Goostrey Village Circular

INFORMATION Distance: 4.25miles, 6.84km Start and finish: St Luke's Church, Goostrey. Map: OS Explorer 268, Wilmslow, Macclesfield and Congleton Goostrey Parking: At the Red Lion pub, Goostrey. Public transport: Bus service 319 from Holmes Chapel, five buses a day. Enquiries Cheshire Busline 602666. Rail connections to Manchester and Crewe operated by Northern Rail, tel. 0845 00 00 125 village Refreshments: Two pubs in Goostrey, café at the Jodrell Bank Visitor Centre. Tourist Information: Knutsford 01565 632611 and Macclesfield 01625 circular 504114 This walk takes us round The path emerges from the trees and follows a line of wire to a hidden kissing gate then down some steps and the village on quiet paths over a plank bridge before reaching Mill Lane by a small and through fields with START bridge. Turn left and walk along the road, passing The Old Mill, once a water mill for grinding corn but now a distant views of the giant residence, some traces of the machinery still preserved. radio telescope of Jodrell About 300 yards on the right look out for a fingerpost and kissing gate, the sign pointing to Boothbed Lane, ½ mile. A Bank. Four miles from start faint path leads across two fields until a gate admits us to a to finish it should take boardwalk which a plaque tells us it was installed by the about two to efforts of the Goostrey Footpaths Group, an active and effective organisation whose work is evident in the area. three hours. Follow the left hand boundary hedge then through a double Words and photographs: gate to pass Swanwick Hall, a late 16th century farmhouse. The stony drive to this farm leads to the road by a children's Keith Carter play park. Turn left along this residential road, Boothbed Lane, to a crossroads where a general store, The Trading Post, can be visited if you need a soft drink or chocolate bar. Above: St Luke’s, church, Goostrey Left: Garlanded gate TART at St Luke's Church, Goostrey, leaving your Top right: Finger post car in the car park of the Red Lion pub where the Right: The old mill Slandlord welcomes walkers. The pub is practically next door to the church. The huge yew tree outside the church door is said to have provided arrows for the Cheshire bowmen who gave distinguished service at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356. Walk down Church Bank and over a small bridge to find a fingerpost in the left hand hedge indicating The Bongs 1 150 yards and Mill Lane /2mile. Walk through the tidy drive of Church Bank Cottage and through a gate giving access to a meadow. 'The Bongs' towards which you are heading is an old name for 'the banks' of a stream. Here the Red Lion Brook, a delightful rill runs through a wooded dell. Follow the right hand boundary hedge, noticing the massive holly tree. A gate leads into the wood and a clear path leads through the glades where bluebells are a lovely sight in season. A convenient seat invites you to 'sit and stare' and where better to take them at their word? 218 CHESHIRE LIFE January 2007 www.cheshirelife.co.uk www.cheshirelife.co.uk CHESHIRE LIFE January 2007 219 The name Jodrell derivers from an ancient local family, Jauderell, who in the 14th century occupied Jodrell Hall Continue in the same direction, the road becoming Turn left along the road, keeping to the verge. Luckily There is an interesting visitor centre with a shop selling Hermitage Lane where detached houses on the one side this is a quiet lane without much traffic although the bend space-themed toys and games and a café for teas and and fields on the other suggest open country lies ahead. needs care. Just beyond it, look for a stile in the left-hand refreshments. There is also an arboretum with the largest Where the houses run out, opposite a house called hedge and a fingerpost pointing to Goostrey ¾ miles. collection of malus and sorbus trees in the country, Birchwood a sign on the left points to Twemlow Green. Keep to the left hand boundary hedge to the far end of the cleverly laid out and named after the planets. Ignore the gate with a footpath sign on the right. A quiet field, the huge Jodrell Bank Radio Telescope visible ahead. At the far end of this field a stile and footbridge lead up path, thick with red campion in May and June leads along a The name Jodrell derives from an ancient local family, steps to a kissing gate where we turn left. A sign on the line of woodland then reaches an obvious junction of three Jauderell, who in the 14th century occupied Jodrell Hall, wire tells us to look for the tall post which is obvious to the paths. By turning left you can shorten your walk by making now the home of the Terra Nova Preparatory School. The left. On reaching it another sign says look for a second your way back to Goostrey village but continuing straight on, radio telescope was once the biggest in the world. It was post which is in line with the church tower and journeys the fingerpost indicates Twemlow Green. Cross a field to a established in 1956 by Professor Bernard Lovell and can end is in sight. Walk to this post and follow along a stile in the hedge then cross the next field where the farmer be seen from most parts of Cheshire including from the paddock on your right to reach the wire fence of the has left a strip of uncultivated land to prevent walkers M6 motorway. The height is 89 metres, the bowl diameter school. The path goes right then left and left again to Top: Half timbered cottage trampling his crop. An isolated stile by a telegraph pole leads is 76 metres and the bowl weighs 1,500 tonnes. A visit to circumvent the school grounds until the gravestones of the Above: War memorial us to a farm track which connects to the road opposite the the site can be made once you have finished your walk overflow churchyard appear on our right before we reach Top right: Jodrell Bank magnificent farm The Orchards, home of the Bidlea Herd of since the only way to reach it on foot from Goostrey is on the road opposite St Luke's Church. The Red Lion is just Holstein Friesian cattle. quite busy roads which walkers avoid wherever possible. along the road to the right. I 220 CHESHIRE LIFE January 2007 www.cheshirelife.co.uk www.cheshirelife.co.uk CHESHIRE LIFE January 2007 221.

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