Middlewich walk and planning

Saturday 4 January 3.8 miles

Hilary, Donna, Tracey, Jane and Carol

Sunny weather!

We met at the Big Lock.

From the Big Lock we walked clockwise along the canals. First we were on the Trent and Mersey canal and then joined the Middlewich Branch of the Shropshire Union canal. We came off and walked along Coalpit Lane. At the A54 we walked to the Stanthorne Bridge and crossed the road to join the path beside the River Wheelock, the path continues around until The Wheelock joins the River Dane. We came back to the canal by the bridge over the river. We followed the path back to the Big Lock. The pub did not open until 12 o'clock so we sat in the sunshine on the seats outside, we did get a bit cold.

Once the pub opened we had lunch at the Big Lock - two B.L.T. toasted sandwiches and three nachos and chilli beef.

Then we did our planning meeting.

Get Together

Saturday 14 December 2019

All ten of us made it.

Christmas meal at the Hayhurst in the small dining room, a ggod room to meet so that we can hear the chat.

A Walk to Wrenbury Mill

Saturday 30 November 6.5 miles
Carol, Hilary, Donna, Tracey and Jane

The bright cold weather arrived after the rain. Middlewich was in sunshine when we left but it was cloudy as we travelled into the Cheshire countryside.

Carol had a printed a local map with a walk drawn on it. At various times it has been suggested that we make up our own walks by picking out walks from a map, so with no directions it was hard to pick out the way we needed to go.

From Carol's house we went down the road, it was a bit muddy in places, especially at the place where the road had been dug up and from the fallen leaves which were making a mulch all over the road.

Near the end of the lane there was a for sale sign and it was for Caldecott Barn which had been converted into a 4 bed house with 2 acres of land being sold for £550,000. At the junction with the main road we turned right and found the stile in the hedge, there was a lady with a dog and questionied if we had a dog. I think she was pleased when we said we hadn't. She then talked about the dead that were buried beneath the ground and how they would be floating in their coffins because there had been so much rain.

The overnight low temperatures had made the water on the leaves of the grass frosty. When we walked through the grass the frost gathered on our boots. It looked like snow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We came to a field of corn but we couldn't find a way through to start with. Donna and Tracey went over the stile to find the way but there was nothing obvious, Carol went along the field edge and found a gate into the corn field and also found that there was a path through the corn. It would have been a bit soon to be turning back as we had really on just started! We were able to walk through the corn field but in getting closer to the edge of the corn we could see water. Due to the heavy ran during the last week many low lying parts of fields had water sitting on them. Fortunately we were able to follow the edge of the corn towards a hedge.

Finding our way for the next bit was quite difficult, we followed the hedge to a gate but we were not sure whether to go through, Donna continued along the hedge where she found the stile we were supposed to be using but there was no way to get through the overgrown hedge. We went through the gate. We followed the rise in the field but with no obvious path we thought the needed to follow the hedge, we were discussing whether or not to follow the track but the map seemed to show the path closer to the hedge. When we went to the top of the rise where there was an electric fence we noticed the yellow arrow on the wooden post. We had to take out one of the electric fence metal spikes so we could get onto the path. it was wet and muddy even though we were at the top of the slope and the sheep were further down.

The weather was starting to brighten as we came out into a field with a more open view and a very large flock of geese flew over us. There was a field full of water in front of us, it looked like a natural lake, but I wonder if the field had just filled with water. Fortunately the path went around by the hedge.

As the ground was so wet I wasn't sure if we would find somewhere to sit down, we were pleased to see two benches at Wrenbury Mill so we could sit on them and have our lunch. The sun was bright by now so it was a shame that the benches weren't in the sunshine, but we were able to look at the canal boats moored across the canal. We walked along the canal to the canal lift bridge, and crossed it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In places the path was not obvious, we needed to turn off to the left after Sprostonwood Farm but there was no obvious path marked, in fact where there should have been a stile  we had to go under the wire fence and then under a piece of string to get to the right side of the hedge.  A bit further on we found a stile in the water and were headed in the direction of the arrow on the stile. I felt that we were not going in the correct direction so I got out my compass to check which direction to go in. We then noticed the back of the stile post which had two arrows with one going straight on in the direction we had come from and the other one going in the direction we wanted.

At one point we needed to go between the woods marked as Wrenbury woods, it was not obvious which way we needed to go there was a stile in the fence line so we crossed that but when we got to the end of the field there was no obvious way to go. We followed the edge of the wood back towards the way we came and found a stile. The woods marked on the map were not as extensive in actual fact.

We joined Chorley Hall Lane for a short while, we were not sure if we needed to go down the farm entrance but we decided we needed to so that we could cross the fields to Springe Lane. then it was a short walk back to the house. We passed a small 2 bed converted barn with 1.14 acres was for sale, and Carol told us it was on the market for £385,000.

We returned to Carol's house where we had tea and lemon drizzle cake. Mmmmm!

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.