Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Delamere Way footpath follows the canal from its Stockton Heath end towards Frod-
sham, passing the Fox Covert cemetery and older Baptist one beyond (where Oliver Crom-
well once worshipped) and leaving across the golf course. On the other side of the canal
is a cricket pitch. Hill Cliffe Reservoir contains 45,000m
3
of water for Warrington. Hill-
foot Farm's 17th century barn has an arched end and round holes for pitching hay or straw
down from the loft. Water from Appleton Reservoir is supplied to Warrington at a rate of
2,200m
3
/day through a pipe carried on a wooden frame at Hough's Bridge, a crossing named
after a local family.
Another local family of great significance at Higher Walton were the Greenalls, noted for
their brewing. Two generations of the family rebuilt the village, the Victorian and Edwardian
houses now mostly having been sold to tenants. The Gothic revival church of 1885 was built
by Paley and Austin for Sir Gilbert Greenall and he had Walton Hall built in 1836, these days
featuring a children's playground, pitch and putt course, outdoor chess, museum, children's
zoo and gardens laid out by the first Lady Daresbury. The canal runs in a broad sandstone
cutting.
Moorfield bridge has another stop plank crane and winding hole, on a section of canal
above two railway lines and with views across the Mersey to Fiddler's Ferry power station.
Up the hill, beyond the potato fields, is the tower of All Saints church at Daresbury, the
church where Lewis Carroll's father was the vicar, something clearly indicated by his char-
acters in the stained-glass windows. Many boat crews were not prepared to come up to the
church, however, so the vicar converted a mission boat at Preston Brook for their use.
A more conspicuous tower, these days, is the white one of Daresbury Nuclear Physics Lab-
oratory, housing the world's largest tandem Van de Graaff generator. The laboratory also had
the first synchron radiation source for research, cooled by water drawn from the canal.
The short Preston Brook Branch connects through Preston Brook tunnel with the Trent &
Mersey Canal. The plan was that transhipment should be done at Middlewich but, by an un-
fortunate error, the tunnel was just too narrow for Mersey flats to get through so it all had to
be done here, to the considerable financial gain of the Duke of Bridgewater. Two kilometres
of wharves, warehouses, offices, houses and stables were set up from the tunnel on to the
main line towards Runcorn, forming one of the busiest inland ports in the country, later be-
coming a canal/railway interchange with the Warrington to Crewe line passing under the end
of the line to Runcorn.
