By late morning we needed some exercise and from Bridge 86 we had two choices of cross country walks.
Either up Mow Cop (pic below taken late last evening) to the imitation ruin, built in 1754 and from where, on a clear day, you can see Mt Snowden in Wales.
The lower flank of Mow Cop opposite our mooring
Or a gentle amble across the fields to Little Moreton Hall and lunch
No bets for which route we chose!
But first a little more on Mow Cop. One Hugh Bourne, a wheelwright, climbed to the summit to create the Primitive Methodists in 1807. Their first meeting lasted fourteen hours! The memorial church was built in 1862 on the site of the meeting. 100 years later 70,000 disciples climbed to the top to worship on what had become, for them, a holy mountain. Bourne died at the age of 80 having seen over 5000 Methodist chapels founded!
Back to our gentle amble :) We set off down the towpath and then took to the fields,
along one of those peculiarly English right of ways through private property. Lawrence negotiating a style in fence
into another field
then through a kissing gate into a calf paddock
and through another kissing gate into a field of multic coloured ewes and lambs
My kind of sheep :)
None of the animals particularly bothered by our passing by
Reaching our destination we first had to call in to the NT shop to show our Aus NT
cards (which get us into English NT properties for free), where we spotted this oddly named beer. Sadly with neither of us drinking we couldn't critique it.
We enjoyed renewing our acquaintance with Little Moreton Hall, which we last visited in 2016. Built between 1559-1580 it has scarcely changed since.
After a substantial and very good lunch at the NT cafe we sat in the grounds awhile admiring the moat and the eccentric leanings of the hall before wending our way back to the canal.
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