Sutton Hall

SUTTON HALL, MACCLESFIELD CANAL, MACCLESFIELD GOLF COURSE, LANGLEY, TEGG’S NOSE COUNTRY PARK, FIONA’S SEAT, LOWER RIDGEGATE RESERVOIR, CHURCH HOUSE, SUTTON, SUTTON HALL FARM, SUTTON HALL, MACCLEFIELD CANAL, SUTTON RESERVOIR, LEE FARM AND SUTTON HALL

Distance: Ten miles.

Difficulty: Mainly easy with strenuous climb.

Weather: Cloudy but dry with moderate temperature.

Walkers: Lawrie Fairman, Hughie Harriman, Alan Hart, Steve Kemp, Chris Owen and Julian Ross.

Apologies: Mickey Barrett and Alastair Cairns ( hols), Colin Davison, George Dearsley (in Turkey), Mark Gibby (Lanzarote hols), George Whaites (Xmas duties)

Leader: Owen. Diarist: Hart.

Starting point: Car park of Sutton Hall, Sutton, Macclesfield.

Starting time: 9.37am. Finishing time: 3.02pm.

In a suggested break from tradition, this was a figure-eight walk compiled by Chris which started and finished at Sutton Hall, calling en route for a drink at.... Sutton Hall. The historic former home of the  aristocratic Lucan family was a splendid watering hole.

However I have to report that some whingers were heard complaining “Why has Chris picked Tegg’s Nose again ?” The answer of course is because the summit provides stunning panoramic views across the valleys to Cheshire’s other hilltops – The Cloud at Bosley, Croker Hill and Shutlingsloe. Both the climb and the views are breathtaking.

We were lulled into a false sense of security by a comfortable flat walk beforehand. Leaving the pub car park we turned right over the canal bridge and right again to join the left bank of the Macclesfield Canal.

The canal, 27 miles long from the Peak Forest Canal at Marple, passing through 12 locks at Bosley, and finishing at its junction with the Trent and Mersey Canal at Kidsgrove, was first mooted in 1765. It was not until 1824 that investment was sought and the redoubtable Thomas Telford engaged as engineer.

Work started in 1826 and ended five years later at a cost of £300,000. If only Telford was alive today to show engineers how to build by-passes and roundabouts !

We began with the canal on our right but at Bridge 43 we climbed the cobblestones to cross a to the right bank. After passing The Beehive on the far side of the canal we walked under Bridge 41 (20mins) before going under Bridge 40 and swinging right up steps to cross it and head downhill.

Our group turned left into Black Road with a soccer pitch on our right (23mins) and left again up the cobbles of Richmond Hill (24mins). At the end we swung right and turned left at a green public footpath sign (27mins). This brought us to a track and a dog-leg to reach a green public footpath sign up at flight of stone steps (29mins)

We followed a public footpath sign through Macclesfield Golf Club’s course and passed through a kissing gate (38mins). Twenty yards before we reached a metal gate ahead we turned right downhill (47mins). We crossed a wooden footbridge over the Bollin (53mins), walked through a metal kissing gate (56mins) and crossed a wooden stile to reach a road (57mins).

After turning left we bore left again at Langley Methodist Church (61mins) and turned left into Holehouse Lane (64mins).  As we climbed uphill we passed a pond on our right and reached a wall protecting Bottom Reservoir (69mins). Workmen were fortifying the wall, aided by a drone overhead.

We turned left and entered Tegg’s Nose Country Park (70mins). A steep climb brought us to a wooden kissing gate (80mins). By the time we reached a bench on our left (82mins) we were more than ready for the respite of Pietime (84mins) so we stopped for snacks and port.

Resuming our climb, we went through a wooden kissing gate (93mins) and the more stalwart members of the group continued to the summit of Tegg’s Nose. Despite the high cloud, there was good visibility for the panoramic view. (95mins). The macho men joined their colleagues next to a memorial bench known as Fiona’s Seat.

