Sandstone Ridge

(WORK IN PROGRESS)

The Sandstone Trail is a 55-kilometre (34 mi) long-distance walkers' path, following sandstone ridges running north–south from Frodsham in central Cheshire to Whitchurch just over the Shropshire border. The path was created in 1974 and extended in the 1990s. Much of the route follows the Mid Cheshire Ridge but in places the trail also passes through the Cheshire Plain, including farmland, woodland and canal towpaths. The ridge and trail are easily accessible from Chester and even a short walk along it will touch on many interesting sites, from hill-forts to a nuclear bunker.

=Geology=

The hills are composed of a range of sandstones of Permian and Triassic age. North–south faulting is in part responsible for elevating harder-wearing strata above the general level of the Cheshire Plain. Typically the higher summits are formed from the Helsby Sandstone. For an overview of the geology of the River Dee Valley see: River Dee Geology.

=History=

Hill Forts and Castles


Hill forts in Britain are known from the Bronze Age, but overall the great period of hill fort construction was during the Iron Age, between 200 BC and the Roman conquest. Although there are over 1,300 hill forts in England, they are concentrated in the south of the country, with only a few in Cheshire. Eddisbury is the largest and most complex of the Cheshire hill forts. The Cheshire hill forts differ from the southern hill-forts in one important respect: they belong to the late Bronze Age and the early to mid Iron Age. It has been suggested that the once widespread view that the Cheshire area was a hillfort dominated region at the time of the Roman invasion is false - an alternative view is that the hillforts were built early and abandoned by the Middle Iron Age (i.e after c500 BC).

Ormerod described the Eddisbury Hill Fort in 1819, wrongly attributing it to Æthelflæd:


 * 'With respect to the camp of Eddisbury we have the authority of the old chronicles for its being formed by Ethelfleda in the year 914, at the time when Chester was newly fortified and enlarged by her husband Ethelred. It is erected at a point calculated to command the British road, as well as the Roman road from Condate to Deva. The form is nearly oval, and its situation within the enclosure called the old pale, on the summit of the hill which gives name to the Hundred. It contains 11 acres, 3 roods, and 10 poles, of statute measure, and extends 250 yards in breadth, and 400 in length, exclusive of the projection of rock at the south east angle. The eastern side is irregular, being defended by a natural precipice, the other parts, being accessible by a gentle slope, are defended by a ditch and double rampart, with an entrance to the West. The ditch is about twelve yards wide, the ramparts, which are constructed with red stone, now buried under the soil accumulated by the lapse of centuries, are still fourteen feet high in some places. No other vestiges of buildings are distinguishable'.

While it is likely that Æthelflæd restored the fort to some extent, the original is much older.

The forts form two geographical groups of three, with Maiden Castle (Bickerton) on its own in the south of the county; Eddisbury hill fort is in the southern group with Kelsborrow Castle and Oakmere hill fort. Helsby Hillfort, Bradley and Woodhouses, form the Northern group.

Pits dating from the 4th millennium BC indicate the site of Beeston Castle may have been inhabited or used as a communal gathering place during the Neolithic period. Archaeologists have discovered Neolithic flint arrow heads on the crag, as well as the remains of a Bronze Age community, and of an Iron Age hill fort. The rampart associated with the Bronze Age activity on the crag has been dated to around 1270–830 BC; seven circular buildings were identified as being either late Bronze Age or early Iron Age in origin. It may have been a specialist metalworking site - excavations there in the 1980s located a bronze-working hearth together with crucible and mould fragments. The associated metalwork was of the Ewart Park phase (c 800-700 BC), but metalworking may have begun at the site much earlier. The source of copper was perhaps the vein that runs along the eastern side of the mid Cheshire ridge. Mines at Bickerton were commercially exploited during the nineteenth century (hence the pub called "The Coppermine"), and it is possible that mines were located nearby in the prehistoric period (some details on the mines can be found here).

