Category Archives: Farndon

New Local Plan impacts Sibbersfield Lane, Churton

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Thanks to Paul Roberts for his continued updates via the Focus newsletter (LibDems).  Sincere apologies that this is a very battered copy, but hopefully it is still legible.  Paul’s March 2024 newsletter draws attention to the proposal for a new housing site on Sibbersfield Lane, which would accommodate 287 houses. This would seriously increase the traffic and pollution along Sibbersfield Lane and Chester Road, and cause further risk on the junction with the A534. Paul raises other concerns too.  You have until 16th March to comment.

Paul draws attention to various concerns with the proposal and provides the link for commenting on the plan. In case my dreadful copy makes this difficult to read, here’s the link:
https://app.maptionnaire.com/q/9pn72k8ibb8a
In terms of usability, this online interface is really rather horrible.  You first have to find the development on the interactive map, then zoom in on it and then click on it. Only then can you add a comment.

 

A very autumnal walk taking in Churton fields, Townfield Lane, the speedy Dee – and a cormorant.

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After all the rain last night, which was truly torrential, I was somewhat surprised to wake up to bright sunshine and a topaz sky this morning.  A treat for mid November. Planning to walk through the fields behind Churton towards Farndon, before turning right down Townfield Lane to the Dee, I decided that it was a moment for seriously waterproof footwear.  Not walking boots but welly boots.  It was a good instinct.  The fields were sodden and marshy, the tracks muddy and mired due to tractors, and the picturesque but unadopted Townfield Lane was a series of lane-wide pools.  The short section of footpath leading north from the lane along the river bank to the field next to the river was only just clear of the flood waters, which were moving fast and forming fascinating eddies.

I always like the Churton-to-Farndon fields following harvest, because of the linear stubble that draws the eye into the distance and focuses attention on individual trees that, at this time of year, are full of bright warm colours.  The deep chestnut brown of the fields provides a beautiful foil for the silvery stubble, the blue skies and the autumnal leaves.  The mirror-like reflections in the standing water were a pleasure in their own right.  Today really was a water walk.

The biggest surprise was spotting a cormorant (or is it a shag?) at the very top of a tall tree by the side of the river (see photo at end of post).  Cormorants and shags are right at home on the coastal estuaries of mid-Wales, and are frequent visitors to the Thames and its former docks in London, both places where I used to live, but I never did learn to tell the difference between them, and I have never seen one this far inland.  It seemed right at home.
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View from the Dee at the end of Townfield Lane across the fields to the Barnston Memorial.

It would have been good to turn this into a circular walk by continuing north along the side of the Dee and taking the footpath from the Dee straight through the plantation onto the track extending directly from Hob Lane in Churton, but the footpath back to Hob Lane through the plantation of trees is usually bad news in even averagely showery weather, with seriously thick, sometimes impassable mud, so I simply retraced my steps on this occasion.  The circular walk is very much a summer activity after a period of very dry weather.

If you don’t like squelching through wet mud and soggy grass, or paddling through big areas of standing water, this is not a good walk following heavy rainfall, even on a beautiful day.  On the other hand, it cast a very familiar local walk in an entirely new light.  After heavy rainfall I would advise that this is not a walk for those with unwilling legs, although my father (he of a notably unwilling leg) had no problems with it in dry periods in the spring and summer.  Today it was far too slippery and sludgy.

 

Mike Royden’s history of the White Horse pub in Churton

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The White Horse public house in Churton, some 20 minutes south of Chester and a few minutes north of Farndon and Holt has been closed since the pandemic, but has been the source of some heavy-duty activity over the last few months, thanks to the efforts of its new owner Gary Usher and his crowd-funding business model.

Mike Royden, whose massive and seriously impressive website about Farndon and its environs, Royden History, is one of the best of the region’s history resources, has added a history of the White Horse to his site, with terrific images and explanatory text, tracing not just the history of the building but its various incumbents too.  Buildings are far easier to trace than the people associated with them, and this really is a great piece of work using primary sources.  Marvellous detective work and a very good read.  Whether you are interested in Churton’s history or just the White Horse itself, Mike’s history of the White Horse can be found at the following page:

http://www.roydenhistory.co.uk/farndon/buildings/pubs/whitehorse_churton/whitehorse_churton.htm

It was a real eye-opener to see the 1895 photo of the pub’s thatched predecessor, as well as the completely bizarre photograph of the Red Lion, a former Churton pub, in one of its previous incarnations.  Thank you Mike!

