Saturday 22 April 2017 – Wythenshawe parkrun number 285

An auspicious occasion, as in the background above, you can just spot our good friend JJ trying to hide behind an under 11 runner in his first ever parkrun. Well done, JJ, on getting registered and taking part.

JJ’s time was pretty sensible, as he took things easy and, as advised, left himself plenty of scope for a PB next time out.

Meanwhile, a couple of stalwarts were spotted zooming to speedy finishes, and the indefatigable Ron Carter managed his second consecutive PB on his 91st run at Wythenshawe. Well done Ron.

As you can see, it was a lovely morning for a run, as shown by the second highest turnout at Wythenshawe (341) to date, after which coffee was taken in the sunny courtyard outside the tea rooms.

The results are here.

Wednesday 19 April 2017 – ‘Tally-Ho…’

JJ is a member of an exclusive running club, details of which are provided at the foot of this entry. A key feature of this running club is the requirement to jump into a tin bath full of tepid water at the end of the run. First home gets clean, warm water.

I’m not a member, but I was invited (with a couple of hours notice) to join JJ on a recce of the course he has devised for a forthcoming run. Participants simply follow a list of written instructions, and any sawdust arrows JJ deems fit to put in place, in order to navigate the course, which in this instance will be nearly twenty miles.

I got the tram to Altrincham and strolled down to Bankhall Lane in Hale to meet JJ. This is about two miles into his route, but he was confident about the first section being accurately described. For most of the day I was testing JJ’s four pages of directions, and a few alterations were made in an effort to make them easy to follow for mapless runners whizzing through the countryside. If they lose their place in the instructions they could be well and truly lost. I imagine that is not such a rare occurrence!

The Bollin Valley provides a delightful green corridor between Altrincham and the airport. Bluebells adorn the ancient woodland, and a good path manoeuvres through a mixture of woodland and meadow and golf course.

As well as the bluebells, the garlic scented Ramsons are just coming into flower, creating a white carpet in the shade of the trees.

The River Bollin is very slow and sedate just now, following a spell of dry weather in these parts.

For a while the path leaves the river and proceeds along Castle Mill Lane, passing a rather dirty trig point near the junction with Mill Lane. JJ yearns to paint this relic of surveying, which marks the highest point in the area – 60 metres.

(How about pink, JJ?)

Soon we found our way back down to the river and the magnificent tunnel under Runway 2. An impressive piece of engineering.

Aircraft spotters will enjoy the next section of the walk (run, on the day) alongside the runway, before winding their way through field paths on the outskirts of Mobberley. With vegetation growing fast, some of these paths will be slow and indistinct for the runners.

JJ has already recce’d the route a couple of times, during which the new bridge shown below has replaced a very rickety section of footpath. He has noted lots of minor changes, often involving fencing, over a short period of time, so a further recce will be needed a few days before the event takes place. There are bound to be a few more minor changes.

Here’s the view looking back from that bridge, which doubled as a tripod.

After reaching Knutsford via lunch on a tree trunk next to the North Cheshire Way footpath, we enjoyed a long and easy section, heading through Tatton Park to the east of Tatton Mere. Just beyond the Old Hall, the route heads across parkland towards a WW2 memorial. Here, the fallow deer and the red deer reside in separate herds, lazily enjoying the spring weather before the responsibilities of motherhood come to many of them.

Here’s the Parachute Regiment memorial that slowly comes into view. A tea break just here was most welcome.

A small and distant red sign is the next target for the runners. I wonder how many of them will spot that from afar? Anyway it will lead them towards the main car park, past the mansion that dates from 1716, though what you can see below is more recent. There’s currently a WW1 memorial flame that will sit outside the hall until 2018. The hall was owned by the Egerton family until 1958, when it was donated to the National Trust.

Unlike most NT properties, the car park is not owned, so even for NT members it can be an expensive place to visit, especially as members also have to pay to go round the Home Farm, which we passed after narrowly evading the car park.

Soon we were heading along good paths through brightly coloured fields, due north to the small village of Rostherne.

Whilst Rostherne has no public house, which fact probably helps to preserve its status as a small village in a rural backwater, it does have a water pump, which despite JJ’s renowned plumbing skills, could not be coaxed into action. Where were you, Norman?

There was an easy short-cut to our intended path, but JJ will send his runners ‘around the houses of Rostherne’. A pretty thatched cottage is passed, outside which this owl lurks.

Next up, St Mary’s Church, the grounds of which we enter through a lych gate dating from 1640, claimed by some to be the finest in Cheshire. The yard is full of slabs of grave stones.

Nearby Rostherne Mere is a Nature Reserve, access to which is discouraged.

