Poynton

POYNTON, LADYBROOK , LOWER PARK PRIMARY SCHOOL, WOODFORD AERODROME, AVRO GOLF COURSE, SHIRDFOLD FARM, ADLINGTON HALL, DEAN VALLEY, ADLINGTON WATER TREATMENT PLANT, OLD HALL BARN, DAVENPORT ARMS AT WOODFORD, PEAR TREE COTTAGE, BRAMHALL QUEENSGATE PRIMARY SCHOOL, HAYBROOK FARM, PARK LODGE, THE BULL’S HEAD AT POYNTON

Distance: 10 miles.

Difficulty: Easy.

Weather: Mainly dry with two brief showers and sunshine later.

Walkers: Nigel Crank, Steve Courtney, Tom Cunliffe, Colin Davison, George Dearsley, Lawrie Fairman, Alan Hart, John Laverick, Julian Ross and George Whaites.

B walkers: Tony Job, Terry Jowett and Geoff Spurrell.

Non-walking drinkers: Frank Dudley and John Eckersley.

Apologies: Mickey Barrett (supervising domestic post mopping-up operations), Peter Morrall (prolonged Spanish hols), Jock Rooney (Isle of Man tax exile).

Leader: Laverick. Diarist: Hart.

Starting point: Car park of Bull’s Head, London Road North, Poynton.

Starting time: 9.30am. Finishing time: 1.57pm.

This was a predominantly flat walk pioneered by John, using a new route and including two welcoming pubs. As we are all, essentially, drinkers with a walking problem, the day was deemed highly enjoyable. What our journey lacked in hills to provide outstanding views, it benefited from some surprising new trails for the Poyntonians within our ranks and a slice of aviation history.

We were also delighted to receive a visit from Frank, our 97-year-old mate, who was defying doctor’s orders earlier this year to cut down on his drinking. Since he gave up his 50-a-day smoking habit when he retired at the age of 70, there has only been sex, drugs and drink to keep him going. Frank has reluctantly cut down on the first two categories in order to concentrate on the third.

Frank Dudley (right)

Despite the absence of climbing, which caused Tom to describe it as “a white handbag walk,” he insisted on bringing two hiking poles which he used to irritate his comrades by dragging them along the road behind him. This made a flesh-creeping noise with a similar effect to chalk squeaking on a blackboard. One fears that someday soon a Wanderer might snap and try to insert the poles in that part of the owner’s anatomy where the sun doesn’t shine - and it might be me!

Leaving the car park of The Bull’s Head we turned left into Vicarage Lane and followed it to a bridge over a stream (5mins). Here we encountered the all too familiar sight of Himalayan balsam taking control of the riverbank. We followed a path along the right bank of a stream which led to a road passing Lower Park Primary School, Poynton, on our right (12mins).

We turned right along Chester Road, went over the railway bridge at Poynton Station, crossed the road and turned left into Lostock Hall Road (19mins). This petered out into an adopted road where we followed a green public footpath sign (22mins). Just before a white cottage we turned left (29mins) and went off the track to our right (32mins) heading diagonally right across a field.

We stepped over a broken fence and reached a tall, barbed wire-topped fence surrounding Woodford Aerodrome (35mins). Woodford, the most southerly point of the Greater Manchester conurbation, had been a sleepy hamlet in the parish of Prestbury until 1924 when the aerodrome was opened on farmland by Avro.

They had become part of the Hawker Siddeley Group in the mid-1930s, building thousands of Avro Ansons for use as patrol aircraft, training flights and light transports. In the early part of the war they built 200 Avro March bombers, with unreliable Rolls Royce Vulture engines.

Vulcan

These were updated and 4,000 Avro Lancasters were built, powered by Rolls Royce Merlin engines, which formed the background of RAF Bomber Command, raining death and destruction on German cities and factories during World War 11 to turn the tide in the Allies’ favour.

Lincoln bombers and Shackleton maritime reconnaissance aircraft were later built at Woodford and from 1960 civilian aircraft were constructed here. Later the distinctive delta-winged Vulcan four-jet nuclear bomber was developed at Woodford. It was used to bomb the runway at Port Stanley after the Argentinians invaded the Falkland Islands in 1982.

The company changed its name to British Aerospace, which built 2,000 Nimrod reconnaissance planes. By 1989, 3,000 people were employed by the firm. In 2009 BAE announced the site would close in 2012 with the loss of the final 630 jobs. The site is now the subject of a planning application for the construction of more than 900 houses.

Woodford’s other claim to fame is that it was at one time the home of two footballers who in different eras had worn the Number 7 shirt at Manchester United with great distinction – George Best and Cristiano Ronaldo.

We walked with the fence on our right now protecting a cornfield, but in the distance we saw a Vulcan bomber at the opposite side of the aerodrome. The path brought us to a low tunnel under the Manchester-Stoke railway line, where we crouched for 20 yards to emerge outside The Old Station House, Poynton’s first station, now converted into a home occupied by absent Wanderer Pete Morrall.

