10 varied walks around around 10 varied walks Whitchurch, Shropshire 10 varied walks around WHITCHURCH Shropshire WHITCHURCH, WHITCHURCH, Shropshire – Shropshire Whitchurch Walkers Whitchurch Price: £5.00 ISBN 978-0-9569021-2-2 9 780956 902122 www.whitchurchwalkers.co.uk Whitchurch Walkers 10 Walks Around Whitchurch Town Centre Whitchurch, Shropshire A41 Hinton Kiln Green Old Hall C H E S Grindley Brook WALK 1 T E R R O A D B5395 Hospital Supermarket (minor injuries) Bubney A49 Hill Valley LONDON ROAD B Golf Club A Civic RG WALK 9 WALK 3 A WALK 7 T Centre Greenfields ES Alport BR Nature Reserve OW N N O LO T H W Hall Green NG I I G Heritage RD H S A S T T WALK 2 HILL S R MILL Y T S Centre Danson’s Bridge RY R E T HER NE E Y EE S W E R E STR T T A T T O T M O W RS T EN ALB N PE S EEN D T Canal D PEP R Broughall K ROA Jubilee G Chemistry SMALLBROO CA S T STLE H Supermarket A T Park ILL I O N A495 W R Chemistry ET A O E T A D TR E S R Swimming Pool Whitewell LL G T A495 I AT E E D M E WHITCHURCH G E E R L E Y R O L T A D IL S H D ER K T R O A A D EW N Belton WALK 8 B IN G E W R E X H A M R O A D B536 RID W 4 B P G O Pan Castle R T R O O T S Edgeley E N R Motte & Bailey M O A A WALK 5 RY D LA WALK 4 N E Ash Magna D Ash Parva A O S Alkington Hall R E D N E D Brown O G G T F E G O L E Moss N R Y R O I A D D K L B WALK 10 5 A 3 9 5 Cricket 6 7 Ground 4 5 B A62 Warrington Runcorn Ellesmere Port A56 Northwich © Copyright Ordnance Survey Open Source data A41 Maccleseld A49 Mold Chester WALK 6 Prees A41 Heath Key to map symbols Wrexham P M6 Higher Heath R E E S WHITCHURCH R A O Stoke-on-Trent D Walk Routes Car parking Golf Acourse4 A495 1 Ellesmere Market Drayton A49 Footpath Public House Nature reserve Oswestry Staord Bridleway Church Leisure & sports centre A483 A5 ISBN 978-0-9569021-2-2 Toilets Shrewsbury A41 A-road Camping & caravan site Cannock Welshpool A54 B-road Picnic area Published by Built-up area Wolverhampton M6 Whitchurch Walkers / Oswestry Ramblers Minor road Refreshments Woodland Bridgnorth Railway with station Bus service or bus station Streams, ponds and lakes A49 Birmingham M5 Kidderminster Ludlow 45 RCH HU W C A IT L K H Introduction S Walk 1: Fields & Fairways W W 1 ALK No. On behalf of the Whitchurch Walkers, Distance: 4 miles / 6.4km • Duration: about 2¼ hours welcome to Whitchurch in beautiful Start point: Whitchurch Civic Centre Shropshire. This book of walks will give A gently undulating and scenic walk with plenty of interest. you a splendid introduction to the joys Field boundary crossings mainly involve stiles and of walking in the north of the county. there are some footbridges. The countryside around Whitchurch is gently undulating, surprisingly varied and relatively unspoilt with many inter- St. Alkmund’s – esting features. information and a warm welcome. To a church with ‘previous’ You will find the walks are relatively easy find it, walk a few metres down the High Whitchurch takes its name from White Church going. They will give you plenty of time Street from the Civic Centre and turn left – its second church, built of white stone in and energy to sample the environment up Bluegates, following the footprint 1087 on the site of the original Saxon church. and some local history, as well as the signs in the pavement. The Heritage A third church on the site built in 1350 excellent refreshments on offer. Centre is a large white building at the collapsed in 1711 and was quickly replaced top, on the corner. by the present and fourth church which The land was shaped by the last ice was consecrated as St. Alkmund’s. It could sheet to leave the area’s characteristic This book of walks has been produced hardly have been called White Church as its meres and lesser pools as well as large by the Whitchurch Walkers. We were areas of raised peat bog with smaller a major driving force in establishing builders dispensed with all that old-fashioned areas of mosses. The title ‘Meres & Whitchurch as a ‘Walkers are Welcome’ whiteness and used red sandstone whilst Mosses Landscape’ is truly deserved. town and organise an annual Walking spending £4,000 to create the biggest