Patariki has a Busy Day Sightseeing in Cheshire

Saturday July 17th
After a leisurely breakfast Joyce took us out for the day. We started with a visit to the staircase locks on the canal at Bunbury. There were canal boats in the double lock waiting to go down to the lower levels. I have been on a canal boat before so I know all about shutting and opening gates and using the windlass. We took a short stroll down the tow path to look at the boats moored alongside the canal. Some were privately owned but a lot were being serviced ready to be hired out later in the day.

From there we went to a lovely quintessential English pub for lunch called the Dysart Arms. It was full of little rooms and nocks and crannies. It had a lovely view out over the garden and the village houses. Alan wanted to take photos but all his batteries were flat, so we made a quick trip up the village to buy some.
On the wall of the pub was a quaint hand written notice and the section about the picnic really amused Mary.


Rules Unity Church Choir
The annual picnic shall be held on a date chosen at the general meeting;

Members unable through work to go on Saturday may make application for a Wednesday picnic and the matter will be considered by the church committee.

Members will have been in the choir for 2 months to be eligible for the picnic.

Members shall make at least 80% attendance at practises and 50% at services to be eligible for the picnic.

We then went into the village church. St Boniface was a huge church for such a small village. It was very light and airy. Would you believe it, the font was full of rubber ducks, so I had my photo taken with some friends nearer my size.
This church is listed in the book England’s Thousand Best Churches. Features listed as worth seeing are the alabaster effigy of a giant and the “bulging udder” woman.
There are parts of an old parclose screen with crude paintings on the walls in the nave. The Ridley Chapel has a stonescreen with paintings on the dado with surviving colour from the 1300s. In the back of the church is a statue of a woman who was the wife of a local dancing master and has “bulging udders” that offended the local 18th century vicar so he ordered it be buried. In 1882 it was rediscovered and put back in the church.

The next stop was Beeston Castle, a ruin on a bare crag 500ft above the plain .It is a ruin but a very dramatic one. It is now in the care of English Heritage. There was quite a climb up the hill to reach it, but once up there we had magnificent views all over the Cheshire plains.

We then had afternoon tea at the Pheasant at Burwardsley, followed by a visit to a candle factory. Lots of unusual candles and things to buy but no sale today. After a stop at an amazing farm shop that was very upmarket we returned home for a lovely dinner and an early night.