Timbersbrook Picnic Area to Kidsgrove
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 Timbersbrook Picnic Area to Kidsgrove Route Description  15km (9.3 miles)
 Timbersbrook Picnic Area to Kidsgrove Map
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Timbersbrook Picnic Area was once the site of a large silk mill and dyeworks. From here the Trail crosses several fields to the Biddulph Valley Way. Today pedal power has replaced steam on the old railway line, which once carried sand from Cheshire to the Potteries, and coal back to Congleton.
Nick i'th'Hill is a pronounced dip in the ridge, believed to have been a melt water drainage channel in the last ice age. From here the final ridge walk of the Trail follows part of Congleton Edge, formed as a result of the Red Rock fault. |
 | Here the much older, often harder rocks of the Peak District and Pennines dip beneath the young sandstones and mudstones of the Cheshire plain. Look out for small patches of white clay at Pot Bank, once used for pots and clay pipes.
The Old Man of Mow is a gritstone pillar over 20m high, left standing as the stone around it was quarried away. Stone from here was used to build the church and grammar school at Sandbach. The folly of Mow Cop is another distinctive landmark, perched dramatically on an outcrop of millstone grit. It was built in 1754 by Squire Wilbraham to improve the view from Rode Hall.
Mow Cop is often referred to as the home of Primitive Methodism. The Memorial Church was built in 1862 on the site of the first open air meeting which took place on 31st May 1807 and attracted over 2000 people. It lasted from six in the morning until nine at night.
The Brake was part of an old tramway which carried coal from the collieries east of Mow Cop, down to the Macclesfield Canal. The canal links the Peak Forest Canal at Marple Junction with the Trent & Mersey at Hardings Wood, a distance of 44km.
The Trail finishes at Kidsgrove railway station, but it is well worth carrying on along the Trent & Mersey canal to see the entrance to Harecastle Tunnel. Here the water is bright orange, caused by iron-rich springs seeping into the water. Over 600 miners and masons worked under dreadful conditions to build the 2km long tunnel, which emerges at Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent.
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