After doing Parkrun at Platt Fields Park in the morning, Jenny and I stopped off at The Eighth Day Café on Oxford Road for a late breakfast (jolly good it was too!). Jenny was going to her parents’ in Chester later in the day, so I was to be at a loose end for the weekend. I get pretty bored when I’m at home alone, so like a good lap-dog, I decided to follow Jenny to Chester – on my bike! I picked up some supplies from the Eighth Day Health Food Shop – a packet of cranberries, two cartons of flavoured soya milk and a bar of Organica ‘Seriously Organic’ dark soya chocolate with cranberries.
With Jenny on her way (on the train), my first port of call was the City ticket office, to pick up some tickets for the FA Cup 4th round game away at Notts County.
Outside the Ticket Office and the North Stand at the City of Manchester Stadium
Job done, I set my GPS watch and set off…
Route from Manchester to Chester
My route took me down Alan Turing Way to Longsight, and from there down Birchfields Road and along Moseley Road to Fallowfield. At this point I was considering jumping on the Fallowfield Loop for a while, heading around to Chorlton and south from there, however I decided to stay on the roads and head south down Wilmslow Road and then Palatine Road.
Wythenshawe Park
I took a ride through Wythenshawe Park (and had a munch on some cranberries!) to get to Altrincham Road, and from there I headed down to the roundabout with Shaftesbury Avenue. Normally I would go down Shaftesbury Avenue to get to Altrincham, but since I wasn’t in any particular rush and I have always wondered where it went to, I decided to go for a mystery tour down Brooks Drive.
Brooks Drive
Brooks Drive is arrow-straight and goes on for something like three miles. As far as cycling is concerned, it could be a little bit better – it’s a bridleway rather than a cycle path, so much of it is dirt track. This means it’s a little muddy in places, though nothing that’s going to leave you or your bike totally filthy. One easy improvement that could be made would be to introduce some dropped kerbs at the various intersections with other roads – I’m sure this would improve accessibility for all manner of users.
Please Do Not Empty Your Dog Here - Love It!
It turns out the Brooks Drive brings you out somewhere near Manchester Airport, which presents a little bit of a barrier for heading south, so I headed west along the ‘Manchester Airport Orbital Cycleway’, which was in reality a pavement which has been designated as shared use. I saw some black rabbits, which seemed totally non-plussed by traffic flashing by a metre or so away from them at 40mph, however one of them started to bolt when I pulled over on my bike to take a photo! I only had my 35mm lens on me, so the picture isn’t up to much!
Black Rabbits near the Airport
From the cycleway I was dumped out at Junction 6 of the M56, so I decided to cut my losses on my little adventure and headed into Hale Barns and more familiar territory. After inexpertly navigating through suburbia for a couple of minutes, I ended up on Ashley Road and on my way to the Cheshire Cycleway (Sustrans Route 70).
The Cheshire Cycleway is a pretty neat way of getting from Manchester to Chester, while minimising the use of major roads. The section I would be following, from Ashley to Chester, is all on road, but these are generally quiet country lanes rather than major roads. I say generally because there are a few crossings of major roads – the very busy A556 at Bucklow Hill isn’t a problem, because the junction is traffic light controlled, however there is a staggered junction at Little Leigh which requires a short (50 metres-ish) ride and right turn on the A553 Runcorn Road. A few kilometres after this, you need to cross the River Weaver; this requires about 250 metres on the A49 Warrington Road, which is quite narrow over the swing bridge itself and also calls for a right turn. However, in both cases, you have the option to use the ‘shared use’ path rather than the road and cross on foot.
There are one or two steep sections on the route, however these are all very short and the maximum gradient is about 10% – nothing that cannot be overcome with a short spell in the granny gear!
The scenery is jolly pleasant throughout once you’re on the cycleway. It’s mostly rural, lots of fields with sheep, cows and plenty of horses (this is Cheshire, after all!).
How big do you want your horse? Sizes to suit all tastes!
There’s a section which passes through Delamere Forest, which adds a bit of variety from the fields – I don’t have a picture of that though. Instead, take a look at some geese!
Geese next to The Maypole pub in Acton Bridge
There are also quite a few interesting villages on the route, complete with pubs if you want a rest and a bite to eat. Picturesque Great Budworth is probably the ‘jewel in the crown’ in terms of interestingness.
St. Mary's and All Saints Church, Great Budworth
There’s also Norley Village Hall, built in 1874, which still bears the name ‘Temperance Hall’, though ironically these days there’s a sign next to it advertising the presence of the ‘Tiger’s Head’ pub 500 yards away!
Norley Village Hall
One of the great things about cycling is the ability to quickly pull over and stop when you see something of interest, or just to take in a view. For any railway geeks amongst you, here’s a pretty rare sight – a Class 220 Voyager train on the mid-Cheshire line between Mouldsworth and Delamere:
Class 220 'Voyager' train on the mid-Cheshire Line near Delamere
The Cheshire Cycleway heads off towards Ellesmere Port a couple of miles outside Chester, at Mickle Trafford. However, a recent and very welcome development is a traffic-free path which goes from Greenway (which is right next to Mickle Trafford and signposted) straight into Chester city centre, which follows the path of a disused railway line (and is therefore pretty much flat for four miles). The path is a decent width (you can easily get past pedestrians or cycle three-abreast) and the surface is excellent – cycling is a breeze on it!
Greenway to Chester Cycle Path
All in all, given the detour down Brooks Lane it took me about five hours to get from Manchester to Chester, and four hours to get back. I’ve done it a bit faster in the past, however I’ve been off the bike for a while so I was taking it quite easy!
If you want to try it ‘one way’, I’d recommend going from the Chester end, because that way you are likely to benefit from the prevailing wind. Also, if you’re looking to do a shorter section of the route (e.g. avoiding the crappy bits like getting back into Manchester city centre – I couldn’t blame anyone for that!), the mid-Cheshire line is never more than a few miles away. Services run every hour except on Sundays, where they are once every two hours. If you do want to avoid the ride up Washway Road, catching the train from Hale or Altrincham will be cheaper than catching it from Ashley, as the latter lies outside the GMPTE boundary (don’t bother trying to get on the tram with your bike – unfortunately they don’t want your business).
For more information on the Cheshire Cycleway, a useful site to visit is http://www.cheshirecycleway.co.uk/.