GJHC – Grandad John’s Home Circular
This is one of a series of caches set on lesser walked paths on a 6.5 mile circular around my home village of Mobberley. The caches are on a route which has you walking through a variety of farmland, on quiet lanes, bridle paths, small woods, across streams and also over plenty of stiles.
Parking for the series in on Church Lane, where parking can be found on the grass verge opposite Mobberley Church. 53*19.137 002*18.998.
You will also find the Church Inn on the corner near where you park. The Church Inn serves good ale and food as does the other pubs in the village – The Bulls Head, The Roebuck and the Frozen Mop.
GJHC - Grandad John's Home Circular Completed
When you have completed ALL the caches in this series, you have earned the right to display the following medal on your Geocaching profile and on forums anywhere.
THE ROUTE
From the parking co-ordinates walk down the lane past the church. At the next bend you will find the entrance to Mobberley Field. Follow the GPS to GC2AKBY
Don’t take the obvious path right but head uphill with the white taped fence to your left. This will lead you to a road where you turn right. The next footpath is on the left opposite the white painted house. Follow the GPS to GC2AKC9
Continue south to GC2ARKJ
Follow the path through the field and over the stile, go across the next field heading to the right of the bungalow and exit onto a track. Follow the GPS to GC2AKCD
Take the first stile/gate. Follow the GPS to GC2ARKX
Continue east through the wheat field to GC2AKCH
You now need to head north. Although not seen from here there is a stile at the other side of the field opposite from where you stand. Go over the stile and walk down to the wooden bridge. Once across there is a faint path through the trees on the right. Once in the field follow the GPS to GC2AKCR
Go left to the end of the hedge and then right to the stile between two gates. Continue until you exit the field. As you get to the track take the stile on the right. Follow the fence on the right until you come to GC2AKD0
Continue east over another stile/fence and follow the GPS to GC2ARKN
Turn left and follow the GPS to GC2AKDA
You now go to the bottom left hand corner of the field and exit via a gate. As you pass through this gate there is another gate on the right. DO NOT pass through here, although the GPS will want you to. You need to continue north through a gate to the end of the bridal path and turn right and follow the GPS to GC2AKDF
Cross the bridge and walk east until you go over a stile in front of a corrugated barn. Go through the gate beyond the rotary aires and turn left and walk in front of the row of cottages and over a small bridge. Follow the fence on the left and find a stile between the trees to GC2ARME
Follow the path until you come to the track and turn left to the road. The Frozen Mop PH is on the right. Turn left and over the new stile on the right. Follow the path and head to the right of the new stable block then bear right to the corner. Veer left after the second stile to find another stile at the other side of the field, go over and turn left. Follow the GPS along a narrow path to GC2ARMH
Follow the path to the road. Cross the road and enter the field next to the stone gatepost. Follow the fence on the right and cross a stile to the next field. Turn left and follow the GPS to GC2AKE6
Continue in the same direction until you come to Paddock lane and turn right. Veer left onto Moss lane and ignore the first footpath. The footpath you want is at 53*18.928 002*17.218 follow the GPS to GC2AKEC
Cross the stile to the left of here and over the stile opposite. Exit the next field by a stile to the right of the trees. Opposite this stile is the Quaker graveyard (see history section). turn left and follow the GPS to GC2AKEJ
Continue to the end of the lane, the next path is opposite to the left. Follow the narrow path and go over the stile into the field. When you cross the next stile go right over the stile or through the broken fence and turn left. Follow the GPS to GC2AKEY
Follow the GPS to GC2ARMQ
Head southwest past the lone tree and go over the stile. Turn right over another stile and go diagonally to the top corner and over the stile. Cross the next stile on your left and follow the GPS to GC2AMT4
Continue southwest towards two gates and take the right hand one and follow the GPS to GC2AP8N
Go through the double gates to the right go diagonally to the top of the field where you exit in the Church Inn carpark. Happy Days
Mobberley – A Brief History
