Tuesday – Home – Stormy clouds pass overhead, but the rain holds off for the moment. I sow some crops for the autumn and next year. Purple Sprouting Broccoli and Winter Density lettuce are sown in trays and put in the mini-greenhouse. A couple of rows of peas and a row each of spring onions and spinach go in where the potatoes have been harvested. Tomatoes are ripening rapidly now. Some green chillies are harvested. Several very large courgettes and a number of regular sized ones are harvested but as we now have a glut there are put in a tray in front of the house for anyone to help themselves. (They are gone by the next morning.) Climbing beans have produced splendid quantities, many will be left to dry. A Raven flies over, cronking. Gulls are very noisy, flying all around the area, yelping loudly.
Wednesday – Powis Castle – We revisit the castle we looked around in 2012. This time it is to see the work of Kaffe Fassett. We admire the gardens first, a tier of beds dropping down to the fields below. The exhibition is spread over all of the rooms and there are some superb examples of his work although in some cases, the very low lighting in the rooms, to protect the much older tapestries and furnishings, makes it difficult to see the exhibits. Outside, peacocks make their tuneless screeches and one displays it magnificent tail to a disinterested female.
Welshpool – A quick visit. The High Street seems to be divided, lots of empty shops around the crossroads but a good number of independent businesses up past the market building.
Dolanog – Along narrow lanes to the small village. On the hillside is the Calvinistic Methodist chapel of 1903, a free-styled building of Arts and Crafts Gothic type designed by George Dickens-Lewis of Shrewsbury and built as a memorial to Ann Griffiths, the hymnographer. Sadly it is locked. Across the road junction is the church school built in 1872 
for £150. Beside it is the church of St John the Evangelist built in the Early English style by Richard Kyke Penson. It was consecrated on 12th April 1855. The church is also locked but possibly of limited interest as it had not been listed. Opposite, the very large old vicarage has been listed. The building, Ty Efyrnwy, was built in 1860 in the Regency style. Along the road is the old bridge over the Afon Efyrnwy, River Vyrnwy, probably erected in the 17th century. A modern bridge now carries the traffic. Back through the village. A large bed of yellow flowers, Hooker Inula, outside a cottage had attracted a large number of bees, hoverflies and 
butterflies, including Red Admirals, Small Copper, Peacock, Gatekeeper and Meadow Brown.
Llanfyllin – We are staying in this small town in mid-Wales. Our hotel, The Cain Valley, is 17th century or earlier. It was rebuilt and extended towards street with the addition of a porch circa 1800. Known as “Goat Inn” until circa 1850, then “Wynnstay Arms” before the present name change. Our room is reached up a splendid Jacobean staircase.
Thursday – Llanfyllin – Into Bridge Street. A row of listed Georgian houses were once a mixture of dwellings and shops. Swifts scream overhead. A few market stalls are in the High Street. Opposite our hotel is a large building formerly King’s Head public house, built around 1800, converted into later two shops in the later 19th century. Next to it is a former bank, now a shop. Nearby is a large slate plaque recording that Llanfyllin received its charter in 1293 from Llywelin, Lord Mechain. Beside it is a cast iron milestone and the War Memorial. A nearby shop was built in the mid 18th 
century. It was formerly The Lion Inn but converted to two shops by circa 1850, the right hand shop becoming Llanfyllin’s Post Office around 1940. On along the street. A shop, probably 17th century was formerly the Cross Foxes Inn, converted to two shops late 19th century. It was the birthplace of Clement Davies (1884-1962) MP for Montgomeryshire 1929-1962, leader of parliamentary Liberal Party 1945-1956 and nominated for Nobel Peace Prize 1955. Opposite, raised above the level of the road, is a Pen-y-Bryn, a terrace of Victorian houses dated 1895. Past more early 19th century houses to the Capel Annibynol. The first chapel on the site was built in 1708 and was rebuilt in 1717 (at government expense) following destruction by anti-nonconformist mob. The present building dates from a second rebuilding in 1829. Ann Griffiths was converted here to Nonconformism in 1796.
Back towards the town centre and up Brook Street. The Georgian houses continue. Past the Moriah Chapel, unlisted and unloved to the Manor House, built 1737 for Humphrey Parry and wife Mary whose initials are on the date stone. Parry was a lawyer and several times a bailiff of Llanfyllin. It is the remodelling of earlier house. The name “Manor House” seems not to have been used before circa 1890. A short distance away is The Hall, built by Price family. Originally a 16th century house called Plas Uchaf it was remodelled in 1599. Charles I stayed at Hall in September 1645. It was again remodelled and encased in 1832. Up a hill past an ambulance station to try to find St Myllins well but we fail. (It is clear from other maps it is nowhere near where the OS map suggests.) Back to the High Street.
St Myllin’s Church was, according to tradition, founded in the 7th century by the Irish monk, St Moling, an aristocratic Irish monk born in 614, who was famous in 
Ireland for establishing a monastery in County Carlow. He was believed to have been buried beneath the altar. The present was built circa 1706-1710 in the manner of a Wren-style church hall replacing earlier church on site. There is a schoolroom wing of 1826. In 1863, Walter Scott, architect, of Birkenhead, tried to “Normanize” the church by the addition of a Romanesque chancel screen, organ chamber in part of schoolroom, and window surrounds.Inside the church he installed a triumphal-arch type chancel screen, decorated arches and elaborate tiling. There is some good Victorian glass. Benefaction boards detailing those who contributed to charitable causes are on the front of the gallery.
Opposite is the Council House of 18th century origins. It was used as chamber for Llanfyllin Council in late 18th century between demolition of old town hall in 1775 and building of new town hall in 1791. A plaque states an upstairs room contains series of wall paintings executed circa 1812 by Lieutenant Pierre Augeraud, French prisoner of war, one of 148 Napoleonic captives held in Llanfyllin. Scenes consist of mountains and lakes, with ruins and tiny human figures. Further along the road is Rhiwlas Terrace, a row of timber-framed cottages of 17th century origin.
Machynlleth – We have passed through this town on several occasions but not stopped before. Into Heol Maengwyn, the main road into the town from the east. The houses mainly mid 19th century with a row of alms houses. Maengwyn Chapel (Welsh Presbyterian Church) was built in l867 by W H Spaull, architect of Oswestry in an asymmetrical Gothic style. A Georgian terrace, spoiled by the remodelling of one building in 1900, was probably one of the finest planned, symmetrical terraces of this date in Mid-Wales. Hugh Williams, manager of Dylife lead mines lived in No 36; his daughter married Richard Cobdon and his son was the solicitor who defended many of the Chartists – it has been suggested that he may in fact have been “Rebecca”.
