Friday 29 March 2019 – A Walk Around Winwick

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A sunny morning in Timperley turned to fog half an hour to the west, in Winwick, but the sun eventually came through.

Paul S joined me for this Friday morning stroll in what proved to be rather unremarkable Cheshire countryside. It’s not far from home to the Swan at Winwick, where we started our walk from the pub car park next to St Oswald’s church, pictured later above.

A dew laden field path led to a footbridge over the M62 near Peel Hall, pictured below. The Georgian house appears to be the subject of a planning application that might see the site ‘redeveloped’.

 

After re-crossing the motorway we came to field paths surrounded by vegetation that looked to me as if it had been subjected to a strong dose of weed killer.

“No chance of finding Lapwings here…” I offered. Moments later a flock of Lapwings wheeled its way over the field, cautiously avoiding the buzzard that was sitting on a fence post.

There’s a dog walker in the above picture – the only person we saw for the first 7 km of our walk.

Houghton Green Pool appears to be situated in a big hole in the ground, presumably arising from past quarrying. It’s a bird reserve. We saw crows. I made a note to enter my picture of the pool in a photographic competition.

Well, perhaps not!

It was noisy next to the motorway, then we returned to Winwick via Hermitage Green, encountering a large group on what I imagine was a guided walk for the navigationally challenged.

By the time we got back to St Oswald’s the fog had dissipated on what had become a lovely spring day. Sadly we couldn’t get into the church, which dates from 1358, when it was built on the site of an earlier church that is mentioned in the Domesday Book.

 

Jen Darling’s book, Walks in North Cheshire, refers to skirmishes here in the English Civil Wars of the 1600s. Royalist Scottish troops defeated by Cromwell surrendered near here. She notes that the post office opposite the church was an ale house, perhaps used by Cromwell’s army as its headquarters during the battle of Preston in 1648. How times change! It’s now a nail bar.

Here’s the route we took – nearly 9 km, with minimal ascent, taking a couple of hours.

Next week’s Friday morning walk is a little longer, and hopefully a tad more interesting:

Friday 5 April

Around Kelsall. Meet at the Boot Inn (SJ 531 672), in Boothsdale at 10 am for a 14 km walk in Sandstone Trail country. A556 past Northwich, turning into Kelsall soon after the A54 joins from the left. Go down Chester Road, then Willington Lane, from where the pub should be signposted.