Cheshire walk: Great Budworth and Marbury Country Park

Conveniently, the old favourite I’d earmarked for this month’s Cheshire Life walk fitted the bill, so I took the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.

I wasn’t exactly sharing a well-kept secret. The charms of Great Budworth village are widely known, though they are – whisper it – perhaps a little artificial: the village has ‘had some work done’. Back in the mid-19th century, Rowland Egerton-Warburton of Arley Hall decided the old place needed a makeover, or in his words a ‘campaign to render it picturesque in Victorian eyes’.

He called in several eminent architects, including John Douglas, to build new cottages in rustic style and to prettify some of the old ones. The impressive sandstone church was also sensitively restored and remodelled. They did a decent job: the view down Church Streetto St Mary and All Saints is much photographed, and the Buildings of England series describes the church as ‘one of the most satisfactory Perp churches of Cheshire’ and its surroundings as ‘one of the best pieces of villagescape in the county’. This is a gushing encomium by the normally detached, academic standards of this series.

Location scouts haven’t overlooked its attractions either, and the village has appeared in various guises in adaptations of The War of the Worlds and The Ipcress File. A forthcoming Netflix series, Missing You, has scenes filmed here and in Parkgate on the Dee Estuary.

The much filmed and photographed Great Budworth villagescape. (Image: David Dunford) But this walk isn’t all about cute cottages and rural idylls. Lion Salt Works is another remarkable survivor, and the old buildings of the complex are picturesque in their own industrial way. At the heart of the museum is one of the last surviving open-pan saltworks in the world, which ceased commercial production in 1986. The museum is open from 10.30am every day except on Mondays, and recently hosted the Cheshire Life 90th exhibition.

From the saltworks, we head along the Trent and Mersey towpath back to Marbury Country Park. This was created on the site of Marbury Hall, a 19th-century country house built in the style of a French chateau but demolished in the 1960s, an unsalvageable victim of dry rot. The house may be gone, but various features of the estate survive including the old ice-house, lime avenues, various gateways and terraces, and the fascinating arboretum. The main attraction of the site, though, is probably Budworth Mere, a sizeable natural lake that delights sailors and birdwatchers alike.

There is ample room for kids and dogs to run about, and miles of paths and bridleways to explore, connecting with the canal towpath and the rest of the extensive Northwich Community Woodlands. The views across the lake to the prominent tower of the church in Great Budworth are memorable. I think my visitors enjoyed their whistle-stop visit to one of the finest villages in Cheshire.

THE WALK

1. From the car park, find your way to the ranger’s office at the end of the arboretum, and follow the path left, passing to the left of a playground. This path curves left and right around the site of Marbury Hall. Keep right to pass to the rear of the kitchen garden (now occupied by a nursery). Turn left past the nursery car park out to the road. Turn right along the road, ignoring a footpath on the other side, then turn right through a kissing gate into fields. Cross between isolated trees with views opening up over the Mere to your right. Beyond a further kissing gate, continue along the fence then drop down to cross a stream via a farm bridge. After a further kissing gate, continue along the fence then bear a little to the right, via a fenced track with stiles, to the final kissing gate into woodland. The path continues uphill beyond to emerge by a road junction.

2. Cross and follow Cock Lane beyond, to the Cock O’ Budworth pub. Turn left along the main road, then turn right into Belmont Road by the gatehouse to Belmont Hall (now Cransley School). Continue beyond the school entrance for a quarter of a mile to a road junction beyond Quebec Cottage, where you turn right through a gate and along a grassy track.

3. At the end, go through the kissing gate and turn right. Keep right at the next gate, then at the next turn left towards Great Budworth. Keep along the left-hand side of the field beyond another kissing gate to another that leads into a grassy, hedged path. Turn left. Carry straight on when a driveway joins from the right and follow the lane past the village hall on the left.

The George and Dragon. (Image: David Dunford) 4. Walk down Church Street to the church, and opposite the George and Dragon follow Southbank past the lych gate and village stocks. Turn right at the bottom, then bear left down a driveway.Atthe end, continue along a grassy path between hedges to a gate into a field. Skirt the top end of the field then bear left downhill, joining the road opposite the track to the sailing club. Turn left and follow the pavement across the valley until the main road bends left.

