Visit to Worsley Old Hall & Bridgewater Canal

If you are interested please email secretary.wilmslowcivictrust@gmail.com

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On Saturday 5 July, 12 of us went on a very enjoyable trip along the Macclesfield Canal from Higher Poynton to Marple & back on the Mary Sunley canal boat, which is crewed by volunteers.

We passed several mills and went under several “up and over” bridges, marvelling at the Victorian engineering and admiring the beautiful gardens & wildlife along the canal.

The organisers had cleverly arranged a beautiful day, and also provided carrot cake & prosecco to aid the journey.

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12 of us had a most enjoyable evening visit to Stockport air raid shelters on 18 September.

 “George” (Formby?) and his young assistant “Arnold” of the ARP took us back to 1941 and gave us a guided tour of the shelters – the largest in Britain – which were cut into the rock on Great Underbank and at their peak accommodated up to 7,000 people, albeit initially with seats for only 70 and bunk beds for only about a third of the occupants. 

During the tour “George” entertained us on the ukelele with some of his namesake’s best known songs.

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10 of us had a most enjoyable visit to the Castlefield Viaduct in Manchester on 11 July.

Nature was allowed to take over after the viaduct, which is a listed structure, closed to traffic in 1979. 

Under the auspices of the National Trust, a ‘sky-garden’ has been created along the first part of the viaduct in the very heart of Roman Manchester by one paid gardener & many volunteers to encourage urban gardening. The National Trust are keen to provide open spaces in the heart of the city which are freely accessible to all.

It is planned to extend the gardens beyond the visitor centre further along the viaduct towards Salford.

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WILMSLOW CIVIC TRUST INVESTIGATES ONE OF LORD LEVERHULME'S PHILANTHROPIC VENTURES

In a post-pandemic return to their tradition of making visits to places of interest, members of Wilmslow Civic Trust travelled to Port Sunlight. The village was founded in 1888 by William Lever, as somewhere to build a new soap works and homes for his employees.

There are over 900 houses, 12 public buildings almost all listed Grade I or II set in 130 acres of parkland. What makes Port Sunlight unique is the way in which Lever's social goals and romantic ideals have been so successfully integrated into the village layout.

The many galleries in Lady Lever Art Gallery in the village house the best of Lever's collection of paintings, sculpture furniture and ceramics.

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On 27 June 11 members enjoyed an enthralling tour, guided by the owner Brian Vowles, of Biddulph Old Hall and garden which he & his late partner Nigel have restored magnificently over the 20 years since they bought it in a dilapidated state. 

The oldest part of the Hall dates back to 1450. An Elizabethan manor was added which came under heavy fire during the Civil War, causing the family, staunch Roman Catholics, to flee. There is an elaborate priest hole. The chapel later became the studio of the largely forgotten Pre Raphaelite artist Robert Bateman. 

In the 1960s the Hall was owned by a Buddhist organisation & there is an atmospheric Buddhist shrine. 

The 4.5 acre estate includes a rose garden spilling over the ruined walls of the Elizabethan manor with sweeping views across the Biddulph Valley towards Congleton.

Visit to Tabley House
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On 14 September, 14 members of the Trust enjoyed a fascinating guided tour of the Tabley House, near Knutsford and its Collection of paintings, including one of the lake by JMW Turner who stayed in the house, and some exquisite pieces of furniture.

Tabley House is Palladian, the only 18th-century Palladian country house in Cheshire. It was built between 1761 and 1769.  To the west of the house is St Peter's Church, which was moved from a position adjacent to Tabley Old Hall to its present site in 1927. The house is now owned by the University of Manchester.

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On 14 June 9 members of the Trust visited Birkenhead Park and were shown round by the manager.

The Park has been nominated as a possible UNESCO world heritage site & we could immediately see why. Designed by Joseph Paxton & laid out by his assistant Edward Kemp it was opened in 1847 and is the world's first publicly funded park. It inspired Central Park in New York and many other parks around the world.