This is about as close as you can get as an ordinary member of the public. It’s a haven for a wide variety of ducks and other birds, and many other species, including the somewhat unlikely sightings of a mermaid. And there’s no public house in Rostherne!?

When JJ last came this way, the path to Marsh Lane had been completely destroyed by a plough. Thankfully the farmer has now reinstated the path, which passes pleasantly through fields before a kilometre section of unavoidable tarmac that might get JJ sacked as a trail designer.

Some sowing has already taken place. We passed this near Rycroft Farm, after crossing the M60 motorway. Before and after the farm there was lots of fencing work in progress. Hopefully the integrity of all the footpaths will be preserved.

We headed in a loop by way of recce, not quite reaching the final destination – The Swan with Two Nicks in Little Bollington - before returning to JJ’s car and my gentle stroll back to Altrincham.

Our 30+ km route, with minimal ascent, is shown below, JJ having started from the place where the circle is squared, if you know what I mean.

Thanks, JJ, for getting me out for such an enjoyable day.

Historical Notes:

1. Here’s some of what Wikipedia says about ‘Tally-Ho’:

The phrase tally-ho is a largely British phrase, which originated from the activity of foxhunting, and other forms of hunting with hounds, shouted when a rider or follower sees the fox. Today the term has evolved to have other meanings, most of which relate to 'pointing out' or 'spotting' a 'target'. For example, it is sometimes used as slang in air traffic control to verify a radar contact has been visually confirmed.

Tally-ho dates from around 1772, and is probably derived from the French taïaut, a cry used to excite hounds when hunting deer. According to other sources, the phrase may have originated from the second half of the 13th century, from the concatenation of a two word war cry: taille haut; "taille" being the cutting edge of the sword and "haut" translating to high (or 'raised up'), thus the original meaning of this interjection is something close to "Swords up!".

"Tally-ho" had its first recorded use in the Americas in an 1773 hunting journal. From there, its use spread as more British colonists arrived. However, the phrase fell out of favour following the conclusion of the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783).

2. Here’s what the Cheshire club of which JJ is a member has to say:

The Cheshire Tally-Ho Hare and Hounds Club is a traditional running club, founded in 1872. The club holds runs (called trails) from a number of venues around Cheshire and Derbyshire.

​A trail consists of the Hounds following a marked trail laid by the Hares in a circular route of about 8 miles. Trails usually start and end at a pub. After the run, members get together and enjoy a meal and a drink in the pub.

​​The club is essentially non-competitive, and the club’s runs are designed so that groups of runners (packs of hounds) of similar ability set off together at times representing the likely speed of the pack. The trails are cross country, and any time spent on roads, while necessary at times, is looked on as disappointing, and the trail layer is likely to hear some appropriate comments at the finish. The trail layers, the Hares, vary from venue to venue, so that the club members can each participate.

​The packs start at various times, the earliest before 14:00. The slow pack leaves at about 14:00, the medium pack 15 minutes later, and the fast pack at 14:30. The run ends around 16:00 or so.

The ablutions vary from the sublime, a leisure centre at Frodsham with showers and sauna, to the ridiculous (normal), namely bathing in a tin bath.

​Membership is by election only, and requires two sponsors from the members. If interested in running through cow fields (and other cow things) in all weathers and conditions just for the fun of it please contact the Hon.Sec .

An Easter Sunday Stroll

For one reason or another I didn’t get out much this Easter. The time was spent ‘planning’ and faffing with things like recalcitrant computers and printers, failing to resolve seemingly simple problems that I won’t bore you with, but which after perusal of some forums turn out to be puzzling minds much sharper than mine.

A short circuit from home on a rainy Sunday confirmed that spring is really going strong, with lots of plants coming into flower. An ideal time of year for a long distance walk like the one that Conrad was attempting from Berwick to Castle Cary on the south coast. Later, I discovered that Conrad had tripped and fallen, finishing up with a broken arm in a hospital in Durham and having to abandon his walk. A great shame. We were looking forward to him coming through Timperley.

I didn’t take my camera, and the phone doesn’t have a macro feature that I am able to work, so apologies for the quality of these flower pictures taken in the Woodheys Park area.

Bluebells, Forgetmenots (Field?), Daffodils, Cranesbills (not pictured), Garlic Mustard and Marsh Marigolds and White Dead-nettles, to name just a few.

At the western end of my stroll the Trans Pennine Trail is encountered, but my route eschews that on this occasion and takes a slither down to the dismantled railway that used to link West Timperley with Glazebrook. There’s a move to reinstate this railway and rebuild West Timperley station.

‘Ambitious plans are being unveiled to create a heritage railway along the disused rail route between Irlam in Salford and Timperley in Trafford.