There was another Iron-Age fort at Burton Point, which like "Blacon Point" once projected into the Dee estuary. To the south of the fort is a burial site that was excavated in 1878, revealing the remains of between 50 and 60 burials. It is not known whether these are of an early Christian date, or if they are the remains of a shipwreck in 1637.

Caves, Mines and Quarries
=The Sandstone Trail=

Frodsham
The etymology of Frodsham's name is not entirely clear. A literal translation of the Old English would give personal name of Frod or an old spelling of Ford, and ham which means a village or homestead; hence Frod's village or the Village on the Ford (Ford-ham). However, an alternative, more obscure etymology exists which suggests the name means "promontory into marsh", which would make sense considering that Frodsham had a promontory castle very close to marshland. Frodsham is unique as the name of a settlement in the British Isles. Earlier spellings of the name have included Fradsham, Frandsham, Frodisham, Ffradsam and Ffradsham. The town is of Saxon origin; its 11th-century church is mentioned in the Domesday Book. Frodsham was an important manor of the medieval Earls of Chester and was created a borough in the early 13th century, probably by Ranulf de Blondeville. The mouth of the River Weaver, where it joins the Mersey, made Frodsham into a significant port for the coasting trade, particularly for the export of Cheshire salt, brought down the Weaver from Northwich and Nantwich.

The Bear's Paw, Frodsham
The "Bears Paw" (it is actually a Lion's Paw) is said to be used in the coat of arms of the Savage family, Lords of the Manor of Frodsham from the early 17th Century. John Savage, 2nd Earl Rivers, a Catholic Royalist and past mayor of Chester, had his seat at Halton Castle and the great manor house at Clifton near Runcorn, called Rocksavage. When Earl Rivers returned to Cheshire after the Civil War with Rocksavage being ransacked and uninhabitable, and Halton Castle dismantled, Earl Rivers retired to Frodsham Castle where he was stripped of the family honours and estates. He died on 10th October 1654. A few hours after his death with his body lying within, Frodsham Castle was set on fire and burned down - it was completely destroyed. There was another "Bear's Paw" at the end of Frodsham Street in Chester, it was demolished in 1956. The pub in Frodsham is on "Main Street", a relatively rare street name in the UK (there are about half a dozen). In the 18th century the Bear's Paw at Frodsham was the 'Bears Paw Hotel and Posting House'; Royal Mail coaches called there when travelling between Chester, Warrington and Manchester. When the Lancashire, Cheshire and Birkenhead Railway opened in 1850, Frodsham station was near the hotel and 'Railway Hotel' was added to its title. In 1903–04 the front and side of the building were restored by the Chester firm of architects run by John Douglas.

Sources and Links

 * Smith, Arthur R. (2009), "The Bears Paw - a brief history", Journal of the Frodsham & District History Society, Frodsham: Frodsham & District History Society (39), pp. 20–22
 * Historic England;

Castle Park and Synagogue Well
Castle Park is a manor house, park and gardens in Frodsham. The house is built on the site of Frodsham Castle, which burnt down in 1654. In the late 18th century the first house on the site, "Park Palace", was built by Robert Wainwright Ashley, a lawyer in the town. On his death the house was inherited by his eldest son, Major Daniel Ashley, but mortgaged to Philip Humberston of Chester. In 1851 it was bought by Joseph Stubs of Warrington (of the firm Peter Stubs Ltd), a manufacturer of engineers’ tools. He started to develop and extend the house and outbuildings and commissioned the noted landscaper Edward Kemp to lay out the woods and gardens. Stubs died before the work was completed and the house was purchased by Edward Abbot Wright, a Quaker cotton manufacturer from Oldham. The house then came to be known as "Castle Park", and, when the last of Wright's daughters died, was left to the inhabitants of the town. The stables have housed the Castle Park Art Center since 1986. Edward Abbot Wright, (who was a director of the Oldham-Manchester-Birkenhead Railway) once missed a train at Frodsham because the stable clock was slow and he ordered that in future it should be kept 3 minutes fast - it is still checked each day to make sure that it is.