The aim was to provide recreation for the working people of Birkenhead. Wide though some of the roads are, there are many places where the rich had to get out of their carriages to walk with everyone else!

If you haven't been a visit is strongly recommended – as is the ice cream in the visitor centre!

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18 members of Wilmslow Civic Trust enjoyed a visit to Peover Hall on Thursday 26 May.

The Tudor house was owned by the Mainwaring family until 1919. During the Second World War it became the HQ of the US General Patton & it is now the home of the Brooks family and very much lived in. There are toys, including a rocking horse, in the Long Gallery, a goal & footballs in the garden & the "gilded" panelling in one of the living rooms is in fact chocolate wrappers!

The stables, which date from 1654, have a fine plaster ceiling & are if anything even more impressive than the house.

The extensive garden includes banks of rhododendrons & azaleas which were looking their best at the time of our visit.

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On Thursday 2 August Ray Acton led members of Wilmslow Civic Trust on another fascinating walk – this time starting in Fulshaw Avenue and then continuing along Chapel Lane & Nursery Lane and back via South Lawn and past Fulshaw Bowling Club.

In 1840 there were very few houses between Fulshaw Hall, then owned by Mr Jenkins, and Lindow Moss. Mr Jenkins built the impressive row of semi-detached houses on the east side of Fulshaw Avenue but in 1911, as in 2018, there was a shortage of affordable homes in Wilmslow. Some things never seem to change.

Young’s shoe repair shop in Chapel Lane, which is about to close and be replaced by two apartments, was opened in 1908 by Mr Young who had walked all the way from Dorset to Wilmslow, and is probably the oldest shop in Wilmslow.

The plant nursery after which Nursery Lane is named was on the corner of Chapel Lane & Bourne St where a new house has recently been built.

George Fox, who later became Lord Lieutenant of Staffordshire, gave St Anne’s Church in 1876 in memory of his wife Anne (nee Cobbett). St Anne’s School opposite was built in the 1890s.

The church and several houses in Nursery Lane show off the skills of the bricklayers of the day; 9 Nursery Lane, for example, is in the Byzantine style. During the First World War 17 Belgian refugees lived at Chestnut Villa 24 Nursery Lane.

The beautiful Ivy Lea Cottage and its neighbour at the south end of Nursery Lane were built in 1848/50 and the bowling green was opened in 1864.

Morning: Mrs Gaskell’s House, 84 Plymouth Grove, Manchester M13 9LW, 0161 273 2215
Web site: www.elizabethgaskellhouse.co.uk
Suggested arrival time: 09:45
By car: M13 9LW – general parking on street max 3 hours
By train / bus: www.nationalrail.co.uk to Manchester Piccadilly > Oxford Road Stn > bus along Oxford Rd > walk.
By bus: 130 bus to Upper Brook St / Plymouth Grove

10:00 Private tour starts, fully accessible all floors
11:00 – 12:00 self guided look around / self purchase coffee etc.
12:00 Lunch served in the Servants’ Hall
13:00 (approx) leave, 10 min walk or lift to:-

Afternoon: The Pankhurst Centre, 60/62 Nelson St, Manchester M13 9WP, 0161 273 5673
Web site: www.thepankhurstcentre.org.uk
No parking, try MRI or Aquatics centre. No catering. Not fully accessible.

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A  group of  W.C.T. members went last week on an interesting trip round the Amazon warehouse   at  Manchester Airport.  The company, was founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos, who had the unshakeable conviction that the internet would become the future of shopping, and operating from his garage,  now employs 566,00 people  -  1,200 of those in  the local outlet.  Whilst the operation is streamlined and highly automated, human beings are still essential to large parts of the business, including  stacking, making up orders and packing for delivery.  If you have visualised humanoids whizzing around selecting ordered items for dispatch, then clear your mind. The robotic element can  perhaps be described as a  rectangular stack of shelves, accessible on all sides, and perched on a robotic base which  moves around the   vast floor area within a cage, open only  at  work points.  All incoming items are coded and logged and placed randomly on the shelving; when items are subsequently ordered, the process is reversed, with the set of shelves containing the required item and nearest to the picker being summoned to that workers station.

