If you've spent any time on the canals, you'll know there's
often a railway running nearby. They were built to carry the
same goods. The canals were moving, but much
faster, and they often contributed to the decline in
the canals because once trade was gone, their purpose was
gone. But just occasionally, the canal
outlived the railway. The Macclesfield Canal, for
example, is still here, but the Macclesfield, Bollington and
Marple Railway is long gone. It's now a popular footpath and
cycle path, and it's what we'll be exploring on this episode of
the Water Rd. The Middlewood Way, as the old
railway route is now known, is just a stone's throw from the
Macclesfield Canal for long stretches between Bollington and
Marple, and there are loads of links between the two.
So you can walk part of the towpath, then use a footpath or
lane to get to Middlewood Way, walk part of that and make a
loop back again. It's amazing that at the same
time as having wide reaching views across to Manchester from
the Littlewood Way, you can also hear the most amazing selection
of birds. Just in the last few seconds
I've heard a Wren, a Robin, a chiff chaff, a chaff inch, and
the distinctive tapping of a Greater Spotted Woodpecker.
So I'm on Middlewood Way and I'm with Ed Pilkington and you're
one of the Rangers from Cheshire East Council who looks after it.
But of course it's really peaceful and quiet here now.
But it wasn't always like that, because this used to be a.
Railway, yes, I'll say it was a railway from 18, 69 to 1970, so
just over 100 years. And what?
Were they transporting on the railway mostly?
It was set up for the collieries, for the coal and
also for the cotton mills. So the industrialists at the
time, they lobbied Parliament so that they could get the railway
on here. I mean, that's the sort of thing
that the canal would have been carrying, but the railway would
have been much quicker. Yeah, well, funnily enough, the
canals, I think it was one of the last canals that was ever
built and that was built in. It was open in 1830 and then
you're looking at just under 40 years later before the railway
came into existence and I think there was talk that the canal
was planned to actually be a railway.
It was built so late on, so got it nice and level.
There's not many locks in there until you get to Bosley and to
Marple, so it's a good straight run through.
So when they were building the railway then that obviously the
canal was already there. And if we look at Bollington,
the canal is on a massive, great embankment.
Yeah, but the railway came through on a viaduct.
So why was that? What it was, the embankment was
built up for the canal which created a sort of wind block and
in the park in between the the viaduct and the canal there was
a swampy area. And to get the canal embankment
set up they had to divert the river, the River Dean and they
diverted that through the rock strata.
So they canalised that and then when they looked to build the
railway line, they were thinking it would be nice and cheap to
build an embankment. But unfortunately, the local
Board of Health said that that wouldn't be good for people's
health because of this swamp that was there, this marshy area
which back in the time had mosquitoes, which would be
carrying different diseases which we're now immune to.
So they stated that they had to build a viaduct so it could
flush the air through that area and keep it clean and hygienic,
I suppose. Really.
Yeah. And it's the most amazing
viaduct and it must have been such a transformation for
Bollington because it had already had that embankment
driven right through the middle of town and then a railway comes
through as well. Yes, Yeah, that's it.
It's a beautiful viaduct, you know, it's local carriage
sandstone, so it looks absolutely beautiful through
there. I think there's 26 arches in
total there. And now we look back and we
think, oh, we're lucky to have that because the view from it up
into the hill, something to speak, disrupt the white Nancy
and through Ballington itself are just absolutely spectacular.
So it's it's lovely to have that to walk along.
The railway closed in the 1970s. Yes.
And then it was left just derelict for a while.
Left derelict, it was reopened as the walkway cycle way for
horse riders in 1985. So it was May 1985 when it was
reopened again and it was opened up by David Bellamy.
Oh, well, that that was fantastic.
But yeah, it must have lain redundant for probably less than
15 years because it was taking them a couple of years
contractors to build it, put fencing in and do the surfacing
work, build steps so that people could get up onto the top paths
and things like that. So probably about 13 years it
lay lay redundant. And I gather that when they were
putting the plans together to turn it into the cycle path,
that they actually wanted to knock the viaduct down.
Yes, there's talk of knocking viaduct down, but luckily the
local residents of Bonington, they got reports in to just make
sure that it was structurally sound.
I think that's what happened and then it was kept, which is
fantastic. So today it's an amazingly well
used path, isn't it? I mean, there are cyclists,
there are runners, there are walkers, there are horses as.
Well, yes, that's it. We get all the different user
groups coming on. So yeah, like you say, the horse
riders, walkers, cyclists coming along here and we get about half
a million visitors. One of the things I like about
it most is that there are so many access points you can get
on and off Middlewood Way in literally dozens of places,
can't you? And then there are little paths
or lanes that lead up to the canal, which means that you can
do numerous different loops. Yeah, it's fantastic.
Most of the bridges, you've got access points from the middle
way and you can either join them up with using the roads or the
footpath network around and about.
