The River Weaver and the Trent and Mersey Canal

Saturday 30 April 4.5 miles

Donna, Jane + Hilary

The weather was forecast to be ok in the morning, but there had been a cool wind the day before so it was hard to decide how many layers to wear.

We parked on the roadside just off the A49 by a building that was being worked on and Hilary said it had been a pub at one time. We started off with our fleeces and coats on. Donna had done this walk before with her daughter.

We passed the Leigh Arms and we went down to the river by the Acton Swing Bridge turning left to follow the River Weaver. The path goes past the Grange rowing club buildings.

We looked across the river at the Caravan Park it was busy with a few tourers as well as the statics. There are also lots of cottages, just below Sandy Lane. I wonder how busy and noisy the road is. They have a nice outlook over the river and the fields.

The fields looked lovely in the sunshine. There was a house up on the hill and I thought it might have some good views. We crossed the foot bridge where the river semms to split in two.

The Saltersford Locks are huge, you can imagine the river busy with very large boats carrying salt down to the River Mersey and bringing coal to the salt works to evaporate the brine.

The Lockkeepers Cottages looked pretty and the middle terraced one was for sale, it looked like a typical 2 up 2 down house. We tried to guess the price from what we could see and thought it might be about £250,000 - £300,000, but we were no where near as it is on the market for £375,000.

We walked up the hill away from the river to the canal. At the top of the hill we passed a smartly dressed couple obviously not out walking and we thought they might be going to see the house.

We walked further along the canal and came to the Saltersford Tunnel. You can't walk through the tunnel, but I could hear a boat chugging away and eventually I saw the boat emerging. In the past, the only way to move the boat through the tunnel was to 'walk' the narrow boats along the by using your legs and feet whilst lying on the boats roof.

The path then went up to be level with the top of the tunnel with plenty of trees along it. We managed to get a view through a gap in the trees down the valley. 

Then I realised that the white house I had seen from below, by the river, was probably the house at the end of the tunnel,

There was a bench at the end of the tunnel so we had our lunch at 11.45am - too early!! As we sat eating our lunch the pink blossom was falling off the tree onto the canal water and it looked very pretty.

We continued walking along the canal it was lovely with the trees, a couple of bridges and the blue sky. We passed some cows in the field on the other side of the canal, most of them were lying down, there was  just one looking through the trees at us.

Gradually we began to notice the noise of the road so we knew we were nearly at the car. Rather than going down the main road we tucked down a pathway back to where we had parked.

It was lovely to get out in the sunshine.

We went to The Green Kitchen off Bartington Hall Lane, and had tea and cake (carrot and lemon cake)  and a hot chocolate.