The Roaches, Peak District

The airy gritstone crest known as The Roaches forms an imposing bastion on the south-western fringe of the Peak District.  Look sout from the ridge and you'll see jigsaws of bright green pasture around Tittesworth Reservoir.  Turn north and there are bleak moors, dark valleys and more than a few shady legends.

The Staffordshire Moorlands are the forgotten corner of the National Park, and this windblown landscape is scattered with place names which might have grown striaght out of the ground: Gradbach, Goldstitch Moss and Green Gutter Head; Wincle, Wilson Knowl and Wicken Walls.

Under a cover of snow, the outcrops and buttresses on The Roaches are transformed into a wintry sculpture park and, to the north, the perky little peak of Shutlingsloe becomes a mini-Matterhorn.  Each side of the secretive chasm at Lud's Church, hidden in the woods above the marmite-coloured River Dane, will now be draped with long slender icicles.  Once, a couple of centuries ago, deep snow remained at the bottom of the ravine until the middle of July - when it was bagged up and taken to be sold at the market in nearby Leek!