Etherow Country Park to Trans Pennine Trail

Today's walk started in one country park in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport and ended in another, so it might have been reasonable to expect a short and easy walk. It's true that it wasn't especially long or challenging but, as yesterday, there were hills, and there was also scope for route-finding confusion! Furthermore, for much of today's walk we could have been forgiven for thinking that we were in the middle of nowhere. The weather was not as sunny as on the previous two days, but it stayed dry, and we very much enjoyed the walk.

It didn't take us long to drive from the Stockport South Premier Inn to the Tiviot Way car park (SJ902913) in the Reddish Vale Country Park. This car park is just off the A626 to the north of M60 Junction 27 - as the crow flies it is only about 2 miles from the Premier Inn. From here, I was pleased that Apple Maps didn't use the route past Marple Station (complete with road works) that we'd used yesterday, instead taking us through Romiley to Compstall. The Tiviot Way car park is quite small, but it is free and there was space. The Etherow Country Park car park costs £3 for the day, but it is much bigger (though, as yesterday, it was busy when we collected the car later in the day) and it meant we had easy access to toilets (and a cafe should we have wanted it) for us to use at the start and end of the walk. 

We continued alongside the river as it turned towards the south, and had we continued straight ahead we'd soon have been just the other side of the river from where we walked yesterday. However, we turned away from  the river and headed to Lower Watermeetings Farm. Here, the path was not obvious, so we continued on the track towards Upper Watermeetings Farm before taking a path heading towards the railway viaduct and the aquaduct carrying the Peak Forest Canal. 

Our route led under both the viaduct and the aquaduct before climbing steeply to the canal towpath just to the far side of the aquaduct. I couldn't resist the tempation to walk back onto the aquaduct itself, though the light was not helpful for photography. After turning around, we headed west, and negotiated another couple of interesting canal structures; a cutting and a tunnel (where we had to climb up and over the hill through which it went). After returning to the canal at the far side of the tunnel, we encountered our next route-finding issues; I headed away from the canal on a descending a track before realising that we should stay by the canal for longer then take a path to the left.

Now on the correct path, we meandered our way through the attractive Kirk Wood. We took a detour to take a look at the historic Chadkirk Chapel, then we continued on to towards the A627. There is a car park just before the road, but don't believe the "PC" on the OS Map; the "toilet block" was an old (and firmly locked) portacabin. After a short walk along the road, the immediate onward route was clear, along a track*, but we were somewhat anxious about how we were to get to the other side of the river, since the Midshires Way diamonds on the OS map appear to switch from one side of the river to the other without any sign of a means by which to cross it. 

Fortunately, at the point where our route (across the river) parted company with the straight-ahead route, there was a very clear sign - and, yes, there was a bridge. This brought us into a truly delightful strip of woodland, which we followed for a mile or so, broadly tracking the route of the river, though some distance above it, We were close to Offerton, a suburb of Stockport, and later we were circumnavigating Woodbank [Memorial] Park, but as we walked on the paths through the trees, the location felt a lot more remote. At one point, near a weir, we came down to the river, clearly a popular spot.  Near an electricity substation on the opposite bank, most other people seemed to take a modern bridge which crossed the river**, but our route was onwards. Perhaps we should have read the guidebook instruction at this point "Take L fork to bear L, uphill by steps, then R along woodland path", but the OS map showed our route as continuing closer to but up above the river so that's what we did. As we sat on a conveniently placed bench and ate our lunch, we even talked to a dog walker who didn't know the area either about what a lovely route this was.

The were good views across the river to Pear Mill, an enormous mill that was one of the last cotton mills to be built in England (and it was designed as a "double  mill", but the second half was never built). I'd assumed that the name came from the pear-shaped contraption on the roof, but after researching it a little, it appears it might have been the other way round i.e. the architecture of the mill was deliberately given a "pear" theme.  Pear Mill is now divided into office and retail units. As we tracked the river round one of its meanders we saw Pear Mill from a changing perspective, while continuing to enjoy the woodland on our side of the river. That's until we encountered the sign which told us that the footpath was closed ahead. I think the sign is right; there is no path around the final meander (and it is not a new sign!) but the correct route was not clear on the map, and I don't think it had been signposted at the point where we should have taken the left-hand fork. We headed up through the woodland now,  but unfortunately the only route we could find took us almost back to our lunch spot.

After a climb that was surprisingly steep, we emerged into Vernon Park. Vernon Park adjoins Woodbank Park, but appears to be a more manicured, formal place, as to be expected given its Victorian origins.  By this stage we had lost confidence in the route as shown on the OS map, and the instructions in the guidebook finish in Vernon Park (and we didn't trust the sketch map shown there either), and we weren't sure whether we'd have been able to get out the other side of the park had we continued through it. In fact, walking through the park would have been fine, but we simply headed through the gardens to the nearest obvious exit, on New Zealand Road, and followed this around to Stockport Road West and over the bridge over the River Goyt.

On the right, we passed a cycleway signposted as the Alan Newton Way. Had we earlier taken the bridge over the river near the electricity substation (at the point indicated ** in this description) I think we'd have followed a route around the other side of Pear Mill and emerged here , but we'd have missed a nice section of path up through the woodland and through Vernon Park. Further back, had we continued on the track we took at the point indicated * (i.e. carried straight on at the signpost shown on the right), we'd have ended up on the same route, but we'd have completely missed the whole of the delightful section through the woods by the river. So, despite the route-finding frustrations, I'm not sorry we came the way we did.  Now we turned left onto the route which the signpost told us was the continuation of the Alan Newton Way. This led us down a road past some rather dilapidated buildings towards another massive disused mill, now home to MOVIEescape, a series movie-themed escape rooms.

Behind the mill was the motorway (the M60) and a path to the left took us to a subway and out the other side. We turned right briefly and continued to a disused railway, which we followed to the left.  We'd expected to find a path to cut off a corner, but it wasn't visible; in contrast, on the disused railway we found ourselves walking through a tunnel, which we hadn't expected (though, to be fair, it is shown on both the OS map and the sketch map in the guidebook). Our route merged with the Trans Pennine Trail and very soon we were back at the car park, with one of the bank of signs being a Midshires Way one. That was it, the end of what had been a most enjoyable walk, both today and over the whole 225-mile trail.

After collecting the other  car and returning briefly to the Premier Inn, we drove the 8 miles to Timperley, where I was born. It had been a while since I was there, so interesting to see; there have been some changes but it is still fundamentally the same place as where I spent the first 18 years of my life. This was a highly appropriate way to mark the end of a long-distance path which has taken us to places I knew in childhood as well as introducing us to new parts of the country. In the evening we celebrated properly with a lovely meal out at Jasmine House. We were absolutely fascinated by all the delivery drivers from Deliveroo and Just Eat etc. collecting food from this Chinese restaurant and the other establishments along the road. We'd agree absolutely with the  review of Jasmine House that's at the top of the Trip Advisor reviews as I write this: "Great little old school Chinese .. can’t recommend it enough! Simple but very tasty food with great service..." However, we are obviously way out of date in the way we get food to eat at home when that's what we want; we just collect it ourselves!