Sankey Valley

Follow my trail through the park. Maybe it will inspire you to have a day out there yourself

>	Stanners Pool			v
Stanners Pool is named after a Dallam resident who is no longer with us. It is stocked with a variety of fish, including rudd, bream, carp, gudgeon and perch. In my senior school days in the second half of the 1970s, the canal banks formed part of our cross-country route from Bewsey Lock to what is now the A574 Cromwell Avenue near Callands, doubling back through Callands Farm fields and Bewsey Woods. It was all farmland in those days. Our games master always offered 2p to anybody who could beat him back to the school gym. Nobody got paid!
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v	Callands	<	to Dallam	<
	We had a shorter cross-country route around Bewsey Woods and this came to my advantage. It was a well-known fact at school that I was not a sporty kind of person (C- "far too timid, must try harder" was on one of my school reports!) So Sir must have been very surprised to find me asking to go on the cross-country run every lesson. What he didn't know was that I used to run out of school and off into the woods on the short route. Except my short route was even shorter than the official short route! As soon as I got out of site of the playing fields I used to stop in the woods for an hour before going back to school. He never did find out!
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>	Bewsey Woods	>	>	v
Bewsey Woods is managed by The Woodland Trust. On my school cross-country skives we were often accompanied by a dog through the woods. One friend said the dog would never get lost - he knows these woods like the back of his paw! See his photo on the My Warrington page (the dog, not my friend!).
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	Sankey Valley Park highlights one of the many advantages of living in Britain: you don't have to travel very far to enjoy everything that nature has to offer.
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Lady Isabella	>	Reflections		v
Lady Isabella's statue can be found at the centre of the maze. Don't lose your way!
				Bewsey Lock

Looking south	<	Bewsey Old Hall	Bewsey Hall Lodge	<
	Bewsey (Old) Hall was the home to the lords of the manor of Warrington from the 13th century to the 17th. The name Bewsey comes from 'beau see' meaning beautiful site. The Old Hall district of Warrington is named after the hall. Over recent years many attempts have been made to create other uses for the ancient hall, including a youth centre and, more controversially, a hotel. The current building is about 400 years old. The cottage, Bewsey Hall Lodge, is a private dwelling.
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>	>	>	Trans-Pennine train	v
You can access the area below from near Warrington Hospital on the east side or from Hood Manor on the west of the park. The main car park is also close by.
				Wood carving

Ship-shape	<	Wetland Nature Reserve area (platform by sculpture, right)
	Look out for the Wetland Nature Reserve, three quarters of a mile from Bewsey Old Hall, over the footbridge near Whitecross Community Centre. A display gives details of the kinds of creatures living in the park.
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>	>	>	Spider's web	v
Further along you could at one time find a play area with a ship and a spider's web, but these have since been removed. The photos 'Ship-shape' and 'Spider's web' show how they used to look. Always very popular with the youngsters are the wood carvings along the route of the park.
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Peace Centre	A57 looking east	<	<	<
	The park is separated by the busy A57 dual carriageway, but you can cross safely via a footbridge. There are plenty of picnic areas and places to play ball games. Fishing is a very popular pastime. The Peace Centre, visible from the footbridge, was set up after the Warrington Bomb of 1993.
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>	>	>	>	Mersey White Lead Co Ltd
As you approach old Liverpool Road further along by The Sloop Inn, take a slight walk to the left until you reach a stone bridge. It is called Sankey Mill Bridge, or is that Mill Sankey Bridge? If you look closely, it is both! Have a look on both sides of the road. The waterway below is the Sankey Brook. I wonder if they had some of that falling down water in The Sloop before they carved out the letters?
				Sankey Mill Bridge

v	Sankey Bridges	<	<	Mill Sankey Bridge
	Back to the trail, we now approach an industrial area. First we pass the former premises of the Mersey White Lead Company Limited, and then we cross the railway which used to run to Manchester and Stockport via Bank Quay Low Level Station. Bygone stations also included Arpley, Latchford and Lymm. The line is still in use for transporting freight. You are now at Sankey Bridges.
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>	To Fiddlers Ferry	>	>	v
The walk now takes us to Fiddlers Ferry and the Yacht Haven. You can read more about this on the My Warrington page. One of the country's largest electricity generating stations is located at Fiddlers Ferry.
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	Families of swans can be seen regularly in the area around Sankey Bridges. As you walk through the park, make use of the information boards presented by the Borough Council, Mersey Forest and the Countryside Commission.
Make hay...

...while the sun shines	Daresbury Lab	Norton Water Tower	>	v
The Trans Pennine Trail runs from Hornsea on Humberside to Southport, Merseyside and is 207 miles in length. It is open for walking, cycling and horse riding, but not motorcycles. Check out the official Trans Pennine Trail website.
				directions

Sankey Canal	River Mersey	<	<	Ferry Tavern
	Sankey Valley continues to Spike Island near the Runcorn-Widnes Bridge.
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Fiddlers Ferry Yacht Haven		>	To the Mersey	<>