A shop had an extraordinary piece of taxidermy – an upright fox with a pheasant under one arm and a shotgun under the other. There are also some very fine, and very expensive, model engines. Another shop has a large model of a Manor class steam engine. The Wynnstay Hotel was built in 1780 as the Unicorn Hotel and then the Wynnstay Herbert Arms and Unicorn Hotel.
A clocktower is on the junction with Penrallt Street. It was built in l873 in the High Victorian Gothic style and “erected by the inhabitants of the town and district of Machynlleth to commemorate the coming of age on the 15th July 1873 of Viscount Castlereagh of Plas Machynlleth, Son of the 5th Marquess of 
Londonderry”. Designed by Henry Kennedy, an Irish born architect at this time working as Bangor Diocesan architect. It was erected on the site of the old Town Hall.
On the corner of a short street leading to the church of St Peter is Aberllefenni House, reported to be the former offices of the Aberllefeni Slate & Slab Quarry Company. Behind it is the Hearse House. St Peter’s was a mediaeval church rebuilt by Edward Haycock, architect of Shrewsbury in 1827 leaving only the 15th century tower with belfry of 1745. Major modifications were made in 1864 and 1894, the latter paid for 
by Mary Cornelia Edwards, the Marchioness of Londonderry. Some of the glass is Clayton and Bell and Ward and Hughes of London. The octagonal font is 15th century.
Through the large graveyard. Opposite is a single storey house built in 1852 as the Vane Infant School by Earl Vane of Plas Machynlleth to commemorate the birth of his heir, Charles Stewart Vane-Tempest. In 1892 it became the Londonderry Hospital – the first in Machynlleth. This closed in 1935. Nearby is an unusual War Memorial. It was unveiled 10th April l924, designed by T Leonard Williams FRIBA of London and erected by A S Gilliam of Bryscom Quarries Ltd, Somerset. It has bronze tablets in the centre flanked by paired polished Aberdeen marble columns with polished slate capitals and bases. The Tabernacle, a Wesleyan Methodist chapel of 1880, is now a performing arts centre. The Wesleyan English chapel changed its name twice, firstly to the English Presbyterian Church and last year to Machynlleth Community Church.
Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant – A large village in the far north of Montgomeryshire. At the western end is the Seion Methodist Chapel, first opened 1834, classrooms were added in 1870, a chapel house and detached Sunday School in 1892. The present chapel is a rebuild dated 1904, designed by architects Shayler and Ridge of Oswestry. It is stone-built in the Arts and Crafts Gothic style. Annoyingly, like yesterday’s Arts and Crafts chapel, it is locked.
Opposite is a sculpture of a Welsh ram on a small green. Above is Bwthyn-hedd, a tiny cottage which was probably an encroachment onto the village open space in the early 19th century. Beyond is The Plough, an early 19th century inn. Next to it is a cottage, formerly Chapel Cottage, the home of the caretaker of the Tabernacle further up the hill, now a dwelling. Down to the bridge over the Afon Rhaeadar. It is believed to date from around 1775, replacing a timber bridge destroyed by a flood. It may be considered a turnpike bridge, 
or a development related to the turnpike through Llanrhaeadr then being promoted by the vicar, Dr Worthington. Into Church Street, where a rendered house hides the fact it is probably the oldest in the village.
St Dogfan’s is the parish church of Llanrhaeadr, the mother church of the commote of Mochnant, and is thought to be of monastic (clas) origin. The Celtic dedication and the partially remaining circular form of the churchyard also indicate early date. A Celtic cross now preserved in the south aisle may be of the 9th or 10th century. Dogfan, also known as Doewan, was a saint and martyr who lived in 5th century Wales. Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant may have been the birthplace of his mother. He was also one of the sons of King Brychan. He is said to have been put to death by Anglo-Saxon heathen invaders in Pembrokeshire. St Dogfan’s was mentioned in 1254 as “ecclesia de Llanrhaeadr”. There are also loose fragments of a shrine in the church, perhaps similar to the Romanesque shrine which survived in the nearby church of Pennant Melangell. There is a life sized statue of William Morgan, (1545-1604) translator of the Bible into Welsh. He was the incumbent of here and rector of Llanfyllin whilst he made the translations. He was appointed Bishop of Llandaff in 1595 and was translated to the bishopric of St Asaph in 1601. on the edge of the graveyard is a fine Celtic Cross War Memorial of 1920. Opposite is The Wynnstay Arms, a large hotel built for the Wynnstay Estate built around 1850. George Borrow described a visit in 1854 to this “structure built in the modern Gothic style”.
Friday – Llyn Efyrnwy, Lake Vyrnwy – A very large reservoir built in the 1880s for Liverpool Corporation Waterworks to supply Liverpool with fresh water. The first 
stone was laid by the Earl of Powis in July 1881. Water arrived in Liverpool in 1892. When full, it is 26 metres deep, contains 59.7 gigalitres of water, and covers an area of 4.54 square kilometres. The whole scheme, including the dam (Listed Grade 1), was designed by the
engineers George Frederick Deacon and Thomas Hawksley. Hawksley was engineer in chief until his retirement in 1885 when Deacon, the Liverpool Waterworks engineer, succeeded him, although effectively he had been in charge from the start. We drive around the perimeter, a distance of some 12 miles. A distance up the lake is the Straining Tower was built between 1881 and 1892 to the designs of George Frederick Deacon. It takes the water and strains it before it enters the pipeline. A romantic tower said to have been modelled on the medieval castle of Chillon, Lake Geneva, but more reminiscent of the contemporary work of the architect William Burges.