church There is a wide variety of soil types Festival, as well as a regular programme in Shropshire outside Shrewsbury. Inside is and also remnants of sandy heaths. of mainly weekend walks. the tomb of John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, who was killed in the battle of The farming is predominantly dairy Castillon in 1453 at the very end of the Hundred Years’ War with France. and grazing, including horses, but with In Whitchurch Urban and Rural Parishes some arable in evidence too. there are over 110km of public rights of way. The voluntary Whitchurch Parish Alms and Grammar The Romans had a fort at Whitchurch, Paths Partnership group (known as ‘P3’) The current Georgian-style Higgin- which they called Mediolanum, and the works with Shropshire Council to carry son’s Almshouses – for ‘six decayed town has been settled ever since. There is out maintenance and improvement housekeepers’ – were built in 1807 plenty of industrial heritage to be seen – works on these paths – a never ending on earlier foundations laid in 1647. the most obvious being the much used task! The first footpath to be improved Llangollen branch of the Shropshire was what was known as the Greenfields The Old Grammar School was Union Canal, which has outlived some path and is now called The Stockton founded as a free school for boys of the local railway lines – originally Walk in memory of a local man, Les in 1550 by Sir John Talbot, a former destined to make it redundant. Stockton, who used to install all the rector of Whitchurch, not to be furniture required on the footpaths, confused with the battling Earl Several of the walks start and finish carrying them to the site on an old at the Civic Centre on the High Street. pram. Look out for the signs that offer John Talbot, mentioned above. It was rebuilt in 1848 in Elizabethan style. The However you may also want to visit the evidence of ‘P3’ endeavours. school closed in 1938 when it moved to its present location as the John Talbot Heritage Centre which offers tourism Happy Whitchurch walking! School in Heath Road. 2 3 Walk 1: Fields & Fairways © Copyright Ordnance Survey Open Source data Route Description Turn right here and carry on 30 Grindley metres to a field gate. You are now Brook South Cheshire Hinton Manor From the Civic Centre 1 go up the on a delightful tree-lined sunken Way High Street and past the church of Bishop Bennet green lane and have joined the Way Reservoir St. Alkmund’s. South Cheshire Way. Reservoir The Fields Hinton Hinton Pass some Almshouses and flats With a white house in sight there Farm Bank Old Hall occupying the Old Grammar are two gates and a stile to your School on your right. Cross the left. The gate by the stile offers the roundabouts and go along the left T easiest access to the driveway A Hotel R P side of Tarporley Road to O leading to Hinton Manor 6. R L E 2 Y ‘Westmore House' , after the Continue on to cross the A49 7 R Hill Valley O D A41 A Golf Club A next house a wooden fingerpost D O A49 R and on to the driveway opposite B 5 K 4 N will direct you down a stony track. 7 A 6 T signed The Bishop Bennet Way. E B R E Hotel R L I I After about 180 metres turn right C M K Turn right and cross the first field R O over a stile 8, and up a grassy A 3, along a permissive path, joining Brooklands D the old Chester Railway branch line; bank through shrubs and you will find yourself on the golf course. Mount Farm turn left and walk along the old D A O R track-bed. Turn off at the next stile T Turn left along a tarmac path Moat R O P to a small footbridge; follow the L leading past a pool on your left. A C H E hedge a short way then cross a S T E R R O A Supermarket D B5 T Bear right at a waymarker post, 0 KILOMETRES ½ 395 S Hospital IT P Y corner of a field to a stile leading on A B LONDON ROAD L following the line of a ditch, across C A R 0 MILES ¼ G 4 AT to the A49 bypass road . ES two fairways and a tarmac path to S T B COUNTRY RO ST W N N N reach another waymarker post by a PARK TO H LO H O W NG I J I G ST Cross the road with care – the RD H S A S T T HILL Y S R YMILL T S 9 ERR N R Y E H E E reed-filled pool .