The Manifold Valley trail is a fabulous walk created along the bed of an old railway line.

In 1904 a narrow gauge railway opened along the Manifold and Hamps valleys, plying between Waterhouses and Hulme End, a distance of 8.5 miles or 14 kilometres.

This was the Leek and Manifold Light Railway, opened with the idea that it would be used by tourists and carry some local freight – much of the latter provided by the creamery which operated at Ecton until 1933. The track ran close to the river side in both the Manifold and Hamps valleys, and certainly would have provided a very picturesque trip – with some spice added by the tunnel beneath Swainsley Hall, built to spare the owners the intrusion of the sound of trains!

Sadly, the railway lasted only 30 years, and the closure of the Ecton creamery was its death knell, for it closed soon after, in 1934. It was too late to catch the heyday of the railways and too early to catch the modern nostalgia for steam railways. However the track has been reopened as a cycle track, with just a short section between Swainsley Hall and Wetton Mill shared with motor traffic. There is a Visitor Centre in the old station at Hulme End. Most of the track belongs to the National Trust.

From Hulme End the track passes Ecton and then on to Wetton Mill. It then passes beneath Thor’s Cave and on almost to Beeston, before turning up the Hamps valley and uphill steadily to Waterhouses. It’s a very enjoyable cycle ride with superb views which is not too strenuous!