Friday 4 September 2020 - Another Walk Around Timperley and Stretford

Click on any picture for better resolution and access to a slideshow.

 

Sue and I went on this walk on 10 June, when Lockdown was first being eased and we felt we could venture onto the towpath again after three months of feeling uncomfortable there due to the close proximity of cyclists and others. I reported on that walk here.

 

With the possibility of no transport today, I planned our now regular Friday walk to be on the same route. In the event, Sue didn't need the car as she was working from home, and I was joined by three stalwarts - Graeme, Paul and JJ, for the walk from our house, after a brief serving of coffee.

 

The route is virtually entirely off road, apart from the first few hundred metres to the busy (ish) A56 road. Once across the road, we paused at Siddall's Bridge over Baguley Brook. A modern plaque indicates that the bridge dates from 1765, at a time when the Manchester to Runcorn extension of the Bridgewater Canal was under construction nearby.

 

 

A narrow path through Woodheys Clough follows Baguley Brook to beyond where it merges with Timperley Brook and becomes Sinderland Brook and heads off to drain into the Manchester Ship Canal. Thus far, we walked the first couple of kilometres of a 5 km (not)parkrun that Sue and I are in the habit of jogging.

 

 

The path leads past now tired brambles to our local recycling depot that sometimes appears on a TV show called 'Money for Nothing', where the presenters accost people leaving their rubbish and take said rubbish away for conversion into valuable 'goods'. Today we chatted with the 'doorman' and I left him some electrical discards to recycle (including the duff Fitbit Ionic recently reported upon).

 

Our route joined the Trans Pennine Trail (TPT) here, and we continued on through an area of horses, stables and riding schools. Horses are often encountered on this section of the TPT.

 

 

The TPT follows an old road between the high fences of a sewage works. JJ recalled being driven down this road in his youth. Barriers now prevent that, and at this time of year the sickly smelling Himalayan Balsam is rampant in the verges.

 

 

We left the TPT for a while and passed through an area abundant in Goldenrod.

 

 

The 'experimental' path that none of us had been on before passed some solar panels which apparently comprise Altrincham Solar Farm.

 

 

The paths around here are what may be described a 'verdant', or simply 'overgrown'. You wouldn't think that we are on the edge of a large housing estate in West Sale.

 

 

After a while we re-joined the much wider path of the TPT, from where, near Ash Farm, there's a view across fields of crops towards Carrington Moss. I think the area below is next in line for a vast new housing estate.

 

 

We encountered, amongst others, a chap on an electric bicycle a couple of times, always with a map in front of him. He claimed never to have got lost, but was happy to receive advice. He was on grandparenting duty in Timperley, having travelled over from his Lincolnshire home which turned out to be just a couple of miles from my parents' old house in Sudbrooke. We assured him that his cycling route, which was the same as our walking route, would get him back to Timperley in plenty of time to collect his grandchildren from school.

 

We crossed the Mersey via the bridge shown for its Canoe Portage Point in a photo from our previous visit. The re-entry point is just discernible on the left bank in the next picture.

 

 

After a short walk alongside the Mersey in the direction of Stockport (yes Graeme, it's a good walk to Stockport from here!) we passed what I'd previously photographed as a rather barren area adorned with a sign saying 'Coming Soon: Riverbank Coffee, Refreshments and Snacks'. That all looked rather optimistic in June, but they have made it happen, and they had plenty of customers. Well done!

 

 

Our next obstacle, after our own break for coffee/tea and cake (thanks JJ), was the attractive footbridge across all ten lanes of the M60 motorway.

 

 

There was about twice the volume of traffic as shown during our visit in June, but the motorway was still remarkably quiet.

 

 

I'd never been onto Stretford Meadows before. We walked up there for a slightly better view of our surroundings. JJ knows the area and his statement that it comprised an old rubbish tip was confirmed by an obvious vent to release gases, probably one of many.

 

 

A pleasant path leads on to the Bridgewater Canal, before which an area of boggy meadow next to both the TPT and the canal is passed.

