EVER been to Royston Vasey? It's a weird northern town populated by an amazing array of misfits and oddballs like Pauline from the Job Centre, Mickey the monkey boy and Barbara the sex change taxi driver.

Then there's Hilary Briss the "special" butcher, useless vet Dr Chinnery and Edward and Tubbs, sinister proprietors of the "local" shop from where you'll never leave.

This surreal world is, of course, the fictional creation of BBC2's The League of Gentlemen. But Royston Vasey does exist. Its alter ego is the Peak District town of Hadfield, where three series of the dark comedy were filmed. Hadfield's main street appears strangely familiar, lined with "local" shops that could be straight out of the fictional town. There is the war memorial, the butcher's shop, the pub and the guest house which all featured in the show. You can also buy Pauline's Pens, Local Lighters, postcards and car stickers in some of the shops and there is even a Cafe Royston selling Tubbs' Toasted Teacakes!

This stroll combines a walk up Hadfield's main street with an easy rural saunter along the Longdendale Valley. It follows a section of the old railway line towards Woodhead, offers views of the high Derbyshire hills and follows a reservoir path back into town. Royston Vasey may be slightly mad but Hadfield is surprisingly sedate...

DISTANCE: 3 miles (allow one to two hours)

START: The town war memorial at the top end of Hadfield's main street -- Station Road (OS Grid Ref. 023961). There is street parking along Station Road or at the train station which is opposite the war memorial. Hadfield is situated just a mile north of Glossop and a mile east of the end of the M67 (from Manchester). By car, follow the A57 and turn off before Glossop is reached.

PUBLIC TRANSPORT: train from Manchester Piccadilly to Hadfield.

Begin at the war memorial which featured at the start of every episode of The League of Gentlemen, providing the aerial view down Royston Vasey high street. Facing the Palatine pub turn right along Plan Street which soon leads to a small car park on the left at the start of the Longdendale Trail. Enter this car park and follow the path up to the disused line which was once part of the Great Central Railway. The Trail is now a recreational route for walkers, cyclists and horse riders and forms part of the long-distance Trans-Pennine Trail from Liverpool to Hull. Follow the line straight ahead towards the overhead bridge and the view soon opens out towards the Longdendale reservoirs and the village of Tintwistle across the valley.

The old railway line is followed for about a mile and after you pass under a second high bridge you soon arrive at a four-fingered wooden signpost with a wooden gate on your left signed with a white arrow as a public bridleway. Leave the railway here and go through the gate on the left.

The track drops down to another gate leading on to a tarmac lane. Go straight across the lane and continue downhill towards the reservoir along the route signed as "TPT West". A stony track is now followed which swings left and runs alongside the reservoir. When the bridge over the dam between the two reservoirs is reached do not cross it but continue straight ahead along the footpath signed for "Hadfield 1 mile".

Keep to the wall side path with the reservoir to your right. Keep to this main track between a fence and the wall and ignore paths to your left and right including the one which leads through a kissing gate along the shoreline to your right. The main stony track soon heads uphill to a series of gates by some houses. Turn left through the gates and reach a road with the Victoria Inn opposite. Cross over and follow the residential road, Brosscroft, which faces you straight ahead with the pub on the corner. Follow this road all the way down to a mini-roundabout by the New Lamp pub.

Turn left at the roundabout along Station Road and walk up Hadfield's main shopping street. Along the way you pass many of the properties used in The League of Gentlemen. These include the Masons Arms pub and the butcher's shop on the right hand side and the betting shop and Gables Hotel on the left (which appeared as the exterior of Alvin and Sunny's Windermere Guest House). Keen fans may also spot other shops like the burger takeaway where Pauline worked and the properties transformed into the vet's surgery and the old ladies charity shop.

At the top of the street you reach the War Memorial again. Even the public toilets on the opposite side of the road from here were used in filming!

SCREEN SNIPPETS

The League of Gentlemen was created by four university students -- Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith and Jeremy Dyson -- who won a Perrier Comedy Award in 1997. A Radio 4 series led to three TV series (to date) of the cult comedy in 1999, 2000 and 2002. The town in the radio series was called "Spent" but the name of Royston Vasey was taken from comedian Roy Chubby Brown's real name and he appeared in the show as the town mayor. The mysterious local shop is not to be found in Hadfield, it was constructed on the nearby Pennine hills.

The Peak District is often on screen. The stately homes of Lyme Hall and Sudbury Hall were used in the BBC's Pride and Prejudice and Haddon Hall near Bakewell was seen in Franco Zeffirelli's 1996 film version of Jane Eyre. The popular medical drama Peak Practice was set in the fictional village of Cardale but filmed largely in the villages of Crich and Fritchley on the eastern edge of the Peak District. Perhaps most famous of all, the Derwent and Ladybower Reservoirs were seen in the classic Richard Todd wartime movie The Dambusters.