This article originally appeared in the LDWA and Long-Distance Paths Facebook group. 

The South Cheshire Market Towns Trail has been added to the LDP database. It is a circular walk of 42 miles and starts from Congleton. 

This Trail is a partnership project between the towns of Alsager, Congleton, Holmes Chapel, Middlewich and Sandbach. Although the route officially starts from Astbury Mere Country Park, Congleton and goes in a clockwise direction, it can easily be started from any of these towns.

Extraction of silica sand occurred at the quarry on the site now occupied by Astbury Mere Country Park, from around the 1930s until 1984. The sand was used for making glass and for precision casting of metal. After the closure of the quarry, the site was divided into housing and open space. The park was accredited by Natural England as a country park in 2012. 

Having passed through Congleton, the Biddulph Valley Way, a former railway track, provides an easy stretch of the walk although a more strenuous alternative can be taken along Congleton Edge – with good views of the Staffordshire Moorlands to the east and the Cheshire Plain to the west – to reach Nick i’ th’ Hill, a pronounced dip in the ridge, believed to have been a melt water drainage channel in the last ice age.

Farmland paths and canal towpaths take the route close to Alsager and the walk then follows the Salt Line, another former railway line, for a while.  It was used as a freight railway until 1971, serving salt mines around Rode Heath as well as through freight, but had not seen passenger services since 1930.

The route then heads to Sandbach, with its 9th Century Saxon stone crosses.

On to Middlewich which has been involved in salt production since Roman times. The town lies on the confluence of three rivers: the Dane, Croco and Wheelock. Three canals also pass through the town, the Shropshire Union, Trent and Mersey, and the Wardle Canal. 

From Middlewich the trail uses field paths and minor roads to Holmes Chapel then joins the Dane Valley Way on its way back to Congleton. 

After Holmes Chapel, the route passes the Grade II Listed Twemlow Viaduct.

Built in 1841 by G W Buck, Engineer to the Manchester and Birmingham Railway Company, it has 23 semi-circular arches, each of 18 metres span.