The Ultimate Guide to Chester and Cheshire - Spring Edition

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All the fun of the forest Riverside woods, epic oaks, pine-needle paths snaking through the trees: there’s something undeniably magical about a woodland walk. As the Forestry Commission celebrates 100 years, we take a walk on Cheshire’s wooded side. IMAGES ABOVE: WRITERS IN THE FOREST (CREATIVE WRITING INITIATIVE) 2019 RIGHT: QUARRY BANK The First World War changed everything, from attitudes towards women to advances in medicine - yet one of its least-known legacies was the creation of the Forestry Commission. Created in 1919, the commission had one aim: to make sure Britain didn’t run out of timber, as it so nearly had during the war. A century later, things have moved on a bit, with the focus now on recreation, research and biodiversity as much as on sellable timber. “While we celebrate the achievements of the past century, we also look to the next 100 years,” says the Forestry Commission’s Ian Gambles. “We want everyone to share our passion for trees and forests.” Which seems eminently sensible – and where better to start than the commission’s Delamere Forest (Northwich), whose 972 hectares takes in the Sandstone Trail, Go Ape, summer concerts, biking trails and a visitor centre? Keep an eye out for special centenary events here as 2019 ticks on. Delamere is not the only woodland show in town. Take Quarry Bank (Styal). Yes, you read that right. Quarry Bank may be known for its Industrial Revolution mill, but its estate includes the 400-acre Chapel Woods, a historic ‘pleasure ground’ planted with ornamental conifers, giant redwoods and firs, which attracts winter visitors such as redwings and fieldfares. Macclesfield Forest (Macclesfield) is also historic, a remnant of the medieval Royal Forest that stretched from the Pennines to Staffordshire and over to the High Peak. What’s left is a working forest owned by United Utilities; it butts up to the Peak District National Park, contains wild deer and a heronry (both found close to Trentabank Reservoir). It’s also close to the brilliantlynamed Bottom-of-the-Oven village, itself home to the rated Stanley Arms. 24
Lumb Brook Valley (Warrington) is a smaller affair, its semi-ancient trees managed by the Woodland Trust. It is linked to another mature wood by Millennium Green, an area of young-ish trees, open space and (sweet relief) benches. Make a plan to return later in the year: Lumb Brook is carpeted with bluebells, lords-and-ladies, lesser celandine and wood anemones come spring. Likewise Warburton’s Wood (Kingsley), a three-hectare clough woodland managed by Cheshire Wildlife Trust. It runs down to the River Weaver, and its rich soil (and mix of tree cover and grassland) is home to fifty kinds of flower, including violets, giant bellflower, yellow archangel and the common spotted orchid. The thundering Daresbury Expressway may not on first glance appear to be the most peaceful of settings, yet it runs alongside Big Wood (Runcorn), a wildlife haven whose history is intertwined with Norton Priory. It was once part of the 900-yearold priory’s estate and was later owned by the Brooke family, who turned it into a pleasure garden full of ornamental trees such as sugar maple, dawn redwood and monkey puzzle. Gnarled, hollow, usually a bit skew: a truly ancient tree tends not to be a showstopper. Yet there’s something about a 500-yearold tree that does stop you in its tracks: a living thing that has borne witness to civil wars and world ones, to kings who lost their heads and a sun that rises and sets, seemingly without end. There’s one such oak at Dunham Massey (Altrincham); it stands by the moat and predates the neighbouring National Trust house by around 200 years. It’s not alone: the deer park here is renowned for veteran trees, home to a huge array of incredibly rare beetles and insects, and in turn to the sorts of animals that feed on them, such as the beetle-eating noctule bat. So, as we head into 2019, make time for some of Cheshire’s better and lesser-known woods and forests – today places of sanctuary and pleasure that, as PK Khaira-Cresell at the Forestry Commission points out, “are some of the most varied and beautiful places in the country”. IMAGES DELAMERE FOREST 25
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