Millennium Walkway
View from the path down from the Heritage Centre
After more than two years of planning and fund raising, the New Mills' ambitious Millennium Walkway project was finally completed just before Christmas 1999. Since then, it has attracted enormous interest in the national press and television and has been featured on the National Lottery.
The 175-yard long elevated steel walkway spans what The Guardian described somewhat dramatically as 'the last inaccessible place in England', a rocky wall in the 30m deep Torrs gorge, cantilevered out over the fast running river Goyt. Visitors are now able to inspect close at hand not only the enormous railway retaining wall above them, but also the historic Torr Vale Mill on the opposite bank, recognised now as the oldest working cotton mill in the country (from 1788), and listed by English Heritage Grade II*.
E2 is the premier walking route in Europe and in England runs from Nice in the south of France to Dover and then to Stranraer. It includes links such as the Goyt Way and Mid-Shires Way which pass through the Torrs and links it with the Trans Pennine Trail, path E8. Before the walkway was opened, walkers had to climb out of the gorge and make a diversion round it. Now this gap has been closed and the small town of New Mills can claim that its great project has completed a path which starts on the south coast of France.
The walkway provides a spectacular attraction and a direct route through this historic gorge for the thousands of walkers and visitors who come here every year. It also provides another route for visitors to reach the town's Heritage Centre, sited at the top of one of the paths leading down into the gorge.
In celebration of the new walkway, a 44p New Mills postage stamp and a post card were issued on 18 January 2000 by the Post Office.
Special first day covers with an illustration of the walkway were printed and can still be obtained from New Mills Heritage Centre (£1.50). Also, laminated A4 photographs (£1.50) & postcards (35p).
Address: Rock Mill Lane, New Mills, High Peak, Derbyshire, SK22 3BN.
Tel: 01663 746904.