The Middlewood Way, Derbyshire

18th – 19th July 2023

Having left Jeeves and Michelle at Market Drayton, we moved on to Poynton, near Macclesfield, Cheshire, staying at a temporary holiday site at Adlington Marina on the Macclesfield Canal. This has been organised by the North Lancashire District Association of the Camping and Caravanning Club. Our thanks to the stewards, Alan and Margaret, Peter and Helen.

The Middlewood Way is a cycle/foot/bridleway which uses the former course of the Macclesfield, Bollington and Marple Railway line, running more or less parallel to the canal. The railway closed after 100 years to rail traffic in 1970, having opened in 1869.

For much of the way, the path is split into two, one all users and the other excluding horses. It is a good surface to cycle on and although much of the northern section is within railway cuttings, there are some interesting points of interest on the way.

Dodging some rainy weather, we covered covered the length of the path over two days. We were staying about half way along it and cycled to Marple to the north, first.

There was a great concentration of coal mining shafts in this area with 74 in the vicinity of Poynton. The station at Higher Poynton is alongside the Nelson Pit and there is a visitor centre near the bridge. The last pit closed in 1935.

The path is now a linear nature reserve, which was opened by Dr. David Bellamy in 1986.

The following day, travelling towards Macclesfield, we passed through, or rather “over” Bollington on the viaduct.

This is a view of Bollington Station before it closed:

Now this is the view, from a similar position:

We went on to Macclesfield, but on the way back we parked on a bench to enjoy the view over towards Manchester airport in the distance, watching plane-after-plane on the landing approach. The airport conning tower in in the centre of the photo.