Pub Walks in Cheshire
Glazebury

Distance: 4½ miles.
Starting point: The Foresters Arms, Glazebury. Walkers may use the pub’s car park but do ask permission first.
How to get there: The Foresters Arms, Glazebury, is on the A574 Warrington to Leigh road, just south of its junction with the A580.
Terrain: Level easy walking along farm tracks and woodland and field paths. A walk suitable for all ages.
OS map: Explorer 276 Bolton, Wigan and Warrington (GR: SJ670980).

The Walk:

1 From the Foresters Arms, cross the road with care and turn left and then right onto a quiet lane. Ignore the footpath sign on the right and cross the River Glaze. At the T-junction, turn right to walk between the river and pasture.

2 Take the first track on the left to pass a picnic table on the right and walk into the new plantations of red Rose Forest. Continue under the shade of more mature woodland into a wetland area. At a tree-shaded junction, go left and then right and then, after a stretch of open ground, ahead at a further junction to enter a wood of birch and rowan. On emerging from it opposite Windy Bank Farm, turn left onto a broader track.

3 Where the track swings to the right, take a path on the left. Go left at a junction and cross a stile into a meadow. Turn half left and follow a well-worn path towards the railway. On reaching it, turn right and then left to pass under the line. Where the way becomes wider and paved, look towards the right for the beautiful Light Oaks Hall, a remnant of a once larger 17th-century house. Where the track bends to the left, take the stile ahead into a field and look for another stile on the right. Cross the meadow to a metal gate and a footbridge over the river to emerge onto the main road.

4 If you require refreshment at what is virtually the halfway point of the walk, turn right to the George and Dragon. Other, cross the road to a footpath sign. Go along the field track to its end and then bear right. Go ahead at the direction post and, on reaching the railway, turn left to pass through a gate on the right. This is a busy line. Cross it with care.

5 Go along a short narrow path which has good view to the right towards Glazebury church. Turn right at its end. The wood store on the left was the great hall of an otherwise vanished house, Hurst Hall. Keeping it on your left, go ahead through the farm gateway and turn left. Cross a footbridge over the Carr Brook and then go right and left to walk along the right-hand edge of a field.

6 Having crossed a farm track, look for a stile on the right. Walk along the right-hand edge of the field. At its end, turn right onto a stony track. Follow this between paddocks to eventually turn left at a T-junction. There may be guinea fowl in your path as you approach Wards End Farm, where you should turn right. Look out for the various waterfowl around the pond to your left, as you return to the Foresters Arms.

From: More Pocket Pub Walks Walks in Cheshire by author David Pill, is published by Countryside Books, 3, Catherine Road, Newbury, Berkshire. Available from local bookshops, or go to www.countrysidebooks.co.uk