Friday 11 April 2025 - A Bike Ride around Manchester

It was a 9am start from Timperley Bridge, where nobody else turned up despite the continuing sunshine, and a pause more or less opposite our house, for a first photo of the glassy canal.

I took a familiar route to Didsbury, sticking to the Trans Pennine Trail (TPT) - picked up in Stretford -  and soon passing through Chorlton Ees on the way to Jackson's Boat Bridge.

The River Mersey is low at present thanks to a lack of rain, but debris in trees the height of the upper embankment are a reminder of January storms. 

Workmen were removing debris that was caught in the weir at Northenden.

With the lower path being impassable by bike in places of deep sand, I took the narrow path on the high embankment bordering the golf course. Banks of Dandelions glittered beside the river.

At Fletcher Moss the TPT heads into Didsbury where the well signed route passes beside the Metrolink railway for a little way to its terminus at East Didsbury station.

The TPT then takes to a fairly new path near the River Mersey, with lots of freshly spouted Cowslips in evidence.

After this a narrow path beside the M60 motorway leads to a choice of routes. On this occasion I chose to avoid the fleshpots of Stockport Town Centre and headed past the Decathlon store and to the north of the centre.

I fumbled my way past Heaton Norris and soon reached the comfort of the old railway lines in Reddish Vale. Time for a break after an hour and a half in the saddle.

After pausing at the Visitor Centre in Reddish Vale, where the café was open today, I continued along the TPT and under the railway viaduct in Reddish. The next two pictures were taken from the same place, in opposite directions.

On leaving the Country Park, the TPT crosses the M60 motorway by way of a bridge that houses an old farm track.

The track emerges into housing at Haughton Green, from which a ginnel leads briefly to more housing and a right turn onto the A6017 main road. After a fast descent to a left hand turn into the woods, the road is left for the remainder of the route apart from a short section in central Manchester.

The TPT now enters Haughton Dale, once a hive of industry, now a Country Park where the path continues beside the River Tame, which feeds into the Mersey in Stockport.

Several weirs remind of an industrial past hereabouts.

After pleasant paths with the occasional bench or picnic table if needed, the TPT rises to reach the Peak Forest Canal. My route leaves the TPT after a bridge across the river and ascends to the canal towpath, leaving the TPT to find a way to Broadbottom and beyond.

The towpath switches banks a couple of times as it makes its way past Hyde and Dukinfield to reach a junction in Ashton-under-Lyne.

A left turn at the junction ahead takes us onto the Ashton Canal.

There's a café and museum across the basin from this junction. I didn't visit on this occasion, having plenty of refreshments and a break from the saddle nearby after three hours.

The Ashton Canal takes us into the centre of Manchester on a route that's familiar, apart from muddling through city centre roads on Whitworth Street where the towpath has been temporarily shut. It's the same route as that taken by the Fallowfield Loopline bike ride.

 

Approaching Manchester, there's also a problem with the towpath near Piccadilly, where I found myself on a bike lane on an unfamiliar street with sculptures.

The rest of the ride passed uneventfully. I stopped by the Merchant's Bridge to finish off my provisions, then pedalled home at a gentle pace along the Bridgewater Canal towpath.

A  'jiggle' at the end took my mileage for the morning up to 60km, and my Garmin gadget optimistically reckoned on 350 metres ascent during the five hour outing that was followed by lunch in the garden at 2pm on a sunny afternoon. Here's my route.

Next bike ride:

Thursday 24 April - A 70km circuit starting at 9:00 from Timperley Bridge. Bridgewater Canal > Pennington Flash > Mucky Mountains Nature Reserve > Sankey Valley > Trans Pennine Trail > Timperley. All welcome.