RETURN to the roundabout and turn left over the motorway. Take the next left turn down the A559 towards Northwich and you soon pass the Ring o’ Bells.

Take care along this busy road with its narrow pavement and, after passing Stretton House and a pond, turn right over a stile in the hedge.

Go ahead across the field, making for the corner of the farm buildings.

Walk alongside these and turn left onto a cart track at the far end.

Almost immediately turn right over a stile in the hedge and cut the corner off this field as you make for another stile.

Cross the next field (perhaps a messy mire at first) aiming for the kink in the hedge opposite.

Negotiate the stile here and bear right beside the hedge to another stile, after which you turn left along School Lane.

Ignore the right turn into Booth’s Lane, then turn right over a stile, and negotiate nettles, just before the outbuildings of Noggin Cottage.

Bear left along the hedge here, rounding the bend in it to a pond and stile in the field’s corner.

Turn right along the hedge of the next field.

Climb over the stile into the following field and turn left along the hedge to a stile and road junction at Bentley’s Farm.

Turn left along Bentley’s Farm Lane to the Birch & Bottle.

Cross the A559 and continue down Birch Tree Lane, passing some 18th century property on the way to Fogg’s Farm.

Keep ahead at the junction here, first between farm buildings and a modern bungalow, then past fishing pools to Antrobus Golf Course.

Walk beside the course, passing more ponds, then continue on a gravel path until it bears right after the last pond and peters out.

From here make for a post ahead and turn left along a rough, and perhaps muddy, cart-track.

Veer right at the next post and cross the course, with care, to a facing marker at the end of a ditch.

Turn left here, continuing between young trees past another post, then leave the course via a stile in the right-hand corner of the facing hedge.

Turn right along the top edge of two fields, then turn left along Reed Lane.

Keep ahead at the sharp bend, down a rough road known locally as New Occupation Lane, which leads to Whitley Reed Farm.

As you reach the farm turn left and walk through a rough patch of nettles.

Then take the same direction through rough grass alongside a hedge, a fence, then on a slight ridge which separates fields.

At the deep ditch ahead turn right and walk to a wooden bridge and a stile into the next field.

Keep ahead, with the fence on your left, to another stile.

After this cross a small area of rough ground, then a sandy racetrack, to reach the end of a hedge.

Continue ahead to the left of this until you veer left past ponds teeming with wildlife, cross a sandy track again and make for the stile ahead.

If crops allow, bear slightly left to the motorway and turn left beside it.

At the field’s end bear left again, following the hedge up to the wood.

Veer slightly right and follow its edge, then continue on the rough patch of grass separating crops to reach a gravel track.

Turn left here, away from the motorway and, after a short distance where it bears left, leave it and veer right up the side of a field towards Moss Hall.

Keep ahead at the first stile, then turn right over the second to walk beside the slurry pit.

Next, bear left alongside the byre until you cross the stile next to a field gate.

Turn right along Moss Hall Lane where, in Autumn, an abundance of blackberries are there for the picking.

Just past the buildings of Tanyard Farm turn right over an almost hidden stile by a white gate.

From here cross the field, keeping the telegraph pole on your right and eventually walking alongside a jutting-out hedge to a corner stile.

Turn left, then right along Summit Close to reach the A559.

Turn right to cross the motorway, then back down Spark Hall Close to the Stretton Fox.

Start: Stretton Fox

Distance: 6 miles

How to get there

By car: From Warrington, take the A49 south to the M56 roundabout. Take the first left turn off this to the Stretton Fox car park.


NB: Restrictions on space mean this article provides a summary of the route. It is advisable for anyone who plans to follow the walk to take a copy of the relevant Ordnance Survey map