Arley

Saturday 5 October 8 miles
Hilary and Donna

Hilary's walk, just Donna and Hilary,  
Tracey and Jane not well with colds and Carol busy with the house.

A calm, quiet, dry Autumn day. We parked in the small signposted

"Walkers car park" We walked around the Arley estate and had our lunch

by a field of horses and were entertained by a lady trying to get a rug

on her horse. She eventually succeeded. Hilary bumped into Pam from the

Birds of Prey, Stockley Farm. along the way. Pam is flying her birds now

from the old Stockley Farm car park. We had a cuppa at the cafe at Arley

Hall where there was a "Peaky Blinders" themed wedding taking place.

Smiths Lane to Booths Mere

Saturday 7 September 8.5- 8.8 miles?

Tracey, Carol and Jane

6 mile walk +  walk from parking place to start and back 1.3 miles, + between 1.2 - 1.5 miles trying to find our way through the woods and back onto the right road = approximately 8.5 - 8.8 miles!

It was difficult to find anywhere to park along Smiths Lane, so we went to the station and there was a space. Crossed the level crossing turned left onto Smiths Lane to find the start of the walk.

We found the stile in the hedge by Smith Lane Farm and went across the fields and over the train line. As we walked away from the line a Drax train passed. There were also planes flying overhead.

Having crossed Broadoak Lane we came to the industrial estate, and on Parkgate Lane we passed the post office delivery centre. A postman said hello to us. We turned left onto Mobberley Road, and longed along the road until we came to Shaw Drive. We went through the woods by the children's playing field (where there were some children playing) from one estate to another, turning left on Boothfields.

From Longridge we were to cross the heathland, we followed the path which was through wood land, we didn't manage to find Booths Mere nor did we manage to find our way out of the woods in the right place, we ended up finding our way back to Longridge. We had tried to sit on a log to eat our lunch but a lot of flies came around so we didn't stay there.

We had our lunch sitting on a bench by the bus stop on Longridge, it was also by the park. There were children playing in the garden of a nearby house but not on the playground. We could see a person in the distance throwing a ball but we couldn't see the dog to start with.

We then made our way by road back to our route. We went by Mobberley Road, then Ryecroft Lane and meet two big tractors with trailers with bails on the corner of Pavement Lane. We followed the lane to Pavement Farm an then zigzagged on to the track that is still called Pavement Lane.

We passed along the edge of fields of corn, we came to a stile passed it, the path was difficult to find so we went back to the stile and went over it, we decided to continue along side the fields of corn so we climbed back over the stile. This is where we went too far.

We knew we needed to head north here and so we headed for the church. We could see cricket being played. We returned to the main road, crossed it then went over the fields to Church Lane. Turned off Church lane at the bend walking alongside the farm. We crossed the fields and as we were near the airport lots of aircraft were going over our heads. We could hear a dog barking, obviously complaining at our presence. Then we headed over the fields to the road, finding Smith Lane and our way back to the station.

Plumley Garden Centre for tea and cake, we had two lemon drizzle cakes and one coffee and walnut cake

Get Together

Saturday 24 August

Birthday Get Together for Hilary

The Hayhurst Arms in the small dining room.

Gawsworth Hall

Friday 26 July

Birthday Get Together

Fleetwood Bac in the Garden Theatre. Good music, good singing, good band.

We had a picnic on the lawn.

Adlington, Adlington Basin and Styperson Pool

Saturday 6 July 6.5 miles
Jane, Tracey and Donna

Rain!!! 

We parked in the lay-by on the A523 near the Legh Arms, then went to the crossroads and up Brookledge Lane to Wych Lane into Wych Wood.

There were lots of stiles and fields to cross and as it had been raining the grass was we, so we got a bit wet too.

We crossed Middlewood Way and then joined the towpath walking along the Macclesfield Canal. We found the path that left the canal and crossed fields and roads and the canal going through a caravan site. Just before Woodend Farm we turned left to follow a track to Adlington Basin. We decided to stop here and have our lunch. We walked along a track to Lockgate Farm and on on to Shrigley Lane. At the little triangle with Brookledge Lane we continued on until we found the footpath sign for Styperson Pool.

We were lucky enough to see some butterflies as the day got a bit brighter. We went round the pool onto Sugar Lane. From here we quite quickly turned along a path going over the canal and then a bridge under Middlewood Way. We then had to be a bit careful to follow the instructions to Wych Farm and then back to where the car was parked.

The most important question was where to have tea and cake? As we were north of Macclesfield we decided on Arighi Bianchi.

The Old Parsonage

Saturday 8 June
Jane and Hilary

Not a walk then??? No, a garden visit instead!