The "Synagogue Well" is located in Castle Park Charles Hope in his 1893 notes, writes:


 * “The Synagogue Well, evidently one of great antiquity, and, before an attempt was made to improve it, of most picturesque appearance, is in the grounds of Park Place, Frodsham, late belonging to Joseph Stubs, Esq.”

William Beaumont in his 1888 "An Account of the Ancient Town of Frodsham in Cheshire" records in comparison to a similar site in the county:


 * “Such a fount there is at Frodsham, called ‘The Synagogue Well,’ which sends forth waters as copious and as limpid as that once frequented by Numa. It seems as if such a fount was necessary near an ancient castle; for as this fount rises close to the site of Frodsham Castle, so at the foot of Beeston Castle there is a similar spring. They both spring from the living rock, and both have a large square stone basin to receive the surplus water as it flows away.”

Synagogues often feature ritual baths called Mikveh or Mikvah, but there is no evidence other than the name that there was ever a synagogue hereabouts. One theory is that the name is a corruption of "St Agnes Well" (the patron saint of engaged couples - according to tradition, the usual offering is a few bent sewing pins). The dedication to St Agnes traditionally made a holy well popular with lovers, and the water was said to be good for helping find a romantic partner - rather like "Billy Hobbies Well" in Grosvenor Park at Chester. Another legend (as recorded by Christina Hole in her "Traditions and Customs of Cheshire") is that the well was walled in by the traditional "Wanderimg Jew" who found its waters refreshing: his only legend associated with Cheshire.

Sources and Links

 * Castle Park Art Center;
 * The mysterious Synagogue Well of Frodsham;

Frodsham Caves
These, surprisingly large, sandstone caves are a well-known landmark on the east side of Manley Road. The enclosure is part of a local dairy farm and consequently the caves are often used for shelter by cattle (wellies recommended). The caves are covered in graffiti, some of which is old and much of which is modern. The caves also have a fairly grim reputation in that at least one human body has been found there, and they were used in a fictional detective novel as the site for more bodies being found.

Sources and Links

 * Beneath the Ridge;

Sources and Links

 * DE LA MARE - THE FOREST OF THE LAKES a local history;

Barrows
There is a small cluster of round barrows close by the trail although a detour of some miles is needed to see them all. In Ormerod's History of Cheshire the following description is given a group of tumuli on Delamere Forest:


 * "A mile south east of the foot of the hill of Eddisbury, at the lower of a small natural lake called Fish Pool, are the tumuli known by name of the Seven Lows undoubtedly the "VII Loos" alluded to Leland as the "marks of men of warre" and much spoken of in his time. They are ranged in a form nearly semicircular and are of different sizes varying in diameter at the base from 105 to 40 feet. In a note at the foot of the page the measurements are detailed thus: Beginning at the tumulus in the annexed plan and following the semicircle the measure in diameter at the base 105, 45, 40, 105, 66, and 68 feet. The seventh has been carried away to form a road".

The individual barrows are listed below - note that almost all are in very poor condition, not accessible or hardly visible from rights of way.

Sources and Links

 * The Archaeological Journal
 * High Billinge - on private land but can (just) be seen from a nearby road;
 * Seven Lows - more or less completely destroyed. The urn found in one of the "Seven Lows of Delamere" after an "accidental opening", is now in the British Museum;
 * Gallowsclough Cob - one of the best-recorded excavations in the Central Ridge area;
 * Glead Hill Cob - In 1879 a Mr John Harrison of the New Pale was levelling this large tumulus for the foundations of a house when "ten or twelve large urns (filled with burnt bones) were met with". Nothing much to see today.
 * Castle Cob - This mound 25m in diameter and 4m high is now located in a private garden, surmounted by a water tank and a summer house;

The Shady Oak
The "Shady Oak" (marked on older maps as the "The Royal Oak") and was the only canalside pub between Christleton and Barbridge. It was a favourite with the canal boatmen (it still is) and known as "The Shady". At the time of the mysterious death of Charles Moston it was known as "Bebbingtons" and was mentioned at the inquest into his death - in evidence that Moston had not been drinking prior to his death.

