July 14, 2021.
MARPLE LOCKS, MACCLESFIELD CANAL, TURF LEA LIFT BRIDGE, LEACOTE FARM, WINDLEHURST HALL, MARPLE GOLF CLUB, MARPLE HALL SCHOOL, ALAN NEWTON WAY, CHADKIRK, ST CHAD'S WELL, THE SPREAD EAGLE AT ROMILEY, PEAK FOREST CANAL, HYDE BANK, MARPLE MEMORIAL PARK, BEVI BAR AT MARPLE
Distance: 11 miles.
Difficulty: Easy.
Weather: Warm and sunny.
Walkers: Alastair Cairns, Tom Cunliffe with Daisy, Mark Gibby, Alan Hart, John Jones, Chris Owen, Jock Rooney, Dean Taylor and Dave Willetts.
Apologies: Peter Beal (in Hawes), Andy Blease (in Anglesey), George Dearsley (in Turkey), Hughie Hardiman (attending funeral), Julian Ross (w^*king)
Leader: Taylor. Diarist: Hart.
Starting point: Arkwright Road, Marple.
Starting time: 9.33am. Finishing time: 2.38pm.
This was an ideal walk for those wanderers who want to avoid climbing or descending hills. We were able to enjoy both the rural splendour and some suburban landscapes on a predominantly flat route which took in two canals, a golf course, and the beer gardens of a pub and a bar.
During our journey we heard Tom discussing canine coiffure with an admirer (of Daisy) and saw a pair of moorhens feeding their chicks.
We also passed the site of the former home in Romiley of a girl who married James, Duke of York, who became King James 11 after The Glorious Revolution. Anne Hyde, later Queen Anne, had two daughters who both went on to become monarchs.
With playing fields on our right we walked to the end of Arkwright Road and crossed it to enter an area called Oldknow's Lime Kilns where three ancient archways showed where millowner Samuel Oldknow once baked the local limestone.
We followed a path to our right uphill and reached Marple Lock 16 on the Peak Forest Canal (4mins)
We turned left with the canal on our left but at Bridge 19 we crossed over and continued with the waterway now on our right (11mins). When we reached Turf Lea Lift Bridge on our right (30mins) we were delayed for seven minutes while a woman towed her narrow-boat under the raised bridge by muscle power. The barge was called Paradise but her unhurried progress and refusal of our offers of help would have tested the patience of a saint.
When she finally lowered the bridge to enable us to cross it (37mins) we headed for a T-junction where we turned right (42mins). At the end of this road we walked across through Leacote Farm (46mins) and crossed a wooden stile (49mins). We then turned left at a makeshift wooden stile by the side of a seven-barred metal gate (51mins)
After going through a kissing gate (54mins) and crossing a wooden stile (56mins) we forked right (58mins and followed a gritted footpath.
The path now led us to The Macclesfield Canal which we joined by Bridge 8 (70mins) and walked along its left bank. Just before reaching Bridge 4 (78mins) we stopped for Pietime at a bench where we observed two moorhens begging for food to feed their chicks. Tom duly obliged by tossing his apple core into the canal.
Continuing our journey we went back a few yards to enter the course of Marple Golf Club (established 1892) and followed a series of yellow arrows which indicated our right of way across it. Thus guided we reached The Middlewood Way and turned right (93mins)
This 11-mile linear park for hikers, cyclists and horse riders follows the route of the former railway which operated between Macclesfield and Rose Hill, Marple, from 1869 until 1970. The trail also forms part of the National Cycling Network Route 55 from Ironbridge to Preston.
It was here where Tom was quizzed by a pair of women who admired Daisy's hairstyle. Clearly her absence at the beautician's last week had been worthwhile.
At crossroads where a right turn pointed to Marple Sixth Form College we carried straight on (96mins) until we emerged at a car park next to the council tip (103mins)
After turning right we reached a main road by the side of The Railway pub (106mins). After crossing it we turned left and soon right (107mins) into Weatherley Drive, passing an extraordinary figure of a guitar-toting spaceman waving the English flag.
Our visit to suburbia took us along Isherwood Drive, Marple Hall Drive, a public footpath between houses, Cromwell Avenue, Charles Avenue and another path between houses which brought us out opposite Marple Hall School (117mins)
We turned right and reached Alan Newton Way (122mins) where a plaque informed us that at the age of 21 this son of Stockport had helped to win a bronze medal for the British 4,000 metre pursuit cycling team at the Olympic Games in 1952. Turning left we reached a flight of steps on our right (128mins) which we descended to cross a footbridge (130mins) and continue with the River Goyt on our left. At a green bridge we crossed the river (136mins) and entered the Chadkirk Estate,
We turned right through a wooden kissing gate (138mins) and followed a wooden public footpath signmarked Chapel (140mins). We forked left (141mins) and reached a road which passed Chadkirk Chapel on our right. Beyond it we turned right (143mins) heading uphill and passing St Chad's Well on our left.
A flight of steep steps on our right brought us to The Peak Forest Canal (147mins) where we turned right with the canal on our left. At the next exit we left the canal (152mins) and turned right along Green Lane. This brought us to The Spread Eagle at Romiley on our right (154mins) where we enjoyed pints of cask bitter in the sunny beer garden.
Suitably refreshed we retraced our footsteps up Green Lane to rejoin the canal on our left (156mins) and leaving it when the waterway went through a tunnel (171mins).As we forked right past Hyde Bank we were passing the site of a house once occupied by Anne Hyde.
Anne (1637-1671) was the daughter of Edward Hyde, who became Lord Clarendon when his heavily-pregnant daughter married James, the Duke of York, in 1660. He became James 11 after The Glorious Revolution and his wife became Queen Anne. They had met while they were both in exile in the Netherlands following the execution of Charles 1.
The couple had eight children, of whom only two survived childhood. But those two daughters, Mary and Anne, both became monarchs.
Before a set of iron gates we turned right downhill (174mins) and rejoined the right bank of the canal where it had emerged from the tunnel (176mins). After going under Bridge 15 (180mins) we stopped for lunch just before an aqueduct engineered by Cyril Boucher (182mins)
After walking alongside the aqueduct we switched to the left bank (187mins) and passed a series of locks until we reached a road (203mins). We crossed this and rejoined the right bank of the canal before leaving it at Lock 10 to turn right (205mins) to enter Marple Memorial Park.
We went through it to reach a car park (209mins). Just before it we turned left and reached the main road through Marple. We turned right, passing Greggs and Bargain Booze. At traffic lights we turned left passing Tonic and Superdrug. As our preferred location, The Samuel Oldknow, had a full beer garden, seven of us opted for a pint next door at a new bar called Bevi (212mins)
Returning to the main road later we turned right and kept straight ahead to reach Arkwright Road on our right and our cars (220mins)
Next week's walk will start at 9.50am from Topley Pike, on the A6 Bakewell road out of Buxton. There is free parking next to the entrance to the quarry opposite the pay-and-display car park at the start of the Wye Valley Monsal Trail. We plan to follow the Wye before heading south to The Church Inn at Chelmorton for a livener. We will return via Deepdale and emerge via the quarry path.
Happy wandering !
Map by Tom
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