Guided Walks

If you would like a circular walk taking in some of the notable places in the village please take this paper copy from the phone box information point on Crown Lane.

From St Oswald's car park, distance is 1.2 mls.

Walking from the Crown Pub will add 850yds.

The phone box is a K6 phone box, designed in 1935 by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of King George V. It was consequently known as the Jubilee Kiosk. Sir Giles was also the architect who designed Liverpool Cathedral and the Battersea Power Station. Built of cast iron, the K6 design was the first to be used outside London. Over 60,000 boxes were installed across Britain. It is slightly smaller and therefore lighter than the previous models, K1-K5. All phone boxes in the UK and also all those found in the former British territories around the world and in the commonwealth, are painted in the same British Standard, Currant Red. and are widely recognised across the world as a British icon.

In 2011 all disused phone boxes were offered to local councils for reuse. Lower Peover bought both of ours for £1 each. The second box can be found beside the village shop and houses a defibrillator.

For a more detailed information about both our two phone boxes please see the laminated sheet inside the phone box.

Looking to the left of the phone box in Hulme Lane, you will see our Village Shop and Post Office. This well stocked shop is much used amenity in our village and a lifeline for many residents.

The Crown WA16 9QB was built in the late 16th early 17th century. This cobble fronted pub is right in the centre of the village. The Crown Inn and Farm was originally part of the Tabley Estate and was sold off by Cuthbert Leycester Warren in 1920 to John Thomas Dutton, when many of the outlying farms were sold off the Estate. At the time, it was both the Crown Inn farmhouse and Ale House where many local farmers and ancillary workers met for a drink and to socialise. In 1938 it was sold off to Chester's Brewery and became a separate entity and a new farmhouse was built. In the 1970s it was popular for its pub lunches and evening meals and its Darts and Domino teams who successfully took part in the local leagues. The Crown still remains a popular meeting place, with musical entertainment most weekends in the summer and various special events throughout the year.

In 1975 the Gooseberry Show was introduced and became an annual event being held on the last Saturday in July every year. The growing of large Gooseberries is a long-standing tradition in Mid Cheshire going back over 100 years and is still going strong today. There are 4 colours, Red, Green, Yellow and White and the classes are for the heaviest premier single berry, doubles and triples. The prizes are keenly contested by the locals whose growing secrets are closely guarded, but new members are always welcome.

In the early years of the 1900s the field opposite the Crown was used for the evening entertainment of horse racing. This followed the annual village sports day that was carried out during the afternoon races were varied in length and type and divided into categories. They took place on the field behind the school. The horse racing started at 5.30pm was over a 1ml flat course and attracted competitors from quite some distance away. The winners winning £5, £3, £2 respectively. The programme we have is dated July 12th, 1924. The whole event was probably a huge social event in the calendar year, not only for our village and but also for the wider community. The racing of horses was generally a popular pass time; there was a similar race 'track' on Plumley Moor Road. The start being beside a walnut tree, that grew opposite the first house on your right. It was a straight mile to the first corner, before the motorway was built. The pub at the end of Plumley Moor Road commemorates Smoker, a successful and locally famous racehorse. It is thought many, many years prior to this event that same field opposite the Crown was used for cock fighting and bear baiting, and other village events Also no doubt the long-ago country fair favourite of trying to catch a greased up young pig.

Turn left out of the Crown Pub Car Park onto Crown Lane.

On your left in 300yds, is a large Grade 2 listed house, Crown Lane Farm. This property like Crown Farm, was a farmhouse, farming some 72 acres. Ale was also served from there in its early days. The farm was well known for its excellent farmhouse teas around the 1930s for which people travelled long distances to enjoy. There were 2 tennis courts there too that could be hired for 6d. The mail for the village was delivered here twice a week; word was passed round to alert recipients there was a letter there awaiting collection. That person on collection of their mail had to pay 6d.

Carry on along Crown Lane to St Oswald's Church WA16 9PZ. In around 350mtrs on your right, signposted St Oswald's Church, up the cobbled track named The Cobbles. Here you are surrounded by 3 listed buildings.

