Yesterday, city life was weighing a little heavy on my head. But it seems Daddy Google was tracking my brainwaves 😂 as an article about a local country walk near to Little Crosby popped up on my Google feed.
The great thing about Merseyside (the area surrounding Liverpool in the UK) is that there are a variety of natural habitats quite close to the city. The mountains of North Wales are a few short hour's drive away, and the pastoral idyll of the Cheshire plains are around an hours drive.
But if you don't fancy driving more than half an hour from the city centre there are some hidden gems of walks quite close to Liverpool.
Thornton and Little Crosby Circular Walk
We set off from our starting point at The Nag's Head in Thornton village and after walking down a small road that turned into a horse track, crossed the busy Broom’s Cross Road to find ourselves in rolling fields.
In the corner of the first field, there was a well-tended memorial bench for an interesting-sounding woman called ‘Shirl the Whirl’. Sorry you can't see the commemorative plaque, the sun was bright that day and the contrast makes it unreadable. The message commemorates Shirl the Whirl, who died in the 1960s.
The sun cracked the clouds and seemed to chase them away as we carried on walking along the verges of fields.
Birds chirruped in the hedgerows, and the rustle of autumn leaves fed my soul as the gentle breeze tickled the trees.
Blood-red Hawthorn berries danced in the wind as the sun warmed my face as we took an overgrown bridleway between the fields.
As we walked down the bridleway, trees formed a tree-tunnel which must be quite impressive in spring/summer when the leaves are full. We stopped to take a drink and sneak a quick selfie.
After crossing the road and walking about 200 meters, a path to the left led past a farm to the house pictured above/below.
Both I and my girlfriend agreed that this was our fantasy country house... a sentiment that was repeated during the rest of the walk viewing the many country cottages in this area.
After a short walk down a road, we detoured (on private land as the instructions I had weren't very clear 😂) through a quaint courtyard of ancient 15th-century buildings to take in Crosby Hall 👇
The road led to Crosby Hall, but as we walked past the ancient manor house I realized that the instructions had steered me wrong and this was indeed private property... yikes 🤓
After a brief pause to snap some pictures, we turned around and a friendly resident appeared, asking us what we were doing. I explained I'd got lost, and apologized, and he steered me in the right direction to find the church in the village of Little Crosby.
A little further on past the church, we discovered a lovely little café called The Bakery Barn that had reasonably priced (especially for this affluent area) coffee and cake.
The Bakery Barn was in a courtyard surrounded by various businesses such as a dog grooming service, a wedding caterer and a beauty/health clinic. I had Biscoff Millionaires Shortbread and my girlfriend had the classic Victoria Sponge.
After this well-earned break, we walked through Little Crosby village which dates back to the 10th century and
was mentioned in The Doomsday Book.
Passing the old smithy before taking to the fields again for the final leg of the walk.
As we walked this final stretch of the circular route a farmer was harvesting potatoes which caused a dramatic scene as a huge flock of gulls clamoured behind the tractor to gobble up the worms brought to the surface.
It was a little like a scene out of Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 horror movie, The Birds.
Despite the racket from the seagulls, I was struck by the patterning of the soil on the recently harvested fields.
Thanks for joining me on my Wednesday walk 🙂🌿
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