I’ve said before that the Staffordshire Moorlands are perhaps the most overlooked part of the Peak District. For me their most dramatic feature is the Roaches, a rocky, gritstone ridge near Leek, rising to 500 metres above sea level and containing some strangely weathered rock formations. The Roaches are the most prominent part of a curving ridge which extends for several miles from Hen Cloud to the Hanging Stone in the Dane Valley (see under D). On a clear day the views from the Roaches extend over Cheshire to Lancashire and Wales. This view of Hen Cloud from the Roaches is a bit clichéd but the two upright stones just cry out to be painted, framing Hen Cloud as they do. I can find no history for them and assume they’ve been used as gateposts in the past. But why there should have been a gate on an uncultivated, windswept escarpment is a mystery.