Saturday 21 December 2024 - Wythenshawe parkrun #599

Here a few of our parkrun family gather before the start of Wythenshawe's 599th event. By this time I'd headed of with a chap called Tom (Bea's partner) to the slippery corner at Far Bridge. My garb doesn't allow access to any pockets, so the photos in this posting are courtesy of several participants, and WhatsApp.

I was back in time to avoid the queue and enjoy hot coffee and a delicious bacon butty.

Star of the occasion was Annie, who was dressed in spray on leggings and was firmly trussed into an illuminated star sandwich. Here she is next to Jeanette, who celebrated her 400th parkrun with the third highest age related position out of the 290 walkers and runners. Full results are here.

L-R: Paul, Andy, Martin, Annie, Jeanette, Jan, Sue, Owen

Nanaimo bars provided by Jeanette went down a treat. This was a lovely occasion. Merry Christmas everyone, and best wishes for 2025.

Thursday 19 December 2024 - A Walk from Beeston Castle

An hour's drive took me and Sue to the Beeston Castle car park at SJ 540 590. (£3)

From here, the Sandstone Trail heads south through the narrow ginnel shown above, before crossing a road and reaching open fields with a view ahead to Peckforton Castle, now a hotel.

The view back to Beeston Castle

Looking back, the ruins of Beeston Castle, which dates from 1220 - a military stronghold with a turbulent history - hog the skyline.

The field path, today near a team of shooters after grouse, leads to a kissing gate and a bridge over a stream (below), then an ascent to another field path that veers to the right at another kissing gate and emerges shortly afterwards at Horsley Lane.

A right turn at Horsley Lane leads us to The Moathouse complex, the last building of which is an Elizabethan farmhouse with a massive brick chimney. Beeston Castle towers above the roofline.

After passing Ivy Cottage the Sandstone Trail takes a left turn along a track in Peckforton Woods, where after a kilometre a path junction is reached where eggs are for sale. A cheeky grey squirrel was unable to come up with any cash, and ran off when we intervened.

At this point we enjoyed elevenses before Sue continued along the prescribed route - Walk number 12 in Jen Darling's 'Walks in West Cheshire and Wirral' - and I left the Sandstone Trail and followed a waymarked path to the east.

The path was a good one, recently cleared of leaves, with notices threatening repercussions from any deviant behaviour! I stuck to the good path, and I didn't see or hear any 4WD 'Land Rover Experience' activity in the Peckforton Estate's private land.

Meanwhile, Sue continued along the Sandstone Trail for a little way before leaving it by turning left along Hill Lane and then passing under the Haunted Bridge, built in the 1850s to take carriages from Peckforton Castle to the gatehouse. A ghostly servant woman is said to walk from the ruins of a stone hut along the sandy track and up the bank, her severed head under her arm. Folklore dictates that if you see her you will die within a year.

Oyster mushrooms on Sue's route

Approaching the gatehouse/lodge near Peckforton Castle, this strange locked building stands alone.

Nearby, the gatehouse provided welcome shelter from a sharp shower. The road to the castle was surprisingly busy.

You can see where I was sheltering. This is where Sue's route rejoined mine, but she didn't catch up until nearly back at the car park.

Field and woodland paths led back to metalled surfaces beyond Willis's Wood and a long field.

There were more good views up to Beeston Castle, as we passed some picturesque cottages and a converted chapel on the way back to the car park, which is opposite the entrance to the castle..

Here are our routes. Sue mainly followed Jen's route, shown in magenta (she took the same route as me after the Lodge), and my route is shown in blue. 7km and 5.5km respectively, with around 150 metres ascent. Both routes took about 2 hours. I was moving hesitantly due to a poorly knee.

Wednesday 18 December 2024 - A Debriefing at Tatton Hall

Andrew has recently returned from a trip to Japan that the remainder of the 'Famous Five' missed out on. So a debriefing was required, at the nearest Japanese Garden to Andrew's home in deepest Cheshire, in the grounds of Tatton Hall. 

We assembled at 11am in the courtyard cafe. Elevenses drifted into lunchtime, as Andrew meticulously re-lived his adventures in Japan.

Suitably fed, we adjourned to the main garden, where a group of unicorns greeted us.

Eventually we reached the Japanese Garden, open for conducted tours only.

Beyond that was an assortment of seasonal offerings, presumably rather more attractive when lit up at night.

Then a visit to the semi tropical zone. If it had been a cold day we could have warmed up here. As it was we were overdressed for the warm weather anyway.

Before leaving for home, a view of the hall, and a view from the hall.

My pedaling around the park after leaving the car near the Knutsford entrance (from where Sue walked to the hall) covered about 12km of the paths that are used on the annual Tatton Yule Yomp, when it's not cancelled. Others simply returned to the car park.

What a pleasant few hours. I wonder where Andrew's next debriefing will come from...

A Christmas Card for Great Grandma Dot

A Dancer, Two Brass Bands, Wythenshawe parkrun #598, and some Admin

I'm catching up by way of a miscellany. The tearoom at Wythenshawe is happily open these days, and is dog/people friendly. (More below.)

Granddaughter Jessica is loving dancing, and her older brother is enjoying success at table tennis, at the expense of a bit of running. Here's Jess with a well earned trophy.

Last Sunday was a family occasion with the Whitworth Vale & Healey Brass Band, who put on an excellent Christmas performance.

The hall was full, with several hundred in the audience, and lots of money raised towards a new piece of equipment for local cancer researchers, by way of a raffle.

There were some excellent solo performances.

After the interval, and before the main band returned, the junior band played a few numbers. Jacob (tuba) and Jessica (horn) are both in this band, out of sight in the next photo, in which Jacob's friend Seb is second from the right in a white shirt.

That was an excellent evening, and one of many Christmas concerts attended by Sue before Saturday's parkrun, after which she headed to Solihull to spend time with her parents, her father being rather unwell.

We had a great day with Isabella on 'Friday = Isabella Day (81)'. See below.

I've been severely restricted as a result of a knee issue that appeared out of nowhere towards the end of last week's walk in the Trough of Bowland. So it's daily physio exercises plus a half hour bike ride for me for the time being. Thus not much of interest for these pages. I'm scanning some slides from 1997 that may give rise to some retro entries here pending my return to fitness.

Whilst I can't run the parkrun, I can act as a much needed marshall, yesterday at 'Far Bridge', from which the following images were taken as I first waited for (lots of chirping birds in the nearby trees to try to identify) and then encouraged the 261 runners and walkers, a couple of whom took over an hour to complete the two laps of the 5km course.

The approach to Far Bridge is on soft, sometimes muddy, ground, ending in the slippery corner before the slippery bridge and a sharp turn onto the track the other side of the hedge.

Here's Sue, too fast for a head on photo - having a good run in 26:15, position 73.

The runners had plenty of time to install themselves in the cafe before I arrived, and thanks to the insulated cup, my drink was still hot. A few minutes later the 261 bar codes were left with us to sort.

The 'kitchen' is the two food vans in the courtyard. They will need lots of bacon next week.

Admin:

For reasons of privacy, entries covering our days with Isabella will in future be private. So they won't be shown here. Instead, I will continue to keep an illustrated diary by way of Word documents that can be shared on Dropbox with family, and others who gain enjoyment from reading about our days with Isabella. Please let me know by email if you would like access to this diary, obviously for reading only.