Beside the parking area outside St Oswald's Church you will find the Grade 2 building that housed one of the very first schools for local children in Cheshire, bearing a Blue Plaque. In 1710 there was no education available for local children, only for the children from families wealthy enough to employ a governess. It was the vision of the progressive Vicar at the time, with financial help from his wife, to create a school to provide an education for local children of the poor. He purchased the plot of land where the building now stands, from Sir Frances Leycester, of nearby Hulme Hall, Allostock. The school was opened in 1710 and was one of the first to open in the area. If the child attending could afford it, they paid a penny a week, if not the education was free. The children were given a meal every day. Richard Comberbach and his wife taught in the school until his death in 1710. Money was left in their wills leaving provision for the employment of a schoolteacher, John Mear, (buried in our churchyard in in 1734) and for its maintenance. In 1722 the school became an Endowed School under the title of The Foundation of Richard Comberbach and Wife and managed by trustees.

The Comberbach's also owned the farm which stood where the modern primary school stands now. The sale of provision from which, coupled with a farm they also owned in Crowton, helped fund the school.

From 1722-1874 the minister of St Oswald's was also expected to be a schoolmaster and was appointed with that in mind.

The building was still in use as a school some 315 years later, when for many years the old school became The Little House nursery school. It is now a private residence.

Lower Peover WI meets in the school hall in the primary school on the first Wednesday of the month. It is one of the oldest WIs in Cheshire being founded in 1932. At this moment in time there are around 45 members of all ages, from the village itself and the surrounding area.

St Oswald’s Grade 1 listed church was built possibly on the site of a former Chapel of Ease in 1269. The church is one of the oldest half-timbered churches left in Europe. Above the door as you enter the Bell Tower is the Millennium Window. This window was designed and funded entirely by our community. It is full of symbolic and pictorial representations of our village, all suggested by the residents. It is designed and positioned so that any person of whatever religion can see and enjoy it. The legend of the window is to be found on the wall to the left of the door that admits entry into the body of the church. The church pews are wooden and their doors prevented the spread of rushes laid in winter, in times gone by.

Richard Comberbach's wife, noting that some local villagers were struggling to feed their families at this time, baked bread she put on specially built shelves to allow poor folk to take it without having to ask for help. You can see the bread shelves around the pillar beside the font. The font arrived at St Oswald's in 1322, when the church was deemed suitable to hold Baptisms. It is believed like the chest, to have come from Norton Priory.

The third wooden pillar on the right rotted in 1922 and needed replacing. The Gough's wood yard, that stood where a house is now, at the top of Plumley Moor, road were asked to source and provide a replacement. The pillar was so heavy it had to be dragged up the aisle by a horse, who was then led out through the top south door. The date of the event is engraved at the base of the pillar. Gough Bros 1922.

Close to that pillar you will find a massive oak chest that is essentially a wooden safe. It came to St Oswald's in 1269 from Norton Priory, near to what is now Runcorn. It is 2 metres in length and is estimated to weigh the better part of a tonne. It is banded in steel stripes secured with handmade nails. The chest is hewn out of the heartwood of the trunk of a single gigantic oak tree some 800-900 years old, not a bog oak as previously thought. Almost certainly the chest would have been made from a fallen tree, as to fell a tree of that size in medieval days would have been virtually impossible, according to the ancient wood and tree expert, Jonathan Legeard. Jonathan was called in to see if it was possible to carbon date the chest. He also said the design and crude construction indicated to him that the chest had been made in earlier medieval times, from 475 onwards, and brought to Norton priory from elsewhere. Not as previously believed made by the Priory. The Priory was built in 1100 beside the first narrow section of the river Mersey at Norton near Runcorn. It owned and ran the only ferry service across the river from there. The operation of this first ferry service would have meant they accrued considerable wealth very quickly. It is entirely possible that a chest like this one was needed urgently to safely store their money and valuables.

