Ashton Hayes Circular

Wednesday 8 April 5 miles

Hilary, Donna, Tracey and Jane 

What glorious weather!!!

We parked on Peel Hall Lane as it is was quiet road. We walked towards the Golden Lion pub and onto Kelsall Road going past the village community shop. We went further along Kelsall road to catch a glimpse of the Grade II* listed, seventeenth-century Ashton Hall farmhouse.

Then we went back to Duck Lane and on to Shay Lane farm track, it was muddy in places. Vehicles had obviously been along the lane as there were ruts, but I am not sure how as some of the ruts were so deep. 

It was very nice going down the tree lined track, as it was quiet so we were able to listen to the birds singing. 

We came out onto Longley Lane in places we could see across the fields but it was too misty to see the Welsh hills.

We took the permissible path off the road and went into the field and followed the path around the edge of the field with the tall fir trees, we could see there were sheep and lambs in the next field. As we followed the hedge we found a sheep had escaped from the field. We found the stile in the hedge and followed the farm track. We met a farmer opening the gate to move some animals so we told him about the sheep that had escaped.

Having crossed a field we came out onto Brines Brow Lane then turned onto Old Lane, and took the fork onto Grange Lane. 

We sat on some stones for lunch, it was really part of someone’s drive, a woman with a dog came through the field, I think it was the owner of the driveway but she didn't seem to mind that we were there. 

A dustbin lorry came along the lane, I was glad we were sitting to one side as the lane wasn't very wide so there would not have been much space for the lorry and us walkers. We met a man with his son further down Grange lane and he commented on how fast vehicles went on such a narrow lane. 

As we walked along the lane could see some of the glamping tents through the trees. We went to the end of Grange Lane where there were noisy rooks in the trees.

We turned left towards Ashton Hays, and crossed the road to a path going across the fields and we came to Gongar Lane. Here we crossed over the road to the track leading to Peel Hall. The Hall is a Grade II* listed mansion house was built in 1637. 

There were horses in the fields next to the track. We followed the path around the back of the Hall and came out onto Peel Hall Lane walking along the road a short distance back to the car.

We went into Tarvin and found the cafe @Number 50 that Hilary wanted to visit and had tea and carrot cake, coffee cake and shortbread.