I started the walk shortly after 10:00. The snow that had fallen earlier had started melting and was somewhat slushy. The walk enters the Ladybrook valley at the end of my road and goes down the valley side to the river Ladybrook. The path then carries on along the floor of the valley often meeting the river as it meanders along. There is then a short stretch of urban pathway until the entrance of Bramall Park is reached back along side the river.
There are various routes through the park. I took the one along side the river up to the bridge over a tributary stream joins the river. This stream is crossed several times during the walk. From here I went along side the lake then up the hill to the small car park by the west gate. From here I followed the path past Bramall Hall to the main car park and a muddy track out to Carr Wood Road.
On the other side of the road is another track through Carr Wood, known locally as Bluebell wood. Both the track from the car park and the one through the wood are at the top of the valley that the stream mentioned earler runs through. On the right of the track through the wood is Bramhall Park Golf Course. The last part of the track leads away from the stream to Robins Lane.
I walked along Robins Lane to the foot path that leads under the main west coast railway to Hillbrook Road. The stream is on the left of the path until the path turns right under the bridge. Hillbrook Road meets Ack Lane East at a T junction where I turned left. I short distance along the Lane I turned left again onto Benja Fold a footpath that crosses the stream and comes out onto Bramhall Lane South opposite the Library and Medical Centre.
I crossed Bramhall Lane South and took the footpath past the library entrance and the medical centre towards the station car park. Just before the car park is the Bramley Centre, the Ist Bramhall Scouts place (Ist Bramhall is one of the oldest troups in the country having been going for 95 years). I turned right here into Bramley Close which lead onto Bramley Road where I turned left.
A couple of hundred metres along Bramley Road I turned left onto a footpath signed as Bramhall/Hazel Grove No 20. This path crosses the stream again almost immediately before turning right to go between the railway and some back gardens. It was along the path that I encountered the fox cub earlier in the year. (see An unexpected encounter). After a couple of hundred metres the path turns sharp left through a low tunnel under the railway line. Fifty odd metres farther on, where another track goes off to the right, the path becomes part of the Fred Perry Way (a disjointed set of paths running 14 miles through the borough of Stockport from Woodford in the south to Reddish in the north). At this point the stream is crossed for the last time and the path meets the edge and entrance of Bramhall Golf Club (the second on the walk).
The last section of the walk follows the Fred Perry Way along Ladythorn Crescent, Ladythorn Grove, a short part of Northcote Road and the walk ways through the estate back to my home.
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The Photographs
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