Above: The ruins of Errwood Hall pictured in May 1964, more than 30 years after the house had been demolished.
The arches were to the right of the front entrance (see this image). I think they were taken down in the early 1970s, which is a great shame.
The Goyt Valley Facebook group is a wonderful source of personal memories and old photos. A group member recently posted some old family snaps taken in the fifties and sixties before the flooding of Errwood Reservoir.
The earliest is from May 1959, showing a toddler paddling in the River Goyt with Errwood Bridge in the background. Another taken the following September is a grainy photo of the the suspension bridge, silhouetted in the background.
My favourite photos were taken in July 1960, with the packhorse bridge in the background. All the surrounding buildings that once formed the hamlet of Goyt’s Bridge had been destroyed some 30 years earlier, leaving very little trace that they ever existed.
Above: A young child paddles in the waters of The Goyt with Errwood Bridge in the background.
Above: An atmospheric view of the suspension bridge, also from September 1959. (Click either image to enlarge.)
Above: The bridge looks to have suffered from the ravages of time and would have undoubtably been closed off for health and safety reasons today.
Goytshead Farm would have been at top right. Some 30 years earlier it had been one of two farmhouses in Goyt’s Bridge to serve teas and refreshments to the many visitors who visited the picturesque hamlet following the arrival of the railways to Buxton.
A few of the much-photographed stepping stones are just visible at bottom left, but most have gone. There were also a pair of large barns just behind the bridge and to the right of Wildmoorstone Brook which belonged to Goytshead Farm.
Above: Two children are helped across the River Goyt which flows from the right. Wildmorestone Brook merges into the river from under the old packhorse bridge.
The scene changed dramatically when Errwood Reservoir was flooded in 1967. The packhorse bridge is the only structure to have survived, moved a mile or so south to Goytsclough, where it spans the Goyt today.
Stockport Council tried to find a buyer for Errwood Bridge but without success. So it now lies beneath the waters of Errwood Reservoir. It last surfaced during the drought of 1984 (see photos). But at the time of writing (August 2025), it could well reappear if the water level continues to drop.