I took the pics below in February 2022, when the future of the White Horse was very much up in the air.  It is great to see it all looking so trim and tidy.

White Horse images from February 2022

The latest chapter in the pub’s history begins when it opens on 3rd March 2023, and I am very much looking forward to taking it for a test drive.  Here’s a copy of their sample menu (also snaffled, with sincere thanks, from Mike’s page above).

Now where’s the wine list? 🙂

For more details about the White Horse and the plans for its future, the website is at https://thewhitehorsechurton.co.uk/ and their Twitter account is at https://twitter.com/TheWhiteHorsePu (not a typo – there is no “b” at the end of Pu).

 

 

A winter walk through the fields from Churton to Farndon

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The walk through the fields from Churton to Farndon and back again is always enjoyable, taking about an hour for the full circuit, or less if you don’t pause for photos.  It always varies enormously by season, but was quite spectacularly distinctive yesterday, glazed in frost under a bright blue sunny sky. Where the tractors had been out, during wet weather the deep tracks along some of the footpaths had filled with rainwater and frozen solid, but the ridges between were ice-free.  Literally freezing in the shade, it was actually quite warm in the sun.  A splendid walk, all colour and light.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The route taken from Churton to Farndon along official footpaths (in bright pink). The return route takes the pink footpath that starts in Brewery Lane.  The red blobs are the approximate locations of two possible prehistoric sites, now ploughed out. Source of map: The Public Map Viewer.

 

Informal ecology at the Barnston Monument Natural Burial Ground in Farndon

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Barnston Monument Meadow Natural Burial Ground in Farndon, June 2021

This time last year I was singing the praises of the glorious floral colour extravaganza of the newly established Monument Meadow Natural Burial Ground on the outskirts of Farndon, where I was taking additional photographs for a post about the Barnston Memorial.  The blues and reds (cornflowers and poppies) were brilliant against the white mayflowers and chamomiles and all the sunny yellows. It was the best fantasy wildflower garden that I could imagine (more photos of how it looked last year here).  But that’s essentially the trouble with wildflower gardens.  The fantasy is easily replaced by a rather different reality.  You can seed them as much as you like, and in the first year you might have the perfect, cottage garden look, but wild means wild, and a field full of seeds will do its own thing, whether those seeds were scattered by human hand, blow in by the wind or deposited by birds on high.  Last year, I was standing amongst the poppies and the cornflowers. dubiously wondering how many years this idyllic vision would last.

Year 2 at Cambridge Kings College Chapel. Source: BBC News

My doubts were largely due to a television report a couple of years ago, about research based on a study at Cambridge University, which took place on what had been a formal lawn behind King’s College Chapel.  When it first flowered it looked like the Barnston Memorial field above, full of poppies, mayflowers and cornflowers.  What happened in its second year of flowering is that most of the colourful species were replaced by cow parsley and other great leggy white-flowered umbellifera weeds of British verges, as well as thistles, as you can see in the photograph of the Cambridge wildflower field just before being harvested (using shire horses).

The Barnston Memorial field in year 2, July 2022

I have been driving past the Barnston Memorial field for the last few weeks keeping a look out for the poppies and cornflowers, but could see nothing but white.  When I pulled over on Tuesday 5th July to take a closer look at this, its second year, it became clear that it had gone the way of the Cambridge experiment.  Large swathes of cow parsley and a few thistles and white chamomiles are accompanied by a patches of yellow vetch, one or two fugitive cornflowers well below the level of the cow parsley, a lot of yellow ragwort (poisonous to horses and cattle) and some pinkish, blousy mallow.  Mallow, or lavatera, is a chronic escape artist from domestic gardens, which seeds itself wherever it can;  I suspect that the lavatera in the field is just such a domestic escapee.  There are multiple species of grass and a few cereal crops that have escaped from the neighbouring field.  There is not a poppy in sight.  That is not to say that the field is unattractive, but it is a very different proposition from last year, and the loss of the blue cornflowers and red poppies makes it a much less idyllic prospect.

