A local documentary produced by Cheshire County Council (as it was then) which aimed to show some of the best routes to explore the countryside across Cheshire by bike, including a look at the Ellesmere Port Boat Museum (now the National Waterways Museum).
I do not own this content.
[Music] [Music] hello and welcome to Cheshire i’m Ian Copak and my name is Julie Molyneu and over the next few days we’ll be exploring some fascinating parts of Cheshire on our bikes we’re going to ride along some of the Cheshire cycle way and other routes on the National Cycle Network in the 1980s a charity called Sustrans was formed and they had the brilliant idea to create a huge network of cycle routes across the whole of the UK the first bit of this ambitious project was to build a path all the way from Bristol to Bath along a disused railway line local authorities together with Sustrans have made the network happen and now there are almost 12,000 miles of routes and about 800 of those miles are in Cheshire we’re starting here on the border of Cheshure and Shropshire near to Wit Church at the bottom of the hill ian and I will go our separate ways on the Cheshire cycle way you ready to go Ian hold on a minute we just better check the bike have you got everything yep I have your pump pump punch repair kit yes map yes and I’ve got some provisions as well lovely okay off we go cycling is great fun but it’s common sense to make it as safe as possible always wear a helmet and ensure it’s comfortable and fits correctly there’s a wide variety of styles and colors available wear something bright or reflective so that you can easily be seen get a bell as it’s useful to let people know that you’re coming it’s also essential to have all the bits and pieces to mend a puncher along the way we’ll be following cycle routes which have numbered signs red indicates national cycle routes and the blue indicates local cycle routes [Music] i’m following Route 70 and I’m following Route 45 a National Cycle Network route which one day will go all the way from Chester to Salsbury the routes across Cheshire are like a spider’s web and we’ll be exploring the west and the east before meeting up again i’m constantly fascinated by the churches of Cheshure this one is in Malpus and it’s a comparatively small market town but it’s got this most magnificent church built in the last half of the 14th century the skill the energy and the zeal of the medieval craftsman is truly amazing [Music] there are many specialist companies that organize cycling holidays making it easy to travel from place to place i met up with some friends here in Malpus that have done exactly that hi guys was the food good in here yeah it’s great nice might try it myself where are you off to we’re just off to Bumbry for the night for the night you’re traveling light no we’re on a short sagna holiday company carry all our luggage from place to place that sounds pretty easy to me i might try it myself one day have a good day thank you take care bye bye this is Streton Watermill there has been a mill on this site since 1351 parts of today’s mill date back to 1630 and the original oak frame can still be seen inside in 1852 the original waterhe was replaced by a cast iron wheel and continued in use until 1959 when the last miller retired [Music] from Streathton Watermill we passed through the delightful village of Burwoodsley on route to Beaston Castle [Music] if it was 1225 that’s the year not the time I’d be standing here and watching the latest of modern castles being built on the Mid Cheshire Sandstone Ridge and for even better views you can walk on the nearby Sandstone Trail [Music] we started our journey near a canal and I’m going to follow this one all the way to Elmere Port where it ends but I’ve got a few more miles to do yet fortunately it’s mostly flat and easy going from here on it’s important to remember that lots of people use a toe path and they can be a bit narrow in places do slow down and use your bell to let people know you’re there i’ve now taken a short detour off route to visit a different country i’ve just crossed the border into Wales on Route 5 some of the routes which make up the National Cycle Network really do cover long distances route 5 goes all the way from Reading to Banga i’m now on route 56 of the National Cycle Network and it runs all the way from Chester to Liverpool and if I’m not mistaken that’s the roar of a lion and as a bird watcher I’m sure that that’s a touan it’s a crossing for bikes and people called a tukan crossing busy roads is made a lot safer and easier by using a touan or a puffing crossing just press the button and wait for the signal to cross following the Strops Union Canal eventually brings me to the Ellirre Port Boat Museum here I’m going to catch up with Jim Mchuan the boat and engineering manager hi Jim hi hi um canals seem to be a really important part of the Cheshire landscape why why were they so important they’re basically an important part of the landscape because they’re the motorways of the 18th and 19th century they carried all the sort of goods that you see on roads today they carried the bulk of the nation’s goods um finished products and also people did certain canal boats carry certain products not really no some boats were built specially for particular trades but vast majority of boats just carried anything that happened to be available whatever cargo was available what sort of things did this boat carry this one used to carry chocolate crumb at one