Knutsford and Tatton Park

St John the Baptist church

I started my walk around Knutsford at the imposing Georgian church of St John the Baptist (1741-4, by J Garlive) and continued along Church St to reach Toft Road and the rather lovely former Town Hall, now a wine bar / restaurant. It was the work of Alfred Waterhouse (National History Museum, Manchester Town Hall) and dates from 1870-2.

Continuing south along Toft Road, on the right the Court House hotel. This was once the Sessions House (1815-8, by Thomas Harrison). It is quite imposing, but too heavy for my taste. According to Pevsner, the gaol was once just round the back - very efficient!

Left at the traffic lights and down Adams Hill past the station to reach the start of King St, Knutsford's main and most characterful street. On the opposite corner was the former public library of 1904, now a nursery school. (A bit of a pattern is emerging here, no doubt not uncommon.)

King St is a very attractive street with an interesting miscellany of houses. I liked this half0timbered group on the left hand side.

A bit further up on the same side is the surprising Gaskell Memorial Tower. It was built for Richard Harding Watt  in 1907 in honour of the novelist Mrs Gaskell. I rather liked small the art deco tower beside it.

Now on the right was the Gusto restaurant (formerly Est! Est! Est!). This is a building of no special merit except that my wife and I had our first date here.

Next was the nicely decorated entrance to the Royal George Hotel.

And finally, Marble Arch - once a coaching inn, but now offering a picturesque view through the archway.

I continued northwards to reach the entrance to Tatton Park, Kutsford Lodge (1810). Tatton was owned by the Egerton family from 1598 to 1958 when the last Lord Egerton died without an heir. It passed to the National Trust and is now the responsibility of Cheshire East Council.

I followed a track passing close to Tatton Mere, apparently an actual mere rather than the artificial creation of a Capability Brown.

Way off to the left I had my first glimpse of the house (now called the Mansion).

A very pleasant path through the parkland eventually provided a close up view. The house was designed by Samuel Wyatt and started in 1788 but not completed until after 1807. I am not much of a fan of neo-classical architecture and I confess I found it uninspiring.

The main entrance seemed even more so, but I loved the fallow deer grazing on the grass opposite.

Time was up and I made a brisk return to Knutsford along the long drive back to Knutsford Lodge. There was just time to spot this handsome red deer.

Conditions: mild, threat of rain.

Distance: 6 miles.

From: Discover Cheshire website

Map: Explorer 268 (Wilmslow, Macclesfield & Congleton)

Rating: four stars.

Nantwich

St Mary's church

Our trip to Cheshire for a dinner-dance last night provided an opportunity to do a bit of exploring and I decided to see Nantwich, described by Pevsner (in 1971) as "a friendly country town". He explains that the town was notable for salt production from Roman times to the 19th century, along with Middlewich and Northwich, which carried on the tradition for longer.

I had planned to combine a walk around the centre with the Nantwich Riverside Loop Walk along the River Weaver and the Shropshire Union Canal, but in the event I did not have sufficient time. I parked in the centre and walked out along Beam Street in search of some almshouses.

I soon found Crewe's Almshouses. The sign over the main doorway says that they were erected by John Crewe in memory of Sir John Crewe and Sir Thomas Crewe.

Beyond them and to the right are Wright's Almshouses of 1638, built by a Lord Mayor of London, Sir Edmund Wright. They are fairly plain and I agree with Pevsner's comment that the best thing about them is the entrance with two big volutes and Tuscan columns. They were originally in London Road and were moved here in 1975 according to a detailed description in Wikipedia.

I retraced my steps and walked down Market St towards St Mary's church (see photo at the head of this post). It is basically 14th century, but was restored by the prolific Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1854-61 (we saw his work yesterday in Lichfield).

Standing outside the chancel and looking back towards Market Street, you see the severely functional Market building of 1867. At least the main facade gets some architectural treatment.

On the opposite corner is the Olde Wych Theatre of 1919 with rather bizarre, but amusing, crenelated corner tower.

Going round the side of teh church leads to the Town Squate with some noce Victorian Gothic banks and on into the High St where you are immediately confronted with these fine timber framed houses. They were built in 1584, immediately after most of the town was destroyed by fire.