Set into the front of the chest is a primitive crude medieval lock. These simple but effective crude ancient locks were designed so the key would have to be continuously turned, moving 2 bolts in opposing directions. These bolts would engage with 2 hinged metal loops attached to the lid. that fitted through the 2 matching slots on the face of the lock plate thus securing the lid. Careful examination of the front edge of the lid immediately above each slit reveals the 3 dimples above each, where the back plates of the hinged loops would have been attached with handmade nails. A light shone obliquely into the left hand slit on the lock plate will reveal the tip of one of the bolts still in place. All the metal work on the chest would have been had forged and created by hand. 169 years after Norton Priory was built, their wealth would mean this chest would almost certainly have been superseded by smaller, far more modern chests with complicated locking systems. It’s possible they were glad to pass this huge item on to a new home in Lower Peover in 1269.

The time-frame of our wonderful chest is so great in years that the 'parent' of the tree this chest was made from, would almost certainly have been growing when Jesus walked on earth, or, if as suspected, and the chest was indeed made in much earlier medieval times, a few hundred years before its arrival at Norton Priory in 1100AD, then quite possibly the actual tree it is made from was growing as a small sapling at that time. More detailed information can be found on the laminate sheet beside the chest.

There has long been a tradition for many years, that a girl marrying a farmer had to prove her strength and suitability as a farmer’s wife, by lifting the lid of the chest with one hand. The lid alone weighs an estimated 76kg (1.5cwt)

Beside the church path leading down through the graveyard into the field that lies below, are 4 graves to your left of interest. Firstly, a few yards from the kissing gate you will find a flat gravestone marking the final resting place of schoolteacher John Mear, his epitaph reads 'John Mear the first Master this School was here interred in 1734'. The school referred to is the same school started by Richard Comberbach and his wife on the cobbles, 24yrs earlier.

Further down the churchyard path you will see an unusual multi stemmed Silver Birch. This marks the grave of John Kinsey who died aged 76 in 1886. He has no stone to mark his grave. As he was such a renowned broom maker selling his brooms in villages far and wide, the tool of his trade, a silver birch tree was planted on his grave instead. John made his famous brooms from the slender birch whips that sprouted from pollarded birch trees. This tree was itself pollarded annually to recreate these whips, until the late 1950s'. Then all the trees in the church yard came under a protection order, the restrictions meant the pollarding had to stop. The strongest whips therefore went on to grow into trees on the original stump, creating this unusual tree. The tree is also unusual as Silver Birches have a normal life span of only around 65 years; however, this tree is 139+yrs old, due to the pollarding preventing it ageing.

The next grave alongside the path, under a tall Maltese cross, is the grave of John Byrne-Leicester-Warren, 3rd Baron of Tabley, who died aged 60 in 1895. He was known as The O'Bryne and was an established poet and novelist. He wrote a famous book, the Flora and Fauna of Cheshire, which is still in print today. On his grave grows an example of the blackberry he famously cultivated.

Eight graves away from O'Bryne's grave, towards the church, you will see a rare loan official War Grave, marked with a Portland stone slab. It is the grave of Sub lieutenant John A. Edwards RNVR (Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve). HMS Raven, who died in 1940 aged 34yrs. A sad story is here to tell. John was an Australian seaman based in the South East of England during the war. He met and fell very much in love with the daughter of the publican at the Bells, Joan Savage. He was on leave here in in the village in August 1940, when they were involved in a serious car accident. John was tragically killed and Joan seriously injured. As it was not possible to return his body back to his unit, nor repatriate it to Australia, he was laid to rest in our churchyard. Joan recovered from her serious injuries and eventually went on to marry and became Mrs Joan Dill. However, upon her own death in 1954 aged only 46yrs, she had requested she join her beloved John, and so it was arranged, and she was laid to rest with him.

Carry on through the Kissing Gate onto the well worn path through the over-grown field, named Church Meadow.

