Back in September a group of us discussed the possibility of spending new year away from home by renting out a house. The search was on to find somewhere suitable. Finding expensive houses was straight forward, but you needed to be cash rich. I did suggest a B&B in Hope, Derbyshire which I has used on many occasions when I was working in nearby Sheffield, the landlady was amenable to letting us take her whole house but the idea slowly died. We ended up seeing the new year in at one of the group's house, but earlier that day had purchased the Indie only to find this photo (and in the Telegraph) reporting the heavy snow falls in the area. This bungalow was in Hope and whilst may have been in an extremely exposed location would have made the walks we hoped we would have taken with kids and dogs challenging to say the least. My plan was to walk up Win Hill which looks down over the town, somehow I dont think we would have even started out.
The pass over to Manchester through the Winnats which goes through Hope then Castleton had been closed as did the Snape Pass next one northwards, and so too the Woodhead Pass further to the north although reopened on new years eve. Now that would have made for an interesting start to the new year.
The photo below was taken before Christmas Day and since then the area has had two further appreciable falls of snow. The 'taller' peak in the centre is Lose Hill and the double cone just to it left but the other side of Edale is Win Hill. Hope lies at the bottom of the other side of Lose Hill, and from the garden of where we would have stayed there is a footpath that leads all the way to the top.
Lose Hill gets its name from the Battle of Win Hill and Lose Hill in 626. Prince Cwichelm and his father, King Cynegils of Wessex, possibly with the aid of King Penda of Mercia, gathered their forces on neighbouring Lose Hill and marched on the Northumbrians based on Win Hill. Despite their superior numbers, Wessex was defeated by the Northumbrians building a wall and rolling boulders down upon them.
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