The best walks and hikes around Hassall

A wonderful example of a lock bridge, and a great spot for a BAAB (bike against a bridge) photo. It's peaceful and picturesque, you might even spot a canal boat or two.

Nice surprise to pass. Drinks as well as cakes. Accepts cash or pay by phone.

The Trent and Mersey Canal is a 93 1/2 mile (150 km) canal in Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire in north-central England. The Trent and Mersey Canal (T&M) was built to link the River Trent at Derwent Mouth in Derbyshire to the River Mersey, and thereby provide an inland route between the major ports of Hull and Liverpool. The Mersey connection is made via the Bridgewater Canal, which it joins at Preston Brook in Cheshire. Although mileposts measure the distance to Preston Brook and Shardlow, Derwent Mouth is about 1 mile (1.6 km) beyond Shardlow.

„Today the Salt Line runs through farmland and woodlands, with streams, pools and rough grassland. Wild primroses brighten up the steep cutting at Roughwood Hollow while later in the year the delicate flowers of scabious and harebell can be seen on the banks. Areas of willow and hazel are coppiced regularly. This is an ancient woodland practice in which trees are cut every few years to produce timber that would have been traditionally used for thatching spars, barrel hoops, hurdles and baskets. Sheltered glades are created where flower and insects thrive, until the trees re-grow and the process begins again. Some areas are managed as wild flower meadows while others are left fairly wild and just cut back enough to keep the path clear. Look out for Bullfinches and Yellowhammers that feed on buds, berries and seeds along the Salt Line.“ Quelle: https://visitcheshire.com/trails/the-salt-line

The first name John has been widespread since biblical times, and so it should come as no surprise to find a whole series of blesseds and saints bearing this name over the two millennia of Christianity. At the threshold between the Old and New Testaments, we encounter John the Baptist (also John Baptist), to whom most churches dedicated to John are dedicated. But one of the four men who wrote the New Testament Gospels also bears this name. This church in Sandbach Heath is dedicated to him, Saint John the Evangelist. A long-standing church tradition has considered the Evangelist to be identical with the apostle John mentioned in the Bible, but this is disputed in biblical scholarship. "The Gospel of John exerts a peculiar fascination. It is difficult to escape its solemn, at times mystical language. It speaks to deep human needs and longings: hunger and thirst, the search for fulfilling eternal life, the longing for personal communion with God." (Franz-Josef Ortkemper)

The field sections of this route are a little tricky to follow as the path line has been obliterated (due to farmers changing fence lines or simply ploughing etc), & I found one gate chained shut so had to climb over it.

St John's was built in 1861 and designed by George Gilbert Scott following a bequest of £5,000 (equivalent to £590,000 in 2023).

You can use the byway just off the main canal footpath