5. Cross with great care to a layby and go through a kissing at its left-hand end. Follow the hedge ahead of you, uphill, through two kissing gates to the driveway to Marston Hall Farm. Cross straight over and follow the path along the fence. Go through a kissing gate on your right and cross diagonally to another kissing gate in the far hedge. Turn left along the field edge towards the distant buildings of School Farm. As you approach the farm, the path swaps to the other side of the field boundary then passes through a final kissing gate into the service road to the farm. Turn left and walk out to the B5075 Ollershaw Lane. Turn right and follow the B-road between two lakes (we saw a pair of kingfishers here) to the bridge over the Trent and Mersey Canal by the Lion Salt Works.

6. Cross the canal then double back right to the canal towpath. Turn left, away from the road bridge. Follow the towpath for a mile (after a short distance there is a path to the left that leads to the Salt Barge pub). Partway along the towpath section, the canal bends to the left and passes one of the familiar cast-iron mileposts. At a footbridge, leave the canal and cross into Marbury Country Park.

7. On the other side of the canal, bear right along a wooded path. Stay on the main path, ignoring turnings off towards the open area on your left, or the stream on your right. At a fingerpost continue in the direction indicated to the Mere and Car Park. You will eventually reach Budworth Mere, where the path bends left. Pass a signposted path to the Woodland Bird Hide and a pond on the left; shortly after this pass the remains of Marbury Hall’s ice-house to your right. Almostimmediately, take the path on the right down to the lake. Follow the lakeside path until just short of a boathouse, where you leave the waterside up a path to the left. Follow the metalled path across the end of an avenue of mature lime trees back to the arboretum and car park.

Dusk over Great Budworth - the skyline with St Mary and All Saints' Church. (Image: David Dunford) COMPASS POINTS

AREA OF WALK: Marbury CP near Northwich

START POINT: Marbury CP car park CW9 6AT

DISTANCE: 6 miles/9.5km

TIME TO ALLOW: 3 hours

MAP: OS Explorer 267: Northwich & Delamere Forest

WATERING HOLES

There are three contrasting pubs on this route, all historic in their own way.

The Cock O'Budworth.   (Image: David Dunford) The Cock O’ Budworth is a Grade II-listed coaching inn dating back to the 17th and 18th century, just off the A559 north-west of Great Budworth village. The handsome building is thought to have been adapted by the Arley Hall estate (and more recently has been renovated by the Cheshire Pub Co, which is now managing the property). Real ales are from the Holts brewery and the menu is a mixture of the traditional and the exotic, from steak and ale pie to Sri Lankan aubergine and butternut squash curry. There is a sizeable beer garden to the rear and more tables out front.

The George and Dragon. (Image: David Dunford) The George and Dragon in the heart of Great Budworth village, another Grade II-listed building, was designed by the prolific John Douglas in about 1880, although it may incorporate parts of an earlier structure. Some of Douglas’s decorative details survive in the cosily cluttered interior, including some quirky inscriptions. Main courses average around £15 a pop, generally well-made versions of traditional pub classics. A young Harry Styles brought his then-girlfriend Taylor Swift here for her 23rd birthday in 2012. The car park is small (and for patrons only) and parking elsewhere in the village is at a premium.

The Salt Barge. (Image: David Dunford) The Salt Barge is a friendly and unpretentious (dare I say ‘salt of the earth’?) community pub a stone’s throw from the Trent and Mersey Canal opposite the Lion Salt Works museum in Marston. It’s under new management: the current owners took the keys in late October last year and recent reviews online are extremely positive about the warmth of the welcome. The pub was listed as an Asset of Community Value late last year. Food is unavailable while the kitchens are renovated, but the pub is open for drinks from noon each day. Live music is a speciality and walkers, dogs and children are all very welcome.

This article was originally published in Cheshire Life. If you enjoyed this content, consider subscribing to Cheshire Life for more insightful articles, in-depth features, and exclusive content. For a limited time, you can get 6 issues for just £9.99. Simply visit our website at https://www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/magazines/cheshire/ select any 6 issue subscription and enter the voucher code OFFER24 when prompted to redeem your discount. Don’t miss out—subscribe today!