 Via a conveyor belt the order then goes forward to the packing area and  on to the labelling desk. For privacy reasons  neither pickers nor packers know the destination of the order  -  after all he could be your neighbour!  The business is a 24 hour operation, only closing for Christmas day and New Years day,  staff work ten hour shifts, four day weeks.  Surprisingly, the most popular time for placing orders is two a.m.   perhaps there is more shift working in other  ares of employment, as well as  night -  jars than we might imagine! 

For members and guests who failed to obtain a place in 2017.  Meet 50 yards into unadopted road off Knutsford Rd (by ‘The Firs) at 7pm.

Arr. 11a.m.  Refreshments  available by purchase. 

11.30: Illustrated Talk 

12.30: Lunch(soup, sandwiches, tea/coffee) 

1.30: Guided Tour – followed by time for members to look around in their own way. 

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A group of Wilmslow Civic Trust members had a thoroughly enjoyable trip into Manchester last week, to visit two historic libraries. The first visit was to the recently refurbished Central Reference Library, built in 1934, and which now, after a lengthy closure, allows much improved access to its many important and valuable holdings. The Central Ref. as it is frequently and fondly called, and its team of patient librarians, has provided the bedrock for learning and local historical research for many generations of students and academics in the Manchester area and beyond.

The Portico Library, by contrast, was founded in 1806 as a reading room and lending library - this was at a time when there was great enthusiasm for self improvement and an insatiable thirst for knowledge. Originally, the reading room was on the ground floor,( with over forty daily papers available to members,) while the lending library was on the upper floor, but until the Married Women's Property Act, was only open to men; now, due to financial constraints, the ground floor is occupied by a pub. The many illustrious members have included Dalton, Roget, Peel, Mrs Gaskell, Emmeline Pankhurst - and Eric Cantona!

Our guides at both locations were interesting and informative, and this, coupled with lunch, tea and coffee a-plenty - not forgetting the sunny weather for the walk across the town, made it an excellent outing.

New members are always welcome to join the Trust: more info

Morning visit.
Grade 1 Listed Building – Tudor Manor House and Gardens.  An amazing survivor in the city. 
Members £5, guests £7.  Lunch available (self-pay). 

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A group of Wilmslow Trust members visited an amazing 15th century relic, standing in the heart of urban Salford. Ordsall Hall, despite the best efforts of wartime bombs and  encroaching developments in the area, sits amongst offices and high rise modern  homes oblivious of modernity.  Once the seat of the Radclyffe family, who lived in the house for more than 300 years, it has variously been the home of the Victorian artist Frederic Shields, a school for clergy, a working men's club, and during WW2, a radio station. 

In 1959, after the death of the owner, the last Lord Egerton, it was purchased by Salford Council and in 1972, opened to the public. It is likely there was a house on this spot by 1251, which by 1380 had increased in size to a property with a Hall, five chambers, a kitchen and a chapel. The estate included three farms, two shippons, a granary, a dovecote and a windmill, as well as eighty six acres of land. Quite a test of the imagination to visualise this today!

In 1499 the Dutch theologian Erasmus stayed at the Hall, but was most definitely not impressed. He wrote "the floors are made of clay and are covered with layers of rushes, constantly replenished, so that the bottom layer remains for twenty years harbouring spittle, vomit, the urine of dogs and men, the dregs of beer, the remains of fish and other nameless filth".

Fortunately for visitors of today, it is much improved since that time. In 1700 the "clear waters" of the River Irwell, flowing nearby, were filled with trout, grayling and salmon, but 200 years later, in 1900,the Industrial Revolution had made irreversible changes to the area, and the surroundings were described as 'a wilderness of mean and dirty streets.' Looking back to 1666, the Hearth Tax Survey revealed Ordsall to be the largest house in Salford, with nineteen hearths to its credit; it seems it's never been cheap to stay warm!