Just beyond the dam is a small lane that leads up to the church of St Wddyn. Wddyn is thought to have lived at the beginning of the 7th century. He was a holy recluse who lived in a cell on a rock by Ceunant Pistyll, a waterfall about half a mile southwest of the submerged village of Llanwddyn. Wddyn may have been sent to the area by St Dogfan. It was built by the Liverpool Corporation under the terms of the 1880 Liverpool 
Corporation Waterworks Act. Building began in 1887 and the church was consecrated in 1888, a week after the old church of St John’s had been flooded by the new Lake Vyrnwy. It is built in a free Arts and Crafts interpretation of Early English style, to the design of the architect F W Holme. It consists of a nave, chancel (the east end of the building) with transepts and a pentagonal apse, and is built in the same blue grey stone as the dam and other village buildings constructed by the Liverpool Corporation. The lectern and choir stalls came from the old church. As a condition of the Act, the Liverpool Corporation had to provide free hydro-electricity to the church, making one of the first churches to receive electricity. The stained glass is a good set of signed work by Curtis, Ward and Hughes.
Opposite, running down the hillside is a large graveyard. It contains all the graves and remains of those buried at the old church since flooded.
Oswestry – We call into the town on our way home. It is very busy. The only thing we note is the splendid Guildhall built in 1893 by H A Cheers of Twickenham.
Saturday – Home – Storm Antoni rolls through. We have a tomato glut and a bean glut. Still hanging on for the greengages to ripen. I will have to harvest more beetroot soon. The pears are getting big, but I am never sure when to pick them.
Sunday – Leominster – A break in the seemingly relentless parade of Atlantic depressions with a clear blue sky and blazing sunshine. Gulls started yelping around 4am, followed by Jackdaws then Wood Pigeons. The last two are still calling as I head down the street. Onto the railway bridge. A Wren ticks from the woods. Below, Buddleia is still in flower but the Ragwort is beginning to go over. Ten foot high umbellifers are skeletal and brown. Teasel heads have lost their purple flowers but are still pale green. The recent rains have raised the water level in the River Lugg. A Dipper flies off the stones at underneath the bridge and heads upstream.
Into Easters Meadow. A Magpie chatters then flies off. There are still good numbers of Gatekeeper butterflies feeding on flowers. Blue Tits seek food in a Hawthorn whose berries are rapidly turning red now. The towering Black Poplars beside the river are festooned with Mistletoe. Honey bees and Greenbottle flies are on Ragwort. A Grey Squirrel scampers through the branches above. On the bank beside the confluence of the rivers Kenwater and Lugg are some huge leaves of an ornamental plant that has been overwhelmed by Brambles and Stinging Nettles.
The market is smaller than of late though still busy. The food van and ice cream van are both absent. Back into Mill Street. The River Lugg flows slowly under Ridgemoor Bridge. Pond Skaters scurry about below. Near the level crossing is a large gas cylinder, probably fallen off a lorry. Into Paradise Walk. A young Sparrowhawk squeals at the top of a tree, it is being harassed by three or four Magpies.
Wednesday – Bodenham Lake – Dawn is autumnal. There is a coolness about the air and it is misty. The mist burns off but cloud has moved in by the time I reach Bodenham. A Greenfinch calls near the car park. A Wren sings and a Green Woodpecker yaffles in the woods. Old Man’s Beard is in flower, so typically a clematis. Large Angelicas are in flower. St John’s Wort, Teasels and Dark Mullein are all coming to an end of their flowering season. A small patch of Mint flowers under a Bramble. A Great Crested Grebe with two youngsters is on the sailing bay; another is beyond the islands where there are a pair of Mute Swans. Tufted Duck dive.
Into the meadow where a large bramble thickets are full of ripe blackberries. I quickly pick a tub making hardly any impression on the numbers of berries. A few Common Wasps are taking advantage of the bounty. A mewing Common Buzzard flies into Westfield Wood. Into the Alder plantation where Enchanter’s Nightshade is in flower.
Into the hide. Four Little Egrets, four Mute Swans and a Grey Heron are on the spit. Squabbling Moorhens and young Coots occupy the scrape. More Mute Swans are scattered around the lake. Two dozen Cormorants are in the trees. Four more Mute Swans and another Little Egret arrive on the spit. Tufted Duck, good numbers of Coot, Mallard and Great Crested Grebes are on the water. Another two Grey Herons are at the western end. A long line of sheep proceed steadily along the field to the south of the lake. Tawny Mining and Common Carder Bees visit Black Knapweed flowers. A twittering pair of Goldfinches fly past. A Chiffchaff still sings. Both Greylags and Canada Geese are noticeable in their absence. However, a little later the first yelping skein of a dozen Canada Geese arrive.
Back to the orchards where I find most apples are still not ready.
Friday – Leominster – Voluminous cumulus clouds drift across a blue sky. Through the town and into Cranes Lane. A small spider repairs its web in a large privet hedge. A Gatekeeper butterfly suns itself on a nearby leaf. Along the ginnel and into the estate on the Oldfield’s farm site. A path leads down to Kenelmgaer Bridge over the River Kenwater. Extensive work is being undertaken to reinforce the river bank. Before the bridge, a path leads west beside the river.
A Speckled Wood butterfly rises from the path. Through a gate and along the foot of a slope that rises to Green Lane. The fencing marking out the proposed site of new housing is still in place after several years. A long hedge of Hawthorn, Blackthorn and Elder crosses the field. Numerous thickets of Brambles last in front of the trees. They have been thoroughly harvested, leaving hardly any blackberries. This is surprising as in past years they have hardly been touched, but it is good to see people are using nature’s gifts. High in the Bramble thickets, ripe berries are providing a feast for Greenbottles. The path comes to the end of following the river. A Common Buzzard mews as it flies along the trees lining the field beyond.
Back towards the town on a footpath that runs behind the Hawthorn, Blackthorn and Elder hedge. A pair of Oaks with several main trunks, indicating they are pollards, stand at the beginning of the hedge. A few sloes are ripening on the Blackthorn. Along the foot of a field of rough pasture where a herd of multi-hued cattle graze.
The footpath now runs between two old hedges. Hawthorns had been cut back to about the feet high some years ago and now many stems rise high into the air. The path emerges through a housing estate on Green Lane.
Sunday – Leominster – Another Atlantic depression moves through bringing overnight rain. I checked the weather forecast which indicated that it should be clear until this evening when the next front moves in. Outgoing the washing onto the line and I head off down the street when of course it starts raining again. A Jackdaw stares at me from the porch of Norfolk House, the Leominster home to the Duke of Norfolk whose refusal to have the Old Market House (now Grange Court) demolished in the High Street causing traffic problems for years. Wood Pigeons are hunched on rooftops.
