Cheshire Walk

Lucie Crouch, Gareth Williams, Roger Dyke, Dave Wylie, Sue Marsden, Christine Beeston, Neil Boynton, Margaret Baldock, Joe Dugdale, Sheena Hendrie, Philip Hartwell, Alan (L) Jones, Dave Shotton, Oi Ding Koy, Peter Walker, Iain McCallum, Callan the dog.

 

 

An excellent turn out on a beautiful sunny day for an amble in Cheshire and a walk down memory lane for one of the group. Can you work out who?

After all finding spaces on the side of the road to park due to the proposed car park being closed, we set off with a walk round Appleton reservoir, near Higher Walton. The area being where Roger grew up during the war. We then headed off towards Appleton. Roger’s brother lives there but we didn’t pop in.

Some suburban terrain led us to “the dingle” and Lumb Brook, a wooded valley. After a lunch stop and sharing of a tea loaf, we continued on to Grappenhall. As we had reached half way, a stop at the pub for a social drink was had, along with admiring the village Stocks and spotting the grinning cat that is carved on the church tower. This cat has been claimed as the inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland. Grappenhall is also famous for the place where Roger’s parents got married and lived until about 1936.

The final part of the walk was back along the canal. About age 9, Roger rescued a child from drowning and 10 years later a friend of Roger missed a corner on his motorbike and ended up in the canal. He got out ok and was known as Splash after that. We all got to see the very spot this took place!

We then ended up back at the reservoir and our cars. 8.25 miles in total.

Thank you to everyone who attended and completing the walk as one group. Thank you to Roger for the great stories which I haven’t done justice in this report for the entertainment they provided. Definitely think there should be blue plaques at each memorable place!

Lucie Williams