This particular field, called Church Meadow, held a special memory for a well know local farmer, Arthur Leech. As a young lad in the 1930's, he was living at Mill Bank Farm, the family home you will see up to your right when you enter the next field. Ploughing in those days was done with a pair of shire horses. Arthur's father, himself a well known excellent ploughman, decided the time had come that Arthur was sufficiently practised to be given a field of his own to plough. In those days this large area of field would have consisted of 2, two or even 3 smaller fields, it was to one of these smaller fields he would probably have been sent. He ploughed all day long and was really proud of what he had achieved. When his father came to view at the end of the day, he walked along the furrows looking at how straight and even they were. "Arthur," he said, "this is very good." How delighted the young Arthur must have been, praise indeed from this meticulous man. Until his father added, " In fact Arthur although it's very good, it’s not good enough, you'll do it again tomorrow" Apparently Arthur was just one quarter of an inch out across the whole field in just one furrow. Arthur went on in later years to win many horse ploughing championships. In 1965 he was asked to be the manager of the Great Britain Team at the World Ploughing Competition in Norway. Unusually Arthur taught his two horse team to both walk on the headland rather than the traditional way of one of the pair walking in the furrow, an idea followed by many other competition horse ploughmen. In 1956 he won the British Championship held at a National competition in Shillingford. In that same year Eric Ashley, another Lower Peover farmer and Arthur's good friend, also competing at the same venue, won the British Tractor Ploughing Championship. So amazingly in that year, both British Champion ploughmen, one using horses and one a tractor lived within a mile of each other.

Follow the well worn path into the ne named Kirk, as it arrives alongside the Peover Eye river on your left. Cross over the river at the weir onto the Mill House public footpath and follow the path keeping the Mill Pool on your right, and through the latched gate onto the mown grass.

Lower Peover Mill. WA16 9QT The water from the Peover Eye, was diverted here to run a mill that crushed both peas and beans to make animal feed as well as corn. The Mill House still stands, now as a private residence, the mill pool, the remains of the working building and the positions of the 2 water wheels can clearly be seen from the footpath that passes between the buildings. Owing to the steepness of the slope down to the mill, horses drawing heavily laden carts had to access it down what is now the main drive from Foxcovert Lane, (named after the 4 acre fox covert, silent 't', at the end of the lane). The lane in those days before the war, was a rough stone lane with grass growing down the middle as were all the Lower Peover lanes. Once unloaded, horses could either wait on the hard standing in front of the house, or be stabled, before exiting along the level track that ran in front of the house and came out further along Foxcovert Lane.

In June 1872 a cloudburst over Henbury near Macclesfield flooded the lake at Henbury Hall, which burst its banks sending a wall of water roaring through this part of Cheshire, down the Peover Eye, which dramatically burst its banks extensively flooding the low lying land below the church. Mr Lea who ran the mill nearly drowned rescuing his corn from the ground floor. The huge deep flood extended all the way up to the edge of the graveyard., and to the doorstep of Mrs Cragg's shop, (see later info).

In 1946 the Mill House was bought as a wedding present for Derek and Jean Hardy by Derek's father. Whilst the family, later blessed with two sons, became wonderful well known members of our community for decades, it was Derek whom most folk new of. In time he became one of our village characters. He especially enjoyed the hospitality and the convivial company he found at the Bells of Peover. He was such a frequent customer there, that in 1998 the brewery made Derek a Freeman of the pub, which entitled him to a free pint every day. They also celebrated the occasion with a brass plaque which you can see on the wall of the snug above where he always sat. Able to easily walk home from there, quite often more than a little the worse for wear, in both daylight or pitch darkness, the weir was there to be negotiated. In those days it only consisted of a couple of strong beams and a single handrail on the upriver side. One of the everlasting and unsolved mysteries of the village is how he ever negotiated it, time after time, without ever falling in, but he never did. When he died in 2005 the church was packed for his funeral, such was the esteem he was held in.

Walk up the cobbles between the buildings. Go through the metal side gate on the left and out onto the drive. Bear left onto the footpath passing the small brick building to your right into Brookfield field , cross the Red Brook using the tiny bridge and follow the footpath through Big & Little Well Meadow.

