Tabley Estate and Holford Moss

Saturday 2 September 6.2 miles

Tracey, Jane and Hilary

We parked at the Smoker, and had a debate as to how many layers we needed! As it seemed to be warm we took just one extra layer. The clear blue sky and the forecast was for a good day.

From the Smoker we turned onto Plumley Moor Road amd a little further along the road we turned left onto Whitehouse Lane. Here there was a man trying to get a car and trailer out of his drive, as the lane was quite narrow it was taking a few goes. In the end he told us to go through as it was going to take a while and no one likes an audience! There was a farm at the end of the lane so we had to walk through it. An old dog came to have a sniff and the lady of the house said hello. Hilary noticed a guard dog sign that had been tucked away behind a drain pipe, certainly the dog we had seen was no guard dog.

Beyond the farm we crossed a stream and followed the edge of Royd Wood onto Sudlow Lane. We crossed a stream and then turned off the lane to head towards the railway line, we didn't cross it here. We followed the railway a short distance crossing a few stiles, we crossed one stile into a filed with black and brown cows that looked very pretty in the sunshine. We carried on talking not paying much attention to the cows, and then realised that they were following us. They caught up to us as we were supposed to cross another stile, but we weren't able to get to it before the cows had crowded in so we had to climb over the gate.

Then we headed to Plumley village. We crossed a footbridge over the ditch, and followed a path between garden fences.We turned right onto the main road towards Plumley Methodist Church, then left into Trouthall Lane. There were quite few people out and about around in the village chatting and walking their dogs.

When the lane bend to the left we took the no-through road.  We crossed a stream (Peover Eye) and turned right at the footpath sign and over a stile into a track by a large wooden gate in a high wall.There was a man breaking up stuff in a skip, it sounded like he was breaking glass. We continued along the path and across some fields where we came to a bridge that crossed the railway line.

We then followed the path doing a left and right to keep ahead, and stepped over an old cattle grid. We continued to a gate and passed to the left of a house. There was a lot of barking as we passed the gate. At the end of the garden wall we looked back at the dogs and could see three different kinds, they stayed on the gravel to start with and then ran onto the grass. We turned right at a footpath and went over a stile into birch woodland. This was Holford Moss and we saw lots of fungi in the woods along the path. It was quite humid under the trees.

Coming out of the woods we followed the field edge to a stile, and continued along the hedge passing a car park and office building for the Holford Brine Field. We decided to have our lunch here on  the grass verge there was on old pipe with concrete on it so we sat on that and had our lunch. (11.50am - just a bit early!). As we were sitting there we could see men in yellow hi-vis jackets and cars turning.

We followed the driveway to a crossroads where there was a field with cars in it. Hilary asked one of the men what was going on, he said there was a funeral, they were going to have a service in the marquee and then the family were going to go to walk the Crematorium at Lach Dennis. In the marquee in the field across the road we could see one section had covered tables and there were also rows of chairs.

We turned right on Moss Lane walking passed Langford Farm, we could see a group of men behind a shed for Country Kitchen and once we had passed a small tractor with a trailer came out with the coffin on the back and the men followed, and at the crossroads they turned towards the marquee.

There were swallows flying around and landing on the cables across the road and the birds sweeping around the farm buildings as well.

There was a strange dead hedge along one side of the road, it had recently been cut back. It was hard to decide what had happened to the hedge and the trees. As they was dead perhaps they had been poisoned, the other idea was that fire had caused the problem especially as some of the grass was grey coloured.

Then we passed Hame Farm on the right, and continued along the track through the trees until we reached the railway. Then we turned left and after a little way we turned right through a metal gate and crossed the railway line with care. We followed the track with woodland on our right and we could see the black-and-white Holford Hall in the distance.

We came out onto a lane and had to watch for cars, we crossed a bridge over the Peover Eye and headed up the road. We could hear lots of voices ahead, coming from a building on the left. This turned out to be The Mill and there were quite a few cars outside so we wondered what was going on. When we got to the A556 there was a sign saying 'Wedding Venue' so we had our answer.

We crossed the A556 and walked along the pavement, passing the old car wash place that now has car sales,to the traffic lights and then crossed back across to The Smoker.

Plumleys Garden Centre for tea and cake (coffee and walnut, fruit tart and blueberry blondie).