Thursday 24 April 2025 - A Bike Ride to Pennington Flash and the Sankey Valley

On a lovely summer's day it was a delight to enjoy this gentle 70km bike ride.

Sue and I set off at 9am from Timperley Bridge and soon observed a Mallard with a rather large recently hatched family.

There's lots of waterweed in the Bridgewater Canal in the Stretford area. Sue identified it as Cape Pondweed, an exotic introduction from South Africa.

There's also lots of Cuckoo Flower on the verges of the canal, as well as Wild Garlic, Forget-me-nots, Bluebells and huge expanses of Dandelions.

Cuckoo Flower

The towpath takes us past the Trafford Centre, where a big expanse of land has recently been cleared. I wonder what is going on there?

Anyway, the canal makes its way through picturesque Worsley, soon passing RHS Bridgewater gardens and continuing its tranquil way in pleasant countryside past Astley and Leigh.

A short way beyond Leigh, we dived off to the left (the steep descent feels a bit like a dive) and joined a friendly couple with whom we enjoyed a good chat over our coffee and cake. (Slow service, excellent cake.) Nigel and Diane retired about ten years ago and have spent much of that time exploring the waterways (canals) of Britain. They have recorded their exploits on Facebook, under the title 'Narrowboat Escapology' which is well worth a browse. The wildlife pictures are excellent.

It was a delight to bump into you, Nigel and Diane, and enjoy a leisurely break with no time pressures.

As Sue's time on a bicycle is restricted by a recurring neck problem, she turned round here and pedalled home along the towpath. A ride of over 50km, so not to be sniffed at, and quite speedy compared with my gentle pace, so she was back for lunch at 1pm.

Meanwhile, I took to the earth paths around the Flash, then minor roads through Golborne and Newton-le-Willows to reach the Sankey Valley at Mucky Mountains Nature Reserve.

This is a lovely spot. The Mallards were out in force with their partners and their youngsters.

After a delightful 8km or so heading south through the linear nature park in the Sankey Valley, the Trans Pennine Trail (TPT) is reached and the path travels through a 'Memorial Forest', where I lunched on a bench 'In Memory of John McCloskey, 1951 - 2014'.

I soon joined the familiar TPT route beside the Ship Canal that we join when doing the 'Moore Lane' circuit towards Runcorn.

The once muddy paths through Warrington have been sanitised, though there's no mud anywhere in our current dry spell of weather.

I know I'm near home when I exit Warrington and encounter the River Bollin.

The TPT takes to the road for a short way at the site of the Bay Malton pub, so it's more enjoyable to take a cut through about 300 metres earlier, beside a wood, that links with the furthest point to which the Bridgewater Way towpath has been resurfaced. Here's my bike on the link path I've just joined, with the canal towpath being the other side of the hedge in the middle distance.

The towpath leads in about 4km to our house in Timperley.

On this occasion the 70km circuit took me about 6 hours at a gentle pace, including a long stop at Pennington Flash and two shorter ones on the TPT. 

Here's the route:

Back home to sit in the sunshine at 3pm. What a lovely outing.

Thursday 28 November 2024 - Pennington Flash - a bike ride

I'll be brief. We've done this before. It's  a 57km (35 mile) bike ride on the following route:

Timperley Bridge > Bridgewater Canal towpath to Monton > Loopline/Busway > Leigh > towpath > Pennington Flash café (The Hide Coffee House) > return to Timperley along the Bridgewater Canal towpath.

We met in Timperley and Sale, with Sue and me being joined by Paul and Jenny.

Fingers and toes struggled initially to stay warm on the frosty morning, but the sun was shining, the sky was blue, and there was no discernable wind.

The trees are now nearly bare of leaves, but there was still a bit of autumn colour on the loopline.

We paused while Paul dealt with some urgent business. I think the Worsley Woods parkrun passes this point.

At the café we were honoured to bump into Norman and June. Norman has been a stalwart member of East Lancs LDWA for over 35 years. He's not in the best of health, but we enjoyed this mini reunion and he certainly hasn't lost his sense of humour. He appears on earlier pages of this journal.

The team lined up outside the café before heading back home.

We enjoyed lovely sunshine and we had all been warm for most of the ride. Just a few photo pauses including this one near The Moorings.

We stopped in Worsley for coffee and cake that we'd brought with us in case the café was shut. No point in taking it home!