The Hall remained occupied, although greatly dilapidated, until 1871. By 1896 it was a case of demolish or refurbish, which fortunately, Lord Egerton, by that time the owner, decided to do, employing the Manchester architect Alfred Darbyshire to carry out the work at a cost of £6,000. With the passage of time, restoration once again became an issue. Fundraising was started and by 2008 £1m had been raised. The Heritage Lottery Fund then gave £4m, which enabled a thoroughgoing restoration and refurbishment to take place, which has allowed this fascinating building to be seen, used and appreciated by present day visitors

A chance to see where the ‘Manchester Men and Women’ lived from 1860.  Short distance walk.  Group size: 16 maximum. 

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A baker’s dozen of Wilmslow Civic Trust members  recently enjoyed a nostalgic walk round Fulshaw Park, guided by local historian, Ray Acton. We were taken back two centuries, to a time of fields and smallholdings, when the properties on the corners of what is now Fulshaw Park and Fulshaw Park South were both farmhouses with stockyards and animal pens.  

The triangle of nineteenth and twentieth century villas, a few of which we can see today, was developed mostly in the second half of the nineteenth century, with the coming of the railway, and the move of the rising middle classes away from the increasingly  unpleasant and less hospitable areas of Manchester. The landowner, Mr. Jenkins of Harefield Hall, set strict conditions for the buildings on his land, both in terms of the materials used, and the layout within their ample gardens, along with the banning of any trade or manufacturing in the Park.  There was a sweetener offered to prospective residents in the shape of free first class train travel to and from Manchester for a period of twenty one years!

FulshawPark gates in all their splendour (Stockton Rd end)...about 1910

Gradually, after a century or so, many of these houses became too large for modern needs, as well as being very expensive to run; some have been demolished and replaced by flats and smaller family houses. Half a dozen homes are now sited on the footprint and grounds of what was once a single grand villa.  Gardeners’ cottages, lodges and outhouses, albeit with modifications, have become desirable houses in their own right. There are however, still  the remnants of the many fine gardens which were nurtured here, with their specimen trees, of which around one hundred and sixty have T.P.O.s on them, and fortunately, some of the original houses still stand to give us a flavour of Wilmslow in an earlier century. 

Norton Priory, Runcorn.  Guided Tour. Assemble 10.30am.
Provisional details: £5 per member, £7 per guest.  A chance to gain insights into a well- excavated monastic site(including unique gardens). 

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On a grey but dry day, sixteen members and guests mastered the Runcorn Expressway and parts of Astmoor Industrial Estate to find Tudor Road, home to Norton Priory.

The first priory was located much nearer the centre of Runcorn ‘old’ town but in 1134 the dozen or so Augustinian canons relocated to the present site.

After a coffee we met the Curator / Archaeologist who took us on a fascinating tour first to the extensive undercroft and remaining superstructure which is now enclosed by the modern museum, just as the Georgian and Victorian houses, home to the Brooke family had done.

We saw the finest Norman archway in Cheshire and the twice life size statue of St Christopher c14. Then to the two large museum halls, the upper dedicated to the evolving plan form of the Priory and later houses, shown by way of models. The lower museum showed the lifestyle of the canons and their diseases together with finds from the excavations which were started by Runcorn New Town in 1970. These include the most elaborate c13 cloister arcade and extensive tiling.

We made our own way to the external remains – chancel, choir, nave etc and the many stone coffins.

After a good lunch in the main café many visited the extensive gardens of quince trees, walnuts, kiwi, giant magnolia still flowering before a final cup of tea in the garden café.

A very enjoyable day!

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On Thursday 8 June  members of Wilmslow Civic Trust enjoyed a fascinating tour of the garden at Quarry Bank Mill with Sarah, the head gardener.

We were welcomed by Eleanor Underhill, the General Manager of the Quarry Bank Estate, who put the garden in the context of the current improvements at Quarry Bank which are costing £9.5 million. These include the restoration of the glasshouse in the upper garden, installing a passenger lift in the Mill, a new visitor centre, and opening the shop and one of the cottages in the village to the public.