The wildflower field was not planted as an ecological experiment, and it is not being monitored by any specialists, but it will be interesting to see what happens next year.
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Barnston Memorial field – 2021 on the left and 2022 on the right

Sources:

BBC News
Cambridge University’s King’s College meadow harvested with horses
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-58057800

 

Farndon milepost of 1898

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I’m still collecting mileposts that are found along the Chester to Worthenbury turnpike (about which I have posted in two parts, starting here).  The mileposts post-date the original Chester to Worthenbury ones, of which none survive, but they are still a lovely bit of heritage  When I originally wrote the piece, it was in the middle of summer and although I set off confidently with a map that marked the location of the surviving 1898 mileposts, I could only find two of them.  Since then I have been finding them and adding them to a post about the 1898 mileposts.

This is one that I wasn’t looking for, because it is not on the official Chester to Worthenbury turnpike.  I spotted it out of the corner of my eye on a rare occasion when I was driving through Farndon along Barton Road, and this was only because the bridge was closed and I found myself driving through Farndon to get onto the bypass.  The exact location is, using What3Words: ///warned.tower.mascots, which you can see on a map at https://what3words.com/warned.tower.mascots.

I remembered it a few days ago and went back to photograph it.  Many thanks to whoever does such a splendid job of sculpting the hedge behind it so that the whilst the hedge still looks great, the milepost is perfectly protected and easy to spot, and looks absolutely super.  If only they were all so well cared for.

I’ve added it to my post about the other 1898 mileposts in this area, which I am happily continuing to find new mileposts for.

 

The 1898 mile posts between Farndon, Churton, Aldford and Huntington

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The milepost just outside Holly Bush Cottage, the nearest one to Farndon, close to the Barnston Monument. It sits at a slight tilt today.  This is the best one for seeing the manufacturer’s logo, which reads W.H. Smith and Co, Makers, Whitchurch. Milestone Society National ID: CH_CHTP08a.  What3Words ///dressing.sublime.lunge

Between Aldford and Farndon there are three very fine 1898 milestones dotted along the road, following the line of the Farndon branch of the old Chester to Worthenbury turnpike (toll road), all on the west side of the road. The photos here show those mileposts that remain between Farndon and Aldford along the B5130.  Other photos show milestones between Aldford and Huntington, plus one in Farndon, but I have no idea if there are some missing along that particular route.  At the moment they are in no particular order but I will eventually, when I have found a few more, organize them from north to south.

The photos of the milestones along the Farndon to Aldford stretch are mine, but the two to the north of Aldford, as the B5130 approaches Huntington, are by other people, found online, because I have not yet managed to track them down in the real world.  Please see the captions for image credits.  All photos can be clicked on to see the bigger image, in which the text on the mileposts can be read clearly (except, of course, where vegetation blocks the view).  For the ones I’ve seen myself, I have taken What Three Words readings to fix the location.  What Three Words is a smartphone app that assigns three words to uniquely describe areas a little smaller than the size of a parking space.  It’s simpler than other location systems, and fixes locations very precisely, world-wide.  It is particularly useful for finding people in emergencies, but I thought it would be useful for enabling people to relocate the mileposts when they become overgrown.  

Churton milepost, next to Greenfields, the last house in Churton at its north on the way to Aldford. Milestone Society Milestone Society National ID CH_CHTP07. What3Words ///blatnatly.backers.comic. My photos, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

All English turnpike Acts, each created by a separate Act of Parliament, had expired by the end of the 19th Century.  The Local Government Act of 1888 put responsibility for roads into the hands of local councils, making nearly all of the remaining turnpikes redundant.  Sections 92 to 98 of the 1888 Act, however, provided for some exclusions and section 97 enabled Chester County Council to initially avoid taking responsibility for the Chester to Worthenbury turnpike.  Eventually, the Council was forced to take over all the local roads and in 1898 it erected a number of particularly handsome mileposts in Cheshire, including those along the route of the former Chester to Worthenbury turnpike, by then defunct, as well as the Farndon branch of the turnpike.  I have posted about the Chester to Worthenbury turnpike – part 1 about the background to turnpikes and part 2 about the Chester to Worthenbury turnpike in particular.