There will be a footpath and cycleway running parallel to historic steam and diesel trains.

The £25 million - £30 million project would involve relaying the track and rebuilding stations and reinstating the Cadishead Viaduct along the six mile route.’

The old trackway is pretty overgrown but can be walked as far as the point from where you can slither down to the Bridgewater Canal. It’s overgrown though, even at this time of year. Wet legs from the foliage.

I left the trackway at Stamford Brook, where the National Trust has sold off a lot of the land it owned as part of the Dunham Massey Estate. A huge new housing estate has arisen, at the western end of which is an area still known by its ancient name of Malljurs Covert. A surfaced loop path through newly planted trees has been constructed here, under the easier nomenclature of ‘Stamford Brook Woodland’.

There are many paths through the maze of houses, all with a strip down the middle that I think may be an attempt to separate cyclists from walkers. There are not often many of either, and there are extra muddy paths around the perimeter of the estate that the planners didn’t realise would be needed.

My route to the canal left the new estate and crossed the ‘dismantled railway’, which at this point has not been dismantled, although it’s 33 years since the last need to ‘Stop, Look, Listen’.

Having reached the canal, it’s a short walk to Timperley Bridge and the twitten that leads to our house.

A gentle 7.5 km in light rain, hence the strange absence of people on the towpath! I soon dried out.

Click to enlarge.

Saturday 15 April 2017 – Easter Bonnets at Wythenshawe parkrun

On a lovely sunny morning, some 287 runners/joggers/walkers assembled outside Wythenshawe Hall for a traditional 5 km blast of exercise before the consumption of vast amounts of cake provided by an assortment of ‘landmark’ runners who were completing their 10th, 50th or 100th parkruns.

I’ve done a few more than that, but having some brownies left over from last weekend, and not wanting to make myself sick at home, these were added to the table and soon disappeared. 287 runners can get through quite a bit of cake!

The Easter Bonneted volunteers and many more helpers ensured that the morning ran smoothly, and run director Andy and his team processed the results of this 284th Wythenshawe parkrun in double quick time. Here they are.

It was good to see the Courtyard Tea Room being used by so many of the runners on what was, as usual, a most sociable occasion.

See you next week, everyone.

The Mobberley 8 – A Good Friday Tradition (2)

I wrote about this in 2011 – see here, so I won’t go on at too much length about being led astray yet again by another villager from Timperley…

Guest of honour and Supreme Leader was undoubtedly Kim Jong-in, who proceeded to throw his weight around and threaten doom on anyone who disagreed with him.

The wall shown below came complete with a marker pen on which insults to K J-in and others could be composed with anonymity (and animosity).

This man (does he have unusually large hands, or is that a strangely small glass?) arrived with helmeted protection and a radioactive jacket. Other participants kept a wide berth.

Warranting an even wider berth, this farting chicken produced smells that reminded me of Form 1 history lessons at Guisborough Grammar School. (Our teacher, Mr Stephenson, never did gain control.)

The Frozen Mop is the second of about six pubs now visited by stalwarts of The Mobberley 8. About 50 to 100 people, mainly on bicycles, attend the event. Here, one of the joint presidents summons reinforcements from ‘rentacrowd’. His imaginative efforts to book a striptease unicyclist were however doomed to failure thanks to one of Mobberley Parish Council’s obscure by-laws. (Shame.)

I followed the convoy of bikes to the Bird in Hand, just down the road from the ‘Mop’. Good beer, and half the price (£2 a pint) at the Bird in Hand, an excellent spot.

The bikes used by attendees were not all state of the art, but included some classic models.

My visit was somewhat fleeting, as I was only reminded of the event via an email from JJ at 10.30, and as the cycling route from Timperley was not off road, discretion regarding alcohol intake was warranted. It worked well – I set off after the rain had stopped, and I was home before it started again. Others entering more whole-heartedly into the occasion may not have been so lucky.

Here’s my 33 km route – click on the image to enlarge it a bit.

Thanks to JJ for reminding me about this, and I’m sorry that my visit was rather brief.

8 to 10 April 2017 – Heather’s Birthday Weekend

Whilst I dashed off a few quick postings during the weekend, I’m now back at home with time to process the (few) photos and add a bit of detail.

Before wending my way up the roads north to Newtonmore and my abode for the weekend, pictured above, I’d arranged to meet Jayme in Lancaster for their parkrun. He kindly ran with me, though I suspect our chatting may have slowed me a little!

The run is based in Williamson Park, starting next to the Ashton Memorial, an Edwardian Baroque folly built between 1907 and 1909 by millionaire industrialist Lord Ashton in memory of his second wife, Jessy, at a cost of over £80,000 (equivalent to £7.5 million in 2015).