A large trunk of a tree has fallen at the foot of the railway footbridge. I think it is a willow although it is completely covered in Ivy. Opposite is a Large-leafed Lime sapling. Oliver Rackham in his seminal work, “Trees and Woodland in the British Landscape”, records limes were the dominant tree is prehistory and for many years after, yet now it seems hardly recognised. The water level in the River Lugg has fallen despite the rain. Back over the railway to Pinsley Mill. The rain has finally ceased. There is a row of new tubs in the car park including herbs, shrubs and two 
gooseberry bushes. Into the orchard where cider apples hang heavily on the trees. It will be at least a month before any already for cider making. The Minster bells toll the hour. It is a shame that the perry pear tree has been completely swamped by other trees and there is hardly any fruit on it. Most flowers in the meadow have now gone to seed just a few Meadow Cranesbills hanging on. Purple 
Loosestrife, Ragwort and Common Fleabane brighten the former pond.
Into the Peace Garden where rabbits scuttle off to the railway and embankment. The River Kenwater is shallow and slow. The Greengage on Pinsley Mead is providing a fine feast for Common Wasps. There is a good crop of dark purple plums on the tree. They are at least a week ahead of ours having the advantage of being out in the open.
Into the church yard just as the bell ringers start their Sunday exercises. An Pendunculate Oak had a good crop of acorns, some badly distorted into galls caused by the Knopper Gall Wasp, Andricus quercuscalicis. The Yew trees seem to have a very meagre crop. It is a little jarring when the bell ringers get out of rhythm producing clashing notes.
Home – I bring the damp washing in as rain returns. Of course, a little while later the sun appears. The vine against the west wall is rampant and a large pile is cut and thrown into the chicken run. A large crop of greengages are harvested, just the lower branches. There are also a good number of damsons ripe, but they will have to wait.
Tuesday – Home – A warm day with towering cumulus clouds passing over, so dark and threatening but no rain. The harvesting continues. The small damson tree at the bottom of the garden has produced a heavy crop. I pick just two lower branches and have enough for two containers for the freezer. Sunday’s greengages made four jars of jam and several containers of purée which go into the freezer as well. The rest of the greengages are harvested, another trug filled. Some of the fruit are left on the tree, the wasps have already made a start on them and others are on the ground for the insects and birds. Five beetroot are dug and cooked. A large number of tomatoes are picked and some are halved and put on a rack in a very slow oven to dry. The Winter Density lettuce sown a couple of weeks ago have come to nothing – the seed was old. Some purple sprouting have germinated. The peas, radishes and spring onions I sowed in the bed the potatoes came out of have done very little, which is disappointing.
Saturday – Home – Yesterday was wet, waves of rain passing through. Last night Storm Betty (named by the Irish Met Office) came and went. There seemed to be less rain than expected but the wind was strong for a while. This gale unfortunately brought down my climbing beans. I thought it good and green to use old hazel and bamboo poles but this appears to have been a mistake; they have broken and snap further as I try to drag the whole lot back up. It is clear I will have to literally cut my losses. Many beans are still rather immature and I have nowhere to dry them.
I have picked our first plum. It was not quite ripe and most are several weeks away. I have harvested all the greengages now and eight jars of jam and a similar number of tubs of purée have been produced, and of course, a good number for simply eating. A large number of tomatoes have been harvested. There are still some to ripen in the greenhouse. I have also picked cucumbers; I am not sure whether there will be any more. Chillies keep coming, some are now ripening to bright red and are picked to encourage further to develop.
The bird feeder empties almost daily now. Young Blue Tits, at least one Coal Tit and several Great Tits regularly come and grab a seed. House Sparrows turn up in waves. Wood Pigeons strut around underneath and. Along with Blackbirds and Dunnocks eat the fallen seed, of which there is plenty as the House Sparrows, in particular, are messy feeders.
Sunday – Leominster – A sunny morning with high thin cloud. Jackdaws chack from the rooftops and Wood Pigeons call. Noisy Carrion Crows are between the back of the houses and the Minster. Unripe hazel nuts are scattered across the ginnel to the railway bridge. A breeze ripples the leaves of the trees beside the river. A rabbit below the railway bridge scampers away down the old track. It decides it has put enough distance between us and resumes nibbling the grass.
Onto Butts Bridge. Now the Himalayan Balsam is in flower it can be clearly seen the extent that it has taken over one of the banks. A Grey Wagtail alights onto one of the large stones beside the river, its tail flicking vigorously. The water level in the river remains low. A Meadow Brown butterfly visits Ragwort but there are a few others flying. A tall Angelica plant stands up against the wood. The majority of the trees along the river bank are Black Alder. Business seems slow at 
Brightwells these days; the articulated lorry trailers, gritters and couple of army vehicles are still in an almost empty compound. The far bank of the river, by the confluence of the Kenwater and Lugg, is dominated by Stinging Nettles, Himalayan Balsam and the huge leaves which I assume are Gunnera. None of these are actually native to the country even Stinging Nettles are supposed to have been introduced by the Romans. However, in 2011, an early Bronze Age burial cist on Whitehorse Hill on Dartmoor, was excavated. The cist dated from between 1730 and 1600 BC. It contained various high value beads as well as fragments of a sash made from nettle fibre. A patch of Yarrow is in flower. The wind rustles the silver leaves of White Poplar. In the shelter in the vehicle compound are four army vehicles with heavy machine gun mounts.
The market is large and busy but annoyingly a regular who I think should sell light rope is not there today. I am thinking that driving a heavy stake into the ground and hauling my collapsed beans upright and tying the rope around the stake might work.
Back along Paradise Walk. The Kenwater seems to be flowing slightly more swiftly today. The bells of the Minster are ringing or loudly although still not quite in perfect harmony.
Home – I find a length of rope that is just about long enough to hold the beans up.
Monday – Stockton Heath – Into the London Road, a Roman road. The place is approached from the south over the Bridgewater Canal. A settlement has been here since the Anglo-Saxon period. Mulberry Tree is a large Edwardian pub of 1907 by William and Segar Owen, with patterned brick on the ground floor with mock knapped flint facing above. Window surrounds are in brown sandstone. Opposite is the older Red Lion, built around 1800. Behind the Mulberry Tree is the police station, once also the magistrates’ courts, with integral lodgings for constables; now just the police station. It is dated 1912. On the far corner of a crossroads is a peculiar modern take on a large Edwardian building, all shops and bars. It has a lead cupola. Nearby is a real large 
Edwardian house with a slate coned roof on a tower. Along the London Road. A long row of shops are in an Edwardian terrace which would have been divided into sections but had now been infilled. Opposite an older terrace, early 19th century, leads to the church of St Thomas.