The milepost outside Glebe Farm, between Churton and Aldford. The red dot is apparently something to do with a cycle race.  Milestone Society National ID CH_CHTP06. What3Words ///decently.hatter.slide. My photos, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

None of the  mileposts that must have been erected during the 1854 turnpiking of the road have survived.  Milestones or mileposts were erected from the first half of the 17th Century onwards, starting in southeast England, mainly for the benefit of mail coaches and other passenger vehicles.  Turnpikes were merely encouraged to install mile posts from the 1740s but they became a legal requirement from 1766 when it was found that as well as being useful for coachmen and passengers, it enabled accurate measuring of distances for the pricing of different routes.  It also helped to improve improved the reliability of timetables, something to which the turnpikes themselves, had enabled, particularly relevant in bad weather.  Assuming that mileposts were erected when the 1854 turnpike was established, they were presumably removed when the 1898 milestones were installed.

I was unable to find the Crook of Dee milestone, but in the Milestone Society’s survey (over 18 years ago) it is listed it as near Cheaveley Hall Farm, opposite Cheaveley Hall Cottages.  It is marked on the Ordnance Survey Map and on the above Public Map Viewer with the letters MP. Milestone Society National ID CH_CHTP04. Image sources: Geograph and the Cheshire West and Chester Public Map Viewer

The 1898 mileposts are all the same, painted white with black lettering, and consisting of hollow metal posts with two sides meting in the middle, topped with a triangular cap that is tipped towards the road.  The triangular cap says, in all cases, “Chester County Council 1898.”  The two sides, each facing into the oncoming traffic, give the number of miles to key destinations in each direction.  On the southernmost face, the manufacturer’s mark “W.H. Smith and Co., Makers, Whitchurch” is shown below the mileages.  There are no backs on the mileposts.  The ones shown here are in good condition. Being on the side of a very busy road, they are vulnerable to exhaust fumes and road dirt sprayed during rainy periods.  I don’t know who maintains them, but in other parts of Cheshire many have needed to undergo restoration, some having been in very poor condition.  A lot of this work has been lead by the Milestone Society in co-operation with the relevant council.

The Crook of Dee milestone at Cheavely Cottages. What3Words address: ///liner.apprehend.stitch

The survival of these mileposts is remarkable and a pleasure to see.  I have now found all of the ones on the former Chester to Worthenbury turnpike.   I only found the Crook of Dee milepost in November 2021, after hunting for it for ages.  It was completely concealed by undergrowth in the summer and it was only after leaf fall, and with the hedge cut back, that I eventually found it, covered in ivy but still there.  The photograph of the Crook of Dee shown above left, decoratively peeping through a fine show of dandelions and dead nettles is from the Geograph website, taken during the Milestone Society’s national survey over 18 years ago, and is a particularly nice photograph so I have left it here.  My own photograph is at right.  I cleared the ivy as best I could on a very dangerous stretch of road with no footpath and only a tiny verge, but it is in fair condition, albeit very rusty.  The What3Words address for it is shown on the image to the right.  It is located opposite the Cheaveley Hall Cottages,

Huntington milestone. What3Words ///shine.knee.reject

There is also one at Huntington, for which I kept an eye open for months, and found on the same day as the Cheaveley Hall one.  It is shown left, along with its What3Words location.  It is in excellent condition on a grass verge, just north of a pedestrian crossing.

The Ordnance Survey map, shows another run of mileposts between Churton and Worthenbury.  The first heading south from Churton towards Worthenbury should be somewhere along Sibbersfield Way (which I have repeatedly looked out for in the car when nothing has been behind me, but I still haven’t found)

The rest on the leg of the road south of the bypass that runs towards Worthenbury via Crewe by Farndon and Shocklach through blissful rural fields and past several estates and  farms. I made an attempt to locate them during the summer, few months later I found the one to the north of Crewe by Farndon, which had been revealed by hedge-cutting.  It is in the grass verge on the west side of the road, just before Caldecott Farm.

