Tuesday 27 January 2026 - Altrincham to Knutsford (Altrincham to Chester Stage 1)

A modest project to follow the GM Ringway walk. I've plotted a five stage route from Altrincham to Chester. The first stage, to Knutsford, was on the day a named storm, Chandra, was passing though our area. So six of us - me, Sue, Rick, Andy, Paul and Jeanette, plus Rufus the dog, got togged up for extreme weather and set off before 10 am from Altrincham Interchange.

Given the conditions, we decided is would be foolish to pass Gran T's without sampling their mugs of coffee. (Thanks, Rick.)

Half an hour later, and still in sight of the Interchange, we proceeded on a pleasant route through the well heeled streets and narrow ginnels of Altrincham. The rain had stopped for the day, leaving several of us seriously overdressed.

A blue plaque erected by Trafford Council reminds us of a WW1 hero from Bowdon, a suburb of Altrincham..

By the time we got near Ashley, the tarmac had gone and the path to a sturdy bridge across the River Bollin was slightly muddy.

 

Children play in the river here in their summer holidays, but we were the only visitors today.

A good path led across fields towards Ryecroft Farm, before which a left turn took us to a footbridge over the M56 motorway.

There followed a noisy, muddy walk beside the motorway, then a field path past Birkin Farm towards Ashley, where a bed of snowdrops beautified the verge.

Thanks to the mugs of coffee at Gran T's, our coffee break between Arden House and Birtles Farm was later than usual. There was a sad lack of a bench, though Sue tried to formulate one out of fresh air. There wasn't room for anyone else!

I should mention here that this route is just one of many different ways of walking from Altrincham to Knutsford. We could have used the familiar paths through Tatton Park, but I wanted to use paths that I've rarely been on before. Rick does recall walking part of this route with me and other members of the LDWA - perhaps that was the walk on 16 October 2011, on which I reported here. Anyway, today's route was an attempt at a good way of getting from Altrincham to Knutsford, staying close to the railway. (It worked - all six of us were happy with the chosen route.)

After Birtles Farm, paths led by hedgerows past a field of frisky horses. Frisky but not threatening. It was a trifle muddy by one of the gates.

In this area there were large expanses of newly planted trees and the path was clearly punctuated with brand new kissing gates.

Beyond Kell House Farm our planned route to Pepper Street was foiled by a closed path due to an 'unsafe bridge'. On another day I may have ignored the sign, but it was simple enough to continue past Parkside Farm and turn left at Fourlane-ends. The Barnshaw Smithy café was then passed on the way to a crossing of the railway line.

A wedding venue was reached at Owen House Farm, where there were posturing hares, but no 'lunch bench'.

After this, we stopped for lunch by a fairly sheltered (from the cool breeze) hedge under the airport flight path.

We were now on the 'North Cheshire Way' footpath that led to woods beside the enclosed boundaries of Tatton Park.

This was very pleasant, on some newly laid paths, until we reached a building site where it seems that an attempt is being made to link Mobberley with Knutsford by way of a huge new housing estate. Fences prohibited entry, but the crispy flower heads of teasel plants were making a bid to escape.

A good path has been installed around the boundary of the housing estate.

The new estate is called Park Gate Village, and completion seems to be from the Knutsford end. There appears to be only one way in and out of the estate, so the effect of any roadworks may be interesting.

Eventually we crossed the railway by Knutsford Moor Nature Reserve and took our last muddy path of the day to a pond on the edge of the town.

Black-headed gulls were the dominant species here today, together with lots of moorhens and smaller numbers of coot, cormorant, heron, grebes, mallard, swans and more.

We were in plenty of time, after a stroll through Knutsford, for the 15:41 train back to Altrincham. With Rick's help, I just managed to complete the day's 'Squaredle' puzzle before we left in a flurry of schoolchildren.

Here's our route - 17.5 km, with about 100 metres ascent (ie largely flat), taking 4.5 hours including breaks.

That was a good start to this project. Stage 2 - Knutsford to Northwich, will be on Friday 13 February - here's the flier:

Altrincham to Chester - Stage 2 - Knutsford to Northwich.
9:36 train from Altrincham to Knutsford (9:52), then walk to Northwich, approx 15km. Return on 15:28 or 16:28 train.

16 to 19 January 2026 - A Visit to Home Farm Cottage, Napton, Warwickshire

                 L to R: Gerry, Peg, Lyn, Sue, Robert, Martin, Chris, Jim, Louise

This is the group who for many years have been visiting Center Parcs in Sherwood Forest at roughly this time of year. (See here.) During that time there have been a few changes in personnel, and this year we welcomed back Jim and Peg after a break of a few years. But we didn't go to Center Parcs, where the participation in activities has tailed off for several reasons over the past few years. We found Home Farm Cottages, blessed with a games room (table tennis, pool, table football and darts) and a hot tub to be most satisfactory, with accommodation better than that at Center Parcs.

We arrived on Friday afternoon, 16 January.

Catering was easy:
Friday: Martin and Sue – Beef Stew
Saturday: Jim and Peg – Chicken dish
Sunday: Chris and Gerry – Spaghetti Bolognese

Monday: Robert and Lyn – Chorizo and Butterbean Stew with baked apples for a dessert. 