The course is unrelentingly undulating. My Garmin measured 64 metres of ascent. This compares with 74 metres in Haigh Woodland, and 110 metres in Lyme Park, which remains the toughest parkrun that I’ve done. Lancaster looked as if it would take well over 25 minutes until it came to an unexpected finish after 4.7 km according to my Garmin! Perhaps a loss of reception in the trees caused the gadget to assume a short cut or two…

The route, which involves two hilly laps, is shown below. There’s a good café next to the memorial, so Jayme and I could relax and in my case recover (Jayme didn’t need to – he is super fit after last Sunday’s Manchester Marathon) and look forward to forthcoming trips to Mallorca (he’s there now) with anticipation.

The parkrun results are here. Interestingly, first to finish by some margin was an 11-14 year old girl. Well done to her.

Nearly everyone in Heather’s party arrived in Newtonmore at about the same time on Saturday afternoon. Some dog walking took place before we enjoyed a fairly lavish supper at the hostel, comprising various delicacies brought along by those attending.

(Note for Sue: the Thai crab cakes went down well – there will be another batch in a couple of weeks…)

Sunday looked as if it would provide the best weather of the weekend, so I eschewed the short social walk on offer and took my bike to Dalnacardoch for a 9 km ride beside Edendon Water to Sronphadruig Lodge. Here’s the view towards my first hill, An Dun, from a bridge about half way up the glen.

The bike was abandoned next to the fenced in remains of Sronphadruig Lodge. The walk up An Dun is straightforward but steep, directly up the nose in the centre of the picture.

There are two summits, the first appearing, about 30 metres from a cairn, to be a little higher at 827 metres. But the north top is also 827 metres and a recent survey concludes that both summits are to all intents and purposes the same height. I went to all the candidates for ‘highest point’. Here’s the view to Maol Creag an Loch from the north summit.

Rain was forecast later, but the weather held for me – it was a bit grey, but there were sunny periods and reasonable views as I descended carefully down the steep slopes towards the lodge, which is to the left of the river in this picture.

Lunch was taken in a sheltered spot below Maol Creag an Loch. There were good views beyond An Dun towards the sunlit Carn na Caim area above Dalwhinnie.

The cairn on top of Maol Creag an Loch does appear to be located at its 876 metre summit, from where An Dun appears as an insignificant foreground ridge in the view towards the Munro summits to the east of the A9 near Dalwhinnie.

There are thin trods going to both An Dun and Maol Creag an Loch summits, the latter being a little longer but much easier and perhaps a little quicker. Back at Sronphadruig, a small tent that I’d passed on the way up was still securely sealed; its owner was presumably using it as a base for a longer walk.

Here’s my 12.5 km walking route, including about 800 metres ascent, and taking a little under 4 hours including breaks. The 18 km cycle ride isn’t shown – it took an hour to cycle in and half an hour to cycle back down to Dalnacardoch, 9 km each way, saving a couple of hours compared with walking.

Later, another ad hoc meal, mainly courtesy of Heather. Delicious.

Monday was Heather’s birthday, celebrated with lots of cards and presents, and a magnificent cake with at least five differently flavoured layers, lovingly constructed by her mum. There were lots of rock bands to negotiate.

After a leisurely morning, the group of 15 went to the ‘Zip Trek Park’ near Aviemore. It was a 2 km walk up to the start of the ‘experience’, before which we were all harnessed, helmeted and gloved.

With two guides and 15 clients, the 14 zip wires took a little time to negotiate and some of the adults were cool and hungry by the end. There was only one significant injury – a possible broken finger when the zip was a bit too zippy and bounced back over someone’s wayward finger.

Some techniques were better than others. ‘Sit back and relax with your feet straight ahead’ seemed to be the best method.

The last wire was the longest at a little over 300 metres (I would guess). It was marginal as to whether we would do it due to the wind, but whilst it was a bit breezy and squally, it was easy enough. David was the last man down, seen here being caught by Dave from ‘G2’, with Dave’s mate operating a brake that saved David from bouncing against his spectacles like he had done earlier. He may have a black eye from that ‘flesh wound’.

We soon recovered from any mild hypothermia and the many dogs were satisfactorily abluted before we headed to the Letterbox Restaurant for an excellent tasty meal.

Tuesday brought indifferent weather in Newtonmore, so after a visit with Sue O to Ali and Adrian, and an otherwise leisurely morning after a late night, I stashed everything in Polly and pottered back to Timperley. Where the sun was shining and warm.

Thanks go to Heather for organising this most pleasurable weekend.