Bollington

August 3, 2016.

BOLLINGTON, WHITE NANCY, KERRIDGE RIDGE, RAINOW, WINDYWAY ANIMAL SANCTUARY, WALKER BARN, THE ROBIN HOOD AT RAINOW, STOCKS LANE, FLAGG COTTAGE, THE VIRGINS’ PATH, INGERLEY VALE WATERFALL, THE CROWN AT BOLLINGTON.

Distance: 8 miles.

Difficulty: Moderate.

Weather: Dry and warm with cloud and sunny spells.

A walkers: Greg and Mickey Barrett, Tom Cunliffe, Colin Davison, Lawrie Fairman, Mark Gibby, Alan Hart, Steve Kemp, Chris Owen and George Whaites.

S.O.B. Walkers: George Fraser, Tony Job, Terry Jowett and Geoff Spurrell.

Apologies: Peter Beal (narrow-boating), George Dearsley (in Turkey) and Julian Ross (Slovenia hols).

Leader: Fairman. Diarist: Hart.

Starting point: Free public car park opposite The Spinners Arms, Bollington.

Starting time: 9.38am. Finishing time: 2.08pm.

The welcome return of Mickey Barrett after a prolonged absence due to a series of exotic holidays also brought two more debutants for this walk. Mickey’s 27-year-old son Greg and his pal, Steve Kemp, joined us for this popular figure-eight journey.

Last week’s debutant, Chris Owen, also appeared for a route near his home on the outskirts of Macclesfield during which he found himself in unfamiliar territory.

Rather like a pilot who has recently crashed, Lawrie climbed back into the metaphorical cockpit to lead us. Although his guidance was not flawless, he did achieve the important objective of reaching both pubs within the allotted time. It also gave him an opportunity to launch yet another new career as a catwalk model, demonstrating the WW polo shirts for which Tom is now taking orders. (Tom tells me that neither Kate Moss nor Naomi Campbell was available, and Lawrie’s fee was more modest – a pint of Black Sheep !)

The newcomers swelled our ranks to ten and we were able to introduce them to the four SOB-teamers, who had taken advantage of the bus service to beat us to the first watering hole by ten minutes. It was at The Robin Hood where Lawrie performed his modelling assignment.

Earlier he had led us left uphill out of the car park to the premises of F.Smith, a splendid bakery on the right of the main road through Bollington. To enter the shop is to step back in time to the 1950s, but well worth the visit because of the qualities of its pies.

Beyond the bakery we turned right up Church Street (6mins), then up Lord Street (9mins) as we aimed for the famous landmark of White Nancy in the distance above us. At Cow Lane we carried on up a flight of stone steps (13mins). We reached the distinctive folly known as White Nancy in a creditable 24 minutes, including time taken for the purchase of pies.

White Nancy is an 18 feet tall Grade 2 listed building which was erected at the top of Kerridge Hill in 1815 to commemorate the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. It was erected by order of the Gaskell family who lived below the hill at Ingersley Hall. Originally it had a door and windows with seats around its walls and a large circular table in the centre. It is unclear whether the landmark was named after the Gaskells’ daughter Nancy, or a horse of that name which had hauled the heavy table up the hill.

It had been a breath-taking climb in more ways than one. After pausing to admire the panoramic views, we carried on along the ridge, passing the Hurdsfield Industrial Estate, including Astro Zeneca, on our right and reaching the Trig Point at its apex (45mins). After dropping down gradually, we crossed a stone step stile to reach a road in the village of Rainow (60mins).

This quiet village witnessed the finale of a chilling mass murder drama in 1977 when an escaped prisoner was shot dead by police as he tried to kill his hostage with an axe. Billy Hughes, aged 30, was being driven by guards from Leicester Jail to Chesterfield for a court hearing. Hughes, from Preston, attacked his guards with a knife and escaped in their car leaving them bleeding by the roadside.

After crashing the car in icy conditions at Beeley Moore, Hughes found an isolated dwelling called Pottery Cottage on the A619 near the Highwayman pub. It was the home of Arthur Minton, 72, his wife Amy, 68, their daughter Gill Moran, 38, her husband Richard, 36, and their adopted daughter Sarah, aged 10.

