Fourteen walkers and one dog met in the car park at Broombank ready for Richard’s walk. Richard explained that the walk should be called the Four Ponds Walk because the one we usually visit first was virtually inaccessible owing to fallen trees on the path up to it.
This meant that our first pond was the collection of fishing ponds within the Sheepbridge Trading estate which appear to be very well used. After doing a circuit of the ponds we reached the end of the trading estate and took a path through Cobnar Wood. We then followed Barlow Brook to the site of our second pond which is on private land and can only be seen from the path when the leaves have fallen from the surrounding trees. At the end of this path we reached our third pond, the Barlow Fishing Ponds. As usual we took advantage of the cafe there to enjoy our coffee break.
At this stage I had to leave the walk to attend to urgent business in Sheffield, but I can say, with between 90 and 100 percent confidence that the fourth pond visited on the walk would have been the smallest of the four close to the entrance to the Peak Resort.
Many thanks to Richard for leading us round this very enjoyable walk.