Over
Alderley
Intending to visit the
National Trust woodland area on Alderley Edge I made the mistake
of stopping off just before, in the hamlet of Over Alderley.
I wanted to have a picture
of this striking looking building, unmissable when driving from
Alderley Edge to Macclesfield.
With its stone-flag roof
and black and white half-timbering it has an ancient feel to it
but in reality is only about 100 years old and was built as a
smithy for the Brocklehurst Estate.
The hearth of the forge
is still there against the back wall with the anvil before it,
as of old, but the drill on the left is electric powered and an
oxy-acetylene torch rests on it - a mixture of old and 'new'.
Across the road is this
farmhouse ...
... and next door is the
Village Hall both showing unmistakable signs of their common origin
and design.
Looking east across the
field behind the smithy with the hazy blue of distant Shutlingsloe
just visible on the right.
Sighted, and quickly clicked,
between the bars of the gate as it scuttled across, the first
of many dark coloured cock pheasants I would see that afternoon.
The fields corroborate the
Harvest Festival celebrations - all is safely gathered
in, here a field of maize stripped ready for winter ploughing.
This field has already been
ploughed and sown and the green shoots are already breaking through
- and look there's Jodrell Bank!
Here I am wandering about
the Cheshire lanes away from where I was headed ...
... past sunlit copses ...
... finding enticing looking
footpaths ...
... with stiles to spare!
Was this one merely wrongly placed or did somebody steal the fence/hedge?
Continued
in Part II
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