Poynton

October 18, 2017.

POYNTON, POYNTON POOL, TOWERS ROAD, DAVENPORT GOLF CLUB, MACCLESFIELD CANAL, BOAR’S HEAD AT HIGHER POYNTON, MIDDLEWOOD WAY, ANSON MUSEUM, PRINCES INCLINE, POYNTON SPORTS CLUB

Distance: Seven miles.

Difficulty: Easy.

Weather: Warm and sunny with blue skies.

Walkers: Peter Beal, Alastair Cairns, Lawrie Fairman, Mark Gibby, Alan Hart, Steve Kemp, Chris Owen, Jock Rooney with Tip, Julian Ross and George Whaites. John Laverick

B walkers: George Fraser, Tony Job, Terry Jowett, Ken Sparrow, Geoff Spurrell and Barry Williams.

Non-walking drinkers: Mickey Barrett, Tom Cunliffe and Pete Morrall.

Invisible walker: Colin Davison .

Leaders: Hart and Fairman. Diarist: Hart.

Starting point: Car park at Poynton Sports Club.

Starting time: 9.38am. Finishing time: 2pm.

Follow the route here....

http://my.viewranger.com/track/details/NjExNzQwMw==

Was it the weather ? Was it the route ? Or could it possibly have been the promise of free food and drink ? Whatever the reasons we had a record turnout for this less challenging walk to celebrate your diarist’s birthday.

We even had a new category with Colin becoming our first invisible walker as he chose to plough a lonely furrow.

With Alastair delayed by traffic on his long journey from the Morecambe Bay area, we split into two groups as Mark, Chris and Julian took directions and waited for him. The rest of our group set off in a somewhat hopeless effort to reach a meeting point on the Macclesfield Canal where Colin was waiting at the wildly optimistic time of 10am.

In the event, we fell further behind the clock as we waited for the second group to catch up and by the time we contacted Colin to suggest an alternative rendezvous, he had already set off to where he thought we would be heading. The last we heard of him he was on his way to Bowstones.

Meanwhile, the two groups had turned right out of the Poynton Sports Club car park along the main road towards Hazel Grove, turning right after 200 yards into South Park Drive and immediately left along the public footpath with Poynton Pool on our right.

There was an abundance of the usual bird life – swans, Canada geese, coots, moorhens, seagulls and mallards – but the main point of interest was the scene at the water’s edge marked with half a dozen posies of flowers.

It was here last month that the body of a young policewoman was found at the water’s edge by an early morning dog-walker. Her police sergeant husband has been charged with murder.

At the far end of the lake we went through the car park and continued straight on, passing your diarist’s home. When we reached the end of the cul-de-sac we took a public footpath on the left which brought us out on Towers Road (22mins).

We turned right and slowed our pace to allow Alastair, Mark, Chris and Julian to catch up before turning left at a wooden public footpath sign opposite the end of Princes Incline (48mins). This took us through a metal kissing gate, into a copse of trees and another gate to cross the fairway of Davenport Golf Club.

At the far side of the fairway we went through a gate and turned right downhill to reach the start of Anson Road (57mins). We headed diagonally right to a farm track leading to a wooden stile (58mins) which we crossed and passed stables on our left.

By heading diagonally right through this field we reached a series of metal kissing gates and wooden stiles which brought us on to Coppice Road, Higher Poynton (71mins). We turned left and crossed a road bridge over The Middlewood Way before turning left into Elm Beds Road (76mins). At a green public footpaths sign we squeezed through a hedged path to emerge in a field and head up steps to reach the Macclesfield Canal (78mins) and turned left.

The Macclesfield Canal is one of six waterways which comprise The Cheshire Ring. It runs for 26 miles from Marple Junction, where it joins the Upper Peak Forest Canal, south through Bollington, Macclesfield and Congleton to the Hall Green branch of the Trent and Mersey Canal.

Designed by the ubiquitous Thomas Telford, work started in 1826 and finished in 1831. Its opening was marked by a procession of boats from Marple and Congleton into Macclesfield where the Band of the Macclesfield Cavalry played God Save The King.

The estimated cost of the canal was £295,000 and it was built at a cost of £320,000. It was soon a victim of the newly-invented railways. Commercial traffic ended in 1954 but the canal was saved by the increased use of leisure boats. Take a bow Peter Beal and John Jones.

On reaching Bridge 15 (82mins) at 11am, we paused for pies and port. The possibility of crossing the bridge and entering Lyme Park was discussed before Lawrie decided it would cause us to arrive late at our first watering hole. Firm of purpose, but flexible in design, we proceeded over the bridge to the first footpath on our left heading for Hilltop Cottage and took it (84mins)

After missing the left turn we reached Hilltop Farm on our left and were obliged to retrace our footsteps for a few yards, now turning right at an overlooked yellow arrow (91mins). We passed a large neat mound on our left which protected an underground water supply, and crossed a wooden stile (93mins)

We reached and crossed Bridge 14 then turned left with the canal on our left to walk along the towpath (102mins). Turning right into the car park leading to the Nelson Pit Visitor Centre and discovering the time to be 11.50am, your diarist vainly suggested an educational search inside the centre, which records Poynton’s coal-mining history. A stroll around the former platform of Higher Poynton station on the Middlewood Way wasted another couple of minutes.

But the smell of the beer from the Boar’s Head nearby was too much for some of our group and joy was unconfined when we discovered the back door of the pub was open at 11.54am (114mins). The Wainwrights’ cask bitter was in fine form at £3-45 a pint (although it didn’t seem to taste quite as good as the Wainwrights later at Poynton Sport Club for £2-70 !)

For once the A team had beaten the B team to a bar and it was our turn to sit smugly enjoying our pints as they queued to be served.

Resuming we headed along the Middlewood Way in the direction of Marple before leaving at Bridge 16 (120mins). We crossed the bridge and turned right into Green Lane (121mins) and then left at a footpath leading to The Anson Museum (123mins)

The museum is on the site of the old Anson Colliery, which was part of the estate owned in the 19^th Century by Lord Vernon. In 1856 it was estimated that reserves of 15,163,027 tons of coal lay beneath the surface of Poynton. It was reckoned they could supply the Industrial Revolution with 245,000 tons of coal for 61 years.

By 1926 production was down to 80,146 tons and the colleries closed in 1935 with 250 miners made redundant.

Local enthusiasts Les Cawley and Geoff Challinor created the museum in 1986 as a hobby, collecting the standing engines which had once powered machinery not just in the UK but throughout the empire. Manchester firms like Mirlees, Crossley Brothers and L.Gardner and Sons became known all over the globe. The Anson Museum has one of the largest collections of engines in Europe and attracts visitors from around the world.

After passing the museum on our left (128mins) and a network of badger setts, we reached Anson Road and turned right (129mins). At the end of Anson Road we retraced our footsteps through Davenport Golf Club until we emerged in Towers Road (143mins)

We crossed to follow a green public footpath sign down Princes Incline which emerged at the main road with Poynton Sports Club on our left (158mins). We turned left and left again into the club grounds, reaching the clubhouse (160mins) to enjoy pints of Wainwrights at a bargain £2-70. New club manager Sean Vincent provided chilli with rice and chips to celebrate the 72^nd anniversary of your diarist’s birth.

Next week’s walk will start at 9.45am from the road near Chapel-en-le-Frith railway station. We shall aim to reach The Beehive at Combs around 12.20pm and de-boot at the station before driving to the centre of the town for further refreshment at The Roebuck at about 2.20pm.

Happy wandering !