We were shown the impressive new work shed and potting up area and then taken into the wonderful restored glasshouse. The hand made glass, although much more expensive than ordinary glass, eliminates reflection and the attractive panes are designed to facilitate run off of water.

It is interesting that although the Gregs were keen to be at the forefront of modern technology the heating system in the glasshouse is in fact based on the Roman hypocaust!

We saw the restored dipping pond. Not, as some people apparently think, for skinny dipping but for dipping your watering can.

Quarry Bank received a substantial gift specifically for plants for the garden. Part of this has been used for a spectacular bed of peonies and iris.

Sarah showed us Ferny Brow, a steep bank on which she and her colleagues have planted luzula below the rhododendrons to help to keep down the weeds and also stabilise the bank. She also showed us a bed in the lower garden which has recently been planted to represent the coat of arms of the Greg family.

7.45pm
Location: Wilmslow Parish Hall
Subject: Manchester Airport
Anna Russell, Head of Communications at Manchester Airport. Plans for future development.

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The first meeting of the winter season took off on October 19th, with Anna Russell, Head of Communications at Manchester Airport, giving the audience an informative update on future developments.

Since the first flights at Ringway, as it was, in 1930, through increasing traffic over the next thirty years, the airport has seen many alterations and upgrades. From around 1.5m passengers in 1997, to the 22m mark by 2007, Manchester Airport has seen steady growth and improvements. This latest development will see an investment of £1b, funded and owned by Manchester City Council, other Local Authorities, and I.F.M. an Australian pension fund.

manchester Airport

The current refurbishment comprises a transformed Terminal 2, which will be expanded by 140%; this will eventually have a direct link to a revamped Terminal 3 and is expected to increase passenger numbers from the current 25m to around 50m. 
There will be improved transfer facilities enabling direct access between aircraft and terminal, links between buildings, improved and automated baggage check in and reclaim, plus more stands and piers for aircraft. This will be alongside over fifty food and drinks outlets and a reconfiguration of the Duty Free area, so that the endless trek can be curtailed if passengers don't wish to shop!

The infrastructure around the airport will also be improved, with links to Airport City and HS2 and HS3 playing an important role in the increase in passenger numbers. The whole programme will be phased over ten years with, it is hoped, minimal disruption to passengers, airlines and the local community.

All the building will be within the current boundary, and in due course, the public will be able to respond to the proposals.

The number of jobs is projected to double from 20,000 now, to 40,000 within 30 years, and for 70 airlines to be using the facility, reaching 210 destinations. 

Impressive plans which should cement Manchester's claim to be at the centre of the Northern Powerhouse.

Refreshments and a question and answer session rounded off a very interesting evening. 

10.30am
Location: The Lion Salt Works Museum, Northwich.

Guided tour of 'The Lion Salt Works Museum' , (£8) at 11am after purchasable refreshments. Tour lasts 1-1 ½ hours. Some steps and uneven floors. Purchasable lunch around 12.45 at the Salt Barge Inn. Lunch choices and directions later to members and guests choosing this event.

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The Lion Salt works at Marston near Northwich is the last remaining open pan salt works. It closed as a works in 1986 and is now preserved as a ‘museum’ as a Grade 2 listed building.

Founded in 1894 by the Thompson family in the coal yard of the Red Lion Hotel, the same family ran it until its closure. It started with a brine shaft, tank, engine-house and one pan and one stove house. Soon the Red Lion Hotel was demolished to make way for two further pan and stove houses and two cottages were converted into the Red Lion Inn. Further pan and stove houses were added in 1954 and 1965 with over 90% of the salt being exported, largely to West Africa.

The process was simple – pump water down the borehole and back up as brine. Let the salt settle out in the pans with the application of heat via flues (similar to Pilkington hotties) from the coal and later oil fired stove house. Then skim the salt off into wooden boxes to be tipped out as blocks or crushed to a powder.

The works lost out in the BBC Restoration programme in 2004 but the Restoration Trust applied for Heritage Lottery Funding and in 2008 received £5m towards the £7m cost. The buildings and contents became scheduled as an Ancient Monument!

