Walkers stay on the edge
A GROUP of East Cheshire Ramblers recently walked the length of the Cown Edge Way which runs from Hazel Grove to Gee Cross.
The route itself is about 18 miles, but to make the return journey by bus more convenient we started in the rather unlikely surroundings of the library car park at Hazel Grove, adding about half a mile.
After walking through suburban streets, we were soon in open fields. The first part of the way is quite flat, through golf courses, farmland and along the Macclesfield and Peak Forest canals, where we had to wait for several minutes because two canal boats were going through a raised drawbridge.
After a stop for coffee at Roman Bridge, the first real ascent of the day towards Mellor church began. The area round the church has seen extensive archaeological excavations and there is a reconstruction of an Iron Age roundhouse.
The surroundings soon changed to more open moorland as we walked up to Robin Hood’s Picking Rods, a Saxon cross probably dating from the ninth century.
Beyond this, the path wound up towards Cown Edge, although the path does not go on to the edge itself which is actually quite indistinct. Much more impressive is Coombes Edge which is the site of a massive landslip. The landslip appears to be fairly recent, but is in fact about 8,000 years old. It made for a very impressive lunch stop. The route then descended steeply to Charlesworth where the village shop provided us with supplementary refreshments. The path then runs by streams and through woodland before making its last major ascent to Idle Hill. We stopped for tea and to take in the view at the war memorial on the strangely named summit of Hackingknife in Werneth Low Country Park. From there it was mostly downhill to the bus stop at Gee Cross.