Poynton

January 1, 2016

ST GEORGE’S CHURCH AT POYNTON, POYNTON SPORTS CLUB CAR PARK, PRINCES INCLINE, DAVENPORT GOLF CLUB, NELSON PIT MUSEUM, MACCLESFIELD CANAL, MINERS ARMS AT WOODS LANE ENDS, ADLINGTON, HIGHER POYNTON, COPPICE LANE, HIGHER POYNTON (AGAIN !), LADY’S INCLINE, BULL’S HEAD AT POYNTON

Distance: Seven miles.

Difficulty: Easy.

Weather: Dry, mostly cloudy with some wintry sunshine.

Walkers: Ron and Maureen Buck, Alan Hart, Tony Job, Jock Rooney, Zoe Smith, Geoff Spurrell and Dave Williams.

Drivers: Mary Rooney and Yvonne Spurrell.

Leaders: Hart and Spurrell. Diarist: Hart.

Starting points: St George’s Church, Poynton (10.35am) and Poynton Sports Club (10.40am).

On our annual ladies’ day there was a disappointing turn-out by the fair sex but what we lacked in quantity we made up for in quality as Ron Buck’s wife Maureen and her friend Zoe Smith arrived for their debuts with the Wednesday Wanderers.

Some walkers were also grateful for the selfless assistance of chauffeuses Yvonne Spurrell and Mary Rooney.

What has become in recent years the traditional route to The Miners Arms was followed by five of our party. Tony, Jock and Geoff chose a more direct journey which enabled them to reach the pub five minutes earlier.

The return to Poynton resulted in a similar division between the five quick walkers and those who preferred, through reason of age, infirmity or disposition, a more leisurely pace. There was also a further schism when the trio of casual hikers decided to avoid a muddy section and found themselves off-piste, as it were, and heading down the suburbia known as Dickens Lane.

Meanwhile the quicker quintet, anxious to avoid excessive road-walking, managed to include an involuntary loop which gave them a serious sensation of deja vu as we found ourselves walking along the same stretch of road for 500 yards which we had passed ten minutes earlier.

Things, in the words of D-Ream, can only get better. Experience teaches us otherwise.

The following reports the route taken by the Famous Five. From the sports club car park we proceeded along the main road in the direction of Hazel Grove before turning right into Woodside Close (1 min) with the sports club grounds still on our right. This was the start of a gradual climb which continued for two miles until we reached the Macclesfield Canal.

To reach it we forked left off Woodside Close (3mins) to head up Princes Incline, which had been a railway line for coal trucks 100 years ago. At the end we crossed Towers Road (15mins) and took a path which led through a gate and a gap stile to a lane where we turned right (20mins). This was a right of way through Davenport Golf Course. 

The lane dropped down to face Anson Road (25mins) which we followed past the Boar’s Head at Higher Poynton on our right, crossed a road bridge over The Middlewood Way, past the Nelson Pit Museum on our left and reached the Macclesfield Canal (40mins).

At convenient wooden benches we stopped to share some delicious home-made Christmas cake provided by Maureen and some home-made mince pies, (made to a special recipe for Tescos and inside one of their boxes), by your diarist. Only two of our quintet (I wonder if you can guess) took a stirrup cup of port for medicinal purposes. The rest were abstaining as part of New Year resolutions involving alcohol and weight.

Our colleagues were by this time taking a different route along Moggie Lane, Wards End, so after a 15-minute stop we continued to walk along the towpath with the canal on our left. At Lyme Wharf Marina we left the canal on our right (70mins) and followed the path downhill to crossroads. We turned right and The Miners Arms was on our left (77mins).

Our three colleagues, along with Yvonne, were already ensconced in a corner of the near-deserted pub, which has changed hands several times in recent years with various degrees of failure.

After refreshment, which seemed to involve the early breaking of at least one man’s resolution, we started the return journey to Poynton by a different route. From the front door of the pub we turned left for 30 yards and then turned left over a stile.

This took us along a series of paths through gates and over stiles until we reached a lane (90mins). By this stage, we learned later, the mud encountered had persuaded our three colleagues to turn left away from our route.

At the lane we turned right for 20 yards before following a public footpath sign on our left which led us down to a stream. We walked right on reaching it and soon came to a footbridge across the brook which we used and climbed up to a road (95mins).

We followed a public footpath between houses and entered a field. A series of stiles took us through three fields until we emerged on Coppice Road, Higher Poynton, where we turned left (105mins). This brought us downhill to the outskirts of Hockley and a bridal shop. A public footpath on our right appeared to be a way of reaching Towers Road and our route homewards without any tarmac(110mins).

It seemed after our initial right turn that we were thereafter heading left or going straight ahead at various stiles and gates in the inevitable direction of Towers Road. Not so. After ten minutes we emerged back on Coppice Road to retrace our footsteps. This time we carried on walking past the bridal shop (125mins) to Towers Road at Hockley, where we turned right (128mins).

This brought us to Lady’s Incline on our left (131mins) where we turned to head downhill along another former coal truck rail line to drop back into the former coalyard at Woodside Close (141mins). At the main road (142mins) Dave and I turned right to reach The Bull’s Head on London Road North, Poynton, for pints of Original cask bitter at £3-20. Ron and his ladies turned left to retrieve their cars and head for home.

Jock subsequently joined us in the pub, where landlady Sally-Ann Bromley generously provided a plate of pork pie and mustard. An hour later Mary arrived to drive her reprobate husband home.

Next week’s walk (Jan 6) will be the one which was cancelled last week because of heavy rain. We will meet at the car park of The Lantern Pike pub at 9.40am for a walk led by Tom past Park Hall into Middle Moor before crossing the Hayfield-Glossop Road to reach The Old Mill at Rowarth for a bracer around 12.15pm. We anticipate returning to The Lantern Pike at about 2.15pm for further refreshment.

Happy New Year and Happy Wandering !