Not so shiny and new as some of them, but still hanging on in there!  It is located just short of a farm on the left heading south (the east), and is on the west side of the road about two or so metres to the right of a telegraph pole.  I will go back and get an exact What Three Words location for it next time I’m in that area, but for the time being it is roughly at ///rainfall.duplicity.proofs.

During the summer I was able to find the nice one in Shocklach, thankfully not hiding in a hedge and at that time pleasingly accompanied by some lovely roses.

The milepost at Shocklach, on the route to Worthenbury. Milestone Society National ID CH_CHTP12. My photo, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

I suspect that the rest are still hiding in overgrown verges.  As with the Crook of Dee milepost, as the vegetation dies down this winter I will continue to look for them.  When I have the full set I’ll put them into north-south order.

The Sibbersfield Lane milepost, which is on the stretch of road from Churton towards Crewe-by-Farndon, about halfway down before reaching the bypass, is slowly diving into a ditch.  It’s a terrible photograph but I was not going to risk getting out of the car to take it, as it is a very nasty and fast stretch of road.  I forgot to take its What3Words location, but will go back and re-take the photograph and note the location on a quiet day, preferably when the road is closed!  Taken in March 2022:

In May 2022 I was diverted due to the Holt-Farndon bridge closure down Barton Road, the road that runs through Farndon from the bridge, and noticed a milestone on the south side of the road.  I was in a hurry so didn’t stop, but went back in early July, half expecting it to be completely subsumed into the hedge that stood behind it, but not a chance.  Someone is looking after it beautifully (with thanks).  It’s What3Words location is ///warned.tower.mascots, which you can see on a map at https://what3words.com/warned.tower.mascots.

 

 

Sources:

Books and papers

Benford, M. 2002. Milestones.  Shire Publications

Crosby, A.G. 2012.  New Roads for Old. Cheshire Turnpikes in the Landscape 1700-1850.  In (eds.) Varey, S.M. and White, G.J. Landscape History Discoveries in the North West.  University of Chester Press, p.190-223.

Local Government Act 1888 (51 and 52 Vict. c.41). Section 97, Saving as to liability for main roads.

Wright, G. N. 1992. Turnpike Roads. Shire Publications Ltd.

Websites

Milestone Society Restorations in Cheshire 2008-2009
The Milestone Society
https://www.milestonesociety.co.uk/archives/Downloads/In%202008%208-Cheshire%20County%20Council%20Highways%20Services%20were%20suc..pdf 

Turnpike Roads in England and Wales
Turnpikes.org.uk
http://www.turnpikes.org.uk/Tollhouse%20design.htm

 

Lovely footpaths through the fields between Churton and Farndon – Part 2

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The return leg of the walk from Churton to Farndon, starting at Brewery Lane. Source of map: Public Map Viewer

The return leg of the walk from Churton to Farndon described in Part 1, heading back from Farndon to Churton, was just as lovely in the mid-July heatwave, but was not the same, and had some added extras.   It all looked very different from today’s endless drizzle, but at least the garden is deliriously happy.

On the return leg of my walk, instead of retracing my steps along Townfield Lane, I turned into Brewery Lane, just a little further to the north, which turned out to be a short stretch of road behind Brewery Motors with some nice views.  It segues into a the public footpath that is narrow but very safe underfoot before it joins up with the track along which I had originally walked into Farndon.  The footpath offers  a novel view over a gate of the wildflower field at the Barnston Monument to its east.  I have marked the route on the map on the left (from the Public Map Viewer website), a shorter route than on the first leg.  The red dots are explained in Part 1, marking the approximate positions of possible prehistoric sites.

At Knowl Plantation, a track is marked on the Public Map Viewer that skirts it to the west instead of heading back up the footpath to the east.  It links up with the Knowl Lane footpath that leads to the Dee.  After I returned home I realized that on the Public Map Viewer although marked as a track it is not shown as a public footpath, so I am not sure if it is actually a right of way, but I was careful to stick to the edges and do no damage.