And the footpath network has sort of like come about from the
people using walking to and from farms going to different coal
pits that would have been around and about.
So all these footpaths join up the two areas and it makes it
fantastic walking for people to make circular walks of any
distance that they really choose.
And you mentioned all the coal mines and everything, because
nowadays it's a really beautiful rural area.
Back in the day, it would have been totally different.
Wouldn't it? Yeah, it'd be absolutely
unbelievable with the amount of industry round and about and a
really good place to go and have a look.
I think they've got a model from the 1930s of what Poynton used
to look like at the Anson Engine Museum, so that is absolutely
superb. If you can get a chance to go
and have a look at that. That's probably about half a
mile from High Poynton Lyme Rd, so it's well worth having a look
at that to see what it must have looked like back then.
And also at the Nelson Pitt Visitor Centre, there's a sort
of sculpture, isn't there, that has marked on it, Although I
think there's 74 coal mines in the area, which is a remarkable.
Unbelievable. All all laid down in the
Carboniferous era, which I think was 280 to 350 million years
ago. It's hard to comprehend that.
It's such a long length of time and no wonder there's so much
coal. But that was thrust up to create
the Pennines, which is US moving away from America as we sort of
like crumpled up. And then that's why it's exposed
here and then exposed on the other side of the Pennines as
well. That's why you got lines of
calories down to Stoke on Trent from Poynton and then Derby
Nottingham area calories on that side as well.
So up to date then. You're one of the Rangers.
So what does your job entail? All.
Sorts of things, maintaining paths, maintaining the hedges.
So we do hedge laying along the boundaries.
So that improves the wildlife aspect.
Also doing the tree work, look at thinning the trees, coppicing
the trees and all of those given different age structure and
height structure to the trees along the Middlewood way.
So all different habitats for all the different sort of
creatures sort of nest in there. So a lot of the birds will nest
low to the ground. So having coppice trees is
really important and small mammals as well and it brings in
when we open up the areas, brambles will start to come in
and that's great for different birds like bull finches, which
are very rare nowadays. So if we've got areas of
Bramble, it is a good thing because it creates nice nesting
habitats for them and plenty of food for them to feed on as
well. And I heard a a woodpecker as I
was walking up here this morning.
Yeah, we've got woods that come off the Middlewood way.
If we can leave standing Deadwood, that is absolutely
fantastic. It's such an important habitat,
but they will tend to be more in the woodland areas which are off
the middle and way, or in areas up the banks of the middle and
way where it's just safe for them to stay standing.
And today you've got a work party going on, yes.
It's fantastic. We've got the Rothendale Trust,
they come out once a month and they will come and help us with
whatever work we're doing. So they're absolutely a lovely
group, They're great for us, it's great for them and whatever
work we're doing, they will come and help us with it.
So a lot of the work today they're doing in path work,
they're stripping back where the vegetation is encroached.
So like the turf is encroached over time.
I'm always amazed at at what they do and what they achieve.
It's it's lovely for us. Some people may have Down
syndrome, some may have learned difficulties and for them to
come out and help us, it's great and you see their confidence
build and it's lovely for members of the public to come
along and see what they're doing and show their appreciation
because it's so good for their confidence and just self esteem.
It's absolutely brilliant, I love it.
So I've got Adam here and Joshua from the Ross Andale Trust.
So just tell me what you're doing here today.
Today is doing well for stone short walkers down your bikers.
Well, we're picking out the AV over there by taking them out
with a spade and making them with the rake.
And you're making the path better basically, aren't you?
Yes, you're making it as wide as possible.
And I gather you, you come here and do work like this quite
regularly, don't you? Yes, I do.
Yeah, love it all week. Me walking, yes, walking for
outwards for hours walk. Nice weather doing struggling
digging in like all that, nice cotton, all that.
And it looks as though you really enjoy it.
You haven't enjoyed it? Yeah.
Yeah, I really enjoy it. And a little bird told me that
you're a wood Carver. Is that right?
Yes, that's right. Yeah, with the chainsaw.
So do chainsaw carvings around about at Nelson Pitt.
That's one of mine around the door frame there and that
carving there. We involved the local school
children and they came and did projects about the different
animals around there and researched them and understood
about the different animal that was associated with their school
and now it's now on the sculpture.
So the Middlewood way really is part of the community then?
I think so. I think I'm really pleased with
how the community are involved, how they get together, how many
people know each other, walk with each other, meet each
other, go out for drinks together, you know, and it's all
because they meet on the middle way.
Well, if you want to explore the Middle Wood Way, there's a handy
map you can download from the Cheshire East Council website.
It shows all the links between the path and the Macclesfield
Canal. And that's all from here on the
Middlewood Way. The Water Rd is produced and
presented by me, Adam Porter. If you haven't already followed
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Water Rd.