Long Causeway

Long Causeway or Long Causey was a Medieval packhorse route in England, which ran between Sheffield in South Yorkshire and Hathersage in Derbyshire. In the past the route has been marked on maps as a Roman Road as it was believed it followed part of the route of Batham Gate between Templeborough and Buxton although in recent years some scholars have cast doubt on this.

In Medieval times, Long Causeway was the middle of three routes which left Sheffield to the west. It started in the Portobello area of the town beginning a seven-mile journey with over 1100 feet of ascent to Stanedge Pole on the border between the manors of Sheffield and Hathersage. From Portobello the route continued by a series of rises and dips, climbing initially through Leavygreave and crossing the top of the Crookes valley and up Lydgate Lane (then called Hallam Gate) to reach which was then open moorland. The route then continued through present day Crosspool and followed the route along what is now Sandygate Road and Redmires Road, crossing the location of the present day Redmires Reservoirs before tackling the steepest ascent on the route up to Stanedge Pole.

From the pole the route began its drop down to Hathersage going due west for half a mile before swinging sharply north-west to descend Stanage Edge at an angle through a less rocky part of the crags. The road down Stanage Edge was notoriously difficult and it is recorded that carters often asked passengers to disembark and “hung stones at the end of their carts, when going down Stannidge, it having great descent”. After negotiating the Stanage incline the road swung round almost 180 degrees passing Dennis Knoll to enter Hathersage from the north.

Roman roads historian Ivan Donald Margary said that the Long Causeway had a slightly different route in Roman times. In his book "Roman Roads In Britain" he said that evidence is now available that shows that after the Redmires Reservoir the Roman road did not follow the medieval route to Stanedge Pole but kept to the line of the present day track to Stanedge Lodge. The Roman road then descended Stanage Edge half a mile north west of the present route, on a narrow and steeper terrace.

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Wikipedia