Wednesday 13th June, The Folk Train

 

Folk Train from Chester to Plumley, return.

A couple of times each year ‘we’ are asked to perform on the Folk Train, an ordinary scheduled train journey – but with added entertainment…..if you could call it entertainment.

‘We’ are the world-famous (in Timperley) Nelson-Peach trio, which consists of Rick and Les Nelson and Richard Peach, plus me in a hanging-on beer-drinking ne’er do well kind of way. The combination works surprisingly well, Nelson-Peach do all the clever musically twiddly bits….whilst I drink beer and make a lot of noise. I’m quite happy with the arrangement – especially if I don’t have to drive anywhere.

Anyway, this evening we were performing on the line from Chester to Plumley, about a 40 minute train journey each way, plus a performance in the pub at Plumley.

We travelled to Chester by car, it was more convenient than using the train, the train times just didn’t work for us. Our Folk Train was due to leave Chester at 19.07 and we arrived in good time, it would have been a bit of a bugger if we had been late for our own concert.

 Nelson-Peach +1, waiting at Chester Railway Station

Once on the train we made ourselves at home, commandeering a couple of tables for our musical armoury, before blasting away with some bouncy dance tunes and loud songs. You can’t sing quietly on a train, there’s just too much ambient noise.

 Rick & Les making ‘em have it

Richard and me in action

As the train progressed towards Plumley it was boarded by ordinary passengers plus others who knew about the Folk Trains and wanted to come along for the fun. These events are free for the audience – apart from the train fare.

Arriving at Plumley at around 7.50pm it was just a 2-3 minute walk over to the Golden Pheasant (JW Lees) where we sang and played for around 1.5 hours. Oh, and we were fed and watered – nice butties and very excellent JW Lees Great Budworth Bitter. Lynsey, who knows a thing or two about good beer was hoping to join us at the pub but unfortunately (not so) baby Isabel chose the evening to be poorly, effectively kiboshing her plans. Sorry you missed the beer Lynsey – you’d have liked it. I hope Isabel’s back on form today. Anyway, every cloud has a silver lining, you didn’t have to hear me sing.

Rick & Les in pub mode

 

Richard, with me trying to look as if I know what I’m doing

Oh dear, another beer-drinking song

The full team in action

Yvonne, my favouritist singer, came to see us

We were back on the train at just after 10pm along with our mobile audience from Lymm and Northwich Folk Clubs, plus some ‘normal’ passengers. More songs and more bouncy music took us back to Chester. I’m not sure what the unsuspecting passengers thought – I think some enjoyed it, there were tapping feet, clapping hands…..and they didn’t throw anything at us. Always a good sign.

 Our train back to Chester

Rick, our designated driver for the evening, delivered me home at just before midnight. I was quite pooped, performing on Folk Trains is great fun but it’s hard work. A shower, a cuppa, then zzzzzzzzzzzz.

A successful evening.

West Lancashire LDWA Walkies

 

The West Lancashire LDWA ‘Tuesday Group’ lead some shorter walks, typically 10 – 12 miles, on, er, some Tuesdays. I joined them today for a wander around the very pleasant (ie not very muddy) Lancashire countryside.

Today’s walk, led by Doreen Viney, was a little over 11 miles. Kick-off was at 10am from Worthington Lakes, not very far from Wigan, where there’s a busy little factory where things are all the go, they don’t make Jakes or Eccles Cakes, or things you stick on walls, but night and day they work away at Uncle Joe’s Mint Balls.

Whoops, sorry about that….getting carried away again.

Anyway.

 Almost ready. Doreen, our glorious walk leader on the left.

Now I should point out that Doreen is no slouch when it comes to walking. Earlier today she complained to me that a recent 50 mile challenge walk had taken her 17 hours and she was a bit miffed at her poor time.

At bang on 10am the group set off, Doreen leading at a good pace. I knew better than to dawdle, if I lost sight of her on today’s walk I’d have been well stuffed. Walking in warm sunshine past Worthington Lakes (which are actually reservoirs) we headed east-ish to pick up the Leeds-Liverpool Canal. This canal has gone down in history as being the first Trans-Pennine canal to be started….but the last one to be finished. At a cost of 5 times it’s original budget I don’t think the accountants would have been too popular!

There are two reservoirs, Arley and Adlington. I think this is Adlington. Or Arley.

