Walk Post 029 - Dunham Massey in the Sun
May. 18th, 2010 08:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thousandmilesblogDate of Walk: 09/05/10
Walk organized by: Saddleworth Pedestrians
Start time: 11:00
Start location: Atlantic Street, Broadhurst
Walk length: 6.88 miles
Weather conditions: Sunny, warm with a cool breeze and occasional cloudy spells
Deer park at Dunham Massey
Details:
Dunham Massey
Dunham Massey, near Altrincham, is a Georgian hall set in 121 acres of parkland and with the largest winter garden in Britain. It is managed by the National Trust. The Hall, stables and coach house are all Grade I listed buildings. Though the present Hall dates from the seventeenth century, the manor of Dunham was recorded to have belonged to a Saxon nobleman at the time of the Norman conquest. It was locally important throughout the Middle Ages. During the First World War, the Hall was used as a military hospital. The Hall has some historical exhibits, concerning its more interesting residents and life as an Edwardian servant, a collection of silver and a number of art works. The parkland has deer, lots of other wildlife and some very beautiful old trees, and is a popular tourist attraction. During the summer months it hosts open air plays. The surrounding parish has 45 listed buildings and two sites of special scientific interest.
The Walk
Route details may be quite vague, apologies for that. It's just off the edge of one of my maps and Streetmap no longer seems to want to play when fed GPS coordinates. As far as I can tell we started off along the Trans Pennine Trail north of Dunham Massey, heading east, then turned south along a footpath that took us to Dunham Massey, where we stopped for lunch and I looked very sadly at the large queue for ice cream and was surprised by the most elegant toilets I have yet found residing in a portacabin. We then walked past the Hall and through the deer park westwards, joined the towpath alongside the Bridgewater Canal and headed along this back to the start point.
I haven't done the later and shorter Sunday walk for a while, so it was nice to meet up with the people on that again. The extra hour of sleep also worked well for me, as sleep was something I'd been missing out on somewhat that week. It was a lovely area to walk in, and good to relax and not struggle up too many hills (there was one short slope that may have counted as a hill but I'm not too sure about that). There was a high animal quotient on the walk, we spotted a hedgehog, several horses, a couple of goats pretending to be deer, lots of actual deer, lots of different birds and a wasp that tried to get inside my shoe when I was changing out of my boots at the end of the walk. Apart from a few very oddly constructed stiles that seemed to have been put together with the aim of deterring anyone from actually wanting to climb over them, it was very relaxing on the whole.
One of the many stiles that seemed to have been inspired by the Krypton Factor assault course. It was part of a connected pair, reminding me very much of fences put close together on showjumping courses
Thankfully this was one of the closest things we got to a hill. I don't just like Cheshire because it's flat, but that does help
At Dunham Massey
Obligatory picture of interesting tree
View from the bridge before joining the canal towpath
Thanks to Val who kindly supplied the photographs, as I forgot to take my phone and so couldn't get any of my own.
Evil Giraffe
Walk organized by: Saddleworth Pedestrians
Start time: 11:00
Start location: Atlantic Street, Broadhurst
Walk length: 6.88 miles
Weather conditions: Sunny, warm with a cool breeze and occasional cloudy spells
Deer park at Dunham Massey
Details:
Dunham Massey
Dunham Massey, near Altrincham, is a Georgian hall set in 121 acres of parkland and with the largest winter garden in Britain. It is managed by the National Trust. The Hall, stables and coach house are all Grade I listed buildings. Though the present Hall dates from the seventeenth century, the manor of Dunham was recorded to have belonged to a Saxon nobleman at the time of the Norman conquest. It was locally important throughout the Middle Ages. During the First World War, the Hall was used as a military hospital. The Hall has some historical exhibits, concerning its more interesting residents and life as an Edwardian servant, a collection of silver and a number of art works. The parkland has deer, lots of other wildlife and some very beautiful old trees, and is a popular tourist attraction. During the summer months it hosts open air plays. The surrounding parish has 45 listed buildings and two sites of special scientific interest.
The Walk
Route details may be quite vague, apologies for that. It's just off the edge of one of my maps and Streetmap no longer seems to want to play when fed GPS coordinates. As far as I can tell we started off along the Trans Pennine Trail north of Dunham Massey, heading east, then turned south along a footpath that took us to Dunham Massey, where we stopped for lunch and I looked very sadly at the large queue for ice cream and was surprised by the most elegant toilets I have yet found residing in a portacabin. We then walked past the Hall and through the deer park westwards, joined the towpath alongside the Bridgewater Canal and headed along this back to the start point.
I haven't done the later and shorter Sunday walk for a while, so it was nice to meet up with the people on that again. The extra hour of sleep also worked well for me, as sleep was something I'd been missing out on somewhat that week. It was a lovely area to walk in, and good to relax and not struggle up too many hills (there was one short slope that may have counted as a hill but I'm not too sure about that). There was a high animal quotient on the walk, we spotted a hedgehog, several horses, a couple of goats pretending to be deer, lots of actual deer, lots of different birds and a wasp that tried to get inside my shoe when I was changing out of my boots at the end of the walk. Apart from a few very oddly constructed stiles that seemed to have been put together with the aim of deterring anyone from actually wanting to climb over them, it was very relaxing on the whole.
One of the many stiles that seemed to have been inspired by the Krypton Factor assault course. It was part of a connected pair, reminding me very much of fences put close together on showjumping courses
Thankfully this was one of the closest things we got to a hill. I don't just like Cheshire because it's flat, but that does help
At Dunham Massey
Obligatory picture of interesting tree
View from the bridge before joining the canal towpath
Thanks to Val who kindly supplied the photographs, as I forgot to take my phone and so couldn't get any of my own.
Evil Giraffe
