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We met at “The Swan With Two Nicks” pub in Little Bollington. A smaller group this time, with our number reduced to eleven. Setting off along a cobbled lane past the picturesque White Cottage Tea Rooms, we passed under the canal via the Bollington Underbridge and then up steps on to the canal. There had been rain all through the car journey to Bollington, but we were greeted with sunshine as we emerged on to the towpath. Heading south, the canal curved to the right and parallelled the A56 past the Old Number Three Pub (the third watering hole between Lymm and Bowden and, supposedly, haunted). Shortly afterwards we passed under Agden Bridge which had an old crane on the far bank. We soon came to a variety of moored canal boats and motor cruisers leading to Lymm Cruising Club. After a boatyard and marina we came across another pub on the far bank. This one was called The Barn Owl and at one time there was a bell on the towpath side to ring for a ferryman to take you across. Only the stone support for the bell post remains nowadays. Just past the pub was an old warehouse, once used as a hospital for canal horses (must have had big beds!). A house on the far bank had an eccentric display of ornaments in the garden – gaudily decorated plant pots, statues of women in various states of undress and a knitted cover on a lamp post. We then came to a sign for the delightfully named, Spud Wood, which was on the far side of the canal, reached via an underbridge. Passing under Granthams Bridge we saw a canal boat with the logo of the London, Midland & Scottish Railway Co. I’d always thought the railways competed with the canals for trade, but apparently LMS owned a number of canals. The garden of a house on the far bank had some nostalgic items on display – an old phone box, a pillar pox and a mangle with a Singer sewing machine on top! It also had a mannequin of a Majorette chained to a tree and a tree stump carved into a woodpecker. The next door garden needs to up its game – it only had a dilapidated vintage car on show. On the towpath side were three cottages, the middle one had halloween decorations on the door and was appropriately named “Cobweb Cottage”. Towards the end of the towpath section of the walk, we passed a large house were Matthew Corbett lived for a time. As well as “having a hand” in Sooty from 1976 to 1998, he appeared in a 2008 TV show, “Locks and Quays” in which he travelled from the Humber to the Mersey via the Aire and Calder Navigation and – one you might have heard of – The Leeds Liverpool Canal. He currently plays guitar and sings in pubs in Lymm. We then stopped for a drinks break with a market visible in the square opposite.
Leaving the towpath, here, we walked under the canal into the centre of Lymm, a picturesque village with many old buildings, and an authentic dinosaur footprint (although the reflections on its perspex cover made it hard to make out). A couple of reprobates had been placed in the stocks at Lymm Cross, which had sundials on three of its sides and an inscription on the fourth saying it had been restored in commemoration of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897. The original dates from 1775. Releasing the miscreants, we made our way out of the village through Pepper Street and the tree lined Longbutt Lane where we scrunched our way through the fallen leaves. We followed a path through housing estates, but the hedges and trees masked the houses most of the time. A footpath then took us through fields towards St Peter’s, the Parish Church of Outrightington. We had good views here over the fields towards Manchester and the C.I.S. Tower. The next stage of the walk took us through fields, with several stiles to climb, and then along a lane on the opposite side of the canal stretch we walked earlier. Crossing the canal at Agden Bridge, we made our way through Woolstencroft Farm before crossing more fields and stiles. Then we walked through a wood, crossing a wooden bridge over a stream. After another couple of fields we reached the canal again and passed through the underbridge tunnel back to the Swan With Two Nicks. A most enjoyable walk was then complemented by a well earned meal and a few drinks. Thanks to Anne and Shirley for organising and recce-ing the walk.