At 9.30am both our cars were in the Church Street car park but with only one free parking space we had to wait until another space became free and it was 9.50am before our walk started.  The weather was dull but dry and we had planned to complete the 7 mile walk by 1pm.  Leaving the car park we walked past The Village Store and crossed the Chester Road into Church Street North.  Here on the wall of a house was a Great Western Railway notice which looked a little out of place in trainless Kelsall.  Our walk now led us through the roads of north Kelsall until turning into Hall Lane we crossed over the bypass and left Kelsall behind.  On reaching Longley Farm we encountered a number of gates which had to be either untied or climbed over and then finally a nearly totally impassable track leading into the field.  The only method of surmounting this obstacle was to climb along the rail on one side of the track.  Leaving Longley farm behind we crossed a field and entered the common land called The Yeld from where we had views over the Mersey Estuary to Liverpool.  The next part of our walk was along lanes and through woods until we reached open fields where the path ran alongside the course of the old Watling Street Roman Road.  Entering Stoney Lane we left the fields behind and walked down the lane to where we crossed the A556 and then the A54 roads.  At the junction of  Stoney Lane and the A556 was a Church and Nursery School.  We wondered why they had been built here so far out of Kelsall but no inspiration came our way.  We were now back in fields walking towards Primrose Hill Wood and Willington.  On a previous walk we had seen a Hobby at this point but had no luck on this occasion. After crossing over a large virtual hedgeless field we reached the woods where we walked along a good forestry track until we left the woodlands behind at a barrier called King’s Gate.  We now walked along the road until we met another footpath signposted to Willington.    This led us though trees and fields until we reached a lovely little valley at Boothsdale where looking down the valley we had distant views of the Berwyn mountains in North Wales.  Someone a long time ago had gone to a lot of trouble to build up the path along the side of this valley but our guesses on why were not very convincing.  At the foot of the valley we walked along small lanes and footpaths as we made our way towards Willington Road.  Passing the Boot Inn we had a quick look at the menu but prices were a little high with a bowl of chips at £1.80.  On reaching Willington Road we were about to turn right when a fox bolted across the road and darted through the hedge on the far side of the road.  A tremendous commotion rose from the other side of this hedge as the fox had entered a paddock at speed and had startled the horses.  As we walked up Willington Road Damson trees overhung the footpath, many laden with fruit at a very pickable level but unfortunately we were about a month too early.  Finally we reached our cars and drove to the east end of Kelsall to a well earned lunch at Th’ouse at Top pub (forgive spelling). The time was 1.05pm, only 5 minutes behind schedule.

INDEX PAGE for the THURSDAY GROUP WALKS