In 2009 Cheshire West & Chester Council acquired the site and Lottery Funding was increased to £10m. The site reopened in June 2015 and this year was named by the National Lottery as the best UK Heritage Project.

Around a dozen members and friends met for coffee in the pleasant on site café. We then had a guided tour around the extensive site ending with an environmental exhibition in the display area before having a good lunch in the Salt Barge Pub opposite. A very rewarding trip and many thanks to Keith Osborne for organizing it.

7pm
Location: Parish Hall Car Park
History Walk led by Ray Acton. Short distance; easy going. Previously unexplored areas. 14 max.

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Seventeen members, starting at the Parish Hall carpark, stood on the sites once occupied by a maypole, air raid shelters, a river ox-bow, the original road from Manchester, village garden plots later built on to become Wilmslow's second working-class housing development,the River Bollin before it was moved from near the church's west tower,a once-prestigious bowling green and a disused quarry ----- all within a few hundred yards of the carpark.

10.30am
Location: Avro Heritage Museum (Woodford)
Visit to Avro Heritage Museum (Woodford). 10.30am. Guided Tour and Vulcan Flight Deck Experience. Under £10,to be confirmed. Simple lunch options to purchase in Museum Café.

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22 members of the Trust enjoyed a fascinating tour of the new AVRO Museum at Woodford

The walls were decorated with murals of the various planes produced by the company. A picture of the Lancaster includes Vivien Leigh!

There are displays of planes - from the earliest, produced by Mr A V Roe in the disused stables of a friend in 1905 - right through to the Nimrod reconnaissance aircraft which was scrapped (literally) by the Coalition Government in 2011. 

We were told about the intrepid women who, during WW2, delivered new and repaired planes to operational sites. On one occasion, when she arrived, the lady was asked ‘Where is the pilot?’ She replied ‘I am’, but they didn’t believe her and climbed up the ladder looking for him!

We were shown how to locate an enemy submarine, had air-to air refuelling explained, and allowed into the cockpit of a Vulcan.

Many thanks to AVRO and to its enthusiastic and knowledgeable guides.

2pm
Location: Gawsworth Hall

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Private guided tour of Gawsworth Hall. 2pm. £6 pp(max 24), followed by optional tea on self-pay basis.

On a sunny afternoon, twenty members of the Trust enjoyed a fascinating tour around Gawsworth Hall. Originally built in the 15th century, the house has of course evolved over the years, to fulfil the needs of its various owners - remarkably only five families since 1480. 

We learned from Timothy Richards, Gawsworth's current owner, not only something of its long history and its role in Elizabethan politics, but that first and foremost, it has always been a family home, albeit a very fine one, rather than a stately home, which would have been built to emphasise the power and wealth of their owners.

The house is full of personal memorabilia and is evidently loved and cherished by its present incumbents.Having said that, the Fittons, residents during the reign of Elizabeth 1st and parents of Mary, maid of honour to the Queen, made vast improvements to the estate in the hope and expectation of a Royal visit. Unfortunately, the Fitton fortunes were reversed, when Mary was sent home from court pregnant and in disgrace; the upshot being no Royal visit, but a legacy for subsequent generations of a very fine garden, lakes and parkland.

The enjoyable afternoon was rounded off by a visit to the tearoom, with the scent of new-mown grass in the air, as preparations were being made for this seasons series of theatrical and musical productions which take place in the gardens.

2.00pm
Tour of the Whitworth Art Gallery

A chance to view the gallery after its recent £15m refurbishment and extension. The tour lasts 2 hours, with many opportunities to view both the new structure and layout as well as learn about specific exhibits. The Whitworth Gallery is on Oxford Rd, Manchester opposite the Royal Infirmary. A number of buses run from Piccadilly Gardens. Full details will be sent to those reserving a place. The gallery has a café for refreshments before/after the tour.