Our route followed everything from towpaths, field-footpaths, farm tracks, and just about every other sort of footway you could imagine. We could see Winter Hill for much of the walk, except when we couldn’t see it. But we knew it would still be there later, and it was. This is a Good Thing because it’s where our telly programmes come from and if it had gone there would be hell to play when I got home.

Winter Hill, famous for the telly. 

There were 16 on this walk. Some I knew, some others I recognised from other events. The good thing about LDWA events, certainly the East Lancs and West Lancs walks, is that everyone is made to feel very welcome. Even me – and I’m from Cheshire.

I spent some time walking with and talking to Terry who I’d first met on an East Lancs holiday earlier this year when we walked a section of the SW Coastal Path. You can see from the photo of Terry that he doesn’t like paparazzi!

Seriously (for a minute!), Terry is a good strong walker and good company.

We came across a couple of lads building a stone wall, although there didn’t seem to be any mortar visible, the presence of a small cement mixer suggested it wasn’t a true dry-stone wall.

At one point Blackpool Tower was clearly visible, but the cheap and nasty camera I had didn’t pick it out. I suppose I could draw one in to the photo below and just pretend it was the tower. Would that be cheating?

The weather remained good all day, unfortunately that meant that the pollen-count was up – sniffles and sneezes were audible from time-to-time. Doreen, not one to take prisoners, marched her charges on:

 

I was a little taken aback when I came across this sign. There are other references to things-Scottish in the area, Aberdeen Bridge for example. I’ve no idea what relevance these names have to this part of Lancashire.

Following a section of the Rotary Way for a while, we came to walk through part of Haigh Hall Country Park – a rather grand affair.

Terry approaching Haigh Hall Country Park. The look of disdain because the pub was shut.

At around 12.30 Doreen relented and allowed her followers a lunch break. She’s good like that. I mean, it wouldn’t do to have any in her party fading away through lack of food now, would it?

She found a nice bridge over the canal where we could enjoy our butties, before once again leading us onwards.

It’s good to know where you are! 

The River Douglas soon hove into view although it’s not much more than a large stream at this point. It rises not too far away at Rivington, ending up joining the River Ribble at Tarleton.

River Douglas 

More canals, stiles, footpaths and bits of farm track had us heading back to Worthington Lakes:

Although there was the odd obstruction:

The rest of the route was pleasant:

 

Back to the reservoirs again:

On the final approach to the car park I spotted this wonderful mushroomy-fungi thing on a tree:

We finished our little walk at around 2.35pm, 11.2 miles at in about 4 hours of walking = 2.8mph. Nice.

I don’t know the exact route we followed, but Doreen tells me it was something like: Worthington Lakes > Aberdeen Bridge > Little Scotland > Haigh > Haigh Hall Country Park > Arley Hall > back to Worthington Lakes.

More photographs of today’s walk can be found here.

Thanks for the walk Doreen, it was a good day out.

Even MORE music!

There are a fine band of lady musicians known as The Marmalade Band (known colloquially as ‘The Marmaladies’) who perform traditional songs and music at venues around the South Manchester / North Cheshire area - sometimes further afield. From time to time these fine ladies play for ceilidhs, and on these occasions my guitarist friend John and I are called on to be honorary ladies for the event. We provide the ‘grunt’ for the band whilst the female Marmaladies do the really clever stuff.

On 17th August The Marmaladies, along with their masculine sidekicks are playing a large festival event in the centre of Manchester – so we thought we’d better get some practice in! This time we have an extra honorary Marmalady, Mike, who plays stringy things like mandolins with a certain aggressive expertise. He’s a bit good.

Clare and John Mc playing something twiddly and difficult

We sat around Marian’s (who plays fiddle) kitchen table for 2 hours this afternoon and worked damned hard at a tune set that the ladies weren’t too familiar with. The ladies, being ladies, got stuck in and really came up trumps.

John has been messing about with bits of copper and plastic pipes and has managed to make some very effective flutes and tin-whistles. The photo above shows Clare playing a flute made from a length of 22mm copper pipe – it sounds pretty good.

I reckon the Festival Ceilidh in Manchester will be fun – particularly considering that John, Mike and I will be honorary ladies for the event!

Saturday 9th June, More music

On Wednesday next week, folk music superstars ‘Nelson-Peach’ will be performing with an extra – an itinerant melodeon player, singer and beer inspector….Me.

