40 Favourite Cheshire Walks – Vale Royal

The Need To Get Outdoors

Last week was quite an eventful week! Mostly good but some really not so good.

The not so good was that we had to say goodbye to one of our beloved kitty cats.

Something was not quite right with her. We had noticed that
she had been losing some weight over the past 4 weeks but didn’t think much of
it because she was still very happy and still got very excited about her food.
Both my cats are overweight anyway and we put her weight loss down to her being
a lot more active now that the weather has warmed up.

But then about two weeks ago we noticed that when she ate
her dry food, she was making a lot of mess and favouring one side of her mouth
when eating. So off to the vet we went.

The vet took bloods, and all was normal, but he did find
signs of dental disease. He prescribed her an anti-inflammatory and we booked
her in for a tooth extraction a week later (last week Thursday).

She seemed to be a bit happier on the anti-inflammatory medication,
but eating was still a chore. She would still come down to ask for food, but
she couldn’t eat much. She started hiding away under her chosen human’s bed (my
daughter).

Thursday arrived and off we went to the vet, hopeful that
once that troublesome tooth was out she would return to her food-loving self
and start to put on some of the weight she had lost.

Sadly, there must have been a deeper underlying problem. The
first tooth came out without a problem but the next revealed a crumbling jaw –
indicative that something more sinister was at play.

Then her heart stopped twice while under anaesthetic. They
managed to revive her both times but after the second time she was no longer
breathing for herself.

Then her heart stopped a third time. It was time to let her
go.

She has left such a big gap in our home. She has been a
family member since we arrived in the country and a beloved friend to our
daughter throughout her teenage years.

We are so very blessed that we had 12 wonderful and relatively
healthy years with her and we are going to miss her quirky behaviour and our
little conversations that she would initiate with us each evening around bed
time.

As a family we know the therapeutic benefits of getting
outdoors and closer to nature. It’s where we can go to feel God’s healing hand.
So off we went armed with our walking shoes, sunblock and a copy of Cheshire:40 Favourite Walks by John and Annie Fergusson.

Vale Royal Walk

The Royal Vale Walk is a 7km walk on paths, traches and through fields which took us roughly 2 hours 30 minutes.

We parked on under the trees on Royal Drive, opposite this lovely church in Whitegate (CW8 2BD).

As we arrived, we spotted the local primary school practicing their Maypole dancing! I have never seen this in action before, so we stopped for a while and watched them.

We then made our way back to our parked car – which was near this little house, how cute is this cottage!!!

Our walk took as along a wooded drive before leading us across the Vale Royal golf course and into a lovely golden wheat field.

It was a spectacular sight and so peaceful to be the only ones standing in the middle of all that gold! Watch a short video of our walk through the fields on my Instagram account.

We watched huge dragonflies’ flit across the heads of wheat and spotted a huge murder of crows flying overhead. I’ve never seen so many crows in one place, and I have to say that it was amazing to watch them.

We crossed and left the field, descending into the cool woods. We followed a small track which led to a clearing with a metal bridge which traversed the Weaver River.

We took a few moments to admire the peacefulness of the river and watch a swan gracefully gliding on the water.

In the distance we could year the sound of falling water, so we followed the track towards the sound. I couldn’t help but stop and snap a quick picture of this display of teasels. The butterflies love them and were very busy visiting each flower. Later in the season they will provide a welcome food source for birds such as goldfinch. It was a good reminder to plant some of these wildflowers in my own garden next year.

The thundering water turned out to be the Vale Royal Locks. The Victorian engineering evident at once. You can watch a short video of the water running over the edge of this sluice gate on my Instagram account.

The Vale Royal Lock system made the Weaver River navigable when Cheshire’s salt production was at its height in the 18th and 19th centuries. Apparently, the river was an important route for exporting salt and importing coal.

The metal bridge which crosses the river at this section has been operating since 1732. I just love all the history that we encountered along this walk! This sluice gate pictured above operated as a lock until 1861.

These larger locks were built alongside it and opened in 1889. Being deeper and wider it allowed a steam tug towing three 300-ton barges to pass through in 15 minutes.

I would have LOVED to have seen that!

We crossed the bridge and turned right, starting a 2km stretch along the river. We passed a lovely canal dwelling couple and stopped for a little chat. She was hanging up their washing. He was sitting quietly watching a flock of geese who were enjoying playing the cool water on this hot day. 

It made Victoria and I want jump in and enjoy a bit of wild swimming. Perhaps this is something to investigate – wild swimming is very popular in the UK.

We found our path flanked on either side with water. On one side we had the man-made canal, on the other the Weaver River. We spotted a heron and a duck basking in the sunshine.

We also nearly stepped on a frog who crossed our path trying to get to the water. We stopped and helped him on his way.

Soon we spotted the large tower mentioned in our book. This marks the top of a mineshaft where much of the UK’s road salt is brought to the surface – I didn’t know that we produced much of the salt used to grit our roads!

Leaving the riverbank we made our way across Bradford Wood Farm, through two small fields and back to our car.

By this time, we were hot, thirsty, hungry and exhausted. So we decided to stop by The Hollies Farm shop – our favourite place to visit – and treat ourselves to an iced vanilla latte and a burger. The perfect way to finish a lovely country walk.

This was overall an easy walk with lots to see. The book lays out the route clearly and provides a lot of information about the area which we really enjoyed. 

In fact, I would say that this book (Cheshire 40 Favourite Walks) is one of the best walking guide books we have used to date. 

There are a couple of other books in this series covering other counties. I’ve popped Lancashire and The Lakes into my Amazon basket because it looks like we are going to be needing them soon…more on that in another post!

Given how well this walk went and how enjoyable and informative it was, my daughter and I are already planning our next weekday walk from this book.