It sounded appealing, and somewhat different to my usual rides, so I planned a route to link into it from home. I set off along the Trent and Mersey canal towards Middlewich, starting on nice hard packed gravel towpath which turned into hard grass track after the Plant Lane bridge. This continued after the lock at the Mill Lane bridge, with the hard part of the track becoming quite narrow in places. It wasn't too bad to ride on with my mountain bike, the only alternative was to ride on the brick blocks on the side of the canal, and I wasn't prepared to go for a splash in the mucky water! Reaching Middlewich I was a bit nervous of the swans that I knew inhabited the canal in large numbers by the Kings Lock pub. Fortunately there were only a couple, and none of them felt like attacking me as I rode past. After the pub, I passed Middlewich Chandlery and left the canal, heading up through a track to an industrial estate where a left took me to the roundabout on the Holmes Chapel road, where I went straight across and then right along the very familiar road through Byley to the Three Greyhounds pub. Here a right, then left, took me past Shakerley Mere, over the M6 and on to turn right into Townfield Lane. A short while later I turned left into Sandy Lane and joined the route of Laureen's Ride.
This took me along typical country lanes, paved but narrow with occasional potholes. After a mile or so of this, the route turned onto Sandy Lane, not sandy at all but more of a cinder style surface that morphed into a typical farm track - grass in the middle with dirt / stone tracks either side.
There were also numerous gates to be negotiated, and at one of these I came to a rather bumpy stop and noticed that my computer was beeping loudly. Looking down I noticed that the Incident Detection feature had kicked in - this basically will send an alert out if it thinks you've had a fall on your bike. At the same time my phone was making worrying alarm sounds via the computer's app. Fortunately it gives you thirty seconds to cancel, which I hurriedly did - I didn't want to scare Sandra for no reason! Sandy Lane eventually came to the main road near Radbroke Hall, and here I turned into Stocks Lane to turn left down a drive signposted Colshaw Hall Farm Access Only. This was a decent paved surface which turned left and right through farmland to join onto School Lane near Lower Moss Wood, where a left turn took me onto a bridleway. This was more of a dirt / grass track, again going through some lush farmland with wheat growing.
The track passed through Ash Farm and became a paved road leading to Seven Sisters Lane, where I turned right to cross the A537 Chelford Road onto Marthall Lane. I knew there was a left turn ahead, as I'd checked out some of the route on Google Maps beforehand, and sure enough it soon appeared. A paved driveway brought me to a narrow bridleway gate onto a grassy track, which was clearly feeling the benefit of the rain as in places it was quite tall, and you could feel soft patches where the water must have accumulated. The track bore round to the left and I came to a gate where the bridleway went up a bit of a climb with little to give an idea of where the path was other than a narrow trail of beaten down grass.
I struggled up the climb and at the end found myself back on road for a short while before diverting left onto another bridleway. This again was a narrow track through farmland, with a sign asking people to keep to the hedges around the field. It was turning into a harder ride now, the way was not obvious again, the ground was sporadically boggy where water had collected and cows had churned it up. I came to a gate into another field where cows were grazing, and trudged through the very boggy ground to the other side. I followed the hedge to a point where my computer told me I needed to go right, and then saw that this would take me along the hedge where cows were grazing! I decided to move out into the middle of the field to pass the cows, and as I was walking through the field I realised that ones of the cows had taken an interest in me, and was following. I shouted at it to stop it, but when I continued so did the cow! I shouted again, which now got the attention of the other cows, who clearly thought something interesting was going on, and moved towards me too! So I shouted again, and carried on moving, wondering if being knocked over by a herd of cows would trigger my Incident Detection. Fortunately I was walking quite quickly through the field, and managed to get to the hedge so if the worst happened I could keep that at my back. As the hedge veered to the left, I moved out of sight of the herd, and they must have lost interest. I came to another gate, getting through it quickly and breathing a sigh of relief. The going was better now, and I could ride again, and the bridleway took me to a road that lead to the Bulls Head pub in Mobberley. The route joined the Knutsford to Wilmslow road for a short while before turning left along Church Lane, passing the cricket club, the lovely St Wilfrid's Church, Mobberley Ice Cream Company, and then turning right onto Lady Lane before coming to the perimeter of Manchester Airport.
Here I paused to take a photograph, watching a plane taking off and noticing a buzzard high up in the air. The track then dropped through a wooded area, becoming boggy again in places, before rejoining the roads on Ostler's Lane and heading south towards Knolls Green. Here the route rejoined the Wilmslow road for a short time before turning left onto Moss Lane and through to pass the Plough and Flail pub. After the pub, the route joins a stony / dirt track, passing Lindow Court Park, before rejoining tarmac at Moor Lane to head towards Fulshaw Park, where it turns left into Rotherwood Road. This turns into another stony / dirt track, uneven in places, but which goes through some lovely woodland.
