December 4, 2024.
HIGH LANE VILLAGE HALL, MACCLESFIELD CANAL, MIDDLECALE FARM, PLATTWOOD FARM, ELMERHURST WOOD, LYME PARK, GREEN FARM, MACCLESFIELD CANAL, MIDDLEWOOD WAY, THE BOAR'S HEAD AT HIGHER POYNTON, JACKSONS BRICKWORKS NATURE RESERVE AT MIDDLEWOOD, MACCLESFIELD CANAL, THE BULL'S HEAD AT HIGH LANE
Distance: 8.7 miles.
Difficulty: Easy.
Weather: Dry, mild, mainly cloudy with occasionally sunshine.
Walkers: Peter Beal, Andy Blease, Clive Rothel, Steve Brearley, Alastair Cairns, Mike Cassini, Mark Enright, Hughie Hardiman, Alan Hart, Chris Owen, Julian Ross, Keith Welsh, Andy White with Berta, Simon Williams and Cliff Worthington.
Alternative walkers: Jock Rooney with Milly.
Leader: Hart. Diarist: Hart.
Apologies: Tom Cunliffe (domestic duties), Mark Gibby (in Wales)
Starting point: High Lane Village Hall car park, off Windlehurst Road, High Lane, Disley SK6 8AB.
Starting time: 9.40am. Finishing time: 2.35pm.
Although rain of biblical proportions was forecast for later in the day the prospect of a dry morning and early afternoon encouraged a bumper turnout for this comfortable walk. The absence of any challenging hills may also have persuaded two of our wounded comrades to step up their recovery programme.
Chris and Mike appear to be well on their way to full fitness again after their respective operations and we were delighted to see them turn out in our main group. Hopefully there will be no further setbacks for these stalwarts.
From the car park we walked away from its entrance, passing the village hall and a children's playground on our right before going through a gap in the hedge to reach the bank of the Macclesfield Canal. We turned right with the waterway on our left and walked along the towpath through a tunnel beneath the A6.
At Bridge 13 (20mins) where a Second World War pillbox has been disguised with a collection of ornamental knick-knacks, we turned left to cross the canal and headed up the lane, passing Middlecale Farm on our right. We turned left at a T-junction (23mins) aiming for Lyme Cage in the distance and then turned left again at Plattwood Farm (35mins)
The tarmac lane swung first right and then left, then right again as we went through a gate into Lyme Park (52mins). After 50 yards we went right over a wooden ladder stile and entered Elmerhurst Wood (54mins).
Exiting Lyme Park to enter Elmerhurst Wood
A well-trodden path took us across a pair of footbridges to a stone step stile over a wall to return to Lyme Park with the distinctive Lyme Cage above us 200 steep yards away (69mins). Turning right along a footpath we reached Lyme Park cafe on our right and continued to reach a building set with tables and chairs for Pietime (79mins)
Resuming we passed the lake on our right and the car park on our left with Lyme Hall itself emerging on the left.
With the hall on our left we turned right across a cattle-grid and swung right again at decorative rocks. A few yards later we turned left along a dark gravel path (88mins). After 250 yards we turned right (91mins) and started to descend a path of well-trodden grass to a wooden ladder stile.
After crossing this we went right over a wooden stile and followed the footpath signs through Green Farm.
At a T-junction (97mins) we turned right towards Green Farm House. Opposite the house we turned left downhill (98mins). Just before a farm we turned left at a footpath marked with a yellow arrow (101mins) and followed this path through a metal kissing gate until it emerged through another gate into a field.
Turning left downhill we reached the Macclesfield Canal and crossed it by a footbridge (106mins)
Proposals for building a canal connecting Macclesfield with the national network were first documented in 1765 but it was not until 1824 that the scheme came to fruition. Under the leadership of engineer Thomas Telford it was completed in 1831. It was 26 miles long running from Marple and the Peak Forest Canal in the north to Congleton and the Trent and Mersey Canal in the south.
In 1846 the canal was bought by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway. It continued commercially until 1954 and might have closed. But vigorous campaigning by the North Cheshire Cruising Club kept this and other canals open as a leisure facility.
On the far side of the footbridge we turned right with the canal on our right but immediately headed left away from the towpath along a path which headed downhill. A footpath to the right is temporarily closed (for two years!) because of a damaged footbridge. We walked for 50 yards past this to another footpath where we turned right and exited the woodland by a stile.
Turning right along a road we reached The Coppice car park on our left and here joined The Middlewood Way. We followed this until we reached picnic tables and benches set on the railway line which was once Higher Poynton station. We climbed left before the bridge and emerged opposite The Boar's Head (122mins)
Here we enjoyed pints of Wainwrights and Timothy Taylor Lanlord cask bitter, pots of tea and other girlie drinks. We were joined by Jock and Milly who had been walking along the canal towpath.
Suitably refreshed we left the pub, crossed the roadbridge diagonally opposite and turned left down steps to reach the Middlewood Way. We then headed north towards Marple under two bridges then turning off diagonally right beyond the third bridge to enter Jacksons Brickworks Nature Reserve (149mins). After exiting we turned left through two gates to head through fields towards the Macclesfield Canal.
We reached the canal back at Bridge 13 opposite the decorated pill box we had passed earlier. Turning left with the canal on our right we retraced our earlier footsteps to the rear of The Bull's Head on the A6 at High Lane. While sober citizens headed back to their cars, Peter and your diarist had one for the road.
We then went back to the canal, turned left under the tunnel and immediately left through a gap in the hedge to the playground. Here we turned right and then left to reach our cars.
Next week's walk will start at Piccadilly railway station, Manchester, with wanderers meeting at 10am at the Victory Over Blindness statue just outside the main entrance. It will involve a tribute to a famous Manchester landlord and character known universally as “Mad George” in which we will visit the city centre pubs where he was licensee.
These were The Douglas, The Moonraker Club, The Abercrombie, The Town Hall Tavern and The Circus. Of these The Douglas has been demolished and replaced by the FA soccer museum. We have discovered this is only free to Manchester ratepayers so many of us may feel the £16 entry fee (£14 online) is too steep. (20% discount for groups of 10 or more). Please make your feelings known.
Visits to the other pubs will be interrupted by a call on the legendary curry house, The Kabana, 52, Back Turner Street, Manchester M4 1FR for lunch.
Happy wandering !
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