Over the course of a week, Hughes repeatedly raped Gill Moran and systematically murdered her family. Then, with Gill as his hostage, Hughes made his getaway in her dead husband’s Chrysler. Police, who had been alerted by neighbours, set up roadblocks and Hughes crashed into a wall. But when police tried to arrest him, he held an axe to Gill’s head and demanded their unmarked Morris Marina.

He took off again with Gill and again crashed into a wall in Rainow, where police had used a bus as a roadblock. This led to a 30-minute stand-off before Hughes lost patience and swung the axe at Gill’s head. An heroic Cheshire police superintendent, Peter Howse, parried Hughes’ arm so the axe blow merely gashed her forehead. Then, as the two men struggled through the window of the car, Det Sgt Frank Fell shot Hughes three times with a revolver from 12 feet. Hughes continued to struggle until another officer, Det Con Alan Nicolls, finished him off with a shot throught the heart.

Nine months after the drama known as The Pottery Cottage Massacre ended, Gill Moran remarried. Six months after the wedding she had a baby, but the marriage ended in divorce.

At the road through Rainow we turned right for 50 yards before crossing it and going left up a flight of stone steps. This led through a field to another road (67mins) where we turned right. This brought us on to the main road where we turned left for 50 yards before turning right up a stone step stile into a field. A series of stile led us into a field where two picnic tables overgrown with weeds were used for Pietime (82mins). The usual port ration was supplemented on this occasion by Chris, who produced a flask of delicious home-made damson gin.

Continuing we went over a wooden stile with a marker for the Gritstone Trail. We went through a metal kissing gate and a wooden gate before turning left at a drystone wall (89mins). This led to a dead end so we were obliged to retrace our footsteps and go beyond passing a farm on our left and crossing a wooden stile to reach a road  (95mins). We turned left and immediately left again to head uphill and pass the Windyway Animal Sanctuary, which seeks homes for unwanted pets, on our left.

Our group now headed downhill, passing Walker Barn Methodist Chapel on our left (102mins). We reached a main road and turned right for 20 yards before heading left at a green footpath sign (104mins). We left the concrete farm track at a footpath sign marked with a yellow arrow (106mins) which led us to a wooden gate with a yellow arrow. We turned left (108mins).

By following the beaten path we were able to go downhill through a series of gates and stiles to enter and exit fields. We crossed a wooden footbridge (133mins) and headed uphill over a ladder stile. Another climb took us over a stone step stile to a lane where we turned right (136mins). This soon brought us to a green footpath sign pointing left uphill (139mins). The diverted path took us steeply uphill past marker posts until we reached a metal gate marked with a green footpath sign. Here we turned left (142mins).

Again we were able to follow the well-trodden path through gates and over stiles until we saw the former Methodist chapel in Rainow ahead of us. We turned left over a stone step stile just before the building (151mins) and a path on our left led us through a gate to the road on the opposite side of The Robin Hood (153mins). We entered the pub (154mins) and found the SOB team had reserved a room for us where we enjoyed pints of Black Sheep and Bass for £3-30.

Mickey, Steve and Greg formed an overflow in another room and sadly missed the shirt-modelling performance of our octogenarian leader.

Leaving the pub we went down Stocks Lane, passing the ancient stocks on our left and then winding right to Sugar Lane where we turned right (159mins). We passed The Old Hall on our left and turned right at a footpath sign to follow the path behind Flagg Cottage (165mins).

This was the start of the Virgins’ Path, so called because there was no church in Rainow until the 19^th Century. Prior to that any maidens heading to the altar had to walk through fields to reach the churches in Bollington. To save the embarrassment of having their white wedding dresses (and thus their reputations) besmirched in mud, local farmers laid down flagstones so the brides’ dresses would remain white. Many of these flagstones remain.

At the far side of the fields, the path reached the picturesque Ingersley Vale waterfall on the left opposite Waulkmill Farm on the right (182mins). Lunch was taken here before the last lap of the journey past a derelict mill on the right, a large pond on the left and The Crown on the right corner of Church Street (195mins). Here we enjoyed pints of Hancocks or Atlantic cask bitters for £3-35 in the sunshine on the benches outside.

Next week’s walk will start at 9.30am from the road outside The Cock at Whaley Bridge. We anticipate stopping for a bracer at The Roebuck in Chapel-en-le-Frith around 12.30pm before returning to The Cock for further refreshment at about 2.20pm.

Happy wandering !