The track narrows towards the end, and with the stony track being replaced by lots of old bricks, and vegetation encroaching. Eventually though, by Mossways Park, this becomes tarmac road again, and brings you out into Morley Green by the Cheshire Smokehouse. I continued on towards Wilmslow and turned left into Nansmoss Lane, following this to the junction with the A538 Altrincham to Wilmslow road. This is a very busy road, fortunately there is a wide shared path running alongside, and I followed this for a short while to cross over onto a road which took me to the Quarry Bank Mill and Styal Estate Country Park.
Although the road was a dead end, there were the occasional speed bumps in it to jolt over. I came to the Mill and found that the route took me up a flight of stone steps, then a gentle incline to leave the grounds and head into Styal. Here I turned left onto Altrincham Road, past the Ship Inn, where people were sitting outside in the warmth of the sun enjoying a cold drink. Sadly I had no money with me! At Holly Lane I turned right, and then left onto the Restricted Byway of Wilkins Lane, another stony / dirt track. On reaching the end at Moss Lane I turned left to follow the road back to Altrincham Road, and then right onto the old Altrincham Road, no longer open to traffic. This took me back to the airport perimeter, and past the Southside Manchester Viewing Area.
I left the airport perimeter and rode through a lovely meadow down to the Bollin Valley Way, at the end of which I turned into the Airport Inn Car Park, and crossed the A538 to ride uphill on the shared path. At Morley Green Road I turned right, and followed this to pass the Cheshire Smokehouse and from there retrace the route back past Mossways Park and along Rotherwood Lane to Fulshaw Park on the outskirts of Wilmslow. Following various roads to Upcast Lane, I turned right onto a bridleway opposite Lindow Cricket Club. This was an easy ride along a decent gravel surface, and at the end I turned right onto Clay Lane which turned into a stony dirt track and passed a field of alpacas and llamas. One alpaca was sitting proudly atop a mound of dirt!
The track changed here into a narrow dirt singletrack, squeezing between trees and fence and with roots and boggy bits making it hard going. It soon returned to a wider farm track though, before reaching a road again, eventually threading through to the Wilmslow to Knutsford road. Here I headed towards Knutsford for a brief spell, before turning left onto Warford Lane and then right onto the wonderfully named Noahs Ark Lane, nice and leafy but sadly no animals two by two! At the end in Warford I turned left for Great Warford and then back towards Little Warford. Just past the David Lewis Centre I turned left onto a bridleway which started out as an easy riding stony / dirt track, however just past the centre it turned off through what looked like a tree nursery, with a barely discernable track at the edge of the field to follow. A little further on this passed through some woodland and here the track became very boggy, so much so that it was necessary to push the bike through the muddy sections. I soon got back on tarmac, much to my relief, and came to the outskirts of Chelford, where I turned right, crossed the main road and headed along Pepper Street, and turned right onto another bridleway.
At the end of this, I rejoined the road and turned off on an unnamed lane to reach Sandhole Lane, where a double decker bus was being restored in a garage across the road. I turned left onto another bridleway which went through a field that had been mowed, so no previous evidence of where people had gone. My computer directed me straight ahead, but I couldn't see anything obvious so followed the hedge to leave the field, but my computer was beeping at me to make a U-turn. I noticed another entrance to the field, followed that and managed to pick up the bridleway again. It became very narrow again, and also very bumpy underfoot (underwheel?) where many horses must have trodden passing through. It was becoming a real struggle and fight to keep the bike going with enough forward momentum, and I had to stop and hike several times, even when I had left the fields and had joined what seemed to be a normal track. Eventually I came to the end of the bridleway on Stocks Lane again, and followed the road left and then right to cross over the road towards Goostrey.
After a mile or so I came to what would be the last bridleway of the day, and turned right off the road. This immediately became a very claustrophobic, narrow track, with the vegetation seriously in need of a bit of management. In addition to this, the track didn't go straight but meandered, so surprises were often thrown up around a corner, including lots of muddy little areas around exposed tree roots that demanded a full focus to get through. Eventually the bridleway widened and turned into a paved road that came to Boots Green, where Laureen's Ride continues straight on to cross the A50 into Townfield Lane, which is where I picked it up earlier. As I'd now completed the route, I turned left to head into Goostrey.
At Goostrey I crossed straight over onto Hermitage Lane, which has some truly awful sections with many clumps of shallow potholes. From here I rode into Holmes Chapel, ignoring my planned route on another Restricted Byway (which had more to do with fatigue than anything else - in hindsight I wish I'd done it), and from Holmes Chapel down the A50 to Brereton Green, where I turned right onto Back Lane, left onto Ward's Lane into Sandbach and back home.
It had been a mostly fun and interesting day, and with all the new roads to me it had at times felt like a typical Scotland trip. There were probably three sections of the route that I'd avoid if I did it again, and you can probably guess which these were. You'd need some very fit and strong family and friends on bicycles if you were going to drag them along on your horse ride, but maybe when the route was conceived the grounds weren't as churned up from the amount of rain we've had this last year or two. At the end of the day, it had been a pretty decent day on the bike.
No comments:
Post a Comment