The church built in 1868, by E G Paley, in pinkish-red sandstone with roofs of graded Westmorland green slates. It has a four stage battlemented west tower. The church replaced one of 1838. It was largely paid for by Sir Gilbert Greenall. It is locked. On the north west side is the church hall. To the north east is the War Memorial. Across the road is a cast iron milestone erected in 1896 on the east side of the A49, formerly an 18th century turnpike road. 
Beyond is Stockton Heath Swing Bridge (or the Northwich Road Swing Bridge) over the Manchester Ship Canal. It was built in the 1890s. The bridge is rusting, the grey paint peeling off all over, (it is privately owned). Grass growing in the joints indicate it had not been opened recently. On the far side the road crosses the Trans-Pennine Trail.
The road is now the Wilderspool Causeway. On the far side of the bridge is the former Greenall Whitley Brewery. Thomas Greenall set up his first brewery in St Helens in 1762. Greenall went into partnership with William Orrett and Thomas Lyon in 1788 and bought the Saracen’s Head brewery on Wilderspool. Next to it is Wilderspool House, built by the Greenall family and occupied by them till the 1830s. Brewery manager’s house till circa 1900. It was converted to offices in 1980. A short distance along the road, on the corner of China Lane is the Victorian Saracens Head pub, probably built along with the brewery. It had stables at the rear. On the other side of China Lane is a large Victorian cottage style lodge with a row of 18th century cottages behind it.
Back across the bridge. A Grey Heron stands on an old, abandoned concrete structure.
Warrington – The Romans built a road here at an important crossing place on the River Mersey. A new settlement was established by the Saxon Wærings. By the Middle Ages, Warrington had emerged as a market town at the lowest bridging point of the river. A local tradition of textile and tool production dates from this time.
Out of a modern multi storey car park into a plaza of modern building, one side of which was the gas works. The Salvation Army has a large modern complex with a Spiritualist church beside it in a much older building. The Friends Meeting House was built in 1835 replacing one of 1725. It encloses a graveyard. Just beyond is a massive chunk of marble without any explanation. Into Buttermarket Street. Porter’s Ale House was formerly The Cross Keys. It is a Victorian building 
in the Gothic style. Next to it is a fine late 18th century house attached to a slightly later house. Opposite is the former Trustees Savings Back built in 1829. Next is a long building, containing a Polish food store, formally a chapel dated 1817 portico and beside it, a pair of 18th century houses. On the opposite side, at the end of the road, is the Roman Catholic Church of St Mary’s Shrine built in 1877 by E W Pugin, shortly before his death and completed by Peter Paul Pugin in the Decorated style, (regarded by Pevsner as “one of their best works”). The top part of the tower is also by Peter Paul Pugin, added in 1906. It is open. The fittings are all by Peter Paul Pugin, the carving executed by Richard Lockwood Boulton. They include the wonderfully intricate High Altar of 1877 with elaborate canopies and figure sculpture of 1885; the altar and reredos in the chapel of Our Lady (1889) and in the chapel of the Sacred Heart (1890). Marble pulpit and communion rail of 1883-4, stone parclose screens of 1890, oak choir stalls of the same date, organ case of 1887. High quality stained glass by Hardman in the south aisle and east end, also some truly beautiful windows of 1931 by Harry Clarke in the south chapel and south aisle.
Back along the street and into a pedestrian precinct, still Buttermarket Street. Shops are in early 20th century buildings or modern. The street comes to the Fountain of Warrington, also called The Skittles. The skittles are an art work by the American artist Howard Ben Tre. Into Sankey Street. The church of the Holy Trinity was built in 1758 and 1862, in the style of James Gibb, the west tower by W P Coron. Further up the street is a large building designed by architect John Douglas in 1864, for the Co-operative, it was largely rebuilt in 1908. It became a T J Hughes and is now only partially occupied. For some reason the fine white dressings have been painted black, an unsightly idea. Back to The Skittles and into Bridge Street. The shops here are in very fine four and five storey buildings, many with fiaence clad elevations. Warrington Market is in a particularly excellent example built in 1856, an impressive brick and stone building with four lions serjeant on the chimneys. It was extended in 1873, adding a cast iron-framed fish market hall. Later, a glass-roofed general market hall was added.
The drive out of the town is in metropolitan traffic, that is, very slow. There seems to be an exceptional number of shopping centres and fast food outlets.
Leigh – The road to Leigh is the A590, built on the route of the L&NWR Bolton and Kenyon Branch. My hotel is in the Leigh Sports Village, which consists of the large stadium of Leigh Leopards Rugby Union side, a sports centre, athletics stadium, kids hub, college, hotel, pub and a huge supermarket. The southern perimeter of the site was bounded by the Bedford and Leigh Line which joined the other branch in the complex Pennington Junction nearby. To the north is the site of Etherton Hall, dating from the early 15th century and is thought to have originally been a moated Medieval hall. A “new” hall was built in 1826, the farmstead greatly enlarged and the grounds radically altered. This hall was demolished in 1908 and the rest of the farmstead between 1972 and 1985.
Tuesday – Leigh – Robins sing in the pre-dawn light. A path passes under the A590. Westleigh Brook – which joins Pennington Brook, then Glaze Brook which finally joins the Manchester Ship Canal – having its requisite supermarket trolleys, flows beside the track. The track heads south through trees between the road and a golf course. It joins a lane that leads into a car park beside Pennington Flash, a 170-acre lake created at the turn of the 20th century by coal mining subsidence, mainly from Bickershaw Colliery. Before the flash the area contained two farms, both of which were abandoned in the early 1900s due to flooding. I have visited before in 1996.
A large number of Mallard and Coot are on the edge of the lake. An Oystercatcher flies about along with Black-headed Gulls who are rapidly losing their summer chocolate heads. A Great Crested Grebe is further out on the water. The sky is now turning orange in the east. It is almost completely cloudless. A large number of gulls are in the centre of the water. Mute Swans are on the far side. The track continues along the edge of the lake passing a flock of Canada Geese. Mallard drakes are regaining their breeding plumage. The track turns back through woodland. Wrens and Robins sing. Blackbirds feed along the edge of the track. It is now passing between reed and willow ponds. The track rises up to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal at Common Lane Bridge. A Kingfisher flies off up the canal. Wood Pigeons fly to and fro.
