Sunday 3 January 2010 – Tatton Park

A lovely sunny day drew us out into the icy wastes of Manchester’s hinterland.  Known as Tatton Park, the venue for today’s slither has a long history, dating back to the bronze age, but more recently involving the bequeath of the Egerton family’s estate to the National Trust in 1958.

As we returned from the east coast yesterday, in interesting conditions involving icy roads and trees heavily laden with snow, a sharp shower of sleet in Manchester had immediately frozen solid, leaving a thin veneer of ice, more or less everywhere.

So we went to the Knutsford entrance to the park, slithered up the west side of the lake, past the Greek temple,

enjoyed coffee and cake in the restaurant, then slithered back along the east side of the lake. 

A swan was sunbathing on the ice.

Attempts to find a short cut back from pleasant woodland to the park entrance failed due to impenetrable marshland, and we emerged eventually near the centre of Knutsford, passing the Ruskin Rooms – an ornate building completed by Richard Harding Watt, an admirer of John Ruskin (1819-1900), in 1902.

A very pleasant 8 km slither on a blue sky day.  A short slideshow is here.