A good opportunity to view this 175 yearr old brewery at work. We start with coffee at 10.45 and begin the guided tour at 11.30 – sampling included! At the end is the option to stay on for a buffet lunch (sandwiches, wraps, chips, salad). Please note there is no lift but 50 steps and a spiral staircase in this historic building. Tour: £9.95. Optional buffet £7.00 Full details, including directions, will be sent to those reserving a place.

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About fifteen members and friends were treated to an excellent tour of Robinson's Brewery in Stockport. We were shown both the old brewery, with its copper vats, and the recently installed state of the art, energy efficient, brew house.

Our guide, Graham, took us through the processes from the water, barley coming in, being crushed, heated etc, in huge vats, followed by the addition of malt, hops and yeast.

After fermentation, the beer looked and tasted delicious, and it would have been churlish of us not to sample a few of the many different beers, including Dizzy Blonde, Twisted Sister and Trooper! 

For more details about Robinson's Brewery, and a more accurate account of the brewing process, please see www.robinsonsbrewery.com

7.00pm
Guided Walk on Lindow Common
Ranger Paul Hughes will lead a walk to indicate the major developments covered in his talk to the Trust in March. Meet at the car park across Racecourse Road from the Boddington Arms. Good footwear and coats as well as cameras and binoculars.

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Thanks to Cheshire East Ranger, Paul, for a fascinating guided walk round Lindow Common. We learnt just a tiny fragment of the way the Common is managed to support so many plants birds bugs and beasties, many of them rare.

With Cheshire East Ranger, Paul

Mondays: 4th August and 11 August 2014, 7.15pm

Walk along Wilmslow Town Trail

Because of the popularity of this walk we have had to add a second date which is 11 August as you can see above. It is proposed that the first 12 who applied by date order will be able to go on the 4 August and the remainder on the 11 August. I will let you know separately how the allocation works out. There may be some room for trading between the two dates if the allocation is not convenient.

Arrangements
On both dates the walks start at 7.15pm from the car park by Wilmslow library. The walk takes about one and a half hours with frequent stops at places of interest. Stout shoes and appropriate weather proof clothing should be worn.

9.55am
Tour of Waters Headquarters
We regret that guests and members of the public are not able to join this visit.

Location
I am sure nearly everyone knows the location of this building on the outskirts of Wilmslow on the Altrincham Road. At the roundabout at the Waters entrance turn in down to a barrier where you will have to stop and press the intercom for reception to gain admittance. Say that you are with the Wilmslow Civic Trust visit. On admittance bear left to the visitor car park.

Arrangements
Enter the reception and advise that you are with the Wilmslow Civic Trust. Each person will have to sign in and be given a visitor badge to wear. We will then be taken to the John Dalton room on the first floor for coffee and tea and an introduction to Waters.
We are a very large group of 40 so we will be divided into two groups for the tour of the premises and if the weather permits the sunken garden.

Transport
There is limited parking so maximum car sharing would be helpful. I can act as an intermediary if people advise me whether they would like a lift or can give one.

Lunch at the Honey Bee
I have arranged lunch at the Honey Bee for those who have said they would like this.

1.45pm
Nether Alderley Mill and Church

Location

The mill as most of you may know is in Nether Alderley on the A34 from Alderley Edge to Congleton. St Marys Church is at the end of the lane just across from the mill.

Arrangements

The whole of our group of 17 will start the visit at the mill at 1.45pm. There is a charge at the mill for non National Trust members of £5.50. National Trust members should ensure they have their membership cards with them. Following the visit to the mill we will cross the road to the Church where tea will be available in the Parish Hall next to the church. We will then have a talk and tour of the church. The afternoon should conclude at about 4.30pm.

Transport

There is limited parking at the mill and the church so car sharing would be very helpful. I am happy to act as an intermediary if people advise me if they can give a lift or would like a lift. I would suggest that parking at the mill is for people who feel less able to walk to the church afterwards enabling them to be driven across. An option for some people is to park at the Church and walk back to the mill.

Please take great care crossing the road whether walking or driving since it is a very busy road. Also when leaving the church take great care joining the A34 where there is reduced visibility to the right.