Thirteen strollers and an on loan dog – Chilli – met at Maghull North Station for the short ride to Town Green. We crossed the line and followed Middlewood Road south until we reached a footpath through fields. The path eventually veered back towards the railway line before emerging on to Mickering Lane. After a short stretch, the lane left the housing behind and we were enjoying the sunshine with hardly any wind. We passed a “turf farm” and turned on to a track were a group of very clean looking pigs were feeding. Some of them came over when we stopped to look – maybe to see if we had any more interesting food to offer them. The track took us back towards the railway again. This time, a path at the end of the track led us to a stile and steep steps up the embankment and on to the track itself. The track here is a long straight stretch and we were able to cross safely. Another set of steep steps and a stile on the other side took us to a narrow footpath with overgrown nettles and brambles. At the end of this path we came to Brookfield Lane and followed it to Butchers Lane and then the footpath through fields to Millbank Lane. We passed horse paddocks, “Hidden Corner Campsite” and dog running fields before reaching Park Lane. On Park Lane we saw a man watering flowers in a bed dedicated to “Happy Hiking” and passed a cottage with a date stone for 1763. After crossing the railway line, we saw “Wildlife Alley” – a stretch of the verge planted with flowers. We split here with some making their way home. Brian led the rest of us to the lake on the Poppyfields estate, formerly the site of Moss Side Hospital, and gave us a history of the development from a children’s home, a wartime Red Cross Hospital with the lake being a peaceful refuge for soldiers suffering from “shell shock” (PTSD), an epileptic home and then a psychiatric hospital. Many of us had not seen this lake before as it had previously been within the hospital’s high security fence. Goldcrest Road then led us back to the station where we’d earlier seen the statue “Compassion In Conflict” commemorating the treatment of the WWII soldiers.
Thanks to Brain and Brenda for a very interesting walk.