Preston on the Hill and the Lewis Carroll birthplace

Saturday 18 February 2017 6.8 miles
Tracey, Jane, Donna, Hilary and Carol

On the journey to Dutton here was a bit of a queue at the Acton Bridge road works.
The writer of the walk commented that ' a quieter walk would be hard to find', we would have to agree with that. At times we could hear the motorway but for the most part we saw very few people and really enjoyed the walk.

The walk had two possible starting places, The Tunnel Top or Preston on the Hill, we decided to find Preston on the Hill as the car park at the pub was quite small. It took a little time to find the village.

We parked on the road by the pump, turned into Summer lane, headed across the fields. Then walked along Higher Lane, passed parking places and walked up the narrow path alongside Morphany Lane. This brought us to a wooded area and a path to follow with information boards. This was the birthplace of Charles Dodgson. It was interesting to see the ground level brick outline depicting where the original building once stood, unfortunately the parsonage was destroyed by fire over 100 years ago. We tried to work out what the rooms would have been used for but some were quite small so we weren't sure. We looked at the well with the interesting cover . We retraced our steps at this point and continued our walk.

We went over the fields to the A533 which we crossed and joined the Trent and Mersey Canal.

As we approached the southern end of the Preston Brook Tunnel we could see daylight at the other end. The tunnel is 1239 yards long. The signs fon the Trent and Mersey Canal all have measurements from Preston Brook so now we know where that is.

 We walked along a road to the A533 Northwich Road, crossed it to the Tunnel Top pub, now we know why it is called that. The track continued until we came to the northern end of the Trent and Mersey Canal and the Preston Brook Tunnel. Where the tunnel finishes the Bridgewater Canal starts - the Preston Brook Branch. WE couldn't see into the tunnel at this point.

We continued along the canal until we met the A56, then went up Hill Top Road and back to the car.

Weaver Vale Garden Centre for tea and cakes and a wander around.