At the end of the footpath, climb over the stile and turn left onto Free Green Lane, (named after an area of public land, a 'Free Green' for the grazing of tethered farm animals, now a strip of wooded land that lies further along the lane to your right. Stated on the Tythe map as 'For Use By The

'Freeholders of Peover, (Acres 3 Roods 1 Perches 21')'

At the next junction you will find The Tree of Imagination WA16 9PS. It is located on the corner of Free Green Lane and Broom Lane. This uniquely carved tree uses the heart wood of an oak tree estimated to have been between 300-400 yrs old. It died in the early 2000s. The tree has had to be roofed to protect its soft interior from further water damage. This roof also incorporates an owl box, a bat box and a nesting box within its construction. The carving work was done by Cheshire chain saw carver, Tim Burgess. Opened officially by the Lord Lieutenant of Cheshire in 2015, it was created 'to delight and inspire children and all those who are still young at heart'. The creation of the tree was entirely due to our community working together, for the idea, the fund raising and for the creation of all the items including the doors, canon and jail. There were 63 individual local folk who made a physical contribution to create what you see. It is visited by dozens and dozens of people throughout the year. Through research we believe it to be the only such tree in the world. Beside the tree is a bench, bought to mark the millennium from some left-over funds from the creation of the window in the church.

If visiting the tree by car, please, please park responsibly in the nearby layby, beside the post box, not on the roadside.

Our official post office moved 3 times after leaving Crown Lane Farm, before ending up at the village shop. The house opposite the post box in the layby was the 3rd place that the post office resided, run by Marion Johnson for many years.

Leaving the Tree of Imagination to your left carry on down Broom Lane

As you pass Broom Cottage on your left, the annex on the right of the cottage was built to house the 2nd home of the village post office run by Mrs Booth for a short while,

Carry on to the junction with Middlewich Road.

On you right on the corner is the house that was once our village shop and the first home of an official village Post Office run by the Gough family.

Before you is the Village Green and the Smithy, established in early C16th and working until the 1960s. Arnold Jackson was the farrier. Inside the wide door was a space wide enough for 2 horses to stand side by side. All horses had to be brought to a smithy to be shod in those days, unlike now when Farriers drive vans full of equipment and gas powered mini furnaces to the horse to be shod. The Lower Peover forge was always busy until one day Arnold was shoeing a big horse, when a flatbed lorry carrying empty milk churns, secured with a chain fence around round them, rattled past. The horse was badly frightened at the noise and slipped and fell on top of him. Arnold survived the resulting serious injuries, but never fully and the forge was closed hence forth.

A magnificent Copper Beech tree grows on the green, planted in 1934 by Arnold. Under the tree is a bench, engraved with the names of the 3 horses he shod for a lady owner, gifted to the forge in recognition and thanks for Arnold's service over several years. The black and white house standing nearby was once many years ago 2 thatched cottages, one was the village cobbler's and the other a sweet shop, On the opposite side of the road to the smithy is a dip. There used to be a roadside pond. Arnold used this pond to quench the wooden cart wheels in that he had banded with hot steel bands from his forge. The water shrank the hot iron and swelled the wood, making the metal band a tight fit. Near to where the pond was is the village sign, proudly bedecked with no less than 10 Best Kept Village awards, gained over the years. The recently replaced bench beside the road celebrates the 1951 festival of Britain. It marks the place of the now disused bus stop.

Walk along the hedge line on your left to find a stile to the footpath called the Ostrich Footpath, named after the name of the field, recorded as such on the records of the early 1900s. The path lies close to the hedge to your right and leads to a second stile. Turn left on rejoining Free Green Lane.

Arriving at the top of Church Walk Lane, WA16 9PT There is a pond which had become desperately overgrown and very shallow. It was reclaimed during 2025 from its dire state by the village community working together. In times gone by this large pond may have been an ideal place to pause and let working horses enjoy a drink. It would have been a hard pull for them up Church Walk. Planted at the top of Church Walk you will see a young Bramley Apple tree, planted in 2022 by Lower Peover WI to celebrate its 90th birthday. This steep narrow lane leads downhill and back over the Peover Eye via a bridge. Shortly the lane forks in two. To the right it goes through what is now the Bells car park, and on to Cobbles Lane. It is believed that this is the original road through the village, before Middlewich Road was created.

Walk on down the Church Walk Lane, but at the fork keep left to bring you back towards the church.

You are now in the conservation area of Little Peover. The old Church Inn will be on your right, a popular pub in its day, but long gone. It became the residence of the last publican Jimmy Edgerton on its demise.

