Cheshire woodland walk: Kingsley and the River Weaver

This month we’re exploring a quiet stretch of the River Weaver, and an adjacent woodland reserve run by the Cheshire Wildlife Trust, starting from the tangled knot of streets that make up the village of Kingsley.

The village, the ‘King’s meadow’, is mentioned in Domesday as part of the mighty forest of Mara and Mondrum, of which a mere fragment survives today as nearby Delamere Forest.

The Domesday account mentions fisheries, presumably on the River Weaver, though the village has also had at least two watermills on the stream known locally as the Knabb, followed briefly but memorably at the end of this walk.

The Church of St John the Evangelist, built by the Commissioners to a design of George Gilbert Scott. Image: David Dunford Kingsley was originally part of Frodsham parish but was split off into a new ecclesiastical parish after the construction of St John the Evangelist’s Church in 1849–50, to a design by George Gilbert Scott. The church was a ‘Commissioners’ church’, a movement set up to build new churches to serve the growing population as the Industrial Revolution gathered pace in the 19th century, and also to give thanks for victory over Napoleon at Waterloo.

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Warburton’s Wood, and the adjacent Hunter’s Wood, are maintained by Cheshire Wildlife Trust. The former consists of semi-ancient woodland alongside a couple of steep cloughs carrying streams down to the Weaver, whereas the latter is a relatively new piece of woodland, originally planted on what was rough pasture in 1999. Alongside prolific bluebells and wood anemones, scarce plants found here include Torminalis glaberrima, the wild service tree. The name is nothing to do with servitude or usefulness, but rather is cognate with the Spanish cerveza: the fruits of the tree were once used to flavour beer.

THE WALK

1. From the Co-op and post office, follow the B5153 left, away from the Horseshoe Garage and past the Concept hairdressing salon. Continue past the end of Westbrook Road to the lych gate at the entrance to St John the Evangelist’s Church, where you turn right into Pike Lane. Keep left at the junctions with Paddock View and Swallow Close.

2. After a quarter of a mile, just beyond the brick buildings of Pike Nook Farm, turn right over a stile into a field. Descend to a stile and footbridge and climb the steep, wooded bank beyond the stream (full of pungent wild garlic when I reconnoitred this walk in March). The definitive line of the footpath shown on the map crosses the next field diagonally to the right-hand hedge, but there was no sign of it on the ground; the de facto line seems to be around the field edge to the right, above the wooded valley and then bearing left along a side-stream. Look out for a footbridge over this side valley, which you cross and climb to a stile into the next field. Bear left to a dilapidated stile (easily bypassed, fortunately) at the end of a hedge. Follow the fence beyond to a gate into the drive to Belleair Farm.

3. Turn right and walk down towards the farm buildings. Follow the drive to the left, then take a path on the left across a field to a kissing gate in the hedge. Cross the field beyond, past a telegraph pole, to another kissing gate just left of an old pond. In the next field, head left of the very highest ground to descend to a kissing gate into another farm lane. Cross straight over and follow the farm track beyond, which curves right to meet the River Weaver.

4. Turn right, upstream, and follow the river past a series of low sandstone cliffs on the far bank. Level with Catton Hall, leave the track through a kissing gate on the left onto a footpath. This path, narrow in places and with mildly discomfiting drops to the water at times, winds along the wooded riverbank over boardwalks and footbridges for a little under half a mile.

Weaving its magic: a wide bend on the River Weaver. Image: David Dunford 5. After a kissing gate and just before a footbridge where the path emerges from the wood into a field, by a wide bend in the river, turn sharp right, still within the trees. Climb a slightly sunken way to a wooden gate into the Warburton’s Wood reserve. Follow the path above a side valley on your left to a grassy area. Follow the path left, passing the end of a path on the left that has had to be closed because of ash dieback, and then an information panel for the reserve. Ignore the first path through the poplar plantation on your left, but take the second, passing a pond. (Note that the current OS mapping pre-dates much of the planting in this area, so what looks like fields on the map is now wooded.) Beyond another pond at the other side of the poplars, turn right to a stile and follow a permissive path past a third pond and along the hedge to a stile into a metalled driveway.

Guide to the wildlife of Warburton's Wood. David Dunford 6. Turn left along the road and after 300m, just after a right-hand bend, turn left through a kissing gate into the fields. Cross to a gate opposite, then follow the hedge on your right to a third kissing gate. Follow the left-hand hedge to a fourth then walk either side of the hedge ahead (the formal right of way is to the left). Cross a small stream via a bridge of stone slabs and continue to yet another kissing gate. Ignoring a dog-walkers’ path to the left, cross the field straight ahead to a gate into a hedged path. Beyond a row of cottages you reach the B5153.

7. Turn left then right into Chapel Lane. Turn immediately right and follow a delightful paved path along the fast-flowing Knabb stream on the right. This emerges all too soon into a road, where you turn right and left along Brookside. When you reach the Red Bull, cross the road and turn right back up to the B-road, where you turn left to return to your starting point.

COMPASS POINTS

Area of walk: Kingsley near Frodsham

Start point: Kingsley Co-op WA6 8EF

Distance: 4½ miles

Time to allow: 2–3 hours

Map: OS Explorer 267 Northwich & Delamere Forest

Refreshments: Red Bull, Kingsley redbullkingsley.co.uk

Practicalities: Free parking at Kingsley Community Centre WA6 8ED. Several stiles and a couple of short, steep slopes. Field paths may be muddy after rain. Kingsley village is served by the two-hourly 48 Frodsham–Northwich bus.

Good food and good fun on tap at the Red Bull, Kingsley. Image: David Dunford WATERING HOLE

Dubliner Ciaran Kelly and his partner Terry Clynes have been the proprietors of the Red Bull in Kingsley for nine years now, as well as running an equestrian business.

Their friendly village pub is housed in an attractive red-brick and half-timbered building on a quiet back road above the Knabb stream, with a patio garden to the rear and some picnic tables on the cobbled area out front. Dogs are welcome throughout and, while you’d hope it wouldn’t be needed in May, there is an open fire inside. The car park is fairly small, but Ciaran said he didn’t object to people leaving cars there during the day so long as they popped in for a drink or a bite to eat after their walk. The pub opens at 4pm each weekday (apart from Mondays) and from 2pm at weekends, with good home-cooked food served between 6pm and 9pm (or earlier for groups by prior arrangement).

Although Ciaran did tell me that the food offering was due an update, tempting mains that caught my eye on the current menu included lamb shank with mint and rosemary gravy, Thai cod and prawn fishcakes, sweet potato, spinach and butter bean stew and a courgette, pepper and mushroom lasagne.

Weetwood Best bitter is the regular hand-pulled ale in this free house – and very tasty it was too – with a second rotating guest beer usually also on offer.

Board games and darts are available and there are occasional pub games nights and quizzes. I’m disappointed to have missed the grand weigh-in of the spud growing competition back in September, and the St Patrick’s Day celebrations are said to be legendary. It certainly seems they know how to enjoy the craic at the Red Bull.