Along the wide tow-path for a while and then down steps back into the woodlands. In the distance there is the familiar yelping of an incoming skein of Canada Geese. A mixture of Himalayan Balsam and Goldenrod flowers beside the path. Down a path to a hide, all the hides are still locked up, but through the fence there are Mallard, Coot and a Grey Heron on the pools. Back to the car park. The Mallard, Coot and Black-headed Gulls have all dispersed. Back to the brook where several Chiffchaff call.
After breakfast, I head out of the Sports Village along the track in the opposite direction. It passes the Leigh Harriers and AC athletic track, then a rugby pitch. The track runs beside the route of the Bedford and Leigh Line, then joins it. The line opened in 1884 and closed in 1964. The track is well surfaced, part of what is clearly a very good network of paths. The track ends when it comes to St Helen’s Road and the old railway disappears in a modern housing estate.
The name Leigh derives from the Anglo-Saxon, Leag, meaning a meadow. The village was agricultural until the early 19th century. There was a skirmish here in the Civil War, the area being for Parliament. The introduction of the cotton industry followed by silk weaving led to a rapid expansion. There were rich coal seams under the town and mining became a major employer. The diversity of industries meant Leigh was less prone to the periodic depressions that affected many Lancashire towns. However, like many places, industry plays a much less important role in the town these days.
St Helen’s Road heads for the town centre. Houses are late Victorian or Edwardian, terraces interspersed with larger dwellings. Christ Church was built in 1850-4 by E H Shellard in the Gothic Revival in a Perpendicular style. It is locked, even the front gate is chained shut. There are no graves on the site. The former vicarage stands nearby. Behind the vicarage was Pennington Mill. In 1898 it had 1,464 looms, making muslins, jacconettes, cambrics, mulls and shirtings. The mill was demolished in the 1970s. The houses on the main road are getting larger. One next to the church is dated 1840, another 1886. Side roads have terraces from the 1890s.
The road approaches the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, Leigh Branch, which was also the Bridgewater Canal. Before the bridge stood a rope works, modern housing is on the site. On the other side of the road were iron works and the Anchor Cable Works. Again these have been replaced by modern buildings. Over the canal bridge, now a modern road bridge. A large canal warehouse 
was built in stone in the late 18th century with 19th century brick additions lies to the west of the bridge. Between it and the road is a very ugly modern supermarket building. On the other side of the road is a bright red brick former King Street school, built in the 1890s and now in poor condition. Beside the school is Wild’s Passage containing a listed Weaver’s house and topshop built around 1800 and believed to be the last example of a weaving shop in Leigh.
The road comes to Twist Lane. It is a large junction. On one corner is an odd small building with round corners built in the Art Deco style. It is a taxi office and half, the other half being demolished, of a bus station ticket office and waiting room. On the opposite corner is the Eagle and Child, a large former hotel built around 1895 on the site of an inn dated 1795. It looks empty. Into King Street. A café appears to have been stables for the hotel. The Leigh Arms appears also to have been part of the former hotel. Next to it is the modern Methodist church built in 1974 on the site of several Methodist churches with the first dating from 1816. Opposite, The George and Dragon is 17th century. A square building was the former police station and magistrates court, built around 1840 and was the town hall between 1875 and 1907.
King Street becomes Market Street at a junction. Before the junction is a red brick former Yorkshire bank, for rent. On the junction is the former Barclays Bank, built around 1900 in Buff coal measures sandstone in the Italian Renaissance Palazzo style by the Manchester Union Bank, now empty. The NatWest bank, still open, was built in 1908 by James Caldwell 
Prestwich (Nicholas Pevsner remarked that, “Any building of any merit (in Leigh) which is not a church or a mill is almost certainly by the local firm of J C Prestwich & Sons, capable – sometimes very capable – in a number of styles”). A former Montague Burton’s of the 1930s is now a bookies. All are fine tall buildings. On along Market Street. Many of the shops have closed down. Turnpike House is in a poor state. On the corner of Lord Street is another bank in the process of being gutted. Opposite is the Town Hall with its entrance in Civic Square, also designed by J C Prestwich & Sons. It was built 1904-7 by J C Prestwich. In the square is a concrete brutalist library and gallery. Nearby a large mural on the side of a building commemorates Leigh born Pete Shelley of The Buzzcocks who died in 2018. An Obelisk, originally the market cross, is an 1859 obelisk on an 18th century pedestal.
On the north side of the square is the parish church of St Mary the Virgin. The first church on the site, possibly 13th century, was dedicated to St Peter. Its dedication was changed to St Mary the Virgin at the end of the 14th century. In 1871-73 the church, apart from the tower, was rebuilt by the Lancaster architects Paley and Austin. Grave stones are set in the ground as walkways. A number state “his burial two breadths”. This seems to indicate the grave was wide enough for two burials side by side, to accommodate a relative probably.
Across the road is The Boars Head, a large orange brick pub in the “eclectic baroque” rebuilt in 1900. It is drizzling. The Savings Bank dates from around 1900. Over the junction, a pub is again later Victorian. It stands next to the Grand Theatre and Hippodrome, built in 1908, designed by Prescott & Bold for Grand Theatre and Hippodrome Company, now the Sir Thomas Burke public house. Back and west behind the parish church is the Roman Catholic church of the Sacred Heart. Bishop Dobson laid the foundation stone on 9th May 1928. The church was designed by Anthony Ellis and cost £20,000. The rain becomes heavier so I retreat to the library.
Back down Market Street and into Bradshawgate Street. There are some magnificent late Victorian buildings in the street but now a significant number of shops have closed down. The rest are all low end of the market. The buildings include Central Buildings built for Dr Richard Strange Hall; the former HSBC bank built 1906; the Old Leigh Friendly Cooperative Society built 1897; the Architects Offices of 1900 all designed by Prestwich, the last for himself. There are also two former hotels – The Lilford Hotel in was built in 1876 and the Old Bulls Head of 1891, a rebuild of a 17th century inn. The market lies at the bottom of a small street beside the Co-operative Hall. It has some fine traditional stalls and popular cafés. Beyond in an uninspiring shopping mall. Between here and the canal were iron works, gas works and Rose Mill, which was originally a silk mill, later owned by Leigh Friendly Co-operative Society Ltd. It was a weaving shed with 578 looms producing fine shirtings and cambrics.