The Old Parsonage is in a secluded part of the Arley estate that was open on 8 and 9 June under the National Garden Scheme. We parked in the field close to the house, on a field with a number of cars. On leaving of the field by the gate we came in we turned left onto Back Lane, we passed the impressive Chaplain's Cottages and School on the right hand side with their impressive chimneys. To get to the garden we walked down past a tree and in the side entrance which was an arched entrance in the hedge. 

The Old Parsonage is a pretty house owned by The Hon. Rowland and Mrs, Flower, it did belong to the Viscount and Viscountess Ashbrook, but they have moved elsewhere on the estate leaving the younger members of the family to appreciate the house.

The two acres of garden were pleasant to walk around. The garden is not impressive but very pleasant to sit in and stroll around in.

You could sit in the garden having your tea and cake, we sat on the chairs on a small patio area facing the lawned area of the house. on some very nice metal chairs that had a bit of give in them so were very comfortable. We had a cup of tea with chocolate cake and a scone, made by a lady in Nantwich.

We went for a walk on leaving the garden, going down along Back Lane to the lake that had a couple of swans on it and across the bridge with Arley Brook going under it. Then we continued on past a small house to look at the sheep in the field. We continued our walk on to Sack Lane so following Arley Brook, Hilary was hoping to find a short circular walk but I couldn't find one on my phone. We walked to the end of Sack Lane, and back to the car - probably only about 1.5 miles.

Mobberley and Great Warford

Saturday 11 May 5.5 miles
Hilary, Tracey and Jane

The day started out quite sunny with some warmth to the sunshine.

We found our way to Faulkner’s Lane, Mobberley and parked on the road behind another car. Then it was time for boots on and decisions about how many layers to wear, as it was warm in the sunshine we put on jackets without fleeces. We found the lane leading to Coppock House (Coppock House is for sale for £2,500.000), we followed the lane over Mobberley Brook and past the farmhouse and the barns that have been converted into houses, went through the metal gate and followed the obvious path across the field. After crossing the stile we read the instructions again, but with no map we could not be sure we had gone the right way. Fortunately Jane had a map of the area in her rucksack, we were supposed to have gone around the farm buildings and back to Faulkner’s Lane and the Frozen Mop and walked up the road, we decided to continue across the fields instead, so we could arrive at Pedley House Lane without walking on the road.

From the map we could see that we didn't need to walk to the farmhouse we could go straight across the fields opposite, the path led us to Ancoats Lane. We went past a entrance which gave the names on a board like Highgrove and Sandringham - the whole place is 'Highgrove' and has been turned into flats. The lodge cottage looked very nice, with an archway leading to a gate. Further along Ancoats we admired another house called 'White Stables', a very pretty symmetrical house, and when we went around the corner we could see the swimming pool! 

We left Warford  Lane to join a path through fields with horses. we managed to get to the track to turn left, then found the gate that took us along a field edges, we came out near some houses. The first house looked very interesting, it looked like it could have been a barn - and Hilary said she wouldn't mind living there! It is called Noah's Ark Barn and sold for £840,000 in 2017. The house next door is Noahwood house and has a black and white exterior. There were a couple of small dogs that barked a hearty welcome as we passed by. On Noah's Ark Lane we crossed Mobberley Brook again, followed the road to the corner  and then crossed the fields.

There were some young cows in this field so they were curious about us, and followed us to the stile. The field had been newly fenced and as we crossed the field we could see the stile clearly. The instructions said the stile was hard to see, and after we crossed the new stile we found on old stile in the hedge which would have been hard to find. We crossed another field we decided it was probably time to find somewhere to eat. We had our lunch sitting on a concrete drain in the middle of the field! we crossed the Knutsford Road, and followed a drive to a farm. There was a strange set of shrubs in the middle of a field to the right which seemed a little odd. We continued through the farmyard and on across the fields to Paddockhill Lane, and followed the lane until we got to Moss lane Where we had to look out for a stile.

Over the stile we were into fields that had been split up, some parts with a metal fence. We followed the path signs across each of the fields but ended up in a field with no exit even though we were by the road. We looked at the map, read the instructions again and realised we should have gone along the edge of one of the fields. We were about to walk back on ourselves but the rain suddenly came down very heavily so tried to shelter under the hedge trees but we still got a bit wet.The path was well marked across the fields so lots of people must have come this way and on my old map it showed the map going to the road. We found our way across the fields and onto the path that brought us back to the Knutsford Road.

It seemed a bit strange that we had to look out for a brick archway but in walking along the verge a little there it was at the end of the barn. We followed the path then went across the field back to Faulkner's Lane and so back to the car.

We had tea and cake at Donna's house, homemade Bakewell tart with WI jam to be precise! Yum, yum, yum!