Tuesday 9 December 2025 - GM Ringway Trail Stage 18 - Irlam to Altrincham

With a bit of rain around, our train journey from Piccadilly to Irlam was delayed, so we stopped for coffee at Piccadilly rather than in the nice café at Irlam station. As a result, the rain had stopped by the time we disembarked from what would be our last train journey on the GM Ringway stages, as all further journeys will be by tram or within walking distance of home.

As can be seen from the murals, Irlam Station is a smart sort of place.

Today it was the core team again - I was joined by Sue, Rick, Paul, Jeanette and Rufus. We all commiserated with Rick following his recent bereavement.

The route started by heading down suburban streets, through small parks, and past playing fields and allotments. Nearing Glazebrook, we crossed a long bridge over the dismantled railway that operated between Glazebrook and Timperley from 1873 to 1964. This is one line that has not been converted to a pathway, though some sections can be walked.

We soon crossed a bridge over Glaze Brook, which was quite full after recent rain. Some of the depleted reservoirs we passed in earlier stages of the walk have now happily been replenished.

After leaving the extensive suburbia of Irlam, we entered a farming area where the winter greens are doing well as a crop.

This is about as squidgy as it has been on any stage of the walk. Our feet stayed dry, though shoes were muddied.

We snatched a shot of Jeremy Vine's bicycle after he nipped into his caravan for a 'pit stop'.

There's a good view from the Warburton Toll Bridge over the Manchester Ship Canal, all the way across to the Peak District, where we followed the Pennine Bridleway on several stages of the walk.

The bridge and roadway have recently been refurbished.

Lots of well watered crops...

As on most stages of the GM Ringway walk, we could look across farmland towards the tall buildings of central Manchester.

It used to cost 12p, taken at a toll booth, to cross the bridge. The booth has gone and £1 is now charged. It has to be paid on-line. The penalty is £30, rising to £100 for charges not paid within 28 days.

Having crossed the bridge, we descended past some pretty cottages before diverting to visit Warburton Old Church.

The church was closed, but Sue managed a shot through a keyhole.

Here are a few words from the Churches Conservation Trust:

The ancient church of St Werburgh is 1,000 years old and is still a secluded place of peace despite its closeness to the M6, The Manchester Ship Canal and the industrial north-west.

Named after a Saxon abbess who became the patron saint of Chester, it is one of only 27 timber-framed churches in England. Inside, rough-hewn timber uprights support the roof beams, gnarled and twisted like the trees they once were.

Fixtures and furnishings show St Werburgh's journey through time, from a twelfth-century stone sarcophagus to the patch of nineteenth-century Minton tiles on the floor, giving you a strong sense of the many generations of ordinary people who have worshipped here and cherished their church.

A couple of benches by the Lych Gate offered an ideal spot for lunch.

Back on the GM Ringway route, we passed some stocks before arriving at St Werburgh's New Church and Warburton Parish Rooms.

 

Across the road - more interesting properties.

Pleasant field paths led to a crossing of the familiar route of the Trans Pennine Trail, our route today for a while being along the Bollin Valley Way.

 

The river was quite full.

An underpass saw us under the Bridgewater Canal, near the place where an embankment collapse has rendered the canal, and the towpath, closed from January 2025 to an estimate of December 2026. You can no longer get onto the towpath here.

Beyond the bridge pictured below, it was alarming to discover the vandalising of a crocus meadow that we've admired for many years. A building project seems to have destroyed that parcel of land.

After passing The Swan With Two Nicks, another crossing of the Bollin before entering the grounds of Dunham Massey Hall.

The path often floods, so it was drier than expected today. We soon reached the Saw Mill, which was previously a Corn Mill and may date back as far as 1616 - the oldest building on the site.

Dusk was imminent, so we marched past the oft-visited hall and gardens and headed down the Main Drive towards Charcoal Road.

After crossing the road, a winding woodland path led us onto the golf course at Dunham Massey, through which we wandered as daylight faded.

 

On reaching the main A56 road, we continued along the pavement as far as St Margaret's church, where Sue is one of the bell ringing team.

A convoluted route then took us into Altrincham via The Narrows, which apparently used to be a 'Coffin Route'. We were surprised that the delights of the Devisdale area had escaped the attention of the GM Ringway route designers.

We were in Altrincham by 4pm, after a 17.5km walk with 120 metres ascent. It had taken us about four and a half hours. Here's the route.

We will return to Altrincham for stage 19  on Thursday 18 December. Note the change from 11am to 10am for starting stages 19 and 20.

Here's the flier:

GM Ringway Trail - Stage 19 - Altrincham to Stretford. Meet at Altrincham Station at 10:00 for this nineteenth 15km stage of the 20 stage circuit of Greater Manchester.
Return home by Metrolink from Stretford.

Index

Tuesday 25 November 2025 - GM Ringway Trail Stage 17 - Leigh to Irlam

Leigh has no railway station, so our journey to the start of Stage 17 was by tram to St Peter's Square, then the V1 bus to Leigh. The latter uses the Busway created on the route of a disused railway line. Our chairs at the front of the top of the double decker bus were the most comfortable seats we've had on the entire trail.

