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Cheshire Walks - Davenham

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Davenham just escapes being engulfed by the huge Kingsmead Estate by the fortunate barrier of the A556 road. It’s only a few hundred metres away yet the village has retained its settled sense of untouchability by the march of progress. The cottages are well preserved, the roads narrow, the countryside at the back door and the church standing four-square as if it were the centre of the community.

St Wilfrid’s is a fine sandstone church in the Victorian Gothic style with an impressive spire most recently struck by lightning in the 80s. Cars can be left on the roadside outside the church opposite a fine manor house with the elegant proportions of its Georgian architecture and in front a massive tree with gnarled trunk indicating a great age. Apparently, hugging is a good way to determine the girth of a tree, the ‘‘British Standard Hug’’ being defined as 1.5 metres from fingertip to fingertip. We didn’t try it because the Davenham tree was on private property.

Head away from the village and cross the bridge spanning the A533 Winsford Road. Almost immediately across the bridge look for a wooden gate in the hedge on the left, the start of a permissive path which avoids having to walk on the road. It follows the road until on reaching the River Dane we have to cross Shipbrook Bridge and then continue through a further gate into a field on the left.

Head for the right-angle of a hedge and on joining it walk with it on your right until meeting a hedge barring our path. Cross the stile in this hedge and climb a bank to exit the field by a further stile giving access to a lane. Turn left and in 30 metres take a footpath on the right, leaving the lane. Don’t go through the double gated opening which is securely padlocked.

Through the gap in the hedge, follow the right-hand boundary to come to another lane where we turn right, crossing a railway bridge on the far side of which we take a gate on the left onto a path surfaced with limestone chippings. This turns down left to enter a field of rough grass, the path wandering down to a brook which is crossed by a footbridge. Go up the bank on the other side, the view to the left marred by the serried ranks of cars parked for the day by the employees at the Gadbrook Business Park.

On meeting an access road, go straight across on a track leading down to the canal. Join the towpath by taking a concealed path on the right just opposite a white house called Canalside.

The canal is the Trent and Mersey, on this stretch accompanying a Roman Road known as King Street and a freight-only railway line between Northwich and Sandbach. We remain on the towpath (the canal on our left) and soon come to a wide mere or ‘flash’, a lake formed by subsidence.

The half submerged hulk of a narrow boat lies in the middle, a visible remnant of a misguided policy by British Waterways in the 50s of disposing of unwanted barges by scuttling them here. In more recent times some have been raised by enthusiasts and restored.

We leave the canal at bridge 179, flat topped like all the bridges round here, designed so they could be lifted in the event of subsidence. This is the entrance to Whatcroft Hall and the gates are flanked by two nice lodges painted white with black half-timbering.

Turn right on leaving the canal and we soon pass Shipbrook Hill Farm where they do teas and ice cream. At a junction, take the left hand turning with a signpost indicating Chester and Davenham. Look for a gate on the right, an extension of our earlier permissive path and follow inside the hedge line parallel with the road as far as the River Dane. From here we keep to our outward route back to the village. We were hailed by a family at this point who wanted to know if we had seen any eggs.

‘Eggs? What eggs?’
‘Guinea fowl eggs. They lay them under the hedges. Anywhere really.’
We shook our heads. We had seen the guinea fowl but they weren’t laying. My walking mate Jim would have had them for an omelette if we had.

A pint in the Oddfellows Arms rounded off our walk. We disputed who or what the Oddfellows were without being any the wiser but you can be sure I checked them on Google later and found them to have been a self-help group back in the days when working people started sticking up for themselves. Who said the Big Society was a new idea?

Old sign

The spire of St Wilfrid’s Parish Church overlooks Davenham

Guinea fowl in a field edge near Shipbrook Bridge. They are said to be acutely aware of predators and are useful watchdogs, their cackling warning of the approach of danger