Bollington

February 8, 2017.

BOLLINGTON, THE POACHERS INN, CHESHIRE HUNT APARTMENTS, SPOND HILL, BRINK FARM, OLD BLUE BOAR FARM, DAWSONBARN FARM, HAZEL TREES FARM, GIN CLOUGH FARM, THE ROBIN HOOD AT RAINOW, THE STOCKS, SUGAR LANE, FLATT COTTAGE, THE VIRGINS’ PATH, INGERSLEY VALE WATERFALL, WAULKMILL FARM, THE CROWN AT BOLLINGTON

Distance: 8 miles.

Difficulty:   Easy.

Weather: Dry, misty on hills with bitterly cold wind.

Walkers: Mickey Barrett, Peter Beal, Tom Cunliffe, Colin Davison, Lawrie Fairman, Alan Hart, Steve Kemp, Chris Owen and George Whaites.

B walkers: Phil Burslem, George Fraser, Tony Job, Terry Jowett, Jock Rooney with Tips, Ken Sparrow and Geoff Spurrell.

Apologies: George Dearsley (in Turkey), Mark Gibby (poorly) and Julian Ross (diversity training).

Leader: Fairman. Diarist: Hart.

Starting point: Roads outside The Crown at Bollington.

Starting time: 9.35am. Finishing time: 2.10pm.

It was hard to determine why this particular day produced a record field of walkers. There were strong contingents from both the A and B teams which must have helped the turnovers of two of our chosen pubs. We can congratulate ourselves on playing a part in keeping Britain’s best hostelries open on Wednesday lunchtimes. 

If we achieve little else when we shuffle off this mortal coil, at least we will have tried to preserve a national heritage for future generations.

We also saw Mickey make a welcome comeback after several months absent with a foot injury. He explained that an expert in the field of feet had told him there was something wrong with his gate. Hopefully Mickey will get this repaired although it is hard to see how this will bring relief to his sore foot.

At the end of the walk Mickey had enjoyed a pain-free day so we hope to see him making regular appearances in future.

From the right of The Crown we walked back to the main road, passing the derelict church on our left, and turned right at the mini-roundabout. We turned right again to pass The Poachers and the entrance to Savio House, a religious retreat (9mins). As the road swung left we followed it, passing Blaze Hill on our right, then turning right up Hedge Row (15mins).

This took us past a building on our left which was once The Cheshire Hunt pub. Beyond it we turned left at a wooden public footpath sign and joined the Gritstone Trail (17mins). We crossed a stone pack horse bridge across a stream and began a long ascent to the right of a wood until we came to a seven-barred metal gate (40mins).

We proceeded uphill with a drystone wall on our right. At a path across we turned right and crossed a cattle-grid (56mins) then followed a sign with a yellow arrow which took us on a path to the right of some trees. We headed diagonally right across a field. This brought us eventually via a wooden stile to a road (60mins) with Brink House on our right and Brink Farm on our left.

We turned right along the road until we reached a main road (71mins) and turned right for 50 yards. We then turned left at a wooden footpath sign (72mins and followed a concessionary path uphill to a drystone wall on a ridge. By now the wind was bitterly cold as we turned right. We stopped at a depression in the field where we could shelter for pies and port (81mins).

Resuming, we continued to brave the cold wind along the ridge and crossed a series of wooden stiles marked with yellow arrows. We stayed on the ridge, crossing stiles and going through gates until we reached a tarmac track (115mins). This brought us to a road where we turned right (118mins).

We passed The Old Blue Boar Farm on our right (119mins) and took the left fork following a sign for Rainow (121mins). This took us past Dawsonbarn Farm on our left (122mins) and at Hazel Trees Farm on our left (128mins) we took the path indicated by a wooden public footpath sign. Fifty yards on we crossed a stone step stile on our right (129mins).

Another stone step stile and a wooden stile brought us into Gin Clough Farm (133mins), where we turned left. This took us past the former non-conformist chapel on our left and to The Robin Hood pub on our right (145mins). The B team had just arrived and were stocking up with pints of Wainwrights, Bass and Jennings at £3-30 a pint.

There were 16 of us and we were obliged to spread ourselves across two rooms. In one room was a copy of the Macclesfield Times which referred to an infamous murder spree in January, 1977, which ended when the killer was shot dead by police on the road outside the pub.

Billy Hughes, 30, from Preston, was a violent criminal who was being taken by car from Leicester jail to court in Chesterfield where he was due to face charges of stabbing a man in the face and then raping the man’s girlfriend. He attacked the two guards with a 7inch blade, left them bleeding by the roadside and stole their car.

In the snow he skidded into a wall on Beeley Moor and then made his way on foot to Pottery Cottage on the A619 near The Highwayman pub. It was the home of Arthur Minton, 72, a retired grocer, his wife Amy, 68, their daughter Gill Moran, 38, her husband Richard, 36, and their ten-year-old daughter Sarah.

While police hunted in vain for the missing prisoner, Hughes held the family hostage, repeatedly raping Gill Moran, before systematically slaughtering her family. Eventually he escaped with Gill as hostage, crashing at a police roadblock then seizing the unmarked police car while holding an axe to his hostage’s head.

Eventually he was cornered on the main route through Rainow, where a bus had been placed across the road. After a 30-minute stand-off he raised the axe and was grabbed by a superintendent. One policeman shot him in the head but he continued to struggle until another armed officer shot him through the heart.

Your diarist recalls visiting the victim in Macclesfield Hospital where she was treated for a superficial axe wound to her forehead. Nobody knew at that stage that Hughes had massacred her entire family.

From the back of the pub we walked down Stocks Lane and right into Chapel Lane (147mins). We turned right into Sugar Lane (149mins) and followed a wooden public footpath sign pointing behind Flagg Cottages on our right (153mins) to pick up the stone flags at the start of The Virgins’ Path.

This is so called because before Rainow had its own church, local brides had to walk two miles to the nearest one in Bollington. To prevent their white dresses becoming muddy, farmers laid flagstones through their fields.

At the end of the flagstones we reached Ingersley Vale Waterfall opposite Waukmill Farm and stopped for lunch (164mins). From there it was a brief walk past the derelict mill on our right and a lake on our left to reach The Crown on our right (174mins). The Doombar was in good form at £3 a pint.

Next week’s walk will start at 9.30am from the car park of The Soldier Dick at Furness Vale. We will be calling for a bracer at The Old Hall, Whitehough, Chinley, around 12.20pm and return to The Solider Dick for further refreshment at about 2.30pm.

Happy wandering !