Reddish Vale

Reddish Vale is a loosely defined area in the Tame Valley close to Reddish in the , Greater Manchester, England. The generally accepted centre of the vale (as indicated on maps) is around the bottom of Reddish Vale Road. Reddish Vale Country Park is a country park managed by Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council. It covers 161 hectares in all and comprises some of the traditional Reddish Vale area, Reddish Vale Farm and the grazing land and Woodhall Fields, about half a mile to the south. Part of it is a designated Local Nature Reserve.

Reddish Vale is mainly green space, comprising woodland, flat riverside meadows, sloping fields used to graze horses and a golf course. At the end of Reddish Vale Road near grid reference SJ905935 is a small car park and a visitor centre housed in portable cabins. A number of footpaths lead in all directions, with the more popular ones following the line of the river, both up and downstream.

Highly visible from the visitor centre is the sixteen-arch brick viaduct built in 1875 to carry the Hope Valley Line over the Tame Valley. There is a legend that during construction a local witch cursed the viaduct and anyone who counted the number of arches. A railway line once led to Stockport from Reddish Junction at the Brinnington (east) side of the viaduct. This line has been turned into a public bridleway joining the two parts of the country park and forms a section of the Trans Pennine Trail. The forms part of the western boundary of the vale. A spur once ran to the colliery at Denton. Its position is still visible in places marked by a hedgerow that runs alongside Ross Lave Lane. Where the line had to span Denton Brook an embankment was built using slag and other waste from the mine. This slag was ignited by the hot summers of 1975 and 1976. It continued to smoulder and smoke for a number years until the site was bulldozed and cleared in 1981. Train drivers called the place 'smokey ridge', along the bottom of Denton Brook you can still see the bricks used for the tunnel. Some locals refer to Ross Lave Lane as 'piggy's alley' as there was once a pig farm on the Denton side of the viaduct on the embankment above where Denton Brook joins the River Tame. There was a plan at the end of the 18th century for the Beat Bank Branch Canal to run across the vale, and some sections were dug, but it was abandoned before completion.

...
Wikipedia