Saddleworth At Centre Of Renewed Tourism Push

The Huddersfield Narrow Canal and the viaduct at the Brownhill Centre, start and finish point for two new walking routes.

Saddleworth features prominently in a renewed effort to encourage tourists to visit the rural areas of Greater Manchester.

The Mancheter’s Countryside initiative was officially relaunched today with an event at Nutters Restaurant near Rochdale.

The project has been going for the past four years, but has been given a boost with £226,000 of new public funding from the government’s Rural Development Programme for England.

The cash is going on a variety of things, such as helping develop countryside activities and events, as well as on marketing and other support for the tourism industry.

A series of walking routes are included on a new series of leaflets, and two of them are in Saddleworth.

The first is a circuit from the Brownhill Centre in Dobcross along the Huddersfield Narrow Canal to the Diggle Hotel, along Ward Lane to the Church Inn above Uppermill, then down Church Road to Uppermill itself before the final stretch from Moorgate back to Brownhill.

The second, devised with cyclists and horse riders in mind, is again a circuit from the Brownhill Centre. It runs along the Delph Donkey to Dobcross itself, then up Woods Lane, Long Lane and Harrop Edge Lane over the top to Castleshaw, before returning to Brownhill down the valley via Brun Clough and Diggle village.

The Delph Donkey in winter.

Jonny Hewitt, Chairman of Manchester’s Countryside, told Saddleworth News the aim of the project is to “promote what we have on our doorstep” to folk who live in the area’s urban centres, as well as visitors from outside.

He said: “We’ve got 500 square miles of countryside within Greater Manchester, which not that many people fully appreciate. It’s making them aware of what activities that can happen. There’s lots of walks and trails already, there’s lots of cycling routes, country houses, food and drink, and places to go.”

Mr Hewitt added: “The website www.manchesterscountryside.com is key, because the bulk of the inquiries will be generated through there. All rural businesses who want to be involved can get free listings, be it accommodation, activities, food and drink or events. So there’ll be a constant diary of events for what’s happening.”

He went on: “It’s been funded for the next 18 months, and it’s to hopefully provide a legacy. To try to get these little businesses to work together, so this legacy can carry on. We’re looking to try to create an additional 200,000 visits to Manchester’s countryside, that’s going to generate an extra £10m of business. It’s all about business, if you can create more business, you can employ more people, and you can sustain more businesses as well.”

As well as trying to encourage more visitors to areas such as Saddleworth, Mr Hewitt, who himself runs a farm shop and visitor attraction in Dunham Massey, said the initiative will also try to get small business owners from the leisure and tourism industry together, to help each other.

He commented: “We’re going to try to create clusters, so let’s say there’ll be an accommodation cluster, where people can just meet up, share ideas, maybe have a professional speaker, and just make you feel part of what’s happening. I know from running a small business that running your own business is quite a lonely thing.”

He concluded: “It’s just trying to let businesses know that there’s a project out there which can help their businesses, in terms of visitors and ultimately cash.”

You can hear more from my interview with Mr Hewitt by clicking on the box below:

A reminder that the website for the Manchester’s Countryside initiative can be viewed here. More information about RDPE funding is here.

Author: Jude Gidney - Editor

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