If you go down to the woods today
Quarry Bank Mill, vaccine volunteers, pictures and pasties
Hello everyone, and happy Friday. One of the many reasons I enjoy creating this newsletter is that I usually do it on a Thursday afternoon, which means it’s almost Friday. And as everyone knows, Friday is easily the best day of the week.
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This week I’d like to share with you a woodland walk. Please forgive me for this, as I know that after the recent winter lockdown I’d had enough of woodland walks, possibly for my entire life.
However, a few weeks later, and with the ability to travel further afield again, I found myself ready to go back to the woods and we discovered a lovely new woodland to explore, hidden away behind one of my fave places, Quarry Bank Mill.
Quarry Bank Mill is a National Trust property in Styal, Cheshire. It’s pretty much next door to Manchester Airport, and about a 40 min drive from Bolton.
We’re National Trust members, so for us parking and entry are included in our annual fee. But if you’re not a member then it’s £8 for an adult and £4 for a child, or there are various family tickets available. Make sure you book in advance, especially if you’re going at a weekend or in school holidays.
There are two cafes (one at the mill, one in the gardens) and plenty of toilets.
Quarry Bank Mill is billed as one of Britain’s greatest industrial heritage sites, and from next week the mill and the apprentice house will be back open. Pre-pandemic we loved exploring the mill - they have banging, clattering, working Victorian machinery and a huge chimney you can look up, which is very impressive.
But it’s the gardens we love the most. They are gorgeous, mostly arranged on a fairly steep terrace with winding paths to explore, and with lovely green lawns for ice-cream eating and running races on at the top.
There are such a variety of flowers, plants and trees thoughout the spring and summer, and the colours and the views are fantastic.
I reckon we’ve been to Quarry Bank Mill at least 15 times in the past five years, but what I never knew, until a friend kindly enlightened me, is that if you carry on past the gardens, following the sign to Styal Woods, there’s a huge woodland estate to explore too. We’ve been twice in the past two months, and I’ve booked to go again next week as we enjoyed it so much.
The National Trust manage the woodland and have a leaflet you can print off their website of trails to follow, but we just wondered around a small loop, and the girls loved it.
We saw an enormous tree with stone marker in front of it, announcing its parent is a native of California and an impressive 3500 years old.
We took off our shoes and paddled in the Rover Bollin, then dried off our feet and floated bark boats further along the bank, where the river navigates a lot of debris and so rushes by much quicker.
There’s a place to build dens and further along I covered my eyes my my 7yo edged along a fallen tree trunk over a hefty drop.
So if you feel you’re missing the woods already, and you’d like somewhere new to explore that’s got plenty to offer as well as woodland, then I’d definitely recommend giving this a go.
Small biz shout out
This week I had my Covid vaccine at the local GP surgery, and bumped into my dad in the car park. This isn’t unusual, as since January Dad’s been a volunteer marshal, welcoming people as they come in, helping those who might find it difficult to get into the surgery, and generally being a friendly face for the thousands of people who have come for their jabs.
It’s been an astonishing community effort, I’m really proud of my dad and a big thank you to all the other volunteers who’ve made this happen.
A few weeks ago photographer Marge Bradshaw was invited to the surgery to take a series of photographs to document the vaccine drive, and tell the story of the people involved. You can see the pictures here.
Marge is a brilliant photographer who I’ve followed since she did a series of doorstep portraits of people in Westhoughton (the town where we live) during the first lockdown. In my day job, as a freelance journalist, she also did all the photos for my website, which were fantastic, and she does family documentary shoots too.
Follow her on Instagram if you enjoy thoughtful photography that really tells a story.
And finally…
Last week we had a big clearout and took several bags of clothes and toys down to the enormous Bolton Hospice charity shop at Burnden Park near the centre of Bolton.
It’s not far from legendary Bolton pasty producers Carrs Pasties, and it would have been rude not to call in for lunch. Pasty, peas and gravy - this is where street food started.
Carrs posted this on Instagram a couple of weeks ago.
What a beauty. Maybe it’ll drive round playing a tune like an ice cream van to let you know it’s coming - the Peter Kay version of Amarillo for the true Bolton experience.
I can only dream.
And with that friends, it’s goodbye until next week.
As ever, please do like, comment or share this email - I’d love to know what you think and if you’re enjoying it.
I have loved reading this week's newsletter. My sister and myself had been talking about the National Trust today as she has decided to join (I'm already a member). I also live in Westhoughton. X