샌드바흐 최고의 워킹 & 하이킹 경로

A wonderful example of a lock bridge, and a great spot for a BAAB (bike against a bridge) photo. It's peaceful and picturesque, you might even spot a canal boat or two.

The Trent and Mersey Canal is a 93 1/2 mile (150 km) canal in Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire in north-central England. The Trent and Mersey Canal (T&M) was built to link the River Trent at Derwent Mouth in Derbyshire to the River Mersey, and thereby provide an inland route between the major ports of Hull and Liverpool. The Mersey connection is made via the Bridgewater Canal, which it joins at Preston Brook in Cheshire. Although mileposts measure the distance to Preston Brook and Shardlow, Derwent Mouth is about 1 mile (1.6 km) beyond Shardlow.

"My pocket money goes towards buying secondhand books. I love the dry, musty smell of old books, the feel of the silky paper between my fingers. In any case, the book collection in my room is growing, and I find nothing makes a home feel more homely. Sometimes I feel a sense of elation just holding a book in my hands." (Deborah Crombie in "The Lost Poem")

The first name John has been widespread since biblical times, and so it should come as no surprise to find a whole series of blesseds and saints bearing this name over the two millennia of Christianity. At the threshold between the Old and New Testaments, we encounter John the Baptist (also John Baptist), to whom most churches dedicated to John are dedicated. But one of the four men who wrote the New Testament Gospels also bears this name. This church in Sandbach Heath is dedicated to him, Saint John the Evangelist. A long-standing church tradition has considered the Evangelist to be identical with the apostle John mentioned in the Bible, but this is disputed in biblical scholarship. "The Gospel of John exerts a peculiar fascination. It is difficult to escape its solemn, at times mystical language. It speaks to deep human needs and longings: hunger and thirst, the search for fulfilling eternal life, the longing for personal communion with God." (Franz-Josef Ortkemper)

The field sections of this route are a little tricky to follow as the path line has been obliterated (due to farmers changing fence lines or simply ploughing etc), & I found one gate chained shut so had to climb over it.

Beware crossing the bypass

The Wheelock Rail Trail near Sandbach follows the route of a disused railway from Ettiley Heath to Malkins Bank. Today the trail is a rich haven for wildlife and wild flowers and provides a pleasant level and wide route through the Cheshire East countryside.

St John's was built in 1861 and designed by George Gilbert Scott following a bequest of £5,000 (equivalent to £590,000 in 2023).