The Peckforton "Cyclone"
By Stone House Lane stands the ancient Peckforton Oak on its grassy knoll. Known locally as the ‘Big Oak’, this huge tree was already old when John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, preached beneath its branches in October 1749. The tree later survived the freak ‘Peckforton Cyclone’, a tornado which occurred on the evening of 27th October 1913, with the loss of a limbs. According to a contemporary eyewitness, "a dark column of spinning air approached from the south, accompanied by thunder, lightning and torrential rain". During four violent hours, Castlegate Farm, below Beeston Castle, lost its roof, hundreds of mature trees were uprooted, several cattle were hurled over a hedge: three of the cattle were killed, and a local man was hurled sixty metres into his neighbour’s orchard. The storm responsible was first noted in South Devon at 1600 on Monday 27 October 1913 and it tracked more or less NNE, as far north as Cheshire where it passed Runcorn at approximately 2100, heading into Lancashire. Six people were killed in South Wales. The storm tracked along its course leaving scores injured and much property damaged.

As reported at the time:


 * "The storm in Cheshire destroyed Lord Tollemache's extensive greenhouses at Peckforton Castle, while on the hill opposite hundreds of trees were uprooted. “According to most accounts the storm lasted two or three minutes only.”

The windspeed was not recorded, as no weather stations in the affected area seem to have had an anemometer and estimates of its strength are thus based on damage done. Changes in air pressure, however, were recorded in several places. They revealed a sudden fall followed by a return to the previous pressure after an interval of fifteen to thirty minutes. The Albion Steam Coal Colliery, at Cilfynydd, was situated within a few metres of the western edge of the tornado track and a drop in pressure from 29.20 to 28.91 inches (988.8 to 979.0 millibars), was recorded. It was followed by an almost immediate rise.

Mr. H. Billet of the Meteorological Office, at the request of the M.P. for East Glamorganshire, Clement Edwards, was sent to the region visited by the storm and spent three days in South Wales collecting information. His report was published in September 1914 as a Geophysical Memoir. The Met office investigators stated:


 * "This fall of 0.3 inch, or 1/100 of the normal atmospheric pressure of 15lbs to the square inch, means a sudden change in the atmospheric pressure of O.15 lb per square inch, or about 20 lbs per square foot. Such a change of pressure, if applied suddenly to the outside of a closed building, must produce an effect similar to an explosion within, and it is thus easy to understand how windows or even whole walls are blown outwards, as at the generating station at Treforest".

The Met Office investigation concluded with these points:


 * ". . . a genuine tornado of the type common enough in parts of America . . . The straight track with clean cut lateral limits, the violent electrical phenomena, the heavy rainfall, the roaring noise, the sudden decrease of barometric pressure, resulting in the blowing out of walls of buildings, as if by explosion from within, are all features which are common in descriptions of American tornadoes. The width of the track, three hundred yards and the rate of advance, 36 miles per hour, are of the same magnitude as in American tornadoes".

Sources and Links

 * THE DEVASTATING SOUTH WALES TORNADO OF OCTOBER 1913'
 * The Gallery of Natural Phenomena;
 * A Cheshire tornado in 2018

Mad Allen's Hole
At some time in the past there would have been a large overhang of sandstone outside the cave entrance, however over the years this has collapsed and now partially blocks the entrance to the cave.

