Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
confusion with the Bollington on the River Dean. Bollington coal wharf and warehouse were
sited here.
Whitbarrow Aqueduct had an overflow to the Slitten Brook. A Victorian park is sited in
the valley, which had a slitting mill that flattened iron bars into strips for making into nails,
tools and barrel hoops. The mill was later used for woollen manufacture after 1800. There
was also a corn mill. Assorted watering holes include the Golden Fleece, Saddlers Wine Bar
and Lymm Conservative Club.
The A56 crosses again at Ditchfield Wharf, where there is another crane with stop planks
and an iron bar to protect the bridge from towlines. More noisily, the M6 also crosses as it
rises on to Thelwall Viaduct to cross the Manchester Ship Canal. The viaduct has been du-
alled, the first viaduct having suffered badly from salt corrosion. Around 15 tonnes of salt is
applied to the structure per year to keep it free of ice. The replacement cost of the viaduct
was £10,000,000 or £27,000 per tonne of salt applied.
Thelwall Grange, built in quieter Victorian times, is now a nursing home. Further along the
hillside is Massey Hall, now a school but previously the house of the owner of Rylands Wire
Works. Thelwall was founded in 923 by Edward the Elder, with a camp to guard the Mersey
from the invading Danes.
The top of a green marine navigation buoy at Cliff Lane Bridge Wharf draws attention to
S&A Marine in a former tannery owned by the Co-operative Wholesale Society. Soon after,
the A56 crosses on a heavy concrete bowstring bridge.
A notable building in Grappenhall is the 16th century St Wilfred's church by the canal,
some parts of which date back to the 12th century. In 1874 it was enlarged and restored. At
the gate there are stocks. Inside there is a Norman red sandstone oblong font, a 13th century
dugout chest made from a tree trunk and a 1275 effigy of Sir William Boydell. Some of the
stained glass is very old and at one time it was said to have more stained glass than any other
church in Cheshire. There is a 180-year-old sundial and a stone cat above the west window.
Lewis Carroll's father preached here at times and would have been accompanied by his fam-
ily, giving credence to the suggestion that the cat was to become the Cheshire Cat in
Alice's
Adventures in Wonderland
.
Stockton Heath warehouse and wharf have semi-circular steps that served as the inter-
change between fast packet boats from Manchester and Runcorn and stage coaches for War-
rington or the south. The London Bridge takes its name from the A49 London Road which
crosses, the Roman road from Middlewich. It was home to the
Duchess-Countess
packet
boat, which took five hours to reach Manchester and carried a blade on the front to cut any
towlines of other boats that were not dropped in time. A model of the boat is to be found in
the National Waterways Museum, Ellesmere Port. Stables for the packet boat horses were in
the house of the bank rider, now occupied by Thorn Marine. The dovecote is a recent addi-
tion.
