Sandbach Flashes and The River Wheelock

Saturday 24 June 2017  6 miles

Jane, John and Helen

The weather had been very hot but had changed to rain. This meant it was a bit cooler for the walk, better for me at least.

It is always interesting to walk close to home and to find different aspects in the Cheshire countryside.

We walked from the Bear's Paw up the road to Crabmill Lane and then out across the fields, we joined a number of green lanes. We joined the road again it dropped to cross Warmingham Flash and I hadn't realised how big the flash was. We went over a small flash as well. We then crossed some fields with the rain just drizzling a little, then went onto the lane and passed a farm house. We realised that we had gone down the lane hadn't noticed the path for the 'swampy woodland'. 

We returned to the 'swampy woodland' path, the name suggests that it would be very wet but as it hadn't rained all week (until today!) we thought we would give it a try. The grass on the path at the beginning had been mowed, but we soon got to the more overgrown stuff, there were plenty of nettles and brambles, and some trees had fallen down. The first couple of trees we could step over but the third tree was bigger and higher off the ground. It was not high enough for us to crawl under nor low enough for us to step over, it was a bit of a climbing job. Helen went first clambering over, then I followed in her footsteps, but trying to jump down on the other side was a bit of a problem. If you jump off a curved surface you do not go straight down, in fact the jump sends you under the tree! I managed to stay upright. John was behind me and on trying to jump down caught his foot in the ivy growing across the tree and nearly landed head first on to the path, fortunately he succeeded in not falling face down on the path although it was very close call. The situation made Helen and I laugh - even though the outcome could have been very different!

We continued through the wood to the lane and then joined the Trent and Mersey Canal. We followed the towpath until we went under a road bridge and between it and the railway bridge was a wall that looked like it could have been a bridge at some time. After the railway bridge we left the towpath to follow the railway for about half a mile. We saw buzzards and butterflies along this path.  The River Wheelock looked like a small and quiet stream, but as it goes under the railway line there are huge pipes showing that the river needs plenty of space for the water at times.

On coming to the road we passed some more flashes. I did not realise that I had an old copy of the walk which sent us up a farm lane, the old lady who came out of the farmhouse was a bit cross, and told us there was another route. We soon returned down the lane, along the road a bit and found a footpath across the fields which lead behind the farmhouse rather than in front of it.. There were cows in the field with calves so we were very careful.

There were more flashes to pass and the entrance to Elton Hall and across the fields to follow the River Wheelock. The banks of the river were quite overgrown and the river pretty low so we could only see it in a few places. Soon we were crossing fields again and came out onto Warmingham Lane, and we returned to the Bear's Paw where we had some lunch. The pub was busy but they managed to find us a table. 

Get Together

Saturday 10 June 2017

BBQ at Carol and Phil's house.

All ten of us were able to get together. We sat outside, considering it had been raining most of the day that was a surprise.