Mad Allen’s Cave or Mad Allen’s Hole as it is known locally was once the home of a John Harris. He was born on July 20th 1710 in the town of Handley and when his Father died he inherited estates in Tattenhall, Broxton and Handley. Although a wealthy man he turned his back on the lifestyle he could afford because his parents had forbidden him to marry the woman that he loved, a girl from Handley named Ann Egerton. Because of this he decided to never marry and to become a recluse and ended up living in a cave. Initially he took up residence in a cave in nearby Carden Park estate. See Leche House for the history of the Leche family of Carden Hall and their town house in Chester.

Carden Park is of the most important Mesolithic sites in Cheshire. Here evidence for temporary occupation as long ago as 14,000 years came to light when flints were discovered in a rabbit burrow in 1985. In 1999 even earlier artefacts, made by the first communities to return to Britain after the Ice Age (between 12800BC to 12000BC), were also uncovered indicating that the Carden Park site had been in use for thousands of years.

However there is evidence to support the fact that Harris left the cave at Carden Park cave in 1760 and took up residence in Allenscomb Cave on Bickerton hill which later became known as "Mad Allen’s Cave". John Harris seemed to have the ability to blend in with his surroundings as he remained hidden for many years and was not discovered until 1809. It is said that four young men were gathering firewood for bonfire night on the 5th of November in 1809 when they encountered what they described as "a wild hairy man". The four men fled to the nearby village of Harthill where they recounted their story stating that they had seen this wild man entereing the rock face. The young men returned with others to the spot where they had seen John Harris enter the rock face and found him sitting next to a fire, after their initial shock at finding Harris who was now 99 years old he proceeded to tell them his life story and how he had ended up living in the cave. A handbill was published in 1810 which recounted the story as follows:


 * "Mr John Harris, the hermit… was a Man possessed of a very great fortune… and took his abode in Dens and Caves in the Mountains, in which he has resided ever since, which is the space of about 66 years; occasioned by his Parents refusing him marriage with one Miss Ann Egerton, in the parish of Handley, whereof he made a solemn vow never to marry as long as he lived, and to have as little conversation with mankind as possible. The first place he made his abode in, was a Cave belonging to W. Leech, Esq., of Carden, in the County of Chester, in which place he resided for the space of 20 years and upwards… Mr. John Harris keeps a servant Man whose name is John Barlow, aged 69 years; he was born at Barnhill and has lived with Mr. Harris near 50 years; this is his second Servant since he took to this way of life"

Sources and Links

 * Mad Allen's Cave - a blog entry on the hole;
 * Carden Park rock shelter;
 * The Carden Project;
 * John Harris: the (supposed) Hermit of Carden;

Maiden Castle
The remains of an Iron Age promontory hill fort, Maiden Castle, are located on the southernmost summit of the southerly hill at an elevation of 212 metres. Maiden Castle dates from around 600 BC and is the most southerly of the seven hill forts in Cheshire. The double line of earth ramparts are still visible, forming a semicircle that encloses an area of 1.3 acres (5,300 m2) adjacent to the cliff edge. The enclosure has a single entrance at the east side with inturned defensive banks. Archaeological investigations have shown that both ramparts are strengthened by dry stone walling; the inner rampart also has timber strapping. The fort was destroyed by fire in around 400 BC, although the area was probably used as a settlement until the Roman invasion of Britain in the 1st century AD. The area around Maiden Castle was used for military training exercises during the 20th century, which included digging numerous two-man slit trenches. The heathland of the southerly hill went unmanaged from the 1940s until 1983, when 66 hectares (160 acres) of land were acquired by the National Trust; the trust's holding was extended by 51 hectares (130 acres) in 1991. Much of the southerly hill and the western escarpment of the northerly hill were notified as two separate Sites of Special Scientific Interest in 1979.

Sources aand Links

 * Bickerton Hill on Wikipedia;

Duckington to Whitchurch
=Related Pages=


 * Beeston Castle;

=Sources and Links=
 * Walking Cheshire's Sandstone Trail;
 * Chester Cheshire and Beyond;
 * Sandstone Trail on Wikipedia;