Dean Row

THE UNICORN AT DEAN ROW, BOLLIN VALLEY, MOTTRAM HALL GOLF COURSE, WOODSIDE FARM, THE BULL’S HEAD AT MOTTRAM CROSS, LEGH OLD HALL, WOOD END FARM HOUSE, LOWER GADHOLE FARM, THE ADMIRAL RODNEY AT PRESTBURY, PRESTBURY SEWAGE WORKS AND THE DAVENPORT ARMS (THIEF’S NECK) AT WOODFORD

Distance: 8-9 miles.

Difficulty: Easy.

Weather: Cloudy and cool but dry.

Walkers: Colin Davison, Lawrie Fairman, Alan Hart and George Whaites.

Apologies: Peter Beal (in Lanzarote), Tom Cunliffe (knee injury), George Dearsley (in Turkey), Jock Rooney (in Abu Dhabi).

Leader: Fairman. Diarist: Hart.

Starting point: Car park of The Unicorn pub at Dean Row, Handforth.

Starting time: 9.30am. Finishing time: 2.15pm.

Another week, another walk and the same four walkers as we had seven days ago. Despite forecasts of poor weather with regular showers, we enjoyed dry conditions and although there was a cold nip in the air, there was little in the way of wind (Tom is still suffering from a painful knee).

After the ascents endured on the 19th, the route could hardly have been flatter, which was a source of constant carping from Colin who is no fan of the Cheshire plains. It should have been a straightforward journey as we retraced our footsteps back along the Bollin Valley from Prestbury, but your diarist managed to get lost – the second time it has happened on this walk in identical circumstances.

On another trek our arrival at the halfway pub at 11.50am might have been the source of criticism, but pre-planning had already established that The Admiral Rodney in Prestbury was open each day at 11.30am. Who would have thought there would have been enough lushes in this leafy stockbroker belt to sustain a morning trade ? Perhaps they were all milkmen.

From the Unicorn car park we turned right and right at the nearby roundabout into Lees Lane (3mins) At a wooden public footpath sign we turned right towards Green Hollow (5mins) and went to the right of a farm to cross a stile marked with a yellow arrow (9mins).

This brought us to a gate to the right of a farm. At another gate marked with a yellow arrow we turned right and went through a kissing gate marked Bollin Valley Way. We reached a road (28mins) where we turned right, crossed a bridge and turned immediately left over a wooden stile marked Bollin Valley Way.

This took us to the right of a swollen River Bollin on a path which has been re-opened after some land reclamation and the provision of a new gate. The path led us to the right of a house and through a gate which led through a garden. This was the source of some delight for it was here where the lawyer lived who had used his legal skills to have the path temporarily closed for many years. It was tempting to pause for Pietime at the nearby wooden benches, but one must be magnanimous in victory.

We entered Mottram Hall golf course (35mins) but when the hotel came into sight we turned left just before a soccer pitch (40mins) and continued to follow the Bollin Valley Way signs which skirted the course. After snaking our way in and out of the course we made our final exit (63mins), went to the right of a house and emerged through an open gate into a muddy lane by Woodside Farm.

We turned right following a wooden public footpath sign for Mottram Cross and reached the main road by the side of The Bull’s Head, now restored as a pub after a brief spell as an Italian restaurant. Your diarist and pedant was moved to ask whether it was too much to expect people who made their living as sign-writers to be literate, having notice the absence of an apostrophe in The Bulls Head.

We followed a lane to the right of the pub for 80 yards, then turned left along a gravel track, going left at a yellow arrow in front of houses (76mins) We went through a gate which led us along a path through bushes until it took us to a wooden footbridge to our left which we crossed (80mins).

After crossing a wooden stile marked with a yellow arrow (81mins), we crossed a lane, passing a pink thatched cottage on our right before reaching a flight of steps where we stopped for Pietime (88mins) To our left was a memorial to Bella (1981-96) described as a loyal friend. Resuming we followed the path as it swung left and crossed a road, following a wooden public footpath sign (90mins).

This took us to Legh Old Hall on our left, first built in the late 16^th Century and rebuilt in the 17^th from coursed buff sandstone rubble with a Kerridge-stone slate roof (similar to that at Forest Chapel which we visited last week)

After passing the hall we turned left at a yellow arrow to go through a kissing gate into a field (94mins) following yellow arrows over a wooden stile and through another field. We crossed a wooden stile with Wood End Farm House on our left (103mins) and followed a pebbled lane to the right of it.

Turning right in front of Lower Gadhole Farm (106mins), we went through a kissing gate and kept to the left side of a field (113mins) to exit by a wooden stile into a lane, where we turned right (116mins) This brought us to a footbridge across the Bollin which we crossed and turned right, passing a soccer pitch and Prestbury Squash Club on our right before turning left into Peach Street (117mins) to reach the back of the pub (118mins). Is this, we wondered the Rear Admiral Rodney ?

The pub is named after one of our maritime heroes, whom many historians feel was on a par if not superior as a strategist and tactician to Nelson. George Brydges Rodney (1718-92) came from a distinguished but poor background, born in Walton-on-Thames and leaving Harrow School to go to sea at 14.

At the age of 24 he became one of the youngest captains in the British navy. He blockaded the Scottish coast during the Jacobite uprising of 1745 and played a prominent role in the American War of Independence. It was while he was at home suffering from ill health that the British lost the battle of Chesapeake leading to their surrender at Yorktown.

Sponsored by the Duke of Chandos, he earned a large amount of prizemoney during the 1740s. One can only speculate as to whether the duke may have uttered the immortal phrase “This time next year, Rodney, we’ll be millionaires.”

In the event Rodney ran up large debts and was in debtors’ prison in France in 1778 when war was declared. A benefactor secured his release and he was able to relieve The Great Siege of Gibraltar and defeat the Spanish fleet at the Battle of Cape St Vincent in 1780. He then won a decisive victory in The Battle of the Saintes in 1782, thus ending the French threat to Jamaica, before going back into retirement.

Admiral Rodney is not to be confused with Wayne Rooney, a distinguished Prestbury resident, who is the current captain of England’s soccer team.

The Robinsons’ Unicorn cask bitter in the pub was in great form, as was their South Island brew, both costing £2-95 a pint. Suitably refreshed we retraced our footsteps as far as the footbridge across the Bollin (125mins) but did not cross it. We carried straight on until we started to pass Prestbury Sewage Works on our right. At a bridge we stopped for lunch (138mins)

The route back to the Unicorn should have been straightforward and was for three of the group, who were sitting smugly in their cars by the time your diarist returned (213mins) After de-booting we drove to The Davenport Arms (Thief’s Neck) at Woodford for pints of Robbies at £3-25.

Next week’s walk will start at 9.35am at the car park at Tom Brad’s Croft next to the Whaley Bridge Basin at the start of the Peak Forest Canal. We expect to reach The Old Hall at Whitehough around 12.15pm, returning to The Goyt Inn at Whaley Bridge (near the basin) at about 2.30pm. The landlord is opening early especially for us, so we hope the B team will be able to join us there to make it worth his while.