Harrop
Brow
A cool breeze from the East
but a bright February day in which to wander round about ...
... beyond Pott Shrigley
hamlet ...
... from the 'Tin Tabernacle'
near the hamlet of Harrop Brow. A simple building of 'corrugated
iron' probably bought from a catalogue as a kit of parts about
a 100 years ago and erected by some non-conformist religious group
- it is now used as a 'country-cafe' but presently undergoing
an internal makeover.
The cottages on the corner
of the drive ...
... climbing up to the farm
at Birchencliffe where the barns and outbuildings on this elevated
site have been renovated and converted for domestic use into extra
dwellings.
This is the view, across
the fields and trees towards the edge at Alderley, that the residents
enjoy.
Catching the blue sky in
the small lake behind Birchencliffe ...
... where the tarmac runs
out as the track wends higher.
Across the pasture, the
copse nestling under the moor nearly hides and protects the Keepers
Cottage built for the Lyme Park estate but now outside the National
Trust boundary.
From near the cottage a
glimpse of more walkers on the skyline of Park Moor.
The Cage in Lyme Park seen
in the distance against the hills around Marple and Mellor.
Closer at hand, from over
the rebuilt perimeter wall of the Park, Paddock Cottage and the
dark mass of Knightslow Wood.
Back down on the Shrigley
Road, near the West Parkgate, a more substantial (and earlier?)
chapel dated 1861.
Down the farm tracks and
across the fields ...
... where conditions underfoot
are not as dry as we might like. 'Isn't that so ladies?'
The canal bank by the marina
at Higher Poynton is my next point of interest ...
... then onto the bridge
at what was Higher Poynton railway station. Now known as the Middlewood
Way, the old railway line between Macclesfield and Marple, with
its straighter path, here runs close by the more meandering path
of the canal, which is the more constrained by contours, as they
both hug the western skirts of the Pennines.
Between the two sits the
Nelson Pit Visitor Centre with this sculpture commemorating the
74 pit shafts that have operated in the immediate vicinity from
the 18th to the 20th century.
Again at the canal, a quick
glance back towards the marina, then onwards and homewards along
the towpath...
... then over the fields
...
... back onto Shrigley Road
...
... below the copse ...
... as the sun slides down
between the trees.
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