Friday 6th March.
Eight of us plus Rufus the dog arrived at Altrincham Interchange to get the 9.36 train to Northwich. It arrived on time.
Sheila and I stayed at the Travelodge in Altrincham centre again. It just saves all the hassle of getting from home to Altrincham on walk day. The hotel is excellent in all respects. Unfortunately I broke my sunglasses whilst cleaning them so it was a quick trip into Mountain Warehouse to buy a new pair.
Martin and Sue, Paul, Jeanette and Rufus, Rick, Andy, Sheila and I were todays crew. I was looking forward to a coffee in Costa at Northwich Tesco but the decision was taken to get going.
We crossed the busy A533, descended some steps and marched off down the aptly named "ALAN STREET". Turning right at the end led to a foot bridge across the Northwich branch railway lines. This was part of the Cheshire circuit but was renamed.
The path headed between the two railway lines and then crossed a further footbridge above the main Chester line and down onto Greenall Road which led us to into a cemetery. This was our first meander of the day. Meander meaning "whoops we've taken the wrong path". We backtracked to the entrance and followed the cemetery outer wall around to a path which went underneath the railway and into a recreational field bounded by the River Dane which is liable to flooding in this area.
At this point the Northwich viaduct becomes very hard to miss. It is huge. As we made our way to it, first crossing the Dane and then hand railing it until we came to the River Weaver and Weaver Navigation where we diverted along the path to Hunts lock.
The viaduct, built in the 1860's has 48 masonry arches plus girder spans where it crosses water, it spans the Weaver Valley. In the mid 1800's the railways were booming. The route westward from Northwich had to cross the waters mentioned above and the viaduct was designed by the West Cheshire company. They proposed to use brick but when it became part of the Cheshire Lines Committee, the engineers of the Great Northern railway and the MS and L agreed that it should be built from local red sandstone. The viaduct is 676 metres or 739 yards long.
Rail traffic is restricted to 20mph and a number of arches have been reinforced.
The impressive structure partially seen from the Weaver. (Image courtesy of the viaduct website).
Northwich viaduct.
Hunts Lock is located in a section of the Weaver which has been modified, straightened, to make navigating easier. There is a lock office and it includes a pedestrian swing bridge. Looking at the mechanism where the bridge adjoins the land I would guess it hasn't been opened for a while.
Riversdale Swing Bridge at Hunts Lock- River Weaver.
The first bridge here was a wooden one built in 1888. The replacement bridge built in 1930 also fell into disrepair and was closed in 2004. The one you see today is 45 metres long and was shipped into position using the river. It was built in 2010 and cost £1.4 million.
The above two fine shots were taken by Sheila.
Once across to the West Bank of the Weaver we stopped for a coffee at one of the many picnic tables before entering Marshall's Arm Nature reserve which was designated in 1998.
The "Arm" is a reference to the arm of the river which was left after the straightening of the Weaver in 1730 and took two years.
The Marshall family owned the estate from the 1700's to the 1900's. They were salt magnates and lived at Hartford Green Bank Manor from 1774.
There is lots to see in the reserve apart from the wildlife and plant life. It's a great place to go for a gentle walk or for peace and quiet. There are many features worth searching out, for example the Mousey, Sliding Gates and Pignut Hill to mention just a few.
Heron Gates with Rufus looking for a leg I presume.
Petrichor emanating from the drying rushes.
We followed the arm as it wound its way down to the Blue Bridge which carries the A556 road. Plenty of people were out taking advantage of the wonderful weather we were having. We were gifted with a swan fly past but I wasn't quick enough to capture it on camera. I did catch them on the bank though.
The Blue Bridge or it's proper name Hartford Bridge, it has Art Deco abutments but they are covered with foliage. It's such a shame to hide them. The council should cut it back.
