RUSHTON SPENCER, BOSLEY CLOUD AND ENVIRONS
Distance: 9 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Weather: Sunny
Walkers: George Whaites, George Dearsley,
Pete Beal, Malc Halley, Colin Davison, Tom Cunliffe, Lawrie Fairman, Alan Hart
Apologies: Julian Ross (cycling in
Belgium), Jock Rooney (Isle of Man), John Laverick (man flu), Mickey Barrett
(skiing in Austria)
B Walkers: Geoff Spurrell, Tony Job, Mike
Walton and Ken Sparrow
Leader: Fairman Diarist: Dearsley
Starting Point: The car park near the Knot
Inn, Rushton Spencer
Starting Time: 9.35am. Finishing Time: 2.20pm
Spring is here! The first snowdrops of the
year to be seen by the Wednesday Wanderers were recorded on this enjoyable
walk. From snow to snowdrops in just four weeks.
Snowdrops
We came out of the car park and walked past
a building carrying a plaque which said “Ruston Station 1844”.
The
railway station was built for the Leek and Macclesfield Railway and was eventually
taken over by the North Staffordshire Railway. It is now a dwelling house, of course.
I’m
sure the Wanderers, like me, admired the coursed and dressed sandstone; banded
and shaped tile roof; verge parapets with finials on corbelled
kneelers and the circular and diamond shafted corniced stone stacks.
The
poor commuters of yesteryear never had the pleasure of a cheery wave from the
wide-eyed Polish Big Issue seller and the aggressive tramp with the Tam o’ Shanter and can of
cheap cider.
We took a path on the right and then went down
some steps to the left.
We
crossed a stream, went over a stile, up some steps and through a wood.
A
short climb was involved. This took us to Raven’s Clough.
At
10.07am we saw the snowdrops (above) and worrying also heard gunfire (just a
clay pigeon shoot hopefully?).
We
went over a stile on the left and Bosley Cloud hove into view.
Near the top of Bosley Cloud
Another climb was undertaken and this
brought us onto a road where we turned left.
At 10.29am Mr Fairman stopped to remove a
stone in his shoe, without the aid of a Swiss Army knife or anaesthetic.
We dog legged right and saw a sign which
said “to Cloud Summit”
View from near the top of Bosley Cloud
We duly ascended some steps and by 10.40am
had reached the top of Bosley Cloud.
The Chief Druids discuss how best to get a
sacrificial virgin on such a small altar
At 343 metres (1,125 ft) in height,Bosley
Cloud is one of the highest hills in the area. Its heather-covered summit
plateau is crowned by a trig point from which extensive views over Congleton,
Biddulph, Macclesfield, Holmes Chapel, and the Greater Manchester area can be
enjoyed.
The Cloud sits at the northern apex of a
triangle formed by the broken ridge which runs along the border between
Cheshire and Staffordshire and the hills stretching south through Biddulph Moor
into Staffordshire. To its north, the River Dane wraps around its lower slopes
whilst the A523 road runs to its east through the village of Bosley in
Southeast Cheshire.
The place is linked to a phenomenon known
as the double sunset , an extraordinary
astro-geographical phenomenon, which was traditionally seen against The Cloud
from the churchyard of Saint Edward the Confessor in Leek, in Staffordshire, on
the summer solstice.
In clear weather, the sun sets on the
summit of the hill, partially reappears from The Cloud's steep northern slope
and soon afterwards sets for a second and final time on the horizon.
The occurrence was first recorded in
writing in 1686 by Dr Robert Plot in his book The Natural History Of Staffordshire,
and may well have been observed for centuries before then.
The spectacle is no longer visible from its
traditional observation point because of tree interference, but can still be
witnessed on the summer solstice from Leek: from the road to Pickwood Hall, off
Milltown Way, and less well from Lowe Hill on the outskirts of the town.
Better observation sites of the phenomenon
are from the A523 above Rudyard Lake, and Woodhouse Green. Both of these events and their locations are
described in detail in Jeff Kent's book The Mysterious Double Sunset.
A double Sundowner would be more
appropriate for the Wanderers.
After a brief stop to admire a metal map
that amazingly had not been defaced (vandals clearly haven’t the puff to get up
so high) we took a path to the left and
began our descent.
At 10.49am Pie Time was declared and Mr
Cunliffe asked if he could “borrow” some loo paper.
None was available but certainly no
Wanderer would want it to be returned.
Mr Cunliffe duly disappeared into the
undergrowth, presumably armed with either a handful of grass or that day’s Sun
newspaper.
After a full 10 minutes of gourmandising we
set off again down the hill.
We went down some steps (11.15am) and
followed a sign saying “Gritstone Trail”.
We reached a road and turned left, then
took a path on the right.
This brought us into “Timbersbrook Picnic
Area”, essentially a large car park with a seated area just about big enough to
accommodate a family of four.
Clearly picnics aren’t that fashionable in
Staffs.
Back in the day there used to be a
bleaching a dyeing works nearby.
