Middlewood

 March 8, 2023.

MIDDLEWOOD, JACKSONS BRICKWORKS NATURE RESERVE, LADYBROOK TRAIL, LYME PARK, LYME CAGE, LYME HALL, KNIGHTSLOW WOOD, PARK MOOR, KEEPERS COTTAGE, BIRCHENCLIFF, LYME VIEW MARINA, MACCLESFIELD CANAL, THE BOAR'S HEAD AT HIGHER POYNTON, MIDDLEWOOD WAY

Distance: 8-9 miles

Difficulty: Moderate.

Weather: Mainly dry with chilly breeze: sleet for final mile.

Walkers: Andy Blease, Mike Cassini, Tom Cunliffe with Daisy, Mark Gibby, Alan Hart, Jonathan Hart, Mark Jones, Chris Owen, Keith Welsh, Simon Williams, Cliff Worthington.

Non-walking drinkers: Jock and Keiran Rooney with Milly.

Apologies: Peter Beal (visiting friends in Shrewsbury), George Dearsley (in Turkey), Mark Enright (lecturing), Dean Taylor (in La Palma)

Leader and Diarist: Alan Hart.

Starting point: Jacksons Brickworks car park, Pool Meadow Road, Middlewood.

Starting time: 9.35am. Finishing time: 2.25pm.

This was an experimental walk through familiar territory to test whether routes published in Ramblers “Walk” magazine were easy to follow. Although the information was sometimes sparse we followed the directions without mishap so in future we might risk further excursions to pastures new.

Despite a bitingly cold wind we had an encouraging turnout of 11, including a debutant. Mark Jones, from Preston. He not only provided entertainment with a couple of falls but also bought a round of drinks to celebrate his first outing with the Wednesday Wanderers. Bravo.

From the free car park we went through a metal kissing gate leading to Jacksons Brickworks Nature Reserve.

The reserve, comprising nearly 10 hectares of wetland, grassland, woodland and scrub, was once, as the name suggests, the site of a local brick-making firm. The extraction of clay created several ponds which have provided havens for migrating birds, butterflies, dragonflies and 400 species of moth. It is also home to the great crested newt.

There have been recent sightings of a kingfisher, a green woodpecker and the unwelcome presence of an American mink. Last summer a pair of buzzards reared their young here and a falcon preyed on dragonflies, house martins and swallows.

There is little activity at this time of year and our low expectations were vindicated.

After following the path through the reserve we exited into a farmyard and turned left to go through a gate with an electric fence separating two fields. At the footpath's end we swung right to reach the Macclesfield Canal at Bridge 13 (12mins). We crossed the bridge and turned immediately left round the back of an elaborately-decorated World War 11 pillbox, passing the narrow boats moored on our left.

After 80 yards we turned right to follow a footpath heading steeply downhill along The Ladybrook Trail. This took us over a wooden footbridge to a wooden stile which we crossed and kept to the right of the Ladybrook, walking upstream.

The well-marked path took us through meadows past a derelict summer house to a ladder stile (25mins) by which we exited the field. After crossing the lane we climbed another stile and ascended steps to use a right of way across the Manchester-Buxton railway line.

We then followed the path as it led to a tunnel under the railway and turned left along a path through a field that passed a large newly-built house on our left. We turned right at a wall, keeping it on our left before reaching a lane and turning left through a gate to enter The Lyme Estate of 1,400 acres (45mins)

The lane brought us to the wooden entrance hut where we turned right and soon took a marked path on our left to head uphill on a steep climb to reach Lyme Cage, a former hunting lodge and temporary jail for poachers. Here we posed for a team photograph (60mins)

My request for ugly ones to go to the back went unheeded

Descending the hill on which Lyme Cage stands we headed for Lyme Hall, ancestral home of the Legh family for six centuries before they gave it to The National Trust in 1946 to avoid death duties.

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Lyme Hall approached from Lyme Cage

Before the entrance to the hall we turned right and headed to the left of a pond where a tree had been felled to provide seating for Pietime (75mins). After refreshments we continued along the path, taking the left fork to walk along a path fringed with pines on our left.

This brought us to a handgate leading into Knightslow Wood where we followed a path along the Gritstone Trail (100mins). Beyond the exit gate we turned right to follow the track across Park Moor. As the track petered out we kept to the left of a high drystone wall, passing two ladder stiles on our right before reaching a third one straight ahead which we crossed (120mins)

This led to a stony track which passed Keepers Cottage on our left before reaching a finger-posted cross-track 250 yards later (125mins). We turned right here down the walled bridleway, passing the renovated farmstead of Birchencliff on our right (132mins)

Beyond this was a T-junction where we turned right, passing The Coffee Tavern on our right and then turning left at the whitewashed Yew Cottage to follow a finger-posted path behind the chevron road sign (140mins). This emerged into a field where we steered to the right of a farmhouse to reach a tarred access lane via a stile.

On reaching the canal bridge at Lyme View Marina we crossed over the canal and joined the towpath, heading towards Marple with the canal on our right (148mins)

As we approached Higher Poynton we turned left at a footpath sign to descend steps and swing right across a soccer pitch aiming diagonally for the far left corner. This brought us to The Middlewood Way, where a right turn took us to picnic tables on the disused railway line outside what was once Higher Poynton Station.

Turning left from the former platform we emerged opposite The Boar's Head (165mins) to enjoy pints of Wainwrights, Timothy Taylors' Landlord cask bitter or, in some sad cases, tea and soft drinks. For the second week running we had arrived at the pub seconds after Jock and Keiran had reached the bar ahead of us with Milly.

Suitably refreshed we returned to The Middlewood Way, where two of us had a quick lunch under the bridge to shelter from substantial sleet which was now falling. We then headed left in the direction of Marple to reach Bridge 18. Here we exited to our right and entered Pool Meadow Road to turn right and reach the car park (192mins)

Muddied but unbowed: debutant Mark Jones

Next week's walk will start at 9.30am from Torkington Park car park off the A6 opposite The Rising Sun in Hazel Grove. We hope to reach The Fox at Brook Bottom around 12.10pm for a livener before returning to the car park around 2.20pm with the option of a flyer at The Wilfred Wood Wetherspoons on the A6 in Hazel Grove.

Happy wandering !