Tuesday, 19th June. To Dunham and back

I’d intended stretching my legs today, but a mixture of parental responsibilities (my parent, not my kids!) and other duties meant that this would be an evening walk.

An emailed enquiry to Rick resulted in a rapid reply – he’d like to go for a walk. And so at just before 7.30pm we met on Park Road in Timperley and made our way to the Bridgewater Canal.

It was a dry evening, if slightly chilly (midsummer in England – what did you expect??) but there were areas of extreme wetness on the canal towpath. Fortunately we managed to keep our footwear relatively mud-free, it was so light we had no problem spotting the claggy bits.

A still evening on the Bridgewater Canal

Leaving behind the industrial and commercial area of Broadheath we met up with some familiar faces – members of the Cheshire Hash House Harriers, a drinking club with a running problem. They’re a fine bunch that I run with from time-to-time. The CH3 were running from The Bay Malton in Broadheath, a Thwaites pub.

Pleasantries exchanged,we carried on our way in the but it wasn’t many minutes before I heard activity from behind. The cyclist, being a decent sort of chap, had dismounted and was about push on, past us…..when there was a flash of mutual recognition. I clocked this cyclist as yet another Hasher – albeit one who didn’t want to risk his knees and more than he had to, it was John from Knutsford….on his rather nice titanium framed bicycle.

John from the Hash, his bicycle – and Rick 

John’s a keen cyclist and has a collection of bikes. I was particularly interested in this one as it had belt drive (no chain) and 14 speed hub gear. A really nice bit of kit. But I’ve got enough bicycles, I really can’t justify another one. Can I?

The business bit of John’s bike – note the hub gears and belt drive

We must have spent half-an-hour chatting to John, he set off to get lost on the quiet lanes of north Cheshire, whilst we continued towards Dunham.

The view to the NW from the Bridgewater Canal towpath 

As the sun lowered in the sky it was decision time: should we head for the Vine (Sam Smith’s @ £1.45/pint) or The Swan with Two Nicks that serves 4-5 cask beers from different breweries. The Swan won.

The Swan with Two Nicks

 The selection of beers on offer didn’t disappoint, they also serve TT Landlord

I had a couple of pints of the Coachhouse Brewery’s ale (4.2%), brewed specially for the pub – and very good it was too. Rick, the more abstemious, enjoyed a pint and a half of Greene King Abbot Ale (5%) – he reported that it was good.

A very pleasant hour or so in the pub was spent putting the world to rights, then it was time to leave.

Our route home crossed the River Bollin and then via Dunham Park (NT) and the footpaths across Dunham golf course back into Altrincham.

The Bollin weir at Dunham 

Dunham Park is home to a herd of deer, they’re very tame in the early morning and late evening:

The picture quality’s a bit iffy, I struggled to hold the camera steady, the low light level demanded a slow shutter speed.

One of the deer park buildings

The tracks and paths through the park are easy to follow, especially at this time of year – it was around 11pm and there was still sufficient light. The dense woodland surrounding the golf course wasn’t quite so easy to navigate through…but we survived to emerge on the main Altrincham road near the Devisdale.

Rick guided me through Altrincham and then along paths I didn’t know existed – mind you,I’ve only lived in the area for 30 years so I’ve an excuse.

Night-time Altrincham 

I think I rolled in at around 11.30pm, relaxed and pleasantly tired. A walk had done it’s magic once again.

Thanks to Rick for his excellent company once again….now where shall we walk this evening?

Vital statistics:

Around 9 miles…with not much up and downery. It’s flat around here.

Sunday, 17th June: Nelson-Peach + 1 on tour

(Not) much planning went into our little excursion into Altrincham yesterday evening. We decided a visit to the local folk club was in order, and with very cheap beer on offer I didn’t need much persuading.

The sight of four new-ish faces at the door of the folk club (at Altrincham Conservative Club….cheap beer) caused a little alarm but it wasn’t too long before the doorman realised we were quite harmless if left to our own devices.

We were made very welcome and spent a pleasant evening listening to a wide variety of monologues, stories, songs and tunes performed by the club regulars. And drinking Joe Holt’s Best bitter at £1-something a pint.

Folk Club regulars in action  

NP+1 were honoured with doing a spot during the first half, and then the closing spot at the end of the evening.

NP+1 lulling the audience to sleep…..

 

…..before waking them up again.

A very friendly club, with an enthusiastic membership, we’ll be going back.

Saturday 16th June, The White Bear Way

 

The White Bear Way is a circular challenge walk, run by Adlington Scouts on similar lines to LDWA events. There’s a choice of 10 or 21 mile routes, starting and finishing at the scout hut in Adlington. Being rufty-tufty Challengers, Judith and I settled on the 21 mile route.

Judith, a new LDWA member, lives on the Wirral. To save an early Saturday morning faff she drove to Timperley after work on Friday evening to stay at JJ Towers. After a carbo-loading meal we headed off to Costello’s in Altrincham, brewery tap of the Dunham Massey Brewery . I know how to treat a girl! I had arranged to meet up with Rick & Richard of Nelson-Peach folk super-group fame and a pleasant couple of hours were spent in increasing our hydration levels.

Maintaining hydration is just so important.

Next morning we were up bright and early for the drive to Adlington, near Chorley, and the start of the day’s little expedition. Driving up the M61 we saw the top of Winter Hill shrouded in clag, but from experience we knew that it was likely there would be at least some views from the top.

We were supposed to have been joined by other members of the Timperley Walkers And Tipplers but injuries and / or the weather forecast for heavy rain had put them off. As it happened, the weather stayed fine and dry until were en-route to the last checkpoint.

