Buckley hills Sandstone Cheshire The UK.

                   

A walk in Cheshire, North West England

Superb views of the Cheshire Plain

Walk route map ch107 Bulkeley Hill, Raw Head, 
Bickerton Hill and The Sandstone Trail from Upper Bewardsley.

Walk Route Summary:

- Upper Burwardsley, The Sandstone Trail, Bulkeley Hill, Raw Head (Rawhead), Chiflik Farm, Gallantry Bank, Bickerton, Bickerton Hill, Maiden Castle (Bickerton Hill), Brown Knowl, Fullers Moor, Harthill, Burwardsley, Upper Burwardsley.

Vital Statistics for this Walk

    Length/Distance: 15km (9.5 miles)
    Total Ascent: 558m (1831ft)
    Difficulty: Moderate
    Allow at least: 5.25hrs
    Walk Grade: Walk Grades Explanation and Help
  
Walk route map ch107 Bulkeley Hill, Raw Head, Bickerton Hill and The Sandstone Trail from Upper Bewardsley Upper Burwardsley, Sandstone Trail, Bulkeley Hill, Raw Head (Rawhead), Chiflik Farm, Gallantry Bank, Bickerton, Bickerton Hill, Maiden Castle (Bickerton Hill), Brown Knowl, Fullers Moor, Harthill, Burwardsley, Upper Burwardsley Cheshire, England

Sandstone Trail Information Board at Beacon Hill Car Park near Frodsham

                         

Walk Routes on Interactive Ordnance Survey Explorer Map 257 Crewe & Nantwich.

This unique walk finder includes walks from popular locations including Malpas, Crewe, Nantwich, Whitchurch & Alsager and walks up lots of mountains including Raw Head.

The trail leads through the trees and then crosses a field to reach a crossway of paths, we stay on the Sandstone Trail by going straight on along a track to Bickerton Hill. Soon we take a left to join a narrower path where the trail veers from the main track.

 

Raw Head Trig Point  Summit  at 227m (745ft).

                      This was the Landrover experience from Peckforton castle.

Twin peaks: Medieval Beeston Castle and Victorian Peckforton Castle face each other on Cheshire’s Sandstone Trail


Until fairly recently in historical terms, most ordinary Cheshire dwellings were timber framed, infilled with either wattle and daub or handmade bricks, and thatched with reeds or straw.


Only the most important were made of expensive stone, such as a handful of larger houses, churches and castles.

Cheshire Churches


Early churches crop up all along the Sandstone Trail. They are important local features and part of the Cheshire sandstone ridge’s local distinctiveness.


From north to south, interesting churches include: 12th-century, Norman St Laurence’s Church, halfway up Frodsham Hill, founded on the site of an earlier Saxon chapel; Victorian St John the Evangelist at Alvanley; St Helen’s at Tarporley, a 15th-century church on an earlier site; Holy Trinity Church at Bickerton, built in 1836 as a chapel of ease to St Oswald’s at Malpas; Old St Chad’s Chapel at Tushingham, isolated in the fields ever since it was bypassed by the new turnpike road in the 18th century; and lovely Georgian St Alkmund’s Church, in Whitchurch.

Cheshire Castles


The most outstanding reminder of Cheshire’s Norman past is undoubtedly Beeston Castle on its isolated crag at the heart of the sandstone ridge. It’s a prominent Cheshire landmark.


Built in the 1220s by Chester’s Earl Ranulph III, Beeston Castle incorporates Saracen features picked up during his time at the Crusades. Few people today realise that the outer bailey’s curtain wall overlies the prehistoric ramparts of an Iron Age hillfort.


Within the inner bailey is the deepest historic well in England, said to conceal Richard II’s ‘lost treasure’. Both Roundheads and Cavaliers later besieged Beeston Castle during the English Civil War.


Beeston Castle has been a popular local venue for fetes and day trips for centuries. Today, it’s owned by the Tollemache Estate but cared for by English Heritage. Facilities include the ‘Castle of the Rock’ exhibition, gift shop and toilets. There is also an innovative events programme including medieval re-enactments.


The panoramic view from the summit reputedly spans seven or eight old counties, and visitors may borrow binoculars from the ticket desk. The summit also makes an ideal spot for summer picnics.

Peckforton Castle


Nearby is Victorian Peckforton Castle. An authentic replica of a 13th century fortress, it was built for John (later 1st Baron) Tollemache between 1842 and 1851 for the then vast sum of £67,847 9s 7½ d. Its celebrated architect, Anthony Salvin, had worked previously on Windsor Castle and the Tower of London.


The castle has since appeared in an episode of the BBC TV series, ‘Doctor Who’, and in the 1991 film, ‘Robin Hood’, and is now a luxurious hotel and restaurant.

    The flue of the pumping engine, used to drain the mine,is  still standing.

Copper mining at Bickerton was first recorded in 1696. The mine was owned by the Egerton family of Oulton, with eight miners being employed between 1696 and 1698. There were six shafts, one of which was deepened to 156 feet (48 m) in 1807. The mines were worked intermittently until 1906. A rare remnant of this local industry is a disused mine engine house chimney in red sandstone, which stands by the A534 at the foot of the northerly hill near Gallantry Bank. The flue of a pumping engine that was used to drain the mine, it dates from the early 19th century and is a grade-II-listed building. The remains of adjacent mining buildings were still standing in around 1920. The Copper Mine public house at nearby Broxton displays mining equipment and pictures.