Starting at Ivy Green, off Ivygreen Road and Brookburn Road

Finishing at Chorlton Water Park, Off Maitland Avenue

[1] The route starts from Ivy Leaf and Ees Nature Reserve car park, which is in front of the Bowling Green Pub, which in turn is behind St Clements old church yard at Chorlton Green.

(A)The car park serves the nature reserve and is a good starting point for a large number of walks.

Walk to the far end of the car park, furthest from the entrance, to find Chorlton Brook. Turn right and walk along the brook, keeping the brook on your left hand side.

(B) If you’re lucky and there isn’t too much vegetation, you might see a flash of turquoise – kingfishers are regularly seen along the brook.  On the far side of the Brook is a very old Hawthorn Hedge, and on your side a wide variety of trees.

[2] After about five minutes turn left across a small metal footbridge over the brook. At this point you have a choice:

You can cut off the corner by going straight on from the bridge, bearing left past Chloe’s bench and up a slight incline, then turning right to join the main path – but this can be muddy.

Or, turn left onto the end of a cobbled lane, and almost immediately turn right along a path that starts with a cobbled surface and goes through a gate. Walk along this path for a further five minutes, noticing the meadow on the left where there are often a few cows being fattened up for market.

(C) This is one of the few remaining water meadows along the Mersey Valley. Up until the 1960s, the water meadows were used for summer grazing for dairy cattle. There was a line of dairy farms along the first high ground back from the river, which all sold milk locally from milk rounds. In winter the water meadows were flooded to aid flood relief, and sometimes to provide ice for winter skating. Gradually many of the water meadows disappeared. Some meadows disappeared as sand and gravel was extracted, and then the holes either became water parks, like the ones at Sale and Chorlton, or were used as tipping areas for municipal waste. Others became golf courses. The cattle on this one are now being fattened for beef. You will now see a lot of natural vegetation in the valley, and in autumn a wide variety of berries including rosehips, haws and blackberries. However you will also see a lot of garden escapes, brought to the area by flooding.

[3] At the end of the path, after going through another set of gates, you reach the river. Turn left and walk along the riverside path with the river on your right. There are three benches here facing south, a nice spot to rest on a sunny day – and there are no more benches until you reach Chorlton Water Park.

(D) On the opposite bank is a brightly painted concrete shed – part of the flood control system for the river. On the left, behind the benches, are fruit trees from the old orchard of Hardy Farm.

[4] After the benches there is a footbridge across the river to Jackson’s Boat pub (about 15 / 20 minutes after leaving the car park). Don’t cross the bridge unless you want to stop for a drink. The walk continues on the left hand side of the river. There are two paths going off to the left at this point. The first one takes you back to your starting point.   The second path on the left goes up to Hardy Lane*, follow the sign for Barlow Moor and Manchester cycle way 60.

(E) The river here was the old county boundary between Lancashire and Cheshire and before the bridge was built crossing was by ferry. The ferry man also kept the pub. It now serves meals and has facilities for children in the beer garden. Bikes can also be hired here in summer, Wednesday to Sunday.The fields on the left used to be a favourite place for bare knuckle fighting and other dubious sports… when the police came people would run across the bridge to avoid the Lancashire constabulary.

Just after Jackson’s Boat bridge, depending on when you are reading this there may be disruption to the path, as the Manchester metro tram is going to come through the area, crossing the river at this point. At the time of writing, April 2011, tree clearing has just begun in preparation for construction work. It is promised the path will be kept open during construction. Of course the bridge was originally to be built in 1940, to provide a tram link between the new housing estates in Wythenshawe and the city. The war put pay to that.

Keep walking along the river path with the river on your right, for around ten minutes. There are golf courses on both sides.

[5] Begin to look out for the end of the golf course on your left and the change of terrain to scrubbier land. The boundary of the golf course is marked by a green fence going off to the left, at a right angle to the river. In summer it is difficult to see. Almost immediately after this, after a few yards, you will see a gap in the old fence with small Trans Pennine trail signs on it.  At this point you have the choice of an alternative route:

If you want a lovely view of Chorlton Water Park and you don’t mind a muddy path that is not accessible to buggies or wheelchairs, then go through the gap in the fence on your left that you see shortly after the end of the golf course and follow the path across Barlow Eye, a reclaimed landfill site, as follows:

[5a] Enter Barlow Eye through the gap in the fence on your left, and take the right hand fork. This path can be extremely muddy even on dry days. Walk up the muddy path, perhaps having to circumnavigate the worst bits and keep going straight, ignoring any small tracks to left or right, until you reach a better surfaced, wider path. This only takes a few minutes.

(F) This is an old landfill site, notice how quickly, oak, ash, and silver birch trees have started to regenerate the area, and in autumn it is a good place for black berries.

[5b] Turn right onto the wider path/ lane. In a couple of minutes, where the lane bears right, take a left hand path (also fairly wide and with some hard surfacing). You might see a small grove of bamboo plants  on your left and a chimney for the methane of the gas on your right. Just after this you begin to see the views of the lake spread out before you.

[5c] Take the next turn on your right to take you down to the lake, joining the main path round the lake, turning left. There are some seats and a picnic table here, a good place for feeding the ducks.

[5d] Follow the path round the lake with the lake on your right, rejoining the main route at [7].

[6] If you want to take the shortest and most accessible route to Chorlton Water Park, stay on the riverside path until you reach an impassable bridge (on your right) and the electricity sub station on the other side of the river and turn left. Ignore a path going off to the left up to Barlow Eye and the lane going to the right, and go straight on through the gates to meet the path going around the lake.

If you don’t want to visit Chorlton Water Park and are continuing along the Green Corridor, go straight on, keeping the river on the right, until you come to the bridge across the river where you can join the next section of the corridor.

[7] Go straight ahead, following the path as it goes round the lake, with the lake on your left, until you come to a main track turning left beside the disabled parking, and a triangle of grass in front of you.

(G) The water park is an old site where sand and gravel were extracted, and a very wide range of birds can be seen on the water. It is also a popular place for fishing.

[8] Turn left here and follow the road up to the car park at the top. There are part time toilets and an information office at the car park.

Bus routes are some distance away. You need to walk up Maitland Avenue. You can turn right along Darley Avenue to Princess Parkway with good buses services in and out of Manchester, or go on to the Barlow Moor Road, with good buses services to Chorlton and Didsbury. You can also turn left along Darley Avenue to Hardy Lane, for more buses. However the bus stops on Darley Avenue are misleading, buses are very infrequent.