The walk of Sunday December 12th, 2021

For many years I have contemplated going for a rural wander over Shirdley Hill. I’ve walked through this tiniest of all tiny villages on just one previous occasion back in 2018 on one of my massive walks home from work. It was high time to make up for this.

I left our little estate and ventured to Birkdale along Guilford Road passing by many houses adorned with Christmas décor – ’tis the season don’t y’know?  My plan was to go as far as Halsall Lane which becomes the infamous New Cut Lane at an invisible point in its progression – there is no number 1 or 2 so you never know quite when one street name yields to another. I was mildly dubious of the route, easy enough to follow but then there was the not-so-minor issue of cars passing me at 50 mph – and more!

The weather was so nice that I was wondering if I would begin to regret donning my ‘big coat’ as it’s thermal lined and had me sweating buckets during 2020’s “Amble” I managed to not turn into a soggy mess though but at no point felt anything other than comfortable – as far as temperature goes.

In truth New Cut Lane actually has more ‘pavement’ than Birkdale Cop – which has none. Admittedly you would not term the walking surface as paving because it’s really just the tarmac border of the main carriageway. I eventually passed the RSPCA centre and then “Wild Things” (formerly Bijou Botanics) garden centre – it’s so small. I took so many photos of essentially agricultural land and meadows, winter meadows so there wasn’t really a lot going on. Overhead the geese seemed to be gathering in dozens and at one point in hundreds, an amazing sight to behold even after eighteen years of living here. I tried to video the geese, I think vision only is recommended as the the sound will be similar to Darth Vader having run upstairs a few times, the wind, not just me! I took the left hand turn to Renacres Lane (I knew the spell checker would flag that one!) and the road became narrower – all pretentions to paving were now gone and the geese seemed to increase in multitude. I’d expected the traffic to be quieter than on New Cut Lane – perhaps it was overall, but in the first few minutes an alarming number of cars passed me by, some rural walk! A distant and hazy Winter Hill seemed to be calling me – just nine more weeks (I think) and then I’ll be on the “Amble” once more but for now September’s journey over the “Edges” seemed like an eon ago, too long, stupid pandemic / weather / lack of time to do anything!

I was amazed at just how winding this road was – on the maps it looks fat straighter – minus a couple of turns, muddy turns I should add. In time I hit the centre of the village of Shirdley Hill. I want to refer to this place as a hamlet, alas it does have a church, I’ve walked it but I’ll be damned if I can find it own google maps – and I just can’t be bothered with Bing’s “OS” map – it’s not that important. I crossed over Renacres Lane and onto…Renacres Lane – the road priority changes – it’s a little odd, but in Shirdley Hill there is a certain oddness redolent at all times. Having driven past the ‘park’ a number of times and had my curiosity well and truly tempted I indulged my nosiness and had a good old look around. There’s not a lot hidden from view – a trio of what my ‘other half’ refers to as “Smart Ducks” were residing in a tiny pond – you couldn’t call this a lake in any conscience but at the same time it was not a pond shape in any traditional way, lovely though! The park also plays host to a “sensory garden” which is certainly a lot better kept than the one in Hesketh Park – maybe there’s so little to do around here, other than pat the ponies, that the residents are more willing to keep things in a much more visually pleasing condition.

I spent a couple of minutes taking pictures of and talking with the horses, I think this location has as many equine residents as it does human, and then set off in the direction of Jacksmere Lane from Heathey Lane. Except, I never got there – another occasion of me yielding to my curiosity kicked in as the public footpath sign I have seen around a hundred times over the last twelve months tempted me from the main road and into a more verdant terrain. This was serious stuff for me, I was off-roading! Actually there was nothing to worry about, the path was well worn and not too muddy, the way ahead obvious – a minor concern was that there was evidence of a seriously big piece of farm machinery had been along the path before me but as to when…who knows? I figured I would hear an almighty tractor before I encountered it so made my way onwards to the main road at Jacksmere Lane and Black Brook Bridge (They have a named bridge! How quaint is that?). It goes without saying that I turned right instead of left when the path merged with the pavement akin the road. Ah what’s life without a wrong turn every now and then? In total the minor setback would have probably only added around five hundred steps to the day’s total, and I did do them so I was okay with it. In time I found the lovely semi-rural-semi-urban Turning Lane. I do love a road which can lay claim to having farms and a caravan site yet still be two minutes drive from Tesco’s gigantic supermarket at Kew! Again the geese were with me, this time in their thousands encamped at a very wet field which separates Brown Edge from Kew, the noise was magnificent.

And then the peace was over, I’d hit the A570 again as Turning Lane joined Southport Road. It was a shame but at the same time I was by now in a fair amount of pain. 2021 has undoubtedly been my year of aches and pains and right now I had a sore right knee, sore lumbar region and surging sciatica on my right hand side, oh and the diverticulitis was having a good old moan every so often. And I was hungry, so hungry in fact that I called in to Tesco and got a cooked chicken for us – the switch to veganism will have to wait another few weeks maybe!

I checked my mileage once I’d reached home and cracked open a bottle of alcohol-free Heineken (gorgeous stuff) and it read around 7.6 miles and then compared it to the route on google maps which had it at 8.4 miles, I think this is over by a bit. All the same it was the best way to spend some quality time – just over three hours, in some beautiful scenery with unseasonably pleasant weather…and now I can say that I’ve walked through Shirdley Hill again.

Song of the walk Chris Rea’s timeless classic of “Drivin’ Home For Christmas”.