The performance will be on the Folk-Train running between Chester and Plumley. The plan is to  be on the 19.07 train from Chester where we will perform on the train until we disembark at Plumley. A quick beer (or two) in the Golden Pheasant and we perform in the pub.

Around 21.45 we will leave the pub and walk back to Plumley train station to catch the 22.03 back to Chester, performing again on the return journey.

Our musical gathering today was to thrash out a tune and song list – and then run through the set. We spent 3 hours working (playing!) on the set, I’ll spend a few hours running through the set at home (no, I WON’T be playing with myself!!) just to make sure the performance is up to scratch.

Nelson-Peach rehearsing

We’re happy with our set and the rehearsal went very well.

After such a demanding session we needed to rehydrate…so bottles of beer were produced and emptied in fast order.

If you’re around on Wednesday 13th June, come along – it will be fun. Even with me playing and singing.

Monday 4th June, A musical evening with friends

An invitation to an evening of music with mutual friends from Mark, a musician friend, had me travelling to Holmes Chapel in Cheshire on Tuesday evening. I don’t get to see Mark too much these days so I was looking forward to getting together for a beer, some music and a chat.

Mark

Mark’s an accomplished fiddler with a repertoire of classical, traditional British, and (as I was to discover this evening) Swedish tunes. 

A pleasant evening was spent chatting, playing tunes, singing – oh, and enjoying a few beers. In my case it was only one beer – I was driving. We were nine in all, playing music with others is always a pleasure….particularly if everyone remembers how the tunes go. Fortunately all the other did so I was able to 'hide' behind the competent musicians!

Mark & Alison in Scandinavian mode

Alison is a wonderful fiddler and violinist (there IS a difference) and along with Mark they played some Swedish tunes they had recently performed at a wedding. Traditional Swedish fiddle music is strongly influenced by the music of the surrounding countries, that includes Scotland and the Scottish Isles. It’s exciting and complex music, I’m afraid I just can’t get my fingers round it!

Alison, with Linda playing flute

 Brian in action on his bodhran

More tunes were played – some of which we’d not played for years, it certainly stretched the grey cells trying to remember how the tunes went.

At around 11pm we were treated to an impressive firework display from over the fields from Mark’s house – probably part of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations. A nice end to the evening. No photographs of the fireworks I’m afraid.

A successful gathering and one to be repeated before too long I hope.

Thanks for the invitation Mark, I enjoyed the evening immensely! 

Sunday 3rd June, A 16-ish mile walk from Mobberley Church

Ding Dong Bell

I’d intended going for a brain-straightening walk on this day – hopefully managing to avoid Jubilee celebrations into the bargain.

Mate Steve ‘Fast’ Blackshaw had phoned a couple of days before asking if I fancied joining him on a recce of a route he’d been working on. I didn’t need asking twice. Continuing my theme of doing walks from very close to home, Steve’s route was just the job.

 Fast Blackshaw and me

Steve collected me at 8.30am and we headed of down to Mobberley, only a 10 – 15 minute drive from Timperley. We parked up across from Mobberley Church which dates back to 1206…so it’s pretty old. It was going to be a warm day but at 9am, as we started walking, it was chilly enough to need a windproof – although only for a short time.

We headed south through Mobberley Field (National Trust) to cross some fields to a short bit of tarmac but were soon back on footpaths again. This part of Cheshire has some beautiful houses and at this time of the year they look their best.

Bridges over Pedley Brook and Marthall Brook took us past what appeared to be old sites of peat-extraction, the ground appeared to have been excavated down to about 15ft over quite a large area.

A bit of a navigational faff delayed our progress a little, I blame little used footpaths but it was more likely down to yacking too much. Crossing fields of barley we had Knutsford to our right (west) and Ollerton village to the south. It’s more of a hamlet really – it’s got a pub, but we were far too early to partake. Anyway we had a long walk ahead and a couple of pints would have seen the pair of us off for the rest of the day!

