Sutton
10th January 2024
SUTTON HALL, PARVEY LANE, LEE FARM, SUTTON RESERVOIR, MACCLESFIELD CANAL, BOSLEY LOCKS, NORTH RODE MANOR, YEW TREE FARM, RODE GREEN, GAWSWORTH PARISH CHURCH, THE HARRINGTON ARMS AT GAWSWORTH, GAWSWORTH HALL, DANES MOSS NATURE RESERVE, MACCLESFIELD CANAL AND SUTTON HALL
Distance: 11 miles.
Difficulty: Easy Peasy (WHW)
Weather: Dry, mainly cloudy with some sunshine.
Walkers: Alastair Cairns, Daisy, Cairns, Tom Cunliffe, Daisy Cunliffe, Chris Owen, Julian Ross, Mike Barrett, Cliff Worthington, Simon Williams, Andy Blease, Dean Taylor, Tommy Taylor, Colin Davison
Apologies: George Dearsley (in Turkey), Alan Hart (the sniffles), Mike Cassini (hosp Appt), Pete Beal (Hols in La Palma), Mark Enright (W@4*ing),
Leader: Owen. Diarist: Cunliffe with swathes of the text plagiarised from Alan Hart’s diary of 14th Nov 2018
Starting point: Car park at Sutton Hall, Sutton, Macclesfield.
Starting time: 9.40am. Finishing time: 2.15pm.
Mr Davison flanked by his manservants and attack dogs for added security
No rain so, by definition, great walking weather.
Ten walkers, thirteen including our four-legged friends, convened at Sutton Hall including a second appearance in two weeks by Colin who’d been encouraged by the promise of a White Handbag Walk
During our walk we skirted through several centuries of history from The Charge of The Light Brigade; the construction of a 27-mile canal that took five years to build within 10% of its original budget; and an aristocratic duel for the land we crossed which ended with both combatants lying dead in Hyde Park. Read on for more detail.
Our walk began from the car park of Sutton Hall, once the ancestral home of Lord Lucan, who was involved in a glorious tragedy during the Crimean War when he passed on an ambiguous order sent by Lord Raglan which led to 600 cavalrymen riding into The Valley of Death.
In fact a letter discovered a few years ago sheds new light on the disaster with a more junior officer Capt Nolan (played by David Hemmings in the famous 1968 film) now apparently being mainly blamed for the calamity.
(He wasn't the only Lord Lucan to be involved in a calamitous tragedy - Ed). See below.
There is a link here
Returning to the main road we turned left until we reached a green public footpath sign on our left and crossed a wooden stile to enter a field. Another wooden stile led us out of the field and along Parvey Lane. At the drive leading to Lee Farm, we turned left until we reached a bridge across a stream. Immediately after the bridge we turned right, keeping the stream on our right, and walked to the left of Sutton Reservoir.
At the end of the reservoir, we swung sharp left (31mins) and soon crossed the A523 Macclesfield-Leek road before going over a footbridge to the far side of the Macclesfield Canal at Bridge 48A. We followed the towpath with the canal on our left until we reached the start of Bosley Locks (75mins)
The 12 locks raise the waterway by 118 feet in one mile, at the end of which an aqueduct 45 feet high carries the canal over the River Dane. The Macclesfield Canal was designed by civil engineer Thomas Telford, whose plans to build it for £295,000 were approved by Parliament in 1826. The 27-mile-long canal linking Marple with Kidsgrove opened in 1831 and had cost £320,000.
We turned right along a road that brought us to the entrance to North Rode Manor, stopping for pies and port alongside a lake (91mins). Resuming we went through a wooden five-barred gate and turned right at Yew Tree Farm, through Keepers Cottage, and through two metal gates. A wooden stile brought us to a road where we turned right, passing Rode Green Cottage on our left (113mins)
After crossing a road and heading through the metal kissing gate opposite we entered a field by a green public footpath sign, heading through a similar gate and a wooden stile to reach a path with an electrified fence on our right. We crossed a wooden stile and headed towards the distinctive tower of Gawsworth Parish Church in the distance.