Back to King Street and into Railway Street. The Leigh Conservative Club and Assembly Rooms were built in 1879 by J J Bradshaw of Bolton. After presenting music hall entertainment, and occasional films, in 1908 it became Leigh’s first 
regular picture house and continued as a cinema until 1963. The former White Horse hotel was by Prestwich and built in 1899. The undenominational chapel in Cook Street dates from 1887 and became the Salvation Army. Osborne Terrace is dated 1895. The Free Library and Municipal College was built in 1894 by Prestwich and Stephens and is in a ruinous state. Off of the main road are a maze of streets of late 19th and early 20th century terraces.
I have another break at the library, which is still being well used. I then head along Leigh Road. Past the former theatre is Windermere Street where the fire station was situated from 1907. It was designed by Hunter, the Borough Engineer.
Wednesday – Leigh – It is raining as I head to the path beside Pennington golf course. Northwards with the main road on a former railway embankment beside the track. Wrens tick then sing. Sycamore keys are turning brown. A Reserve employee chugs past in a small wagon looking for litter. White and purple Buddleia is still in flower. The track comes to the Leigh and Liverpool Canal at Springfield footbridge. I head east towards the town. Water lilies, some with yellow flowers, and Arrowhead grow in the water. Housing below the tow-path gets progressively older as the canal approaches the town. On the other side of the water, old canal warehouses are in poor condition. A pair of Mallard are on the edge of the canal. A pair of canal boats are tied up. Opposite is a late 18th century stone-built warehouse with a late 19th century brick-built addition. Under the road bridge on St Helen’s Road. The old stone bridge is still under the modern bridge.
A “round the houses” bus trip brings me to Wigan. It is likely the Roman settlement of Coccium was situated here. It is thought that the settlement was established in the 7th century, the name being a Saxon personal name. Wigan was incorporated as a borough in 1246, following the issue of a charter by King Henry III. It 
became a major mill town and coal mining district; at its peak, there were 1,000 pit shafts within 5 miles of the town centre. Coal mining has now ceased.
Out of the bus station to be confronted by a massive demolition site. The Galleries, a large shopping centre, built in the 1980s on the site on the old commercial yards and market, is being demolished and rebuilt. A pair of jaws on a monster of a digger, looking like a dinosaur, is chomping into walls and ripping them down. Along Market Street past the Queen’s Hall Methodist Mission. The mission is the entrance hall to a large concert hall that was built in 1906, by Bradshaw and Gass of Bolton. The hall was demolished in 1985. Into New Market Street. On the junction is the former food and grain warehouse of O & C Rushton Ltd built in 1900, now part of Wigan and Leigh College. A modern college building is on another corner. Down the road is the gatehouse to Wigan Hall built in 1875, by GE Street. 
Behind it is the hall, a rectory built by Street for the Bridgeman family at the same time. Opposite are a pair of houses built in 1893 and 1901.
Along Hallgate past the Post Office Sorting Office to Dorning Street. The Anvil is a red brick pub of 1894. Next to it the former Grand Hotel built in 1898, opening originally as a Temperance hotel, now in a poor state. The Coops Factory is a four to six storey building, a former clothing factory, built in 1871, by R Todd of Southport, for Timothy Coop and James 
Marsden, with additions in 1888, by Isitt and Verity, and 1892 by W Verity. Opposite is a closed pub. Across the road is the former County Court and Inland Revenue Office built in 1898, by Henry Littler, a very large red brick building. Down the hill is an area that once had railway sidings for Wigan Wallgate station. Nearby is the factory of William Santus & Co Ltd, the confectioner and producer of Uncle Joe’s Mint Balls, which is advertised in bright colours on the end wall of the building.
Back up the hill and into the former graveyard of the parish church of all saints. The graveyard was recorded in the 15th century with the last burial in 1904. Plague victims were buried here up to 1649. It was decided to remove the headstones in 1909 and the corporation took over maintenance of the site. Two graves remain which are believed to be those who objected to the proposal. At the top of the graveyard is a wall built in 1683. The War Memorial was erected in 1925, by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott.
The parish church of All Saints dates from the 15th century, the tower being earlier, although the entire church was rebuilt in 1845-50. Domesday records a church in the manor of Newton-in-Makerfield, likely 
to be on this site. There was clearly a church here in 1199, when King John appointed Adam de Freckleton perpetual vicar of the church of Wigan at the request of Ranulf, Treasurer of Salisbury, the first known Rector of Wigan. The church is in the Perpendicular style. The reredos and pulpit were designed by Paley. The chancel screen of 1901 was designed by W D Caroe. The font has an octagonal bowl with a quatrefoil frieze and incorporates a fragment from the 14th or 15th century. At the west end, are tiered Corporation stalls of 1850. In the south chapel are stone effigies, believed to represent Sir William de Bradshaigh and wife Mabel. There is a fine east window designed by Lady Jane Evelyn Lindsay. A window of St Christopher is by Morris. The Walmsley chapel had an unusual history being a Roman Catholic chapel in an Anglican church. The Walmsley’s relinquished their rights in 1955. A window has fragments of mediaeval glass. There is a ring of ten bells, all cast in 1935 by John Taylor & Co of Loughborough. By the church is the Bluecoat School. It was the first church school in Wigan built in 1773. It has had a chequered history, being a Police Garage during the war also a home for Social Services furniture.
Into Wallgate. A sign of the times is all the closed banks – former Yorkshire Bank dated 1884, designed by Isitt and Verity. Royal Bank of Scotland, dated 1890 on the first floor oriel, also by Isitt and Verity; the former National Westminster Bank, now a public house, built in 1866, designed by Walters, Barker and Ellis of Manchester. Down the hill is The Clarence Hotel built in 1898 by W Crompton. The Wigan Wallgate station booking hall and office block was built 1896, by Henry Shelmerdine, replacing the original station built 1848. Former Victoria Hotel dates from 1894, by Heaton, Ralph and Heaton. Next is a small town house, now a café, which is probably from the early 18th century. Tower Buildings and Station Chambers Commercial building, shops with offices over (apparently part is now a Masonic Hall although it looks empty), was built in 1898 by Bradshaw and Gass of Bolton. Next to the railway bridge is The Swan and Railway Hotel, now a public house dated 1898, by W Crompton.
