Five things to do in Holmes Chapel (with audio)

By Cheshire Life on September 5th 2010

Holmes Chapel

Click the picture on the right to start playing the audio

This recording is courtesy of Sandbach and District Talking Newspaper service

From a state-of-the-art digital studio in Sandbach, about 100 visually impaired listeners are served every week, but Sandbach TN is actively trying to increase the number of its listeners and also to reach others who perhaps suffer a disability which makes reading a strain.

For more information please look at the charity's website, www.talkingnews.org.uk, or call Pam on 01606 833408

Holmes Chapel

Well connected
Whether you’ve been to Holmes Chapel or not, there’s a good chance you’ve seen it. The village sits beneath the flight path of aircraft making their way into and out of Manchester Airport, giving passengers a bird’s eye view of the leafy lanes. And those who prefer more down to earth travel are likely to have at least passed very close to the village on the M6 which rushes past a mile or so to the west of the village.

The village stands at the junction of the A50 and the A54 and also has a railway station and is home to a pleasing clutch of shops, pubs and cafes. The modern library occupies one side of the village’s shopping precinct, where parking is available and where a notice board gives information about other tourist attractions nearby.

Glorious gardens
Everything’s coming up roses in Holmes Chapel at a garden which opens to the public each year. Croco Brook Farm is owned by Tatton gold medal winning garden designer John Clowes and the garden gate will be open to visitors on Saturday and Sunday September 11 and 12. The 2/3 acre garden around an old farm house has been developed since 1980 and contains impressive displays of trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants.

Check the National Garden Scheme website - www.ngs.org.uk - for more details on this and other Cheshire gardens open to visitors.

Making music
Pianist Matthew Kam will take centre stage in Holmes Chapel this month as the Holmes Chapel Music Society’s new season gets underway. The society was founded almost 40 years ago and regularly attracts audiences of 300 for the performances they put on at the leisure centre which is attached the village’s high school. The season runs until April, with concerts on Saturdays at 8pm, starting on September 25. For more information go online to www.themusicsociety.org.uk.

A stellar town
Holmes Chapel may only be small but one of Cheshire biggest attractions is right on its doorstep, the hugely important Jodrell Bank observatory. The 76 meter Lovell telescope, the third largest of its kind in the world, is a major landmark as you drive to and from the village, or pass overhead.

The site isn’t just a major scientific centre, it’s also one of Cheshire’s most popular visitor attractions and alongside the dishes and telescopes there is an arboretum which contains the national collections of crab apple and mountain ash.

Worth a Luke
The Grade One listed St Luke’s church stands in the centre of Holmes Chapel, its sandstone tower visible from all over the village. There has been a church on the site since the 13th century and parts of the current building date from the 1430s although the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries saw major renovation work. The church houses the oldest brass candelabra in Cheshire, dating from 1708, while an oak crest near the communion rail is even older, bearing the date 1622.

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