Dove’s foot’s crane’s-bill, its leaves declaring it to be a form of geranium.  Like the speedwell below, all along the edge of the corn, it spreads in huge swathes.

Common field speedwell, which grows everywhere in great, low carpets.

Thistledown, spreading itself in carpets along the path and hanging in the nearby trees

Redshank

When I was a child, anything that looked like a flower, with lots of petals arranged around a clearly defined core, was accordingly categorized in my head as a flower, but anything that failed to look sufficiently floral was always a weed.  Redshank came firmly into my childhood  weed category.

Elder (Sambucus)

Reaching the main footpath back to Churton, that leads from the Dee to Knowl Lane. I was enchanted to be surrounded by butterflies.  They stubbornly refused to settle, and the few that did settle sat with their wings firmly closed, so there were very few photographs, but it was a lovely experience.

Small heath butterfly

Gatekeeper

Common red soldier beetle  (Rhagonycha fulva) on hogweed flowers

Comma

Speckled wood

It was on the return leg of the walk that that I noticed three lovely flowers on this walk that I had never seen before.  The tiny, tiny violas shown below, the flower just a few millimeter high (just a little bigger than speedwell flowers) is the field pansy (Viola arvensis).  They behave much like speedwells, spreading on straggling stems, but there were much fewer flowers per plant, and I only saw a small number of them.

Field pansy in company with common field speedwell

The Hedge Woundwort below, Stachys sylvatica, is a member of the Lamiaceae (mint) family.  It looks very like the common spotted orchid, but the leaves are wrong.  With the orchid, the leaves are smooth-sided and long and sprout from the base, but the woundwort has jagged- or serrated-edged leaves that are much shorter and sprout from all along the stem.  With the Hedge woundwort, the colour leans more towards purple or red than towards the common spotted orchid’s pink, and the woundwort lacks the “wings” that top the orchid flowers.  The distinctive white markings are thought to attract bees to help with pollination.

Hedge Woundwort

This creeping and climbing perennial, here wrapping itself around a blackberry bramble with a lovely pink flower, is White Bryony (Bryonia dioica).  It is not uncommon as a garden weed, and is beast to eliminate as it has long, deep tubers that have to be pulled out in their entirety to kill the plant.  In the wild, however, they are lovely, colonizing hedgerows and scrubland, spreading by coiled stem-tendrils that latch on to the stems of other plants to enable it to travel in all directions.  When it has finished flowering, the white/yellowish-green flower is replaced by a small red berry.

White Bryony

At no point on either walk can one actually see the river from the footpaths, so this is a matter of enjoying the fields in their own right.

 

The Big Butterfly Count 2021

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The Big Butterfly Count runs i Britain between 16th July to the 8th August, so we are just in time to join in.  Every year I do the Big Garden Birdwatch, counting birds that land in the garden in a given hour.  It ran this year in January 2021, before I moved to Churton, but I’ll be talking about that next year when it comes around again.

I had not, however, heard of the Big Butterfly Count.  It was reported in the latest edition of the magazine New Scientist, so I fired up my web browser to get the details.

The Big Butterfly Count “is a UK-wide survey aimed at helping us assess the health of our environment simply by counting the amount and type of butterflies (and some day-flying moths) we see.”  The idea is to sit in a promising spot (for example, in your garden, in a park or along a footpath) for 15 minutes and take note of everything you see in that time.

You will need to register for an account, which is free, after which you can download and print off a butterfly identification chart (which also lists the species in which they are interested), and then send in your results.  You can do this via a free smartphone app or via your web browser (computer, tablet, etc).

I am going to spend my 15 minutes in front of my Black Knight buddleia, which is a great butterfly attractor.  A tremendously good excuse for abandoning the weeding and mellowing out with the wildlife 🙂  I had to chase out a peacock butterfly from the living room only this morning.  On a recent walk there were many types in the hedges flanking the footpath section of Knowl Lane at its western end as it approaches the Dee, and I suspect that I will find that the species that prefer those hedges and the ones gracing my garden will be very different.

Find out the details on the Big Butterfly Count website.