 

 

Joining the canal near the Watch House Cruising Club building, we turned right and headed to another bridge over the River Mersey, a spot where if you wait long enough you may be able to spot Kingfishers. Apparently when the canal was being built many folk had difficulty with the concept of a bridge carrying a canal over a river. They thought the water would all drain into the river. Some novel items, including woven fabric, were used to make aqueducts water-tight.

 

 

Here are my companions at this aqueduct.

 

 

Soon afterwards, we passed under the multi-laned M60 motorway. You can see from the sunshine in the picture that there are two separate bridges, one for each carriageway. At this point the canal runs next to the Metrolink railway, which goes under the same massive bridge.

 

 

Some of the 'Cruisers' are beautifully decked with flowers. It's an active waterway and a busy towpath - a great amenity.

 

 

With Sue at home, as we neared the end of our walk I was able to place an order for bacon butties for lunch for the fourth Friday in succession, with tea and coffee thrown in. "Bon appetit" as they say.

 

 

Here's our 16 km route, taking around four hours on this occasion.

 

 

Here's a link to JJ's version...

Next week, let me know if you plan on joining me, any update will be here:

Friday 11 September: A 20 km walk from Beacon Fell Country Park, going over Parlick and Fair Snape Fell. Meet at the information centre SD564427 at 10 am. Allow an hour and a half from South Manchester, it's on the edge of the Forest of Bowland. Bring some lunch.

Wednesday 10 June 2020 - A Walk around Timperley and Stretford

 

This route from home is shown at the end of the posting. Click on any image for a slideshow.

 

After Monday's successful outing with Graeme, I decided to attempt a socially distanced walk from home. The fact that it was a rare showery day meant that not too many folk should be encountered. And so it was - I didn't feel under threat, there was nothing that needed to be touched (other than Darryl's fish), and I had the pleasure of Sue's company.

 

We took a familiar route to the recycling depot (surprisingly quiet - no queue), then turned right along the Trans Pennine Trail (TPT). There was nobody around. A right turn took us down a path that I'd not been on before. Sue is pictured on it above. The cycle path is much wider, but the narrowness of this one didn't matter as there was no sign of anyone other than the odd fox, and the constantly chirping birds, including small warblers, probably willow warblers, that we don't see in our garden, which is currently the home of house sparrows and goldfinches.

 

We were soon back on the TPT, which we followed all the way to the canal, crossing the Mersey where there's a weir that requires canoeists to take advantage of a portage facility to negotiate the steep banks of the river. 

 

Our route then followed the Mersey for a while. I hadn't noticed the 'Coming Soon, Riverbank Coffee' sign before. This would be a good site for a café as the riverside path is heavily used, and there are no other facilities nearby. Presumably it is the subject of a Covid 19 delay.
 

 

The next obstacle was the M60 motorway. From this mid-morning view of the ten lanes that this well designed footbridge crosses, it is evident that 'traffic' is far from 'normal'.

 

 

A single graceful 'tower' at one end of the footbridge seems to house all the necessary wires needed to maintain the structure.

 

 

Pleasant paths lead past Stretford Meadows, then under the A56 main road, to join the Bridgewater Canal near the Watch House Cruising base. The drizzle meant that the towpath wasn't too busy, and social distancing was ok.

 

 

We stopped off in Sale to visit Darryl's fish emporium, and stocked up with trout, salmon, squid and anchovies. The scallops were very tempting... next time, when we have some black pudding to go with them!

 

The towpath is home to many flowers at present, including water lilies (on the canal) and orchids. I suspect these are the Common Spotted variety.

 

 

Here are two screen dumps of our route, first the 'Garmin' route following download from my Forerunner 35, and secondly the Anquet route following export/import of the .gpx file produced by the Garmin gadget. I'm still wrestling with the latest Anquet software, so there are no waypoints here (the route starts from the very bottom of the image), nor are there kilometre markers, and the track is light blue. The software is far from intuitive, but the maps are up to date.