Mobberley is one of England’s oldest parishes. It appears in the Domesday Book, under its Saxon name of Motburlege (village or town meeting place in the open country), as held by Bigot of Loges from Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester. Despite almost two hundred acres paying tax, Domesday records Motburlege as “found waste”. Woodland was the most prominent feature over 9 square miles and this extensive area carries down to the present day, when Mobberley is, reputedly, still the second largest Parish in England. There has been a church in Mobberley since before the Norman Conquest, the earliest reference to a church however dates from 1206 when Patrick de Mobberley founded a small priory of regular canons of the Order of St. Augustine. The oldest part of the present building, the main body of the nave, dates from 1245. In 1450 the Clerestory and Roof were added and the aisles widened and in 1533 the tower was added to replace the original detached tower which had fallen into disrepair. The church underwent a major reordering in the 1880’s when the Chapel and Vestry were rebuilt and the Chancel Arch erected. It was during these works that Saxon remains were found. The church boasts a beautiful Rood screen which dates from around 1500 and which bears a number of coats of arms as well as other motifs. The pillars of the screen are also richly carved and a number of faces can be discerned including that of a Green Man. The church also has some magnificent 14th century stained glass showing the armorial motifs of a number of local families. Other items of note include the font which is a composite structure of a Victorian font on a pedestal from a medieval water stoop on what believe to be an inverted Tudor font. On the northern wall can be seen a medieval mural which appears to depict St. George slaying a recumbent dragon. At the west end there is a Rangers gallery which opens onto the church and which has a Jacobean carved rail dedicated to John Baguley and Henry Burges who were Churchwardens in 1693.The organ, which sits in a purpose built chamber, once stood in the Manchester Free Trade Hall and was once the property of Sir Charles Halle. Exterior features include a Victorian gothic-style porch in which can be found 13th century Consecration cross cut into the stonework by the south door. There is also a “scratch” sun dial to the right of the south door. Mobberley, and its church, were long synonymous with the Mallory Family. In 1619 Thomas Mallory, Dean of Chester, bought the patronage of the Parish Church and in 1625 took up residence in the Manor House. Five Mallorys followed him as Rector, the last being Herbert Leigh-Mallory, father of George Mallory, the mountaineer who died attempting to climb Everest. Although the Mallorys moved from Mobberley they retained patronage of the church until the death of Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory, in 1944. Mobberley, however, has never been singular in its religious observance. The Methodist church stands evidence of the strong non-conformist streak of Mobberley folk, evident as far back as the post-reformation period. Quakers (with their own burial ground, still identifiable in Graveyard Lane), the Congregationalists and Unitarians all followed their faith, sometimes unhindered, sometimes persecuted. The Manor House that had survived the wear and tear of the centuries failed to survive its use by British and American troops in the Second World War; semi-derelict, it was demolished in the 1950s. Mobberley has been fortunate in that its long history has been largely peaceful. Its agricultural community, spread widely across its rolling acres, is still reflected in the individual farmhouses and small hamlets around Church Lane, Paddock Hill, Knolls Green and Pepper Street, each fortified by its own public house. The old village centre, by-passed in the 1930s lies just below the Old Hall along Mill Lane: as befits its ancient status, it boasts two pubs. Mobberley’s first major brush with the industrial age was in 1862 with the opening of the station serving the Manchester to Chester railway. More than a little remote, even then, for Mobberley folk, it was hardly surprising that, here also, a public house opened - no doubt to serve the tired and weary travellers! The building, in 1901, of the Rajar works that was to become the Iflord factory, was Mobberley’s first, and last, major industrial development. It initiated sporadic housing development around Town Lane which continued to the 1980s. This is now established as the major population centre of Mobberley, a parish with a population that has grown from around 2000 to 3000 over the last 100 years. Although its history has been peaceful, Mobberley has not been untouched by the outside world. Many of its sons marched away to the wars of old England: many failed to return. The carnage of the Great War took its toll on Mobberley, as on the villages, towns and cities of the whole country. The war memorial outside the Parish Church, honours those who died: the distinctive black and white Victory Hall commemorates those who served and provides a focus and centre for village activities. The twentieth century wrought many changes to Mobberley - agriculture lost its pre-eminence, and the aeroplane cast a literal and metaphorical shadow across the parish.