Country Walk 1

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The Country Walk takes in some peaceful Cheshire countryside, and should take about two hours. The features of interest on this trail are numbered on the map. It will attempt to illustrate many of the changes that have taken place and the evidence for these which survive in the landscape. The walk requires stout footwear and involves climbing stiles. The natural history is noted.

The trail starts at the cross (1), in the centre of town. From the cross walk towards the Church (2). Pass through the churchyard, noting the old motte (3 – see the Town trail). and leave by the slope at the start of the splendid avenue of Lime trees on the line of a former lane which ran towards Overton Common. The line, interrupted by the Old Rectory grounds, can later be seen continuing along the north east side of the Ox Heyes field.

The Parish Hall (4) on the left was originally the stables to the Old Rectory in whose drive is a striking specimen of Sequioa Pine or Wellingtonia Gigantea (Giant Redwood). The Parish Hall, now derelict was converted to a meeting hall by the Reverend Guy Hepher in the 20th century. Turn left by the entrance to the Rectory and follow the old Sandstone Way, encrusted with mosses and lichens to the stile which will take you into the group of fields known as the Ox Heyes.

After crossing over the stile turn right and follow the hedge. Over the hedge on the right can be seen the front of the formal Old Rectory. Originally one of the the two Malpas rectories, it is famed as the birthplace in 1783 of Reginald Heber, who was one of the first Anglican hymnwriters and for the last two and a half years of his life served in India as the second Bishop of Calcutta (a brass plate on an internal door commemorates the fact that he was born in the top room of the middle of the house – the one with the squat tower). The Copse at the end of the Rectory garden is the site of an active and closely watched badger sett. As well as badgers it has been the home at various times to foxes, rabbits and the Rectory cat.

Go through the kissing gate into the second largest Ox Heyes field which is distinguished by its line of twelve sycamores planted to symbolise the twelve apostles. The path follows the line of trees. Over the years some specimens which had become diseased have been replaced by new trees.

This field, still a popular walking route for local residents, used to be the scene of great festivities on special occasions. One was the time of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897 when a tea party and sports took place there for all the townspeople.

The name Ox Heyes means hedged enclosure for oxen and is a reminder of the time when the plough teams of oxen used on heavy claylands until early in the 20th century, would have been put out to pasture there.

Passing diagonally across the field is a telephone line, property of the old Liverpool Corporation Waterworks, which marks the line of the aqueduct from Lake Vyrnwy in North Wales to Liverpool. This was constructed in the 1880s and in the following decade Malpas was connected to the supply, which replaced the former supply from the reservoir in the Castle Hill. The reservoir for the new supply was constructed on the Oathills.

During drought conditions, when the grass on the Ox Heyes becomes parched, the lines of the three aqueduct pipes show up clearly as ‘field marks’ on the surface.

After crossing the third and smallest of the Ox Heyes Fields, a gate leads into Overton Lane, known locally as ‘Love Lane’ (7). This sunken and shaded way marks the boundary between the ancient townships of Overton and Malpas. As such it could well date from before the Norman conquest. Along the banks can be found plants typical of shaded Cheshire hedgerows – Violets, Ground Ivy, Herb Robert and various vetches (all blue or mauve), Red Campion and Foxgloves (ping and red), Great Celandine and Wood Avens (yellow), Greater Stitchwort and Hedge Garlic (white) and Bracken. The hedgerow trees and shrubs include hawthorn, sycamore, elder and bramble.

In late spring to early summer the Hedge Garlic atracts the Orange Tip butterfly to lay its eggs, while later in the year the Speckled Wood and Gatekeepr (Hedge Brown) are often seen on sunny days.

A five minute detour up the lane to a gate on the left overhung by a magnificent Beech Tree will reward the walker with an extensive view, then return to the gate and continue down the hill. (8)

The road down to Overton Common (9) winds past the old shippon (cowshed) and disused sandstone pigsty at Top House Farm it is here that we pass from an area of typical Cheshire dairy farming into one of market gardening, fields of potatoes and cabbages, among other crops can be seen in season flourishing on the fertile fields reclaimed from the heathland. Overton Common is the surviving remains of a much larger heathland area. It is now overgrown with bracken, bramble and rosebay willowherb, with occasional isolated oak and hawthorn trees.

Standing prominently on the high ground to the right is an imposing building which used to house St. Joseph’s Retreat and Conference centre and the Roman Catholic Church (10). Originally known as ‘The Beeches’ it was built in the 1880s by Joseph Lewis, a succesful “dealer in silk and elastic”, who was a great benefactor to Malpas. He financed the building of the new Alport Schools, opened in the 1890s.

