St Paul's Rambling Group Heaton Moor

On a fine Saturday morning, with sun promised later, 17 walkers assembled at the Egerton Arms in Chelford for the village walk. The first part of the route took us down the main road into the village where we then turned right to pass the livestock market, under the railway and into open fields. After crossing the Knutsford Road we continued through more fields to reach the sand quarry. Here the path crosses directly across the old sandpits and the landscape becomes more of a moonscape with barren wasteland and pools of water left from excavations. Leaving the sandpits we then walked through George Wood until we reached the Sand Pit Lake, an enormous lake created by previous workings of an old quarry. From here we crossed the Macclesfield Road and headed for the village of Astle. After crossing Bag Brook, we then traversed more fields to head for St John’s Church, the spire of which on the horizon made an excellent marker. From here we returned to the village and the Egerton Ar