Tuesday 14 October 2025 - GM Ringway Trail Stage 14 - Bromley Cross to Blackrod

Leave home 7:45; tram to Victoria: train to arrive in Bromley Cross at 9:15. An earlier start than usual, but it's quite a long section.

Sue and I travel with Rick and a friend of his, John, for whom this is his first taste of the GM Ringway Trail. Alan and Sheila grace us with their presence for the third time on these walks. They were on the same train that we picked up at Victoria.

[Alan has written his own diary entry, more comprehensive than this one and an excellent read, here.]

It's overcast and cool, but once again we have avoided any rain, and the mast on Winter Hill is visible; yesterday it would have been in cloud.

After an urban start, we soon find ourselves in delightful woodland beside Eagley Brook.

Fallen trees are covered in fungi, much of it being inedible Honey mushrooms.

The Pestle puffball below was probably tasty, but it was too early in the day to start collecting.

Fly agaric is poisonous.

We seemed to be surrounded by fungi all day, but I won't bore readers with any more pictures. 

Our route criss-crossed the river before heading past a cricket ground and tennis courts.

Eagley Mill looks as if it has been converted to apartments.

There were good views across a small reservoir.

After a section of narrow pathways behind relatively new housing we reached Smithills Open Farm, where good coffee was supplied for £2.80. Sue and I were on the quarantine bench in an attempt to avoid spreading our colds.

Standing proud in the farmyard ... was Alan, with a Massey Ferguson TE20 dating from around 1948.

Curiously, a couple of days earlier I'd received a 'tractor picture' from Nick, our Nuremberg correspondent, who also spotted a TE20 - this one in immaculate condition. Alan could provide more information given the serial number.

Continuing along woodland paths next to streams and man made waterfalls, we reached Smithills Hall, a Grade 1 listed building. I think we used this place for marketing functions at work in the dim and distant past.

On reaching Barrow Bridge Road, we came across a giant chimney that is up for sale together with some land for about £300,000. I suppose a purchaser might demolish the chimney - the bricks look to be in excellent condition and could maybe be used to build several houses.

Barrow Bridge Road has some lovely old houses, and a chapel outside which a notice advertises Jesus.

More man made waterfalls, we saw lots of these today

Leaving the valley in order to ascend Winter Hill, some clumps of Autumn Crocuses added a bit of colour to our fairly monochrome day.

Autumn had reached this beech hedge.

The beech hedge pictured above is shown below in the context of a nice house just before the entry to Snmithills Estate, the largest site managed by the Woodland Trust in the whole of England.

There's a path that ascends directly towards Winter Hill, but we chose an alternative path that descended to a riverside walk before heading back up the hill.

 

Back on the main path. It's a unique stone tramway used for carts to transport coal, bricks and tiles etc, produced by the many small industries that occupied the estate.

There are six poetry stones placed around the estate, this one by a pupil from a local school.

As we rose up the flanks of Winter Hill we could look back to the Barrow Bridge chimney, but the usual view of central Manchester and the Peak District beyond was muffled by low coud today.

However, we were lucky to catch a few glimpses of sunshine.

After a stretch along a quiet road, we passed the affluent looking Gilligant's Farm before turning left to access the moorland of Winter Hill. There's a monument to the Winter Hill Trespass of 1896, when 10,000 Boltonians marched to reclaim an ancient right of way over Winter Hill.

Nearby: this is what you can see on a clear day; from Kinder Scout to Jodrell Bank.

Whilst the predicted 'stunning views of Greater Manchester' were not available, the grassy bank next to the Trespass Stone provided an ideal spot for lunch.

With the antenna now in view straight ahead, the good path rose gently through pleasant moorland and a couple of kissing gates.

On reaching the service road for the antenna, from where TV and radio signals are broadcast across the north west, we decided it would be pointless to go to the trig point that marks the summit due to the absence of much of a view, so we took some photos and then headed off down towards Two Lads.

On the descent, Rivington Pike and Tower soon came into view through the gloom, as well as Lower Rivington Reservoir.

I contoured around Crooked Edge Hill while the others visited the 389 metre viewpoint of Two Lads. I think I saw as much as they did.

The easy descent saw us emerging at the Pike Snack Shack. A friendly place despite the lack of custom that we failed to provide. Here's a view from the shack.

Here's another view, looking up to Rivington Pike.

We now turned left along the road, before descending to the right down a stony path through the lucious woodland of Wilderswood.

We then followed the River Douglas, not much more than a small strem today, down and up and along.

Rivington Lane was crossed, together with hundreds of schoolchildren, then the busy Bolton Road, from where a good track led us over the M61 motorway.

We could have accessed the services at Anderton, but we had no need. A field path led down to a footbridge over the railway.

Once over the railway, we crossed Blackrod Bypass and took a good path that ran parallel with the road before re-crossing it and heading for the station, with Rivington Pike now in view ahead of us..

A half hour wait for a train to Deansgate Station and then a crowded tram to Timperley by well before 6pm. The early start had been worthwhile.

Here's our route (click on the image) - it was about 23 km, with 450 metres ascent, taking less than 7 hours. Another grand day out on the GM Ringway Trail.

Don't forget to read Alan's report, here, and Sheila has  put some pictures on her Facebook page if you can find it.

We plan to do stage 15 on Monday 27 October. Here's the flier:
GM Ringway Trail - Stage 15 - Blackrod to Wigan. Meet at Blackrod Station at 10:32 for this fifteenth 16km stage of the 20 stage circuit of Greater Manchester.
Arrive on the 10:02 from Piccadilly. (Hourly service.)
Return to Victoria by regular train service from Wigan.