Alan and Sheila have other commitments so won't be joining us again this year, so that leaves a core of the five of us - me, Sue, Rick, Paul and Jeanette, for the last few stages (unless Roger, Viv and Steve reappear!).

After coffee and croissants in a café near the well laid out bus station, we walked along suburban streets that led to a pleasant path through Hope Carr Nature Reserve.

The walk continued through farmland with views across to distant hills that we had traversed on earlier stages of the GM Ringway Trail.

On reaching Windy Bank Wood we took an optional 2km detour through the woods that surround Windy Bank Farm. Birds of prey lurked above us.

By the end of the detour it was 1pm - time for lunch on a convenient picnic bench.

Soon afterwards we went under the railway line that was the world's first inter-city train route, between Liverpool and Manchester.

Then field paths led to the route of the Salford Trail, which we followed on and off for the rest of the day.

In the distance behind us, Winter Hill was lovely and clear on the sunny day.

Just beyond the railway line at Glazebury, we passed the first of three historic houses - Light Oaks Hall. Dating from 1657, the current building is a fragment of a bigger house with large mullioned-and-transomed windows.

Our path continued to the left of Glaze Brook, past a lone oak tree.

Several fields of winter greens seem to be doing nicely.

Moss Side Farm is home to what the GM Ringway guide describes as a 'collection of unusual vehicles'. I was persuaded by the others to record these for the benefit of Conrad (Sir Hugh) and AlanR.

In a ditch, a bit further on, a forklift truck similar to the one I drove for a year in 1970/71 when I worked at Blackett Hutton steel foundry in Guisborough. It's probably a housing estate now.

Soon afterwards we reached Little Woolden Moss, then Great Woolden Moss, where certain areas have been allowed to flood for the benefit of wildlife.

As when I've visited this area before, numerous twitchers in camouflage gear with long lenses were busy trying to capture images of the short-eared owls that come out to hunt around dusk.

The paths around these mosses have been renewed in recent years, thanks to grants (pre Brexit) from the EU and others. We paused at a convenient bench and information board to finish our tea/coffee and enjoy more of Jeanette's tasty cake.

Eventually our route said goodbye to the mosses and passed Little Woolden Hall, the second historic building on today's route. 

For much of the 19th century, Little Woolden Hall was occupied by the Travis family who also lived in other parts of Cadishead. It would appear that Dean Travis has recently done a great amount of work tracing his ancestry in the UK and in the USA and others have checked some information for Dean in the census books, of which most are in Irlam Library, along with Dean checking much information on the internet and through family records.

The third historic building is the farm buildings of Great Woolden Hall, on the other side of the M62 motorway.

Before leaving the modern farm on the footpath where Rick is pictured below, I'll add a few paragraphs borrowed from the internet to illustrate the depth of history surrounding this area.

Great Woolden Hall (above) lies on the east bank of the Glaze Brook
as it meanders southwards towards the Mersey.

It is an extensive farm which has developed across a large site since the middle ages, and is, 

according to rumour, haunted by the ghost of Captain Blood, of Crown Jewels fame.

However that is not why you are here. Great Woolden Hall is also the site of the first extensively 

excavated Iron Age and Romano-British farmstead in the northwest of England. The farmstead

lies on a raised promontory overlooking the Glaze Brook, just west of the modern farm.

Despite initial appearances the site isn't a fort of any kind, though the deep river to the west and 

the wild mossland to the east may have offered some defensive benefits. Ditches have been

identified on the eastern edge of the site which were probably more of an enclosure rather than a palisade.

The earliest evidence of human activity here is a number of worked flint pieces dating from 

neolithic times, which are unlikely to be associated with any actual settlement at the site. 

The people who first settled here permanently would have done so during the first millennium BC, 

most likely in the century before the birth of Christ. They would have been Iron Age Celtic 

people involved in some agriculture and animal husbandry. Occupation of the site continued for 

several hundred years, spanning a period including the Roman conquest and the subsequent 

assimilation of the people of this island into the Roman cultural sphere.

It is thought that a few circular buildings or enclosures were in use at the site during each period

 of occupation and several ovens and hearths have also been identified. Sadly extensive 

ploughing has destroyed many of the buried structures on the site but enough evidence

was available to the archaeologists to enable a meaningful interpretation of life at the site to be made.

As the sun was setting behind us, we strolled along the paths of Cadishead Moss to reach the town of Irlam and a short wait for a train to Oxford Road.

Museum piece outside Irlam Station

Here's our route - 19 km with 50 metres ascent, taking us 4 hours and 40 minutes. Another splendid stage of this 200 mile trail.

Stage 18 will be walked on Tuesday 9 December. Here's the flier:

GM Ringway Trail - Stage 18 - Irlam to Altrincham. Meet at Irlam Station at 11:02 for this eighteenth 17km stage of the 20 stage circuit of Greater Manchester.
Arrive on the 10:46 train from Oxford Road.
Return home from Altrincham.

And here's a delicious chocolate raspberry pavlova that we polished off the following day when Reg and Saro joined us for lunch.

Index