 Bickerton to Whitchurch Route Description  17km (10.7 miles)
 Bickerton to Whitchurch Map
A route starting at Bickerton Hill through Hampton Green, Grindley Brook and into Whitchurch and the end of the Sandstone Trail.
| South of the A534 the Trail passes Bickerton Church, which was originally built as a chapel of ease for people who found in difficult to travel to the parish church at Malpas.
Bickerton Hill is a tremendous area of heathland managed by The National Trust. Look out for green hairstreak butterflies, feeding on the bilberry in early summer.
Maiden Castle is a spectacular iron age fort, built on a splendid vantage point. You can still see remains of the earth banks which protected the huts inside. |
 |
The Trail skirts Hether Wood, before leaving the hills and heading out across the plain. The large overgrown ponds you pass, south of Long Lane, were originally dug for sand. Smaller ponds along the way tend to be pits dug for marl, which was used as a fertilizer to sweeten heavy soils.
Just south of Bickley Hall is a group of trees known as Barhill Fall. In 1687 a small rise collapsed with a 'huge noise' and a yawning pit opened and filled with water. The culprit is believed to be a layer of salt which had gradually dissolved, causing the land above to crumble.
Wonderful yews and cedar of Lebanon trees surround St Chad's Chapel, built in 1689. Services are held here on several occasions during the summer, including Rogation Sunday, Ascension Day and Rushbearing Day.
The Trail joins the Shropshire Union Canal at Willeymoor Lock. Look out for water figwort and the delicately fragranced meadow sweet alongside the towpath. Large hawker dragonflies patrol sections of the canal, keeping aerial intruders at bay.
Grindley Brook is the meeting point of several trails. The Maelor Way heads west, the South Cheshire Way east, and the Shropshire Way south. From here it is just a short trek into Whitchurch and the end of the Sandstone Trail.
|