stage of its life and it also carried coal and sort of general goods uh metals uh tin goods i hope they washed it out in between they did indeed wash them out in between they scrubbed them to within an inch of their lives at times you can cycle along lots of toe paths alongside the canals although not all of them are surfaced as well as the stretches that we’ve been using it’s worth getting a free permit from British Waterways and some helpful information so you know what to expect the pace of life on canals seems very peaceful and more and more people are using them for fishing walking and cycling the big daddy of the canal system has to be the Manchester Ship Canal here it is just outside the museum known by locals as the big ditch built in 1894 it turned Manchester from a landlocked city into a major port and of course mill owners from Manchester could bypass Liverpool’s control it’s still used today but many of the ships only go as far as the Stanlo oil refinery the building of the Manchester Ship Canal has helped to create this area of farmland known as Fraud and Marshes it’s surrounded by industry and yet it’s a haven for wildlife so often nature takes good advantage of any chunk of countryside it can find i’m continuing on my journey along Route 5 away from the eststerie and back in land waterways will still be a big feature of the landscape but now we meet the Weber navigation [Music] from here I’ll be traveling northeast through the picturesque villages of Budworth and Rosn to Tatan Park [Music] now Tatan Park is one of the many jewels in the crown of Cheshire and if you’re a cyclist you get in for free [Music] the mansion was built in 1774 during the industrial revolution jane Austin Wdsworth Nelson were all alive at the time and Captain Cook was sailing towards Antarctica looking for the southern continent you could spend the whole day at town cycling around the park visiting the lovely shop and just taking in the splendor of the place there’s lots of events at the park throughout the year lots for children to do and see on the 200 acre estate and in the cellar there’s even a railway line to carry the coal every home should have one tatan Park is a great place to have a drink or something to eat i think I’ll take a break here whilst we catch up with Julie [Music] i’ve arrived at the pretty village of Wordland this is where Route 75 and Route 70 meet route 75 comes from Market Drayton which is in Shropshire and runs up to Nantich the Shropshire Union Canal passes by the village of Ordlam with its famous flight of 15 locks this takes the canal up 93 ft from the Cheshire plane to the Shropshire plane recently Ordland won the Cheshure Village of the Year award it’s easy to see why because it’s so picturesque the village is very rural and in the days of the horse and cart it must have seemed a very remote place to live if you are ever passing by the church look out for the bear stone this is where the bear was actually chained well this looks an interesting cafe and it’s got a cyclist welcome sticker in the window so I think I’ll go in and have a cup of tea you may see lots of these stickers in cafes pubs tea shops or bed and breakfasts around the county it means that the proprietors have signed up to the scheme to welcome cyclists [Music] this is the village of Bartumley and it’s not far from all saga even though I live quite close to here I still find it breathtakingly beautiful every time I visit here the village itself is named after an 8th century saint and it’s got a thousand-year-old church here [Music] all over Cheshire there are disused railway lines like this one which are brilliant traffic-f free routes for horse riders cyclists and walkers and this is one of them this is the salt line and it runs from all stage to Hassel Green near Sandbach and you can do a circular walk along it and returned via the Trent Mury Canal this was a branch line of the North Staffordshire Railway and was originally built to carry freight for the chemical industries which grew up around the local brine springs we’re not far from crew here it’s still one of the major railway junctions in the country taking you here there and everywhere day and night taking your bike on a train is easy and it gives you lots of options for places to visit check with your train operator when booking your ticket to ensure that they have space for your bike i’ve diverted off Route 70 to come to Sandbach and it’s market day this market is brilliant if you want to buy some local produce can you tell me what local produce you’ve got on sale today yes all the vegetables they’re all around grown and tomatoes lettuce and all Cheshire grown apples [Music] as well as fruit and vegetables Cheshire is well known for its dairy products like cheese and ice cream there’s nothing better than the taste of locally produced fair using traditional methods there are three sorts of chesher cheese blue cheshure white cheshure and red cheshure it’s actually the oldest of the English cheeses and it takes 6 to 12 months to mature in addition to the market Sambbach has a wealth of history that centers around the two 9th century stone crosses they are decorated on all faces with carved figures animals and vine scrolls the stones were taken from their original site and broken up the fragments were eventually restored to their present site in 1816 [Music] cheshure is bursting with history but here at Jud Bank they are looking at astronomical numbers stars that were created billions of years