Werneth Low (; ) is a hill in

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tam ...

, England, and a part of the Pennines. It is located on the borders of Stockport and

Tameside The Metropolitan Borough of Tameside is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester in England. It is named after the River Tame, which flows through the borough, and includes the towns of Ashton-under-Lyne, Audenshaw, Denton, Droylsden, ...

, rising to a height of . The villages of Woodley, Greave,

Gee Cross Gee Cross is a village and suburb of Hyde within Tameside Metropolitan Borough, in Greater Manchester, England. History Gee Cross village centre dates back to the times of the Domesday Book. Originally, Gee Cross was the larger village in th ...

Mottram Mottram is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Buster Mottram, former British tennis player, son of Tony Mottram * Craig Mottram, Australian distance runner * Don Mottram, English flavour chemist * Eric Mottram, English poet * Hei ...

and

Romiley Romiley is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. Historically part of Cheshire, it borders Marple, Bredbury and Woodley. At the 2011 census, the Romiley ward, which includes Compstall, Bredbury Green ...

lie on the sides of the low. The term "low" does not refer to any lack of altitude, it being a northern English word for hill. Werneth Low offers panoramic views over the

Greater Manchester Urban Area The Greater Manchester Built-up Area is an area of land defined by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), consisting of the large conurbation that encompasses the urban element of the city of Manchester and the metropolitan area that forms ...

and, in clear weather, the

Winter Hill transmitting station The Winter Hill transmitting station is a broadcasting and telecommunications site on Winter Hill, at the southern boundary of the Borough of Chorley, Lancashire and above Bolton. It is owned and operated by Arqiva. Height The original mast at ...

can be seen from here. To the south, Stockport town centre, part of

Wythenshawe Wythenshawe () is a district of the city of Manchester, England. Historically in Cheshire, Wythenshawe was transferred in 1931 to the City of Manchester, which had begun building a massive housing estate there in the 1920s. With an area of approx ...

in south Manchester and the Welsh Mountains can be viewed in clear weather. The majority of Werneth Low is administered jointly by Hyde War Memorial Trust (link below) and Tameside Council. The trust organises the Remembrance and Peace day services. It was established to be guardian of Werneth Low, to keep it "For the people of Hyde" and provide a lasting monument to the 710 men of Hyde that perished in World War I. Various landmarks can be seen from the top of Werneth Low, including: Manchester's

Deansgate Square Deansgate Square, formerly known as Owen Street, is a skyscraper cluster on the southern edge of Manchester City Centre, consisting of four towers, the tallest of which is 201 metres (659 feet). The site is just south of Deansgate railway stati ...

, Beetham Tower, the Oldham Civic Centre and

Jodrell Bank Observatory Jodrell Bank Observatory () in Cheshire, England, hosts a number of radio telescopes as part of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester. The observatory was established in 1945 by Bernard Lovell, a radio astro ...

's radio telescope (visible from the south-western end of the hilltop).

History

A flint knife and a

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

stone mace head have been discovered on Werneth Low. Hangingbank is the site of a possible

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...

farmstead dating to the first millennium BC, enclosed by a double ditch and featuring crop marks. A Roman road from Melandra to Astbury probably crosses the hill, however the exact course has not been identified. The site covers .Nevell (1992), p. 68. There is also evidence of

Romano-British The Romano-British culture arose in Britain under the Roman Empire following the Roman conquest in AD 43 and the creation of the province of Britannia. It arose as a fusion of the imported Roman culture with that of the indigenous Britons, ...

activity on Werneth Low; a sherd of Roman pottery dating to the 2nd century AD was discovered in the material filling one of the ditches at Hangingbank, indicating that was when the site fell out of use. There is a possible temporary Roman camp and excavations have recovered a

posthole In archaeology a posthole or post-hole is a cut feature used to hold a surface timber or stone. They are usually much deeper than they are wide; however, truncation may not make this apparent. Although the remains of the timber may survive, most ...

. The name Werneth derives from the Welsh ''verno'' for

alder Alders are trees comprising the genus ''Alnus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The genus comprises about 35 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few sp ...

meaning 'the place where alders grow'. In 1920, Lower Higham Farm and all of its land was purchased by the War Memorial Committee of the Hyde Borough Council and, in 1921, Hyde's main war memorial was officially unveiled. A

Royal Observer Corps The Royal Observer Corps (ROC) was a civil defence organisation intended for the visual detection, identification, tracking and reporting of aircraft over Great Britain. It operated in the United Kingdom between 29 October 1925 and 31 Decembe ...

monitoring post was active here from 1962 to 1968, which was intended to give warning of hostile aircraft and nuclear attacks on the United Kingdom. In the late 1980s,

Greater Manchester Council The Greater Manchester County Council (GMCC) was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater Manchester from 1974 to 1986. A strategic authority, with responsibilities for roads, public transport, planning, emergency services ...

, Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council and the Hyde War Memorial Trust worked together to establish Werneth Low country park, which covers ; the park was officially opened in 1980.

Transport

Werneth Low was served by bus number 304 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays only. With effect from 31 January 2010, GMPTE diverted this bus onto routes on which other bus services run and, as a result, Werneth Low is no longer served by any form of public transport.

Gallery

File:Croft Field - geograph.org.uk - 1022774.jpg, Croft Field with Werneth Low's visitors' centre in the background. File:Daffodils at Hanging Bank - geograph.org.uk - 1213985.jpg, Woodland near Hanging Bank File:Footpath to Gee Cross - geograph.org.uk - 972681.jpg, From Higham Lane looking north. File:Footpath to Hanging Bank - geograph.org.uk - 1022787.jpg, Footpath to Hanging Bank. File:Gate to Rye Field - geograph.org.uk - 972647.jpg, Gate to Rye Field. File:Hanging Bank - geograph.org.uk - 1213973.jpg, Werneth Low's Hanging Bank. File:Heading Up The Low - geograph.org.uk - 835000.jpg, Towards the top of Hacking Knife. File:Mottram Church from Werneth Low - geograph.org.uk - 1515998.jpg, Looking east from Werneth Low towards

with the hills of the

Peak District The Peak District is an upland area in England at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. It includes the Dark Peak, where moorla ...

in the background. File:Tameside Trail at Werneth Low - geograph.org.uk - 1007659.jpg, Looking west along the Low, with the Hyde Cenotaph in the background. File:View from Werneth Low - geograph.org.uk - 1121709.jpg, Looking north from Werneth Low across

and

Oldham Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, southeast of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham ...

. File:View of the Greater Manchester County.jpg, Looking north-west from Werneth Low towards

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

city centre. File:Werneth Low from near Windy Harbour.JPG, Looking north-west along the top of the Low. File:Werneth Low Sunrise - geograph.org.uk - 952978.jpg, Sunrise from the top of Werneth Low.

References

Bibliography

External links

{{commons category, Werneth Low
Werneth Low Country Park

Hyde War Memorial Trust
Mountains and hills of the Pennines Geography of Tameside Tourist attractions in Tameside Geography of the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport Tourist attractions in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport Protected areas of Greater Manchester Country parks in Greater Manchester Hyde, Greater Manchester Mountains and hills of the United Kingdom with toposcopes