Pub Walks in Cheshire

Shocklach

Distance: 4¾ miles.

Starting point: The Bull Inn, Shocklach. The pub car park is available for customers while walking but do ask permission. Roadside parking is difficult on Shocklach’s narrow lanes.

How to get there: The Bull is on the unclassified Farndon-Worthenbury road, 3¼ miles south of its junction with the A534 and B5130 at Farndon, and 2 miles north of its junction with the B5069 near Threapwood.

Terrain: Generally easy walking across fields and along country lanes, though there are lots of stiles.

OS map: Explorer 257 Crewe and Nantwich (GR: SJ439492).

The Walk:

1 Leave the car park by the gate to the right of the pub and cross the road into Green Lane, passing the Old Post Office on your left. At a footpath sign on the right, cross a stile and walk to the left of two prominent oaks. Cross a stile and plank bridge and walk past enclosures with unusual breeds of sheep and goats to a stile in the left-hand corner of the meadow. Follow the Marches Way signs over a series of stiles and plank bridges until you emerge onto a lane.

2 Walk ahead past the car park to the tiny Normal church of St Edith. If you do not wish to visit the church, carry on past its gate and follow the lane round to the left to cross a plank bridge and stile on the right. Go slightly to the left to cross another bridge and stile. Keep an ancient hedgerow on your left and walk to a stile in a neatly cut hedge. Here you should, in theory, walk half left into the field and turn right at a junction of paths. However, if there is a crop in the field, you should turn right and walk along its edge until you reach a gate and stile.

3 Turn left into the road. Take care. There is relatively little traffic but what there is tends to be fast-moving. Carry on along the road and take the second track on the left, which is cobbled.

4 Cross a stile on the right and walk along the left-hand edge of the field to a yellow footpath sign. Turn left and immediately right and head towards the left-hand corner of the farm buildings. Go through a gate by a redundant stile and turn right to another gate and stile. Bear right to a track between buildings and pass through two gates.

5 Cross the road onto the lane ahead and turn right at the Bishop Bennet Way sign. This section of the walk is along a track which some believe to be a Roman road but is more likely to have been a medieval drove road. At its end, go ahead along a metalled lane until you have passed a house on the left called Lord’s Fields.

6 You are now in cattle country. If you are uneasy around cows, follow the road round to the left to return to the Bull. Otherwise go through a gate on the left and cross the meadow to another gate. Turn right to walk along the edge of a field with the undulations left by medieval ploughing. Cross a stile and go across the field to a narrower part on the left. Follow the path to a stile and walk under the oaks to another by a pond. Carry on past a single oak to a further stile and follow the farm track. Beyond the fence, turn left to a stile and then right along a mown avenue. Cross a stile on the right and turn left to walk down the farm drive. At its end, turn right to return to the pub.

From: More Pocket Pub Walks Walks in Cheshire by author David Pill, is published by Countryside Books, 3, Catherine Road, Newbury, Berkshire. Available from local bookshops, or go to www.countrysidebooks.co.uk