That all went smoothly and we even managed to use the Aga. Here the beef stew is being demolished in the dining room, overseen by Henry, whose picture you can see on the wall just above Gerry's head.

Louise washed up

Saturday 17 January 2026

After being introduced to parkrun by Sue and me at Sherwood Forest a couple of years ago, Robert has become a parkrun addict. Daventry parkrun was only 15 minutes away from the cottage, so Robert, Sue and I popped out to complete the one lap circuit around Daventry Country Park - a really nice route.

The narrow path at the start, and a couple of bottlenecks a bit further on, meant a short delay for those towards the back. It's not a race though.

After a while the woodland track emerged onto the top of a high embankment protecting Daventry Reservoir.

Later on, after passing a Visitors Centre and re-entering woodland, we arrived at a long bridge beyond which a volunteer marshall, Peter, was encouraging the runners. We had been told at the pre-run briefing that this was his 50th time as a volunteer, and we should offer our thanks. I did just that, and the picture found its way onto the run's website.

Someone kindly took a picture for us at the finish.

Sue took 26:12 in position 64, Robert was home in 28:00 in position 100, and I staggered round in 34:28 in position 228 out of the 311 finishers.

Here's the route:

On return to the cottage, a quick turnaround saw Sue and me joined by Chris and Gerry for a 13km stroll along canal towpaths and through muddy fields.

A walk down the road from the cottage brought us on to the Oxford Canal towpath. I think cyclists are allowed along here. With care!

On reaching a sort of t-junction with the Grand Union Canal, we could observe a huge marina from the bridge.

We dropped down and doubled back to join the Grand Union Canal towpath that was to be our route to the village of Stockton.

We continued to Calcutt Locks.

The tree pictured below was full of fieldfares for a while. Not quite as exciting as the goldcrest we watched within a foot of our dining room window in Timperley a few days earlier - it spent nearly an hour harvesting insects from the bushes in our small front garden.

There was a fair amount of activity on the canal.

It was a pleasant stroll past more marinas, to Stockton Top Lock.

Soon after this, we paused on a convenient bench to enjoy our lunch. The towpath is on the right in the picture below. Its surface was a bit damp, but the mountain bikers who passed by were having no problems.

After lunch we descended past the series of Stockton Locks before leaving the canal and joining the Millennium Way footpath that rose up a narrow, muddy ginnel to enter the village of Stockton.

On the southern outskirts of the village stands St Michael's & All Angels church, dating mainly from the Victorian period, but partly Norman.

 

The cemetery is on the edge of muddy fields that the Millennium Way now had us ploughing through, with increasing deposits of sticky mud clinging to our boots, before a less muddy short cut got us back directly to the cottage.

Mud...

Nice dry short cut.

Here's our route - 13 km with 60 metres ascent, taking us a little under four hours.

Sunday 18 January 2026

Mostly spent in the games room and hot tub, but Sue and I did venture out for a walk around Napton on the Hill, a nearby village within walking distance.

It was a dull, misty morning on which a short cut through a field led us across the canal and on to the path up Hackwell Hill.

Narrow paths led up the hill, past a supply of 'Witches Butter'.

We paused on reaching the Church of St Lawrence, which dates from medieval times. We could have made ourselves a pot of tea if we hadn't just had breakfast.

Sue spent some time with a local chap, discussing the church's bells.

From the church, we took a path to the 160 metre summit of the hill, near a windmill shrouded in mist. There's a seat and a rowan tree on this site of a WW11 Observer Post.

A narrow descending path led us all the way back to the Oxford Canal, past an area that is marked on the map as an Industrial Estate, but which looks like it is being prepared for some sort of development.

Back on the canal towpath, we continued to the Grand Union Canal junction and turned up along yesterday's path to Calcutt Locks. We crossed the canal here and were soon befriended by a group of people enjoying the facilities at Daisy's Bakin' Butty. Nice coffee. It's a small world - until recently one of the customers owned the house next to my sister-in-law's property in Porthmadog. 

They had heard of  the 'Walton Perk' on the canal near our house - a very similar operation.

Here's our route - 7.5 km, 70 metres ascent, taking two hours.

There was an adjournment to the games room.

Monday 19 January 2026 - A Visit to Bletchley Park.

Just an hour away from Napton, this was an ideal opportunity to visit Bletchley Park, home of the Codebreakers. All nine of us went, and we enjoyed a most educational day out.

From the Visitor Centre entrance we walked up towards the Mansion. After looking around there, we congregated for an hour's tour of the outside of the buildings. The tour guide, Neil, was most knowledgeable.

After the tour, we wandered around for the rest of the day.

Various vehicles were on display in the garages.

1940 Packard Six - used by MI6 after 1940

1943 Norton 500cc bike

1938 Austin 18 Ambulance

1947 Sunbeam Talbot - donated by Mick Jagger after it starred in the film 'Enigma' (2001)

We passed through the ornate entrance to the stables area.

 

The Polish Memorial is next to Hut 1.

Here's Alan Turing, Codebreaker extraordinaire.

Codebreaking machine

Still recruiting

Secret Shirley - Codebreaker

4pm closing time, and it was back to base for our last evening meal together, and some exercise for Robert.

That was an improvement over Center Parcs for our current requirements, and we hope we can return next year, especially as the Bletchley Park tickets are valid for a year, and there was more to see despite spending all day there.