The lane swings to the right. It runs alongside the Large Field (on the left), which is thought to contain evidence of an deserted medieval settlement (11). The evidence first came to light during an aerial survey carried out during the drought in 1976. The various hollows and bumps in the field appear to represent road lines and house sites related to an earlier hamlet of Overton, perhaps closely connected to Overton Hall. The Mature Hedgerow dividing the field from the present lane could be of great antiquity, containing as it does, a considerable number of species, including hawthorn, oak, elder, sycamore, hazel, ash, dog rose, honeysuckle, bramble, ivy and gorse.

On the right of the lane stands Rose Cottage, a nineteenth century labourer’s dwlling with interesting stone lintels above the windows and door. Moving only a few yards, the gates of the drive leading to Overton Hall are reached. Now a farm and previously combined with a well-known and successful Cheshire cheesemaking enterprise, the Hall was noted because of the part it played in the Civil War campaigns. It was the home of the Alport family, and Richard Alport married Susan Verney in 1646 while he was on parole from the Fleet Prison in London. Susan went to live in the Fleet with Richard, while he was imprisoned there for supporting the Royalist cause.

Here also stands Alport Farm (13). The present frontage conceals its timber frame construction, which can be seen at the rear of the building. The rents from this farm provided part of the endowment for the Alport School in Malpas, now the local primary school. Today the buildings of Alport Farm house a number of workshops for craftworkers, well worth a visit (Check). Incorporated into the wall of the out buildings can be seen a small stained glass window rescued from Malpas Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, which was demolished in 1985.

As the road swings back to meet the main Malpas to Tilston road, Overton Manor, formerly Overton Farm, is passed on the left (14). This is a good example of a typical Cheshire farmhouse of the eighteenth century, a time when many farmhouses and associated buildings were re-built, replacing old timber framed structures. These re-buildings were partly in response to the changes in farming methods brought about by the agricultural revolution, spearheaded by such innovators as Coke of Holkham and ‘Turnip’ Townsend. This was a particularly prosperous time for Cheshire agriculture, reflected in the scale and grandeur of many of the farmhouses.

The grass verge opposite the Manor frequently produces an abundant crop of Shaggy Ink Cap mushrooms in the early autumn.

Stop and pause for a while at the Main Road running from Tilston to Malpas. This straight stretch is almost certainly the on the line of the Roman road. (15)

In the hedgerow, almost opposite the junction, stand two very old Yew trees. These mark the entrance to Lane End Farm, farmed in the 1870s by the Orton family, but now completely vanished from the landscape.

Follow the footpath which starts on the north side of the cottages, and note, for later, the number of fields crossed. Perhaps this was originally the continuation of the lane you have just walked from Overton Common. It is certainly an ancient right of way since it follows the boundary between the former townships of Edge and Malpas. When the field has been ploughed, many interesting stones can be found in the area, brought here during the last Ice Age which finished about 10,000 years ago.

The path takes you past a Marl Pit, a type of pond common in this part of the county although many have now been filled in (. This one is enclosed by oak, sycamore, hawthorn, holly and elder, which appear to be a playground for a small colony of grey squirrels. Marling is an old farming practice which died out when such fertilisers as bone meal and lime became readily available with the coming of the railways – the link to Malpas came in the 1870s. Marl is a clay sub-soil containing some lime which is found a few feet below the surface. It was spread on the land to help consolidate the sandier top-soil and to counteract its natural acidity. As the old rhyme says.

He that marls sand may buy the land
He that marls moss shall have no loss
He that marls clay flings all away

Marl pits are distinguished by the shallow slope at one end down which a cart could be backed to lead the marl away.

As the footpath enters the fourth field from the road, it follows the line of an Old Lane, still with a line of mature trees marking its boundary on one side and a hedgerow on the other.

Turning right a footpath climbs up through the field in the area known as Hollow Wood (16). The path becomes a track which passes, on it’s left the Bishop Heber High School, the name commemorating the boy born in the Higher Rectory in 1783. (17)

Soon after entering Hollowood Road turn right into Drakes Way (named after the drake family) then left into Oathills Drive. On the right is a line of houses known as Oathills Cottages (18). These houses, of a style unusual for this area, were built in the late 19th century by the same Joseph Lewis who built ‘The Beeches’ and the new Alport Schools.

At the end of Oathills Drive turn right into Chester Road by the Victorian Cemetery and Chapel of Rest. The clock on the chapel, was made by the Malpas clockmaker Arthur Callcot in the 1880s.

From here it is a straightforward walk down Chester Road, with its late 19th and early 20th century villa style houses, past the Alport School (20) into the High Street and back to our starting place at the Cross.