We turned left and reached the main road (45mins), where we turned right. Our route then took us along the main road towards Macclesfield, passing twilight homes for the bewildered and giving us a glimpse of our own futures.

At a bridge over the railway (51mins) we turned right following a public footpath sign and descended a flight of steps. We passed Hope Green Cottage on our right and Cherry Tree Barn on our left before following a sign for the Junior Quad Bike Centre (54mins). We walked past Avro Golf Course and Shirdfold Farm on our left, where a group of guinea fowls waddled over to inspect us.

When we reached the golf course, we turned left down wooden steps and followed a path just outside the course (66mins). The path led us past a field of four horses, which came to watch us pause for pietime (75mins). They came as close as they dared to an electrified fence and stared at us rather like a family at the zoo might observe a chimps’ tea party.

This was also an opportunity for your diarist, for the second time that day, to demonstrate the magic powers of his waterproof trousers. These have become legendary over the years for their ability to make rain disappear. Doubters were left to choke on their pies as the donning of the plastic pants stopped it raining.

Harty's magic pants

We continued, following a yellow arrow, into a field with a hedge on our right. We crossed a wooden stile and emerged opposite the entrance to Adlington Hall (87mins). This started life as a Saxon hunting lodge for Earl Edwin in 1040. After the Norman conquest, the estate was given to Hugh Lupus and remained with Norman earls until 1221 when it passed to The Crown.

Henry 111 granted the manor to Hugh de Corona, whose daughter Ellen married John de Legh of Booth in the early 14^th Century during the reign of Edward 11. It became the ancestral home of the Leghs of Adlington, with wings added through the centuries. It underwent major reconstruction in 1928 and has been designated a Grade 2 listed building by English Heritage.

To be honest, by this time we were more interested in the opening hours of the Davenport Arms nearby.

We turned right opposite the entrance and walked along the road with the River Dean soon appearing on our left. We turned right at a footpath sign leading into the Adlington Water Treatment Plant (93mins). We exited by a field following a yellow arrow (96mins).

Crossing a wooden stile marked with a yellow arrow on our right, we took a path which led us on to Avro Golf Course (107mins). We passed Old Hall Barn, built in 1660 (121mins) and emerged on a main road by the side of Oliver’s Restaurant (128mins). We crossed the road and diagonally to our right was The Davenport Arms at Woodford (129mins), which is still known by many as “The Thieves’ Neck.”

This grammatically-incorrect nickname derived from the old pub sign which depicted a black prisoner with a rope around his head. The sign, probably politically incorrect, has long since gone but the nickname lingers on.

The pub was already open at 11.47am so were able to enjoy pints of Robbies’ Unicorn bitter at £3-10 and mild at £2-85. Suitably refreshed, we left the pub and turned left, turning left again over a wooden stile (130mins) and left at a green footpath sign (134mins). We turned right to cross a field with a row of leylandai trees on our right (135mins).

We crossed two wooden stiles to reach a road and passed a thatched house called Pear Tree cottage on our left (144mins). With Bramhall Cricket Club on our right, we emerged from Church Lane and crossed the road to follow a footpath opposite (149mins). This brought us to a footbridge across a dual carriageway (153mins) and we then bore right through a set of bike barriers to enter a field containing three soccer pitches.

We stopped for lunch at two convenient logs (154mins). Continuing, we kept trees to our left, until a gap in them enabled us to reach a path, where we turned right behind the back gardens of a row of houses. We crossed a road to enter a field (158mins).

We emerged by a pedestrian crossing where we turned right and then left along a public footpath which took us past Queensgate Primary School and into a road. We turned right at a public footpath sign between two houses and emerged on Chester Road, Poynton, with Woodford Road on our left.

Lawrie, taking in the fresh country air

Turning left into Woodford Road (175mins), we crossed the railway bridge (180mins) and turned right into Lower Park Road (181mins). This took us past Haybrook Farm on our right and to the bridge across the stream we had passed earlier (193mins). We followed a public footpath and crossed Glastonbury Avenue to enter Vicarage Lane and return to the car park of The Bull’s Head (200mins).

Here we were able to down cask bitter called Life of Riley, from the Wincle Brewery, at £3 a pint, accompanied by two platters or assorted sandwiches kindly provided by Barbara and Sally-Ann Bromley. They had almost been demolished by the time the B walkers arrived breathlessly from a seven-mile round trip to The Horseshoe at High Lane.

Pie Time

Our thanks go to Barbs And Sal once again for their generous hospitality.

Next week’s walk will start at 9.45am at a car park near Allgreave, with a precise description of its whereabouts to follow later. We will attempt to establish a half-time and finishing pub in due course and let you know.