Monday 11th March, Mobberley – Peover circuit.

The famous local double act, the Blackshaws of Timperley, had planned a re-recce of a route that Steve and I previously walked last June. This was to be a bit different – we were to walk it t’other way round, just for the sake of variety.
We kicked off from St Wilfrid’s church at around 10.30am – it was more than a bit cold, the ground was frozen hard in places.  The forecast was for the temperature to remain around zero all day and for sporadic snow showers. That forecast was accurate, the first snow shower hit around half an hour into the walk:

 

Snow-battered bullrushes 

20 minutes later the sun was shining although it was still damned cold:

Peover Hall

At Peover Hall the sound of rumbling stomachs was enough to call a temporary halt to proceedings. We found a suitable spot for hot drinks and a bite to eat. It was Sods Law that, 5 minutes after sitting down to enjoy lunch we were enveloped in another wind-driven snowy squall. No matter, it just meant we spent less time sitting around and more time walking.

   A little bit of snow…again

20 minutes later, the sun started breaking through – after another 10 minutes I wished I’d put sunglasses in my pack:

 The Blackshaws of Timperley enjoying the rays

I’ve no idea what this building was used for, but it had a distinctive ‘WW2’ feel about it:

I’m not sure how many Peovers there are, Lower Peover, Over Peover, Peover Inferior, Peover Superior….oh, and Peover of course. However many there are, they all seem to be populated with the rather well-heeled of Cheshire.

   

Not very superior

The churchyard of St Oswald’s, in one of them-there Peovers, presented itself just in time for another lunch-break. Bits of the church date back to 1269 – so it’s pretty old.  Older than me even.

 

St Oswalds

Leaving this particular Peover something-or-other by a short stretch of tarmac we came across this rather sad victim of road traffic:

Frozen fields followed as we headed towards the outskirts of Knutsford:
  
Looking East (which is A Good Thing) afforded grand views of the snow-covered Peak District, The Matterhorn Shutlingsloe  was easily identifiable:

….well the views were good until another snowy squall appeared on the horizon:
Fortunately this squall did nothing other than obliterate the view for a short while - it dumped it's load of white stuff on someone else.
Half an hour later we were back at the car in Mobberley. We had walked around 16 miles with around 450ft of up. And down.
It had been a good day out.

This is where we went:

Confession time: this is the route Steve and I did in June 2012. It covers the same ground – it was just t’other way around….and I couldn’t be mithered doing a new map - ‘cos it’s late and I want my bed.
More photos here.