Motorhome travel: A weekend in Cheshire and Staffordshire

Words and photos by Carol Kubicki

I enjoy reading novels set in places I travel to, particularly when the writer shares local histories, myths and stories with readers, as these enrich my visits. 

Alan Garner is a master of this art; his books are rooted in the Cheshire and Staffordshire countryside, imaginatively weaving past and present. One of my favourites is Red Shift. My battered copy has Mow Cop on the cover, a small ruined castle that sits on a lofty gritstone crag on the border of the two counties.

Alan Garner was, apparently, inspired to write the book by the legend that Spanish slaves escaped from their Roman captors and settled in Mow Cop, a Civil War massacre at a Cheshire church and a chance observation of a poignant line of graffiti under two lovers’ names that read: ‘not really now not anymore’.

In Red Shift, Garner uses these to spin a tale around Mow Cop from Roman Britain to the present day.

Mow Cop Castle

Mow Cop is worthy of a visit without any literary associations. The outlook west is across the Cheshire plain, with the distinctive huge white bowl of the Lovell radio telescope at Jodrell Bank Observatory always visible.

On a clear day the views extend to the Welsh mountains and Manchester. Behind is the rough moorland pasture of Biddulph Moor and the five towns of the Potteries.

We had stopped at Rode Hall on the Cheshire plain on our way to Mow Cop as the story of the cragtop folly starts here.

Rode Hall has been the Wilbraham family home for over 300 years and, in 1754, they built Mow Cop Castle. Local people were granted access (except on Sundays) until 1923, when the hilltop was sold for quarrying. This motivated the formation of a preservation society and the legal wrangle ended in 1937 when the land and folly were given to the National Trust.

At Rode Hall we explored the colourful and well-kept gardens and followed winding woodland paths in the sunshine to the lake, where we watched a pair of great crested grebes diving and herons landing clumsily on their island nests.

The South Cheshire Way from Mow Cop takes you through Roe Park woodland and follows the Macclesfield Canal, before turning across the fields to timber-framed Little Moreton Hall (NT), which has a moat and a wonky, ‘DIY-disaster’ appearance.

That evening we toasted the joy of motorhoming and walked the 10 minutes to Mow Cop Castle, where we were lucky to catch a spectacular sunset with the folly bathed in radiant orange light.

Biddulph Grange Gardens

Biddulph Grange used to be a hospital and, when I was a Girl Guide, we were taken there to sing Christmas carols to the patients – who you might think had suffered enough without being subjected to us!

Since the National Trust restored and opened the gardens in 1991 I have intended to visit and see the transformation. So, long overdue, we followed the Staffordshire Way next day, walking along the ridge from Mow Cop before joining the lanes down to Biddulph Grange Gardens.

These amazing gardens are a Victorian creation designed by James Bateman, an enthusiastic plant collector. Bateman bought and dismantled a sixteenth century timber-framed apothecary called The Medicine House, which was due for demolition and rebuilt it next to Toad Hall.

This beautiful medieval Old Medicine House is now managed by a trust that works closely with the Garner family to organise open days.

On this intimate and relaxed tour, I was fascinated to hear that a whole wing is attached to the Old Medicine House by just two six-inch nails and about the sack found in the chimney when the house was dismantled. Inside this hidden bundle were shoes, commonly used to protect a house from evil spirits.

Our small tour group gazed up the enormous timber-framed chimney, banned after the fire of London for obvious reasons. We ducked under low beams, marvelling at builders’ marks and the apotropaic marks made to protect the house against evil.

As a local archaeologist described how this land has been settled for thousands of years, I sensed how the Garners have created a place genuinely in harmony with its environment.

The phrase ‘not really now not anymore’ reverberated in my head. I knew after my visit that I would approach future reading of Alan Garner’s marvellous novels with completely fresh eyes.

Our route home took us near Alderley Edge, the outcrop of sandstone and woodland near Alan Garner’s childhood home that initially sparked his imagination.

Lovers of Alan Garner’s novels can spend hours exploring these rocks and finding the settings he uses.

And, as we stood and looked out over the Cheshire countryside, we also shared our memories of when we had each first read one of Alan Garner’s mysterious novels and the places they inspired us to visit.

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