Seven walkers met at Broombank Park on the Sheepbridge Industrial Estate in readiness for Richard’s popular five ponds walk. This year Richard had made some alterations to the walk owing to two very overgrown footpaths.
The first pond was only a short distance from our start point at the end of Loverose Way. Loverose Way is the name given to the short road extending from the roundabout put in for the Peak Resort development. This is the smallest of the five ponds. Our next pond and also our coffee break was located in Barlow Country Club. To get there we followed the new footpath running parallel with the Dronfield/Unstone by-pass, which we crossed via the appropriately named “Curley Bridge”, then on through woods and fields to the country club. Our stop here proved to be an excellent choice because the heavens opened shortly after we sat down to scoff buns and drink coffee.
Pond three was on our way back to Sheepbridge between Lee Bridge and the Mill. This pond is just off the footpath and was obscured by a row of tall bushes. Judging by the OS map it appears to be a decent size.
Our forth set of ponds belong to a fishing club in the Sheepbridge Industrial estate in a very attractive setting. Our fifth and last pond located close to Broombank Park was used by Severn Trent for water treatment. Here, reed beds had been planted to filter contaminants from former coal mines.
With all five ponds ticked off our list we walked back to the car park, slightly damp but glad we had braved the sporadic heavy downpours. Many thanks to Richard for leading us on this enjoyable and informative walk.