Workers would hurry on their break or after
work to seek sustenance at a café run by a woman called Old Fanny Moss, which
sounds more like a gynaecological condition.
Sadly Google could shed no more light on
Fanny, although the search engine did helpfully throw up a few interesting sites that occupied
your diarist for an hour or two.
The tall chimney of the Silver Springs
Bleaching and Dyeing Works at Timbersbrook could be seen for miles around
before it was demolished by Blaster Bates in 1966.
Water from Timbers Brook was once used to
power the silk mill and the old Mill Pool is now a locally important breeding
pond for toads.
According to a council website, “lucky” walkers might even see a Kingfisher
or Heron silently waiting by the waters edge ready to pounce on any
unsuspecting fish they spot. Sadly our luck was out.
Within a few hundred yards, however, we did
spy a peacock, adorning a very sumptuous abode, as we turned right out of the
car park.
Peacock
What kind of person keeps a peacock on
their front lawn (done in a Lloyd Grossman voice) ?
We went left onto the Gritstone Trail,
through a kissing-gate and across a field.
This, at 11.55am, brought as to the “half
way point” the Coach and Horses, not the Waggon and Horses as Mr Fairman had
forecast. A moot point.
Unicorn and Dizzy Blonde, both £3, were on
good form.
Mr Cunliffe tucked into his obligatory
plate of chips.
Tom's chips
We set off at 1.38pm, going out of the pub
and straight over the road.
We turned left and then right into Cherry
Lane.
Within a minute we were approaching
Llamaland a large house and surrounding fields featuring dozens of inquisitive
llamas and other creatures.
As every schoolboy knows, llamas are
members of the South American camelid family and are mostly found in the high
altiplano regions of the Andes in Peru, Bolivia and Chile.
They are the domesticated cousin of the
wild guanaco and are extensively used by the Andean people and in the past by
the Incas, as beasts of burden, for food, for fibre and their hides used as
leather.
The British Llama Society has been set up
to promote all aspects of llama and Guanaco ownership - good husbandry,
breeding, trekking, driving, showing and much more. It publishes a quarterly
magazine, Llama Llink, a magazine that surely has been featured on Have I Got
News For You.
We then past Overton Hall. We joined a road
that came in from the left and after a few hundred yards went left over a
stile.
We went up a narrow path with prickly
leaves to our left. At 1.03pm lunch was declared.
We set off again at 1.11pm carrying on a
straight line past Flowery Fields Farm.
We reached a road and turned right. This
was Pines Lane. At a T-junction we turned left. We passed Green Meadows Farm. We
crossed a muddy field and onto a road where we turned right.
We passed Deepdale House and took a path on
the right (1.50pm).
We crossed a field, reached a road and went
straight on.
This brought us to St Lawrence Church,
Rushton.
There is a whiff of Midsomer Murders here.
The grave of Thomas Meakin, who was buried
in 1781, is the only one in the churchyard facing east. Thomas, a groom, was in love with his master's
(an apothecary) daughter.
The old man did not approve and eyebrows were raised when Thomas suddenly died and was hurriedly buried
(in Stone, Staffs).
His favourite pony kept returning to his
grave and pawing the ground. When his worried friends finally exhumed the body they
found him lying face down.
Had he been poisoned and buried alive? The
apothecary had the motive and the means. Sadly John Nettles was not around. After
that, Thomas’s family brought his remains back to Rushton they were reburied at
St Lawrence's.
We went over a railway bridge, dropped down
a slope and turned right to go under the bridge we had just crossed. At 2.20pm
we were back at the cars.
After de-booting we drove to the Old Kings
Head at Gurnett, where Speckled Hen and Tim Taylor’s Landlord were both £3.20
and Banks’ was £3.
Old Speckled Hen, an English ale from the
Morland Brewery, now owned by Greene King Brewery, took its name from an MG car
which was used as a runaround for workers in the MG factory.
It was first brewed in 1979 in Abingdon,
Oxfordshire, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the MG car factory there. Since 2000, when Greene King bought Morland
and closed down the Abingdon brewery, it has been made in Greene King's Bury St
Edmunds brewery.
It
is available in more than twenty different countries in bottles, cans and on
tap from cask and keg. The brand has been expanded to include Old Crafty Hen, a
6.5% abv ale and Old Golden Hen, a golden coloured 4.1% beer.
B walkers Ken Sparrow, Geoff Spurrell, Tony Job and Mike Walton
completed a strenuous route of seven miles from the Knot Inn around the Dane
Valley, calling en route at the Ship Inn in Dane Bridge. The last three named
joined the A-team at the King's Head.
I have been instructed to record that Ivor Jones has a new rescue
dog, Sid, 7, replacing the much-loved Brandy who passed away in January.
Next week’s walk will start at 9.45am from the Queen’s Arms at
Taddington.
(Hit Control and click on the link below)
The half way point will be the Packhorse at Little Longstone.
Mr Beal will be in the Lakes. Happy Wandering!
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