I had a brief look at the adjoining streets, Pillory Street and Hospital St, both pleasant and characterful and then went to the top of the High St passing the impressive Crown Hotel, also of 1584, with a style of timbering I have not seen before.

The final stage of the walk was along Welsh Row, the "best street in Nantwich" according to Pevsner. I passed the half-timbered C17 Widows almshouse, now a pub and the similar Wilbraham's almshouses, derelict when Pevsner wrote and now single private house. 

Further up is this lovely Victorian house with a wonderful doorway-cum-tower.

And right at the top, a final set of almshouses, Tollemache's of 1830, strangely not mentioned by Pevsner. Two attractive blocks each of four houses, with gables, dormers and finials.

It remained only to return to the car and go off out to lunch.

Conditions: grey, but not cold.

Distance: about three mikes.

Rating: four stars. A delightful town with its own character.

Brereton Heath to Cranage Hall

The lake at Brereton Heath Nature Reserve

About the walk

We were in Cheshire for a birthday party and staying at Cranage Hall hotel. A study of the map revealed that the Dane Valley Way passes reasonably near to the hotel, so I had myself dropped off at Brereton Heath Nature Reserve, six miles away, with the plan to follow the DVW back.

When I arrived at the Country Park, it was grey and cold and just beginning to snow, and I did question the wisdom of this plan. The Visitor Centre was firmly shut, so presumably no visitors were expected, although in fact there were a surprising number of people at various points around the lakeside, including some very hardy fisherman. I felt in great need of some exercise, so I resolved to carry on.

The route led back up to the Holmes Chapel-Congleton road and across to soon join the drive to Davenport House. The fenced gravel path studiously followed the contours of the hillside to leave the house completely hidden from view. As you leave the grounds you enter the river valley and a small bridge offers the first clear view of the river Dane. This impressively winding stream rises near Buxton and flows into the river Croco at Middlewich.

A tarmaced road led uphill towards Swettenham, with pleasant, if unclear, views across parkland.

At Swettenham, the church is an odd mixture of a red brick tower and chancel dating from about 1720 and a mid-Victorian gothic aisle.

The path beside the church passes a lovely half-timbered house. I was struck by the proportion of vertical beams compared to the number of horizontal ones.

You now descend to cross the Swettenham Brook and climb to reach the edge of the north side of the Dane Valley. You follow this past a couple of farms and then into open country. The snow was still falling and the eerie effect was compounded by the plaintive cries of a buzzard.

A bit further on a heron was stimulated into flight. The route now follows field edges, through a bit of woodland, to approach Tremlow Viaduct near Holmes Chapel. It really is very striking - this view was taken having just passed under it. The snow had mercifully stopped by now.

-->The viaduct consists of of 23 arches each spanning 60 feet or so and stands at a height of 105 feet. It was completed in 1842. The valley is much wider and shallower here and the route follows the winding river on grassy banks until it hits the Knutsford road northwest of Holmes Chapel.
I left the DVW here to walk up the road to the hotel. Once in Cranage, I was truck by the picturesque village hall and later by a group of what could only be almshouses (or at least former almshouses, as one was for sale). The central archway gives it away. Pevsner dates them to 1913 and comments that the village hall is a "very enterprising little job" in the style of Voysey. It is slightly earlier and both buildings bear the initials WOO, presumably the benefactor of both.

Cranage Hall itself dates from 1829 and it seems that the section with the porch was not added until 1932. It was a hospital at the time Pevsner was writing (1971).

Conditions: cold, dry powdery snow. Wet and muddy in places.

Map: Explorer 268 (Wilmslow, Macclesfield and Congleton).

Distance: about six miles.

Rating: three and half stars.

Alderley Edge

To the Edge

I visited this area a lot in the 1990s, and often saw the splendid sign "To the Edge", but I never actually went. A visit to friends provided a chance to rectify the situation. I knew of course that the edge in question was really an escarpment of soft sandstone overlooking the Cheshire Plain.

This walk begins in fact at another of the parking places on the Macclesfield to Alderley Edge road, by Beacon Lodge. You cross the road and head south east in a meandering route that takes in woodland, Artists Lane (presumably there is a story behind the name), Bradford Lane and some nice undulating open country.

Having almost circled back to the start, you then head off east along a track in the direction of Alderley Edge. The great disc of the Jodrel Bank observatory is soon dramatically visible on the horizon.