 

 

 

So that was about 16 km, with minimal ascent, in a little over 2.5 hours. Very satisfying.

Sunny in Stretford

It’s almost exactly three years since I wrote about the Stretford Reach sculpture. That was on one of those lovely sunny frosty winter days, the like of which we are now experiencing. The sculpture is beside a bridge by Stretford Metro Station, just beyond the Watch House Cruising Club building pictured above.

We are ‘at home’, with jobs to do and a little local excitement, so exercise comprises things like our 27/12 walk to Dunham Massey and on to Altrincham, and yesterday’s ‘lollipop’ bike ride – along the canal to Throstle Nest Bridge, then beside the Ship Canal to Barton swing bridge beyond Eccles, returning along the canal towpath past the Trafford Centre to regain the stick of the lollipop.

It’s about 26 km. Allow up to an hour and a half, depending on your pace. Yesterday was a perfect day for this bike ride as the surface of the canal towpath is pretty frost resistant, but you did need to wrap up well!

Back Home

Well, we had an uneventful journey back from Madeira on Monday afternoon, and this week is flying past in a blur of domestic chores.

I have escaped on my bike a couple of times, and this is Tuesday’s view on the Bridgewater Canal. A rare such sighting, thankfully, and even rarer to see an umbrella and a walking pole on the roof of a decent looking car in the canal.

Timperley residents can breathe a sigh of relief as they will note from the picture below that the incident took place near the animal rescue centre in Stretford.

The vehicle was quickly removed, there being no sign of it today.

Thursday 9 October 2014 – An Evening Walk to Stretford

We just didn’t feel like traipsing to Peckforton for a walk in the dark. We weren’t alone, as we would have been alone on that planned walk, if you get my drift.

Instead, Sue and I enjoyed a leisurely supper and set off down the newly resurfaced Bridgewater Canal towpath on a 50 minute jaunt to Stretford, from where we caught the tram back home.

The full moon illuminated our progress, though the ambient light would have been sufficient. Cyclists were also enjoying the newly laid surface, which replaces a very muddy section between Timperley and Brooklands. Some of the cyclists could benefit from lessons in courtesy, but it’s good to see them using this much safer alternative to the main Chester Road. If walking along the towpath at night, a torch is handy, if only to alert cyclists of your presence.

A couple of watering holes were passed, one being The King’s Ransom in Sale, which we didn’t visit on this occasion, just pausing to take a couple of snaps with the Lumix FT4.

Temperatures remain warm, with two layers being sufficient to give rise to some overheating.

Our next evening walk is around Styal on Thursday 13 November – meet at the Ship Inn, Moss Lane, SJ 838 835, at 7.30 pm for a woodland saunter. All are welcome 5 – 10 km, depending on weather and what we feel like doing.

'Stretford Reach', a sculpture by Paul Bearman and Stephen Hitchin

I pass through Stretford frequently these days, as the good surface of the Bridgewater Way provides an ideal venue for an off-road bike ride in times when it can be quite muddy elsewhere.  I don’t mind the mud, but it does result in a lot of faffing cleaning both bike and clothes after each muddy ride.

I usually whizz past this sculpture with the following SW wind whooshing me along.  On the way back, my head is down – battling against that same wind.  But it’s a warm wind and doesn’t have the debilitating effect of early 2013’s unrelenting freezing easterlies. The weather between the wet periods can be lovely, as it was last Saturday when these pictures were taken.

The sculpture was installed in 2003, on a very solid base. I wonder how many residents notice it?

More recently, the Bridgewater Way upgrade to the canal towpath has been accompanied by numerous information boards, like this one next to the sculpture.  It has recently been cleaned and looks new, thanks to the surface being easily purged of graffiti.

A little to the south, Watch House Cruising Club generally has a few barges outside, taking advantage of the Club’s facilities. I try to slow down here, as even if the path is deserted the locals have a tendency to jump out and reprimand speeding mountain bikers!