A brief foray along the A537 at Ollerton and we entered peaceful woodland paths to Toft and Toft Hall. The woodland was commercially ‘harvested’ (if that’s the right word) for firewood. There were some really interesting old vehicles still in use:

Walking a little further we spotted a nice little pad standing in it’s own grounds:

The rather grand Toft Hall

The Peover villages were next on our agenda. There are lots of Peovers - Peover Superior, Peover Inferior, Peover Heath….and many more. My late mother was evacuated to Peover in WW2, I only recently discovered the actual building she moved to - I gather it wasn’t a happy experience for her. The house she was evacuated to is now a very swish des-res occupied by fully paid-up members of the Cheshire Set, like so many of the houses in this affluent part of the county.

The Bells of Peover is now a gastro-pub, judging by the prices on the menu it’s aimed at the well-heeled of Cheshire.

Around the back of the pub is the 11th century St Oswald’s Church, decorated for the Jubilee celebrations later that day. Rather than eat in the pub (we’d probably need another mortgage) we enjoyed a very lazy lunch of butties in the grounds of the church. We savoured the hot sunshine – I’d seen the weather forecast for the next day and it wasn’t good.

If it wasn’t for the grass-cutting playing merry-hell with my hay fever I’m sure we’d have stayed longer.

A rare sight: A static Fast Blackshaw

The Elizabethan Peover Hall, a most magnificent moated building dating back to 1585, is set in expansive grounds with enough footpaths to get good views of the hall. The grounds are beautifully well-kept, I shudder to think what the overheads of that place are!

Peover Hall

Over more fields dotted with buttercups we spotted some bold wildlife – it must have been bold, it didn’t budge when I crept up to take photographs:

The bright sunshine really enhanced these patriotically-coloured rhododendrons:

The Post Office closures continue in Over Peover:

Our bearing was now very north, heading back in the direction of Mobberley. Another rest stop to finish off the last of our butties and drain the flasks and it got peculiarly cloudy.

Off again and a number of footpath diversions later we had a couple more navigational faffs and an unpleasant encounter with Mrs Angry-Farmer.

NF No1: What was once a farm is now a croquet club (this IS a posh part of Cheshire). Signs indicated there was a legitimate path diversion, fair enough. The signs even pointed us in the right direction….but then left us to our own devices. There was absolutely no other indication of the new route. So we did what I would have done in the Scottish Highlands: I took a compass bearing aimed at the croquet lawn / field exit and followed it. Sorted!

NF No2: It’s difficult to tell from the map, but I think it’s on the land belonging to Ash Farm (SJ774756) where we valiantly tried to follow a completely inadequately signed R.o.W. We spent a good 10 minutes trying to identify the path on the ground, but we clearly got it wrong.

It wasn’t that we deliberately went wrong, after all, who wants to go off-track? Anyway, this path wiggled around a hedge in a most odd manner, but we kept our eyes skinned for footpath signs – we didn’t spot any.

The wibbley-wobbley path

We made the best of a bad job and headed to the edge of a field where we KNEW there was another footpath that we needed to follow.  The field was uncultivated and quite rough – we weren’t damaging anything. Honest.

In the far distance I heard a tractor, engine running flat-out by the sound of it. I thought nothing of it until the engine noise was really quite loud – we were being chased by Mrs Angry-Farmer. (Double-barrelled names aren’t uncommon around these parts)

The vitriol hurled at us took me aback, such was her anger. Whatever we said in our defence wasn’t going to do any good – our protest that we weren’t deliberately off-track fell on deaf ears, we were guilty and should be hanged!

I walked away, and wished her a cheery good day – I hope it wound her up.

Reassured that we were now on the right track, the last few miles whizzed by. We spotted a fox and one of it’s cubs in a hedgerow – but I wasn’t fast enough with the camera. Buzzards have become a more common sight in towns these days but it’s still refreshing to see them hunting (‘quartering’ according to my ornithology teacher) in the open.

Entering the village of Mobberley, and passing the delightfully named Spout Lane, we were saddened to see the sorry sight of the Roebuck Inn – closed. Fortunately the Bull’s Head across the road is still open for business although that in itself isn’t all good – the new owners of the pub seem to have turfed off the crown-green bowling club. (Do you get that? Turfed, bowling green? Geddit? Oh never mind) The bowling green is now an extension to the beer garden.

The village cricket team was in action although I’ve no idea who they were fighting. If a typical English village really exists then Mobberley could be it!

The church came back into view, signifying the end of our walk. I’m not entirely sure if the brain-straightening part of the walk worked, but it was a grand day out!

Today’s vital statistics: 16 miles with around 450ft up upness.