A bit further on the track becomes a drive then a road and you enter one of the smart residential areas of Alderley Edge, passing by houses which range from substantial in size to vast. You follow a path to the right back down to the main road, which you cross to walk along more residential streets.

Soon, you climb up Squirrel's Jump (!) and at the top continue climbing to enter the National Trust property of Alderley Edge. Here at last, you look down on the Cheshire Plain.

Now things start to get more interesting. You walk along the side of the escarpment for a way with pleasant views through the beech trees. After a while you have to turn right up a steep-looking set of steps.

Having struggled to the top you now walk along just underneath the escarpment, passing a series of rocky outcrops. The first is the Wizard's Well, which apparently looms large in Alan Garner's book Weirdstone of Brisingamen. Carved in the rock above the well is the face of a wizard and the inscription "Drink of this and take thy fill for the water falls by the Wizhard's Will". The carving was added around 200 years ago by Robert Garner, Alan Garner's great-great grandfather. The book passed me by - I guess I am the wrong age - so I  did not give the Well the attention others would think it deserved.

One of the other outcrops shows the red sandstone very clearly.

After the outcrops end, you climb through woodland to reach Stormy Point, a red sandstone plateau, with fine views over the Cheshire Plain and the Peak District beyond. I had finally reached the edge!

From: Macclesfield Outdoors, an initiative of the local council.

Map: Explorer 268 (Wilmslow, Macclesfield and Congleton).

Distance: a bit over four miles.

Conditions: cloudy at first, but later mild and sunny. Muddy underfoot.

Rating: four stars, but only for the National Trust section. It was good to approach it from below.

Chester

Along the walls

There is something very special about walking around a full set of city walls. We have done this a few times: Lucca, Aigues Mortes, St Malo, Xi'an, Dubrovnik. And also the partial walls of Rhodes and Gerona. Locally, there are the vestiges of the walls at Roman Calleva, modern-day Silchester, the only wall walk I have blogged. And then there is Carcassone, although there you walk around the outside of the walls rather than on the top, so it doesn't really count. I see this as a long-term project and I have a list of other walled towns to investigate.

However, today it was the turn of Chester. The original walls of Roman Deva were built of earth around AD70, and rebuilt in stone a few years later. They were extended in Norman times, when the castle was built and repaired, and reinforced during the Civil War when Chester was besieged by the Parliamentarians. The current promenade dates from the 18th century. Chester City Council provide a helpful leaflet describing the Walls Heritage Trail.

The walk starts at the Eastgate, crowned by its splendid late Victorian clock, celebrating Queen Victoria's Jubilee in 1897.



We followed the trail anti-clockwise to pass behind the Cathedral and were struck by the bulk of the modern bell tower (seen below from the Cathedral gardens, looking towards the wall). The Chester Tourist website reveals that it was designed by George Pace and completed in 1974. It was the first free-standing bell tower to be built for 500 years. It is no match for an Italian campanile!



At the northeast corner you come to the King Charles tower, from which the king surveyed the civil war siege.



The north section provides a typical view of the wall as you walk along, with north Wales on the horizon.



You then turn the north west corner and walk along the long west side, overlooking Chester race course, until you reach the remains of the Norman castle.



Just beyond the castle, at the south west corner, you meet the wide River Dee and after the 1930s County Hall, once the site of the gaol, which interrupts the continuity of the path, you come to the Old Dee Bridge.



Soon after this, you reach the south east corner, pass the roman garden and amphitheatre and reach the end of the trail. The final section of the wall is closed for rebuilding and the diversion takes you through the Grosvenor Mall shopping precinct - a truly horrendous culture shock after the calm and historical contemplation of the walk around the walls.

After a nice lunch we completed our visit to Chester by wandering round the Rows, the unique two-storey shopping area, with shops linked by a first floor walkway.



Then we went around the magnificent cathedral. We were surprised by the £5 entry fee, but the audio guide which came with it was excellent. There is a great deal to admire, but for me the highlight was the tall, airy nave.



I thought the statue in the cloister was rather wonderful with its Beardsley-like figures. It dates from 1994 and is called The Water of Life. It depicts the story of Jesus and the woman of Samaria. It is the work of Stephen Broadbent, a specialist in public art works.



Distance: 2 miles around the walls.

Rating: four stars.