The ride took longer than I'd expected, a bit less than 5 hours. Still less than the original 70km plan, which was adjusted to satisfy demand, would have taken.

A lovely morning, thanks for your company, everyone.

Monday 29 July 2024 - A 70km bike ride to Pennington Flash and Mucky Mountains

The new building in Stretford continues to grow, and ragwort flowers have replaced the orchids beside the canal, which remains happily only very selectively mown

This was a return to a familiar route, at a very gentle pace, on a beautiful summer's day.

The Bridgewater Canal towpath leads in an hour and a half to Pennington Flash, where I enjoyed a lengthy break with a couple of grandparents and their two year old, much like our days out with Isabella.

There are some very narrow sections of towpath near Worsley;

happily everyone is very polite about passing

Between Worsley and Pennington Flash, the towpath is a delight to cycle along;
it used to be a quagmire here but now there's a path on both sides of the canal.
The Bridgewater Gardens are just off to the right

Water lilies and canal boats and new build housing on the way to Pennington Flash

There was a long wait for service at the new cafe by the Flash,

but good coffee and cake when it eventually arrived

Around 10km on quiet roads leads from the Flash to Mucky Mountains Nature Reserve and the Sankey Valley.

Click on the image for more information about Mucky Mountains

The river runs parallel with the disused canal, whose banks are monitored by tame moorhens

As with many disused canals, there don't seem to be enough ducks to keep the weed down

Aspects of the site of the canal, whose heyday was from 1757 to the 1830s, have been retained, and good paths and tracks lead down the valley all the way to Warrington, where my route joins the Trans Pennine Trail

The Trans Pennine Trail hes been upgraded in places, but here near Lower Walton the (sometimes muddy) old path is still retained. I normally stop for a break in the memorial forest before this point is reached, but this time the bench was in the bright sun, so I moved on to a sheltered spot together with a couple of local mountain bikers. There were lots of cyclists and walkers about today in the scenic surroundings of the Sankey Valley.

The trail passes far below a road bridge in Warrington, running alongside and eventually crossing the Ship Canal, before picking up the disused railway track from Thelwall to Altrincham and a final 3km along the towpath.

New gates and signage have recently been installed on this section of disused railway.

The ride is just shy of 70km, with a modest 150 metres ascent. Today it took me about 4.5 hours plus 1.5 hours breaks. Click on the next image for precise details of the route as indicated by a thin blue line.

Meanwhile Sue was paddleboarding with Richard and Jenny at Rudyard Lake.

And soon I was happily rehydrating in our garden.

Monday 20 February 2023 - A Bike Ride to Pennington Flash

With Isabella being looked after by her mum on a day off today, Sue joined friends on a shopping trip and I jumped on Stumpy for a ride to Pennington Flash and back, going via the busway to Leigh, and returning via the Leeds and Liverpool and Bridgewater Canal towpaths.

It was an overcast day until the start of my return journey, so the pictures aren't up to much, but here goes:

There's a new building going up on a narrow strip of land next to the canal in Stretford. Probably putting waste land to good use.

The area around the aqueduct over the Manchester Ship Canal, near the Trafford Centre, looks more dilapidated every time I pass by.

Leaving the towpath just after the lighthouse in Monton, I took the loopline route through Roe Green towards Tyldesley. Pleasantly much drier than our visit to run here on New Year's Eve.

Approaching Leigh, the busway makes life easier for those who commute into Manchester.

Beyond Leigh's centre, and it's a short ride along the towpath to the Flash. Near here the Bridgewater Canal morphs into the Leeds & Liverpool Canal. New housing replaces the fields that used to line the towpath. The temporary fencing shown below has been replaced further on by a metal fence with no gates, so the residents have no easy access to the towpath! Amazing...

At the turnaround point - 30km along the 56km route, I found a bench on which to enjoy a drink and a snack. I soon moved on. A brisk, cold, wind was blowing in from the west.

A 'coffee house' - The Hide - is under construction here, finishing touches being applied. This will be a welcome replacement to the tacky kiosk in the car park.

Back on the canal towpath, all was quiet and the sun came out.

The sun soon went away again, as I pedaled slowly home, this being my longest ride on the Specialised Stumpjumper (Stumpy) since May 2022.

It's a good route - 56km in 4 hours or so.