Poynton

October 24, 2018.

POYNTON SPORTS CLUB, LADY’S INCLINE, MACCLESFIELD CANAL, LYME PARK, LYME CAGE, NELSON PIT MUSEUM, THE BOAR’S HEAD AT HIGHER POYNTON, ANSON ROAD, DAVENPORT GOLF CLUB, PRINCES INCLINE, POYNTON SPORTS CLUB

Distance: 8 miles.

Difficulty: Easy.

Weather: Dry, cloudy but warm.

Walkers: Micky Barrett, Peter Beal, Alastair Cairns, Steve Courtney with Luna, Tom Cunliffe, Hughie Hardiman, Alan Hart, Mark Kean, John Laverick, Chris Owen, Jock Rooney with Tip, Julian Ross, George Whaites and Charlie Yates.

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

Non-walking drinkers: Mark Gibby and Wilf Seville.

Apologies: Andrew Ashworth (receiving medical treatment), George Dearsley (in Turkey), Lawrie Fairman (recovering from knee op), Steve Kemp (recovering from bone marrow op)

Leader: Hart. Diarist: Hart.

Starting point: Poynton Sports Club car park.

Starting time: 9.40am. Finishing time: 2pm.

Another dry autumnal day produced another spectacular turnout for this tried and trusted walk. A cynic might think that the promise of free food and drink had influenced the attendance but we were delighted to welcome two new walkers to the A team and a debutant to the B team.

We were also pleased to see a long-term absentee, John Laverick, return to the ranks, not least because of his knowledge of the local routes, and to be joined at the end by Mark Gibby, fresh from his spell in hospital, and Wilf Seville, the former manager of Poynton Sports Club.

May I say it was a joy to see you all to celebrate my birthday and thank you so much for your thoughtful presents. Can I also thank our club manager Sean Vincent for opening the bar especially for us and providing the delicious chilli, rice and chips.

The day had begun unpromisingly when the leader overslept and, trying to make up for lost time, left home without any money. As a result the start was delayed by ten minutes, for which I offer my profuse apologies. We welcomed Keano and Charlie to our A team walk and later encountered Phil, making his debut for the B team.

As readers of these weekly scribblings will be aware, your diarist is painfully aware of his shortcomings in the field of navigation. I find maps a mystery and compasses confusing. However, with a little help from my friends, we were able to make up the lost time and arrive punctually at both hostelries.

We turned right at the Sports Club entrance to head in the direction of Hazel Grove and turned right into the next side road. After 100 yards we headed left up Lady’s Incline which took us across Towers Road, past the studio home of late Wednesday Wanderer Ian Price, a renowned local landscape and piss artist.

Shortly afterwards we crossed a bridge over the Middlewood Way, an 11-mile hiking, cycling and horse-riding route linking Macclesfield with Marple opened in 1985 by Dr David Bellamy, the noted environmentalist. It follows the route of the Macclesfield, Bollington and Marple Railway which opened in 1869 and closed in 1970.

Beyond this we reached the Macclesfield Canal and turned left with the waterway on our right. At the first bridge we turned left to swing over it by the side of a lavishly-decorated World War 11 pill-box. (Presumably this would have helped our defences if Hitler had decided to invade by narrow-boat !)

After crossing the bridge we were heading for Lyme Park with the comforting sight of Lyme Cage coming into view. We stopped for Pietime at 11am just short of the gate at the entrance to Lyme Park, with Alastair providing samples of his delicious home-made sloe gin.

We then entered the estate granted to Sir Thomas D’anyers who, in 1346, had retrieved the standard of the Black Prince at the Battle of Crecy. He was rewarded with an annuity of 40 marks a year drawn on his Cheshire estate, which could be exchanged for land of that value. The annuity passed to his granddaughter, Margaret D’anyers, who in 1398 married Piers Legh, and the land was transferred by Richard 11.

The first house on the Lyme Handley estate was recorded in 1465 but this was demolished so the present house, the biggest in Cheshire, could be built during the middle of the 16^th Century. The house, occupying 15 acres within a deer park of 1,359 acres, remained in the Legh family until 1946 when it was taken over by The National Trust.

Lyme Hall attracted new interest in 1995 when the BBC adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice used it as Pemberley, the home of Mr Darcy. The character was played by Colin Firth, who sent female hearts a-fluttering when he dived into the lake beside the hall and emerged in a see-through shirt and dripping breeches.

We resisted the temptation to walk up to Lyme Cage, a former hunting lodge and holding pen for poachers, passing it on our left and meeting our six comrades from the B team. They were on a similar route in a counter-clockwise direction.

After passing the toilets, tea room and lake on our right, we swung right to head downhill out of the park and back to Higher Poynton. We crossed the canal at Lord Vernon’s Wharf, passing the Nelson Pit Museum on our right and crossing a bridge over the Middlewood Way to reach The Boar’s Head at 12.15pm for pints of Black Sheep cask bitter, which was not on best form. We were joined some 20 minutes later by the B team.

For our final leg we turned left out of the pub and left again into Anson Road, passing the council refuse tip on our right and further down we passed the entrance to The Anson Engine Museum also on our right. At the bottom of Anson Road we crossed the road to Middlewood and climbed up to Davenport Golf Course, where we turned left to cross a fairway along a public footpath.

This took us through a copse of trees and ultimately across Towers Road to join Princes Incline. This led us down a route which once took mined coal to a yard next to London Road North, where tubs were emptied. The weight of the loaded tubs coming down the incline hauled the empty ones back uphill.

We reached the main road, turned left and then left again to go through the entrance to Poynton Sports Club grounds. After de-booting we entered the clubhouse at 2pm for pints of excellent Wainwrights’ cask bitter for £2-95. Because of a Buy 5 Get 1 Free deal, your diarist was able to purchase his birthday drinks for a bargain £2-48 a pint.

Next week’s walk will feature another birthday celebration when Peter is our host and leader. We will start at 9.40am from outside The Sportsman pub on Kinder Road, Hayfield. From there we will head across Middle Moor to Chunal, aiming to reach The Little Mill at Rowarth around 12.10pm for a livener. We intend to return to The Sportsman for further refreshment at about 2.15pm.

Happy wandering !