ago it really is at the cutting edge of technology it’s ironic that something so modern is used to look so far into the past i certainly won’t be traveling at the speed of light on the next part of my journey we’ve left the Cheshire plane now and the cycling gets a bit tougher mountain biking can be very challenging you need the right sort of bike and the right gears to tackle some of these hills and of course very good brakes on the way down if you are unsure about your bike and what it is capable of why not pop into your local bike shop and ask their advice this is Lameal Reservoir and it provides the drinking water for Macklesfield this is probably the toughest part of the route now so I think I’ll stop and have a drink first before the next hill [Music] right onward [Music] this unusual looking monument is called White Nancy and it sits on Kidge Ridge there are lots of lovely villages around here such as Wild Borluff Langley and Bolington which takes its name from the river Bolin rivers and canals are really important to the landscape of Cheshire and I’m standing next to the Bolin which actually runs under runway 2 at Manchester airport [Music] hi Julie how are you hi it’s great to see you again how was it fine it was brilliant i had a great ride oh did you i did it was fantastic between us we’ve cycled right round the county and we’ve met up here at Northwitch Community Woodlands we’re going to cycle down to Nantich together but first we’re going to meet one of the rangers of the site here should we go and find him yes let’s Hi Dave hi Dave how are you how we doing it’s nice to see you this is a beautiful area it looks great for wildlife and there’s industry quite close by could you tell us a little bit about it we’re stood here right next to Cardan Ferry Bridge and we’re only about a mile away from North Witch Town Center and we’re right in the midst of North Witch Community Woodlands it’s about a thousand acres and we’ve got 20 miles of footpath seven of which is suitable for horses and of course you can cycle around the vast majority of it i thought industry would be bad for wildlife well actually it’s just the opposite here we’ve got the chemical industry behind us and they’ve been tipping lime waste on here up until about the the 1930s and the plants actually thrive on it so we’ve got some lovely flowers that grow here such as fragrant orchid and marsh orchids and throughout the rest of the woodlands of course we’ve got some marvelous woodlands and wonderful meadows well Ian come on we better go we’ve got to get to Nanich so we’ll have to go now Dave okay see you again see you soon bye bye we are now on the final part of our journey which takes us down to Nantich nanich is most famous for its salt and its tudtor buildings most of which were rebuilt following one of the town’s biggest catastrophes the great fire of Nantich in 1583 burned for 20 days and it destroyed most of the town four bears in the bear pit were released for their own safety but it hampered the firefighting somewhat the town was very important in those days as a major salt producer and trading center so Queen Elizabeth I donated £1,000 towards the town’s rebuilding this means that what we see today are fine examples of genuine TUDA buildings not the mock TUDA buildings built by the Victorians here we have the real thing here we are in the bookshop cafe now you can ask to visit the roost pace and see the tuda timber frame construction it’s an interesting and a spooky experience of course they also sell books here there’s plenty of books on walking and cycling in Cheshire and this little book is really excellent with plenty of additional information there’s more than just the buildings to see here too and this church here in Nanich is often called the Cathedral of South Cheshire owing to its unique octagonal tower let’s go inside and have a look around [Music] here we are inside the church and here he is the green man now he was carved here because a wood was felled to create a sight for the church and this little fella appeases the god of trees maybe that’s where the saying touch wood comes from [Music] julie and I are at the end of our journey now and I think it’s time for a well-earned rest and a bite to eat there you go gosh that looks delicious Ian i’m starving me too we’ve covered quite a few miles on our ride around Cheshire the National Cycle Network really has opened up the countryside the routes are all way marked but we did find if you wanted to visit local attractions you needed a map as well yes the county of Cheshire is a wonderful county for cycling around and I think you see far more cycling around it on your bike than you would do if you were just riding around it in the car i was quite surprised the number of hills you had on your bit though cheshure is surprisingly hilly in fact the further east you go the hillier it gets it’s the Penine Foothills but when you climb up to the top of these little hills the views are absolutely tremendous particularly over the Cheshire plane and I was really taken back by the beautiful churches i’d be merily cycling along into some quiet unspoiled village and there’d be a wonderful church with amazing history yes there were little churches dotted around in the hills as well well we do hope you’ve enjoyed our cycle tour of Cheshire we’ve really enjoyed it exploring the country lanes and discovering some beautiful villages and we hope it will encourage you to get out and go cycling too so bye for now [Music]