Bowyer of the Rocks, a noted mosstrooper (highwayman) and his wife Bess.  They lived in a cave, which later became the Kitchen of Rockhall, a small cottage built against the eastern end of the lower tier (this can still be seen today and is used as the headquarters of the local rock climbing club, SK006622).  Bess Bowyer was an old crone who reputedly lived to be almost one hundred years old. It is said she died of a broken heart when her daughter, a beautiful singer, was carried off by ‘strange men’ one winter’s day.  The ghost – the ‘singing woman of the Roaches’ who walks the ridge on dark nights – is said to be the spirit of her daughter.
Recommended Walk
Roaming the Roaches

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