Mrs Cragg's shop is to be found on your right just before passing through the gate back into the churchyard. This property too is now a private house, The shop sold all sorts of items, but her sweets were a magnet for the village children, the bottles of which were displayed on the shelves inside the little front window. Mrs. Cragg made delicious humbugs for which she became famous. Her sweets are represented as the border to the millennium window in the church. It was to the door of this little shop that the incredible flash flood of 1872 reached, aforementioned in the information about the Mill House.

Go through the wooden gate into the churchyard. Follow the paved path off to your right.

This path will lead you towards a gateway leading to the paved area in front of the Bells of Peover pub. Before you go through this gate however, under the 4th flat grave to your left, lying close against the hedge, is buried a man about whom there is a lovely story. Hugh Bolshaw was a joiner who was employed to work on the church during some restoration work in 1852. He loved the area so much that he decided he would like to be buried in the churchyard. To ensure this was possible, he bought himself this grave plot. The story goes that he designed and had engraved his own gravestone, leaving blank spaces to be filled in after his death. He also bought himself a coffin, in which he apparently kept his bread. He spent many a cheerful session at the local hostelries and after enjoying a touch too much of the hospitality on offer, he would go and lie on his grave plot, stating no one could move him on, as he was lying down on his own land. When he died, 18 years later, on 19th January 1891, he was duly placed in his pre-bought coffin and buried in his plot, the gravestone, having been duly brought up to date by the filling in of the blank spaces, was laid on top.

Pass through the gate at the end of the flagged path.

The Bells of Peover WA16 9PZ, is there, with its ancient Wisteria scrambling over the frontage, decked in long florets of flowers in May time. Its massive trunk which leans over the door has connected with many a head both in the past and the present, so beware! The former hotel has its origins in the proximity to the St Oswald's Church. The probability is that back in the 13th Century when the church was a Chaple of Ease it was a former priests house, which then transformed itself over time by the brewing of ale for the refreshment of monks and travellers. A date of 1569 has been suggested for the present inn and the earliest record of a licensee is for 1640 when Raphe Kinsey is noted as the landlord of the ‘Swans Neck’ in Lower Peover. In 1839, the name of the inn was changed to ‘The Warren de Tabley Arms’ in deference to the owners, the Leicester Family from Tabley, who had recently acquired the title of Baron de Tabley. However, a further change of name took place around the 1890’s, which surprisingly has nothing whatsoever to do with the church bells which hang in the church tower, and all to do with a family who in 1849 took over the inn. George Bell took the tenancy, aged 28, and created a dynasty which lasted for 65 years.

In the later part of the 1800's day trips were taken from Manchester by train to Knutsford station, where horse drawn hackney cabs would bring the gentry out to take tea in the gardens. It must have been such an adventure. Not only did the Bell family run a very fine Inn, they also created their own brewery on the premises and supplied many other local pubs in the area with their ale known as ‘Bells Graveyard Ale’. When talking amongst themselves, locals in the area would say ‘we are going to the Bell’s tonight’ and this stuck, with the premises then being known as the ‘Bells of Peover’ from this time forward. The Bell family left in 1915 having endured several family tragedies, but the Inn is still known as the ‘Bells of Peover’ to this day and is as popular as ever with visitors and locals alike.

During the war General Patton and his 3rd Army were stationed at Peover Hall in our neighbouring village of Over Peover. Patton and Eisenhower had secret meetings in the upstairs rooms at the Bells, planning events around D-Day. General Patton's men were to move forward into France in the days following the event, providing back up troops. A Blue Plaque celebrates this piece of history, put up on the 80th commemoration of D-Day.

In its heyday the pub was famous throughout the world. Up until the 1970's it was a magnet for special occasion dining. The entertaining of many businessmen took place during the week. The traditional English pub surroundings being especially appealing to anybody entertaining clients from overseas. To reserve a table, bookings needed to be placed several weeks in advance. Such evenings were often preceded by the added delight of a visit to our ancient church. In those days it was never locked until late into the evening, The guests would then be ushered into the pub and treated to the fabulous a la Carte menu choices that the fine dining restaurant was famous for. For certain many a deal was struck during such evenings.

Leaving the Bells pub via the car park, back to the cobbles, turn left and you are back to where you started.

We do hope you have enjoyed your short walk through some of the aspects of our lovely village and enjoyed some of the stories that are embedded in our history.