Leaving the car park at the George & Dragon pub at 9.15am we were faced by the ancient sandstone church of St. Mary & All Saints.  Not as old as Gt Budworth village itself which dates back well before the Domesday Book.  Part of the Arley estate from 1469 most of the village was sold off during the 1940’s.  Turning left we walked along the main street passing quaint and picturesque cottages before turning into Smithy Lane.  Here we passed the bowling club and village hall and then leaving the village behind we crossed a stile into our first field.  A number of fields later we emerged onto Belmont Road opposite an old building with a huge but pretty chimney.  The sign on the gate indicated that this was the old school house but there were no houses nearby.  We then entered the Knutsford Road but after a few hundred yards we left the road behind as we crossed over a number of fields before joining Hollins Lane.  At Hollies Farm we took the footpath towards Arley Hall about half a mile distant.  Reaching the cottages in Arley Road we were only about two hundred yards from the hall but on reaching the signpost at the crossroads before the hall we turned to our left and took the road (Back Lane) that skirted around the hall and led to Arley Village.  In the village the quaint old cottages displayed the normal massive chimneys and the old black and white framed schoolhouse (established by Rowland Egerton-Warburton to provide education for his tenants’ children) made a nice contrast.  An old water pump was chained up but maybe it still worked?  Leaving the village behind we walked past the pond then left the road behind as we crossed over a number of fields emerging by the gateway to the southern drive of Arley Hall.  Turning to our left we walked down Arley Mossend Lane, crossed the Budworth Road at the end, and entered Georges Lane on our way to Pickmere.  The lane ended at Gravestones Farm and it was across the fields again to reach Park Lane and then into Mere Lane at Pickmere Village.  Where the mere side café used to be is now a new housing estate and the old rowing boats were nowhere to be seen.   Resisting the temptation to make a diversion to the Red Lion we walked along the shoreline of Pick Mere and into the reed bed along its southern flank.  A boardwalk helped the first part of this walk but shortly this disappeared and we were thankful that the weather had been dry over the previous week and made a note not to do this walk in winter.  Thinking about the weather was our undoing as it now started to rain.  Warn rain it may have been but after 30 minutes we were thankful when it stopped.  On reaching Dark Lane we turned right and then after a few hundred yards took a footpath on our left leading towards Gt Budworth.  This footpath led through a small field where the some cows had just given birth to young with some of the young possibly only hours old.  As the cows were lying down we had to walk through them and we could see that they did not appreciate our presence and we were equally wary of them.  Cows passed and it was a straightforward walk along an avenue of Lime trees, past the school house being decorated before reopening, and then past the church and into the George & Dragon car park.  It was 1.0pm and the 8 mile walk had taken us 3¾ hours.  Lunch at the George & Dragon completed a fine day.

INDEX PAGE for the THURSDAY GROUP WALKS