Adlington Scouts were thoughtfully providing tea and toast at the start, and after registering we took full advantage of their kind offer. The 21 mile walkers set off at 8.30am, aiming for the first checkpoint just north of Horwich. Following a section of canal towpath for 2.5km enabled us to get our pace sorted…nice and slow – Pigeon Pace, nice.

Judith on the canal towpath in Adlington

Footpaths, farm tracks and very quiet country lanes took us across a railway line and then the M61. I always find it strange, when on a walk, to cross a busy motorway – everything seems to be happening so quickly on the roads whilst we plod along quite happily at our pedestrian pace.

Anderton Services and the M61

Passing to the north of Horwich I spotted some interesting wildlife:

Not very native wildlife 

It was around this point that the first runner flew past us, striding out with apparent ease, whilst we plodged our way through muddy tracks. We were to later learn that the first runner arrived back at the scout hut in well under 3 hours – and he was well ahead of all the other runners.

 

The tower at Rivington Pike, SW of Winter Hill

Walkers approaching Winter Hill

View from the climb up Winter Hill

The masts on Winter Hill come into view

The top of the main TV mast disappearing into the cloud

The route then started to climb over Winter Hill, passing directly by the TV transmitter mast and all the ancillary buildings. At 456m ASL, the summit was still claggy but certainly not bad. There were views to the south, the Peak District and North Wales being quite visible.

Many hills have memorials, Winter Hill is no exception:

A very steep descent to Hordern Stoop and another checkpoint – and it still wasn’t raining! We were slightly off-route at this point, but the descent was one I’d used before on this walk.

Judith, smiling (grimacing?) at CP4 

 They expect bad weather around these parts.

Another minor navigational faff was corrected by referring to the map. A map is A Good Thing when walking over moorland, especially when it’s not a map of Wales. We weren’t in Wales and the maps we were carrying proved it. We soon knew where we were. I think.

Tagging on to a group of walkers proved to be helpful to a point, but they decided to miss out part of the route to avoid the memorial to a bomber crew who died nearby in 1943 when their plane crashed. I don’t like to miss out war memorials, nor does Judith who has ‘connections’. Oh yes, you don’t mess with Judith. I hadn’t mentioned it before, but I’d promised Judith good weather for this walk – if it turned bad she’d promised to give me a good kicking.

Anyway, with my fingers crossed for continuing good weather, we did the decent thing and ascended the short but steep climb to the memorial:

The short-circuit walkers bypassed the climb and the muddy woodland path to take the easier LRT route to Checkpoint 5 where it still wasn’t raining.

Cakes, biscuits, cordial and water were on offer at the checkpoints. This was fine but after a while all the sugary-sweet stuff became a bit too much. Tea and something savoury would have been good, even at only one of the checks. Still, we didn’t go hungry at all so that was okay.

If you hadn’t arrived at CP5 by 3.30pm you would be asked to retire from the walk. If you hadn’t made it by that time you would be most unlikely to be able to arrive at the finish within the 10 hours allowed for the walk. As it was only 1.30pm we were well in time and it still wasn’t raining.

We weren’t rushing, so spent 15 minutes at this checkpoint eating, drinking, stretching, looking at the views. Blackpool Tower was quite visible in the distance. Whilst we chatted to the marshalls a few other walkers came through but we let them get on with it. We weren’t racing.

At just before 2pm the wind got up and heavy rain stopped us in our tracks – time for overtrousers….and for me to watch my back. I mean, I could have been attacked at any time. Fortunately, although It looked like this rain was going to be it for the rest of the day, it wasn’t, 5 minutes later the rain stopped and all was well and I could relax my guard.

Another navigational faff (probably because we were gassing too much to bother looking at the map) had us walking around a lovely little reservoir…one that we shouldn’t have been walking around. Oh well.

The reservoir we shouldn’t have walked around

A quick about-turn soon had us back on track, heading for the northerly end of Anglezarke Reservoir. We were joined by a couple of lads from the scout group who were very familiar with the route so we didn’t need the maps any more – we just followed them! After being on open moorland for a lot of the day it was an unpleasant shock to be walking alongside the noisy M61.

Crossing the M61 

The Wet

By this time the rain had returned and it wasn’t going anywhere fast. Except in a downwards direction. I determined to keep Judith in front of me, if I was going to be on the receiving end of a ferocious attack I wanted to see it coming at least. I can run faster than Judith.

Splodging and paddling through water-sodden paths eventually took us to our final checkpoint at the Black Horse pub in Limbrick – an excellent pub, well known for it’s folk club and good beer.

Stream…or footpath? 

The excellent Black Horse at Limbrick

With around 2.5 miles to go we ate some more cakes and drank some more cordial before girding our wotsits and setting off on the last leg of the walk.

The rest of the route was easy-peasy, most of it was on the canal towpath. The two lads from the scout group proved to be very good company and the walk passed quickly.

Back at the scout hut we removed our soggy boots and sat down to excellent hotpot and mugs of tea. Being a healthy eater I only had two helping of the hotpot and left it at that. A certain lady of my acquaintance also had two helpings….but then she snaffled a doughnut too!

 An un-named lady, called Judith, at the scout hut.

We collected our certificates and sew-on badges and thanked the organisers for the day – they had worked very hard to put this event on. It was a shame that the last hour and a half was marred with rain, but what the hell – this is England in June, what do you expect?

A character building day. But we had fun too!

Oh, and I’m not sure whether she forgot or just couldn’t be bothered, but Judith didn’t hit me – not even once.

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.