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We had a large turnout for today’s walk with twenty three Stramblers meeting at Sankey Valley Visitor Centre car park. We couldn’t have asked for better weather with plenty of sunshine and an occasional light breeze. The footpath led us through Sankey Valley Park alongside the remains of Sankey/St Helens Canal and Blackbrook Basin. The trees gave us shade with sunshine breaking through intermittently. Further along the path, we passed under the bridges of the East Lancs Road and the Liverpool – Manchester Railway. A short rise then took us up to Carr Mill Dam and we walked along its edge with views across the lake. After a comfort break at the Mill Dam Bar and Grill we followed a footpath through the woods. The undulating path meandered around and up and down through Bluebell Woods and Goyt Hey Wood, with lots of tree roots to negotiate. A brook also meandered through the woods with our path criss-crossing it several times on wooden footbridges. We came out of the woods to walk on a lane with barley fields on either side. Four horses on a training walk were ridden past us with the riders cheerily chatting with us as they passed. Turning off the lane, we passed Billinge FC’s pitch and reached Carr Mill Road. The road took us past a row of stone cottages, one with a date stone for 1899. All had gardens with beautiful displays of flowers. The corn in the field here was almost as high as an elephant’s eye. At the top of the road was Billinge Village and its Millennium Garden. We had a drinks break in the Buttylicious Café courtyard before continuing down Birchley Road. Reaching the end of the village, we turned into Lime Vale Road past farm buildings and along a track with great views across the hills towards Rainford. The track took us to the lower part of Carr Mill Road and Otterswift Farm. Walking up the hill, we passed the delightfully named Dig Pit Fishing Pond – an extension of the Carr Mill Lake. A path then took us to the Nineteen Arches Bridge over the lake – the largest inland lake in Merseyside. There were numerous birds on the lake: geese, mallards, swans, a heron, great crested grebes – one with its young (a grebelet?) We followed the path along the water’s edge and through the trees back to the edge of the dam and then retraced our steps through Sankey Park back to the start.
Thanks to Shiela, Judith and Viv for organising, recce-ing and leading the walk.