Lyme Park

LYME PARK, HIGHER DISLEY, BOLDER HALL FARM, MOORSIDE HOTEL HAWKHURST HEAD, TODD BROOK, THE SWAN AT KETTLESHULME, TODD BROOK RESERVOIR, HOCKERLEY, WHALEY BRIDGE, THE DANDY COCK AT DISLEY AND RED LANE BACK TO LYME PARK

Distance: Eight miles.

Difficulty: Moderate.

Weather: Cloudy but mainly dry.

Walkers: Colin Davison, Alan Hart, John Laverick, Geoff Spurrell and Mike Walton.

Leaders: Spurrell and Davison.

Driver: Spurrell. Diarist: Hart.

Apologies: Peter Beal (Greek island hols), George Dearsley (working), Lawrie Fairman (Greek island hols), Jock Rooney (North Sea diving), Ken Sparrow (too wet), George Whaites (working).

Starting point: Lyme Park car park.

Starting time: 10.21am. Finishing time: 4.05pm.

After two days of incessant rain we had hoped there would be none left to fall by Wednesday morning. It was, however, still persisting down at 9am so your diarist informed Colin of his intention to wait and see whether conditions improved.

Colin snorted his derision down the phone line and decided to set a stoical example, arriving at The Cock car park at the designated time ready to brave the elements. Having discovered he was in a group of one, and with rain still falling, he drove back home and set off on foot through Disley when the rain stopped.

Meanwhile the B walkers, having recruited and collected your diarist, drove to the car park at Lyme Park. Using the Wednesday Wanderers’ motto – firm of purpose but flexible in manner – Geoff devised a route which would allow us to reach our halfway target at the appointed hour.

Then, by despatching our fleet-footed A walkers to The Cock at Whaley Bridge to warn any non-walking drinkers of a change of venue, they tarried a while longer than usual in the convivial surroundings of The Swan at Kettlehulme before catching a bus to Disley.

Thus we remained largely dry on the outside if a little wetter than usual on the inside, by using a combination of common sense and rat-like cunning. It transpired that much of Colin’s early journey was not dissimilar from our own. Whereas he had walked into Disley and ventured up Ring o’ Bells Lane by the side of The White Horse to head for the reservoir and turn right into Millenium Wood to reach Bolder Hall Farm at Higher Disley, we reached the same spot from Lyme Park.

The following brief account is of that taken initially by the B walkers and your diarist from Lyme Park to Kettleshulme, , and later by Colin and your diarist as we headed at speed from Kettleshulme to Whaley Bridge.

From the car park we walked back past Lyme Hall, the mansion which was bequeathed to the National Trust, along with the deer park. The estate was originally granted to Sir Thomas Danyers in 1346 and passed to the Leghs of Lyme by marriage in 1388. It stayed in the possession of the Legh family until 1946 when it passed to the NT.

The house dates from the late 16^th Century, with modifications by Giacomo Leoni in the 1720s, using Palladian and baroque styles. Further alterations were carried out by Lewis Wyatt in the 19^th Century.

Lyme Hall has been used as a setting in several films and TV programmes, most memorably as Pemberley, the family seat of Mr Darcy, in the 1995 BBC adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice.”  Women viewers gave out a collective gasp of admiration as actor Colin Firth emerged, hairy-chested and breeches dripping, from the Lyme Park lake.

As we headed for the eastern gate exit we spotted a magnificent stag on the crest of a hill to our right. The animal, with at least ten points on his antlers, came to within 80 yards of us. John took a set of photos with his mobile phone and commented wryly that his friend had travelled all the way to Scotland that day to stalk deer. This one appeared to have been stalking us before loping arrogantly away.

After leaving Lyme Park we reached a wooden public footpath sign on our right indicating the way to Bowstones. We crossed the stile but turned left towards Kettleshulme instead. We emerged on the road out of Disley and turned right to pass Bolder Hall Farm on our left.

We turned left uphill towards The Moorside Hotel, pausing at a convenient wall for pietime, before resuming our route through fields towards Kettleshulme. The rain had turned Tood Brook into a raging torrent which barely passed under the roadbridge as we made our way into Kishfield Lane and reached the road between Whaley Bridge and Macclesfield.

A right turn soon brought us to The Swan on our left (140mins). Here we found Colin, just about to start his second pint of Marstons’ cask bitter at £2-85. A discussion took place about the next stage of our journey. It was decided we should catch a bus nearby to Disley and change the final venue from The Cock at Whaley Bridge to The Dandy Cock at Disley.

In the absence of any mobile signal, your diarist was despatched to a public phone box 100 yards away to inform Tony Job of the new venue to prevent any non-walking drinkers from turning up at The Cock. Sadly the phone box would not accept cash and I, dear readers, had not brought any credit cards.

A sign seemed to provide the answer. It was possible to make automated reverse charge calls. My efforts proved fruitless. The automated voice informed me the subscriber had refused to accept a transfer charge call. I had momentarily forgotten Tony was from Yorkshire.

A second attempt, in which I changed my name from Mr Hart to Mr Dandycock, also fell on stony ground but I hoped the message had got through.

This setback caused another plan to be formulated in which Colin and I would rush over to Whaley Bridge as fast as possible, while the B walkers lingered over further pints before catching a bus which went to Disley via Whaley.

We walked straight through the nursery opposite the pub, turned right at the church and left along Kishfield Lane, crossing Todd Brook and keeping to the road as it went steeply uphill before veering right towards the Hockerley suburb of Whaley Bridge.

En route Colin finally received a signal powerful enough to ring Tony and establish that none of the non-walking drinkers would be able to join us. Consequently there was no need to show our faces in The Cock so we steered left away from the reservoir and down to Whaley Bridge Station.

We had only been there a minute when a bus to Disley arrived containing our companions. We alighted at The Dandy Cock for pints of cask mild at £2-50 and bitter at £2-60.

A phone call from Colin’s all-singing all-dancing mobile phone computer camera compact disc television video recorder enabled us to book an electric conveyance to drive us from the gate at Lyme Hall one mile to the car park.

We were thus able to walk diagonally across the Disley traffic lights and go just behind The Ram’s Head into Red Lane and turn right to walk back into Lyme Park. As we approached our invalid carriage, Wally gave a marvellous impersonation of a wounded Nazi stormtrooper hobbling back from Stalingrad.

With immaculate timing, we were thus spared the rain which had started to fall as we were transported in style back to Geoff’s car.

Next week’s walk will start from Disley Station’s free car park at 9.25am. It is proposed that we have a livener in The Soldier Dick on the border of Disley and Furness Vale between 12.15 and 12.30pm, finishing at The Dandy Cock around 2.30pm.