Another wooden stile was crossed and we walked to the left of a pond. This brought us to a metal kissing gate which we went through. With the church on our right, we turned left down Church Lane to reach the Harrington Arms on our right (144mins)
This is one of two pubs called the Harrington Arms owned by the Robinsons’ Brewery of Stockport. They are two miles apart, the other being in Bosley, and the landlord of the Gawsworth hostelry confirmed this was a constant source of confusion for unfamiliar drinkers over the decades who had waited in vain for their chums in the wrong Harrington Arms.
Continuing our journey we went back up Church Lane passing the 15th Century St James Church on our right and swinging left away from the entrance to Gawsworth Hall.
Gawsworth Old Hall, a Grade 1 listed country house, was built between 1480 and 1600 replacing an earlier Norman structure. It was originally owned by the Fitton family, later by the Gerards and Stanhopes. Since 1930 it has been owned by the Richards’ family.
Notable residents included Mary Fitton, a maid of honour to Queen Elizabeth 1, who was rumoured to be the “dark lady” mentioned in Shakespeare’s sonnets. Another was Samuel “Maggoty” Johnson, a playwright described as the last jester in England, whose grave lies nearby in Maggoty Wood.
In 1712 a dispute about ownership of the Gawsworth estate led to a duel in Hyde Park, London, in which Baron Charles Mohun, 37, from the Gerard branch of the family, fought the Duke of Hamilton, 54, from the Fitton side. Both swordsmen died. Baron Mohun had won two previous duels and twice been charged with murder, for which he was twice acquitted. So for him, it was third time unlucky.
Just beyond the hall entrance was a large statue of Sir Robert Peel, the founder of Britain’s police force, who gave them their nickname “Bobbies.” We paused her for a picture (see above).
Sir Robert (1788-1850) was born in Bury, Lancs, the son of a wealthy textile manufacturer. He earned a double first in classics and maths at Oxford University before becoming an MP at the tender age of 21. He was elected in the “rotten borough” of Cashel in Tipperary, Ireland, where there were only 24 electors who traditionally voted for the highest bidder.
Peel went on to become Prime Minster twice and created the forerunners of our modern police force, who were nicknamed “bobbies” or “peelers.” He died from his injuries four days after falling off his horse.
Sir Robert's statue was bought from Peel Park, Salford, by Raymond Richards, an antiquarian, who owned Gawsworth Hall.
We went through a metal kissing gate and reached a road where we turned left. Where this road swung left we carried straight ahead along a footpath.
We turned right at a sign for Danes Moss Nature Reserve where we learned that 72 different species of birds had been spotted. We were also informed that no healthy bog was complete without a super plant called sphagnum which can hold 20 times its own weight in water.
After pausing briefly for lunch (176mins) we continued and crossed the main railway line between Manchester and London via a footbridge. The path led onto Bridge 41 of the Macclesfield Canal, where we followed the towpath until we exited at Bridge 44. From here we crossed the road to enter the car park of Sutton Hall to de-boot.
As mentioned earlier, this was the ancestral home of the Bingham family who were the Earls of Lucan. The 3rd Earl, Field Marshal George Charles Bingham (1800-1888) was at the Battle of Balaclava in 1854 when he sent an order via Captain Louis Nolan to his brother-in-law Lord Cardigan, who commanded the Light Brigade. As a result of a misunderstanding Cardigan ordered his cavalry to charge the Russian guns and many of them were mown down in what poet Alfred Lord Tennyson described as “The Valley of Death.”
In more recent times Richard John Bingham, the 7th Earl of Lucan (1934-?) , disappeared in 1974 after the family nanny had been murdered. It was believed Lord Lucan had mistaken Sandra Rivett for his wife Veronica, with whom he was involved in acrimonious divorce proceedings, and had battered her to death in the dark. In 2016 he was pronounced dead by a judge and his son, George Charles Bingham, became the 8th Earl of Lucan.
Three of our number had a final refreshment in Sutton Hall where we were joined by Vanessa (Chris’s more significant other) and enjoyed pints of Lord Lucan cask bitter
Next week’s walk will start at 9.40am from outside the Sportsman Pub Hayfield going to Little Mill at Rowarth for 12.15 returning to the Sporty for 2:15pm.
Happy Wandering !
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