Into King Street where there are a number of late 18th and early 19th century buildings. Nearly every shop in the street has closed down. Grimes Arcade, incorporating a bank and shopping arcade, was built in 1871 by Richardson Thomas Johnson for Solicitors Richard Leigh and the Manchester Union Bank. The arcade was the first shopping arcade in Wigan. It is empty. The County Playhouse is dated 1916 by W Ellis, St Helens, built for Eagle Picturedrome Company. It opened in 1919, delayed by the war. It is a fine white tiled building with Art 
Nouveau leaded glass windows. The former Royal Court Theatre, subsequently a cinema, then a bingo hall was built in 1886 and 1895, by RT Johnson. Opposite is Leaders Building, formally a Masonic lodge, with masonic symbols on the front, now a pub. Next to it is the former Wigan Savings Bank built in 1891 H Verity.
Along College Avenue into Library Street. Opposite is Wigan Town Hall, a most impressive building in red brick. It was built in 1901-3, by Briggs and Wolstenholme as Wigan and District Mining and Technical College. Next to it are the Municipal Buildings. Built in 1900, by Bradshaw and Gass of Bolton, for the Royal London Friendly Society, it was extended 1939. Like the Town Hall, it is a vast and impressive pile in red brick. The Prudential Assurance Buildings built in 1905 by Heaton, Ralph and Heaton has its name in a Art Nouveau plaque over the doorway. The road enters Market Place. The former Manchester & County Bank built in 1890 is a pub. A block of five shops, with offices over, is dated 1904 on the gable jetty-bressumer. It was built by Heaton, Ralph and Heaton. Back to The Anvil for a couple of pints, then on the bus back to Leigh.
Thursday – Leigh – It is a grey overcast morning with hint of drizzle in the air. Along the path and under the main road. Himalayan Balsam is everywhere along the banks of Westleigh Brook, its invasive properties are indicated that is even overwhelming Stinging Nettles. Bees, entirely white with pollen, are visiting the flowers. A very large brown, orange fringed slug, a red-form Black Slug, is in the middle of the track. Down to the edge of Pennington Flash. A lot of Mallard are along the edge, a few Tufted Duck, Great Crested Grebes, several dozen Mute Swans, Black-headed Gulls, Coot, Moorhens, Canada Geese and a Muscovy duck. A very large flotilla of Coot are on the far side. A single Cormorant is way out in the middle of the water. Juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gulls a patrolling the far side of the lake. A pair of Kingfishers flash across the water.
Out of the nature reserve across Pennington Brook. A Robin sings brightly. Under the main road and alongside, then over the brook. A Grey Heron flies off. The track now follows the former L&NWR Bolton and Kenyon line. A Great Tit calls. A Blue Tit and Wren join it. Over Westleigh Brook and back to the Sports Village.
Friday – Home – Just after 4 o’clock in the morning a Tawny Owl starts hooting close by, probably in the Horse Chestnut. About ten minutes later it is joined by a female. The male ceases calling but the female continues for another five minutes or so.
I pick two large punnets of damsons, over 4lb, from the small tree by the back wall. Plums are ripening slowly but the one we try has been wormed. Courgettes, some larger than many marrows, keep coming. There are several large cucumbers on the vines. Another punnet of tomatoes is gathered. A lot needs doing in the garden, it is just a matter of working up the energy levels!
After lunch the grass is mown. A large amount of cuttings goes into the chicken run where is scratched over by the hens then dries to provide a decent layer across the ground. We then dig out Ragwort from the “meadow”. It is useful as a food source for the Cinnabar moth caterpillars – the well19thknown black and orange striped ones – but sadly we have not had any this year. We do not want the Ragwort to spread which is why it is being removed just before it sets seed. As the fork heads down to dig up the roots, a pretty black and tan frog hops away into the long grass.
By the end of the afternoon it is raining.
Sunday – Leominster – A bright, sunny morning with high thin cloud. Jackdaws and Carrion Crows call. Into the ginnell by the White Lion. Apples on the tree overhanging the fence are not ripe yet. A Robin sings beside the station. Onto Butts Bridge. The water level in the River Lugg has been unchanged for several weeks now. Onto Easters Meadow. Lesser Bindweed climbs the dead stalks of eight foot tall umbellifers. Blue Tits and Wrens call for the trees. The grass is saturated by overnight rain. The tops of thistles are covered in downy seed heads. A large bush made up of a Hawthorn and Elder is shaking as a Blackbird and female Blackcap moves through it, feeding off the ripe, glossy purple-black elderberries. A rather faded Gatekeeper butterfly flits through nettles. Crane Flies are in the grass. Yarrow is in flower. Hawthorns are loaded with crimson berries.
The market is busy again. The sky is clouding over and a stiff breeze.
Wednesday – Bodenham Lake – A sunny morning, cool with high clouds. A Wood Pigeon calls, Green Woodpecker yaffles, Blackcaps “tap tap” and a Robin sings. A Dunnock flies up from the track and into the Brambles. A tiny spider has stretched a web across a sizeable 
gap. Ripe sloes are dusty blue. Three Little Egrets and a Grey Heron are in the boating bay islands. A Great Crested Grebe, Mallard and Coot are on the water. A Chiffchaff calls weakly from the trees. The water has hardly a ripple, the trees reflect in various shades of muted green, the reed bed is emerald. Another Chiffchaff calls more strongly.
The meadow has been mown and large black plastic covered bales are dotted about. The lake is quiet. A few Great Crested Grebes, including several juveniles, are scattered around. Three Little Grebes are on the south side. Mute Swans are again scattered around. Several juvenile gulls are present. A noisy skein of around thirty Canada Geese fly in. Goldfinch is in Willow saplings in front of the hide. Several Greylags wander down the spit. More young Goldfinches, Robins are in the waterside bushes. There is the whistling beat of Mute Swans as a pair fly past. A Cormorant flies in, seemingly the only one present. Then several more arrive. It is getting windier. Suddenly a female Sparrowhawk dashes in trying to grab one of the Goldfinches, who scatter. The hawk chases one into the trees.
Sheep have been put on the wildlife refuge area. The cider apple orchard had been mown and there are now sheep in it. There are a few more edible apples but many are small and others still green. On the way back along the Gloucester road I see four deer charging down the field in Hampton Park. I bring the car to a halt and the deer, two stags and two hinds, leap over the roadside fence and across the road into the grounds of Hampton Court.