Thursday 26th March 2026.
Mouldsworth to Chester.
Who came along:- Martin, Sue B, Sheila, Sue W, Rick, Paul, Jeanette, Andy, Judith, Myself and of course Rufus the dog. A real good turnout.
The Route.
Sheila and I travelled from home to Chester on Wednesday to drop off an overnight bag at the Queens Hotel. More on that later.Then we made our way back to Altrincham by train and stayed overnight there to be ready to meet up with the platoon the next day.
Anyway, we met up on Thursday morning with the names shown above at Altrincham station and made our way to Mouldsworth. After alighting from the train it was a nice surprise to meet up with Judith whom we had not seen since we did a backpacking hike in 2021 (Click Here if you want to read that trip). Judith has now retired from doing The Great Outdoors Challenge Walk and also retired from Wirral Council and Commanding Officer of HMS Eaglet in Liverpool. She has taken up Ladies Rugby and still plays cricket, converted a VW Caddy van and goes off with her bike. Some retirement.
Brew over, we stayed on the minor road through Long Green with it's fine properties until arriving at quite a busy B road. The bridge over the brook also sported a benchmark (38.5). Going left towards Little Barrow we eventually turned off the road onto Wildmoor Lane. Looking at the bench mark archive later I spotted that a Rivet benchmark was on the wall close to where we had coffee.
A large farm of poly tunnels, a nursery, was passed on the right and then a little further along the lane a stile on the left led over a couple of cultivated fields, in single file the route brought us to a small bridge over the River Gowy and then to the isolated St. Peter's church, Plemstall. The church actually looks a lot older than the plaque suggests but I will come to this next. Some decided to have a wander around the church grounds, the doors being locked. I noticed at the front of the church was an old stepping stone, the type made so that it was easier to dismount from a carriage or horseback.
Plemstall Church.
The church goes back as far as the 7th Century built on a site where Plegmund, later becoming Archbishop of Canterbury by King Alfred, lived as a hermit. His well which we come across soon still survives but I wouldn't drink from it. It was built on what is known locally as "The Isle of Chester", a raised area which was once surrounded by marsh land. That's how the church was dedicated to St. Peter the fisherman who was said to walk on water.
The Trafford family financed the building up to the 15th century. In 1826 a tower was added and restorations have taken place over a number of years. The roof being replaced in 1958 due to death watch beetle and more modern installations have happened up to today.
The tomb of the Hurleston family is located in the church yard and shows a skeleton on the side. It makes quite interesting reading. Click HERE.
Leaving the church behind we pass Plegmunds Well in about 100metres, the water didn't look inviting, and then pick up a very old footpath leading under the railway and into a relatively new housing estate of Mickle Trafford.
In a house front garden was parked a Fordson Major tractor in Yellow Livery. My first thoughts were that the yellow was wrong, as Fordson Major's were usually blue/orange. However, a quick look at my history books brought to light that Fordson like Massey Ferguson had an industrial division that painted the tractors yellow. There was some differences between the industrial machine and the agricultural machine in that the industrial had no three point linkage at the back and the rear axle and brakes were beefed up. They also used Perkins engines instead of Ford just life Massey Ferguson.
The estate was quite confusing and made it easy to do a meander. Fortunately we still came out on the road we wanted which led us to the railway Bridge on Meadow Lane. There used to be a station here called Mickle Trafford, not Meadowbrook as the sign on the gate suggests. The station closed in 1951, long gone except for some signal memorabilia in a private garden on the old site.
This site was also a rail junction and a former rail line is now a walking/cycle way. We found an ideally placed picnic table for lunch that was big enough for all of us. Most of the disused Cheshire line was built low down with embankments on either side. This results in not being able to see much of interest and can become a bit of a slog. Numerous wood carvings tried to instil some interest as we passed. We made fast progress and before long we hit the outskirts of Chester where a bike sale was taking place in the Limewood Fields. Some found much interest.
The walk along the towpath here is also adjacent to the steep sandstone that Chester Roman Walls were built on and is a delight to follow. When we reached Old Harkers Inn and a model Hurricane on the canal bank we joined the City Road up to Chester Railway Station. The Hurricane is actually a raft and was made for the annual Chester raft race. Very inventive.
A short walk along City Rd and we were at the Railway Station which was the intended end of the walk from Altrincham to Chester. Five stages in total. As we had decided to spend an extra day in Chester I picked up my overnight bag from the Queens Hotel who took it in when the Travelodge wouldn't, even though we had booked two nights with them.
Usually we had now head to the station and go home but as it was the last stage of the walk Martin and his social secretary Sue decided we should celebrate the finish with a meal in Chester. Which we did but I didn't photograph it.
The total route has been excellent overall. Considering that this is not a recognised trail Martin did a great job route finding. Thanks to everyone Sheila and I met along the way and how we managed to get such good weather for the stages is a miracle.
Martins blog on all the walks can be found HERE.
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