The route continues for a short distance following the weaver then it enters the woodland of Vale Royal and under a second viaduct which now carries the West Coast Main Line. It was built by Joseph Locke in 1837, in turn we passed through the Vale Royal Golf Course. This place has the wow factor. It also gave me our first tractor photo opportunity. The 19th hole was originally a section of St. Mary's monastery. Now it is very posh apartments.
The Cistercian monastery was founded by King Edward 1 in the 1270's. It was the largest Cistercian monastery/abbey in England and dedicated to the Virgin Mary. It was dissolved by Henry VIII in 1538 and partially demolished. Other parts were converted into a mansion.
The mansion was converted and bought by Thomas Holcroft in 1540. The Cholmondeley family took it over in 1615 with Mary residing there. It stayed in the family for over 300 years. We came across the Cholmondeleys at Holford Hall in the previous stage of the walk.
Vale Royal Woodland.
The Viaduct built to carry the L&NWR Grand Junction Line. Now the West Coast Main Line.
Small Kubota L4630 with mower attached.
Vale Royal Apartments.
We made our way through Vale Royal with it's new houses built to represent far older style properties which would blend in with the area. Properties here cost over £1 million. Our route now passed the backs of the new houses down Vale Royal Drive and came out at Whitegate opposite St. Mary's church. On the way a huge tree had fallen over, the rootball didn't seem to have deep roots and the soil was very sandy.
The root ball.
St. Mary's Anglican Church Whitegate. A chapel has been on this site sine 1277.
We left Whitegate by Mill Lane, passed the Old Smithy and following Pettypool Brook. Another downed tree hid the path and we diverted up hill until we realised we needed to go back to the fallen tree and get over it. On our left was the stylish Bark House which was aptly named as the dogs were barking loudly as we passed.
Path following Pettypool Brook
How could we possibly loose the path through there?
Leaving the woodland behind and entering open farm land a stile gave us access to cross a couple of fields leading to Gale Green Farm, a very tidy establishment with dedicated footpath corridors surrounded by electric fencing to stop passers bye feeding the horses.
Bark House.
Under coming the electric fencing.
The actual footpath on the ground across the fields was non existent due to ploughing and reseeding. We did our best to stick to the digital footpath across.
Well corralled footpath.
At the end of the fields and across a set of concrete steps which were obviously remains of an old railway line we did in fact descend to the abandoned line. This line was part of the Cheshire Lines Railway but today it forms part of the Whitegate Way. The line was opened in 1870 and it served mainly the salt industry. It was closed to passengers in 1931 and then completely in 1968.
The trackbed now has become a well used scenic trail and the station at Whitegate has become a cafe and picnic area. It is also a car park access point.
We were now moving at quite a pace and with chatting and being new to the area we missed another turning off point. After a couple of hundred yards we retraced our tracks and headed towards a series of small lakes on what used to be Newchurch Common. One of them having the strange name The Reeking Hole. It gave us a bit of a break from the old railway trail anyway. Lost in the foliage were two old bale conveyors which I'm sure Conrad will find of interest.
Broom in bloom.
Old conveyors. (no names on them).
I kept an eye out for any railway memorabilia but apart from the concrete steps of which there were quite a few, very little remains. There is an old loading gauge somewhere near Whitegate Station but I didn't see it. Below is a photograph of it taken by Robin Harrison on Facebook.
The interesting Loading Gauge used to make sure wagons could get through bridges etc. Must be quite a unique structure today.
Old Whitegate station.
Another section of Whitegate Way track brought us out at Ravensclough. A delightful hamlet with banks of daffodils. My legs had started to ache especially the shin which I damaged in a fall a few weeks ago so I was glad that we reached the main road in Cuddington. It was uphill and Martin said that we had six minutes to reach the station or we would have to wait another hour for the train. With about three hundred yards to go we did a bit of a yomp and reach the platform just as the train came around the corner.
Bluebells out early.
We all look a bit tired and even Rufus had a lie down in the carriage.
Thanks Martin for devising the route and everyone for their company.