It is engraved “I have slipped the surly bonds of earth and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings -  Fiona McWilliam 1965-99”. This is one of four plaques dedicated to Fiona, from Macclesfield, of which two are at Tegg’s Nose where she enjoyed walking with her cocker spaniel Amy.

Fiona, an air traffic controller at Manchester Airport, was learning to fly and was one of the passengers in a civilian light aircraft which crashed into a mountainside at Moel Sych, North Wales, on February 12, 1999. The trainee pilot, Fiona and another passenger were all killed. There is a memorial to Fiona at the site of the crash saying “Remember Me.” Another plaque is on a bench at the memorial garden at Manchester Airport from her friends and colleagues.

The inscription at Tegg’s Nose is the opening lines from a poem by Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee Jr, of the Royal Canadian Air Force, who died in a plane crash in England in 1941.

With Fiona’s Seat on our left we walked forward for 100 yards and turned right off the main path (101mins). This was the start of our descent, where we made a sharp right turn at a bench (103mins) by the side of a bookcase entitled “Library in the Landscape.” Here Hughie remarked that a defibrillator might be more useful than James Fennimore Cooper’s “Last of the Mohicans” or Jane Austen’s “Persuasion”.

We went through a wooden gate (103mins) and down a flight of steps to cross the Bollin by stepping stones (118mins). We turned left at a wooden public footpath sign marked Gritstone Trail (129mins) and swung left with Lower Ridgegate Reservoir on our left (132mins). We reached a road at the end of the reservoir and turned right 180 degrees to walk down a road (134mins)

Our party passed Clarke Lane Farm on our left and St Dunstan’s Inn on our right (141mins). A right turn took us along a road called The Orchard (143mins). This brought us to the Church House pub at Sutton on our left (154mins). A few yards further along we turned left uphill into Trinity Lane (155mins) and a housing estate. By turning right into Fitzwilliam Avenue, left into Peter House Road, right at a T-junction into Gorville Avenue, left into Selwyn Drive and right at a T-junction, we were able to leave the estate and turn left towards Sutton Hall Farm (162mins).

After 50 yards we went right through a wooden gate and entered the grounds of Sutton Hall and then the hall itself, which has become a country pub restaurant.

This was the ancestral home of Lord Lucan, who was famously, or infamously, involved in The Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimean War.

We entered (164mins) and were treated to pints of Lord Lucan at £3-70 by Lawrie, who was celebrating the news that he will become a great grandfather in June. Congratulations to him and his family.

Suitably refreshed we left the car park and returned to the Macclesfield Canal, this time turning right with the canal on our left. We went under bridges 44 (169mins), 45 (179mins) and 46 (185mins) before discovering picnic tables on our right just before Swing Bridge 47. Here we paused for lunch (189mins)

Continuing, we passed the swing bridge and left the canal at wooden bridge 48a (200mins), turning right up wooden steps and crossing the canal. We also crossed a main road and headed through a metal kissing gate towards Sutton Reservoir (203mins). Chris was now sweating like a Scouser in a Job Centre as he realised his walk was over-running. He informed us that Sutton Reservoir was still widely known locally as Turk’s Head Reservoir for reasons lost in the mists of time.

We went through two wooden gates (208 and 215mins) and turned right for 50 yards before turning left at a wooden public footpath sign (216mins). We went through a metal gate marked with a yellow arrow (219mins) and reached a lane by the side of a bridge. We turned left (222mins) and reached a road by the side of Lee Farm. We turned right (225mins) and reached a main road (229mins)

After crossing a wooden stile opposite following a wooden public footpath sign, we crossed a wooden stile to reach a road and turned right (234mins). We turned right again at the entrance to Sutton Hall (239mins) and reached our cars to de-boot (241mins) before sampling a final pint of Lord Lucan.

Next week’s walk will start with a meeting at Colin’s house at 11, Carr Bank, High Lane, at 9am for bacon sandwiches and mulled wine. After this bountiful breakfast Colin we lead us on a route of his choosing before returning at about 2.30pm to The Dog and Partridge on the A6 at High Lane for a traditional Xmas carvery lunch.

Happy wandering !