The Grounds of Childwall Hall and The Carriageway
50 minutes approximately.
This walk will take you into the heart of Childwall Woods, where ornamental planting makes it a magical place with hybrid rhododendrons and trees from many countries. The walk will bring you back through the carriageway, which dates back to the late 1700s, when this was the main entrance to the grand Childwall Hall. Visit the History Page.
You will need: A camera and strong shoes. This is not a wheelchair/buggy-friendly walk, as there are steps to take you down to the folly.
1. The entrance to the woods
Enter the woods by the main gates next to the Lodge on Childwall Abbey Road and walk forward to where the path forks. In the middle of the path, see a large purple-leafed beech. This is the commemorative tree planted to commemorate the opening of the Woods and Fields to the public in 1967.
The Commemorative Tree. A purple-leafed beech
If you look to your right, you will be able to see the carriageway stretching ahead. Dont take that path, you will be returning that way.
Next to the Commemorative tree, you will see an interpretation board. If you stand in front of the board to read it, your next path is on your right. It runs next to the carriageway. But dont rush past the board, it will tell you some really interesting facts about the history of the site.
2. Walk forward on the left-hand path.
There is a horse chestnut tree on this path right in front of you as you walk. Its branches have been chopped, and there is a wide column of rot at the base. It was dropping branches and became quite dangerous, and would have certainly been chopped down tp a tump except it comes alive at dusk as bats fly out of its hollows. Even dead trees are irreplaceable habitats for many species. The council took away the dangerous branches but left us the bats.
Follow the path forward past the tree. onto the path with the Rhododendrons on either side. Now overgrown and wild, but once they were trimmed and nurtured as ornate garden specimens belonging to the grand Childwall Hall.
Don’t be fooled by their winter colours. Spring dresses these old ladies in their Sunday best.
Follow the path through the Rhododendrons past the large veteran beech on your left.
Scarred from losing its branch 6 years ago, but now exposing its heartwood to the fungus and woodboring beetles, which have taken up residency there.
Your path will bring you to a grassy triangle with bird feeders on a large Lime tree. This is where you will want to take a short detour to see the Champion tree.
Walk between the feeders and the bench, and you will see a path to your left. Just a few metres down that path, you will see a tree surrounded by dead branches on the ground. That is the Champion Tree.
3. The Variegated Oak – The Champion Tree
A rare tree, discovered on 5th June 2020. Recorded by the Tree Register of Britain and Ireland (TROBI) as the 13th largest variegated common oak in Britain and Ireland. A Champion tree for Lancashire. (The TROBI has kept the old counties)
Yes, it’s hard to believe that a tree so ordinary in the winter can be so special, but you must see it in the summer when it’s showing off its colours.
A creamy white ripple throughout each leaf. And just like snowflakes, every leaf is different.
With the setting sun behind it, you can see it’s special.
A manmade tree. You can see the graft in the trunk. Only a very wealthy person would have been able to afford such a tree. Maybe the Brocklebank family had it planted there for their pleasure when they were tenants at the Hall. We will never know.
The dead branches around it are to keep walkers away from its roots. As the soil is compacted, the crucial mycorrhizal fungi that bring in nutrients to the tree roots do not like the compacted soil and the tree is starved of phosphates and nitrates. Since moving the path away from our champion, it is recovering from sap runs and dieback that were evident previously.
Walk back to the bird feeders and return to the main path through the woods to continue your walk.
4. The Folly
You will notice Yew trees as you walk along this path, then on your left you will see a set of steps cut into the rock to take you down to The Folly. For most walkers, it will be passable at all times of the year,
But be careful.
You can follow these steps down to another set of steps that will take you around The Folly, known locally as Monkey Island.
It is thought that the folly was built to impress visitors and for no practical purpose. When first created, it would not have been shaded by large trees and Rhododendrons as it is today, but would have been open and bright, a cool spot for an interesting afternoon walk. Now, all the evergreen trees planted here make this a green, leafy walk even in winter.
It is a magical manmade feature of the site.
Was it cut into the rock or built up using huge slabs of sandstone?
What do you think?
The path to the left is often the best and the driest way around while you explore the many interesting features. Even in rainy times, it is passable since FCWF ‘Diggers’ put the stepping logs in. But be careful, they are very slippery when wet.
There are some wonderful natural features in The Folly, besides those made by man.
The trees in the Folly are wonderfully strange and show how resilient nature can be in establishing a foothold in an unlikely and unfriendly environment.
Walk straight through to the bridge.
5. The Bridge over the Carriageway
Here, the Bunter Sandstone is cut away to create a gentle curve around to reveal Childwall Hall to its visitors.
Dont cross over the bridge, walk down the main path keeping the carriageway on your right.
6. The Path Down the Hill
Looking down, you will see a fallen tree right across the path in front of you.
On the far side of the tree is the bottom path. Walk on to the signpost.
If you turn and look towards the log, you may notice the cobbles in the ground that tell us this used to be a path made for the Gascoynes to keep their feet free from mud on their woodland walks. There isn’t much left of the path from 300 years ago, and walkers through the centuries would certainly see a different wood, Different every season, different every day, but always beautiful.
A tiny hint of the pathway that was used by the Gascoyne family as they enjoyed their walk in the woods.
Follow the path through the walk-through, and you will be standing at the end of the carriageway.
Cross the carriageway to the huge sweet chestnut trees, a few metres along the path.
Go quietly, as this is a favourite spot for woodpeckers, as soon as a walker has passed.
D. Carmichael
7. Childwall Woods
Nature never intended a wood to grow here. The soil is thin on the Bunter Sandstone that underlies the whole region. This was once Childwall Heath with bushes and brambles, but not large trees
Our beautiful wood is manmade, planted by the owners and tenants of Childwall Hall through the centuries. The planting began roughly 350 years ago when the first Childwall Hall was built, and sweet chestnut trees were planted for their nuts, which were used as flour. Beech and fast-growing birch were planted to create a wood for hunting pheasants and as a pleasant place to walk. They certainly succeeded with the latter.
Sweet Chestnut Trees
It’s worth the short walk from the carriageway to see the wonderful old Sweet Chestnut trees a little further down the path.
The largest Sweet chestnut tree is probably 350 years old. Its girth is 4.60m, which makes this a large veteran and most likely one of the first trees to be planted near the hall.
Its column of rot is a wonderful, irreplaceable habitat for fungi and invertebrates, not to mention the nut hatches and tree creepers that nest in it each year.
Turn and walk back to the carriageway.
You will notice at the head of the carriageway the History Board. An Interpretation Board, which was created in conjunction with Hope University’s History Department. You will want to stop for a moment to read the fascinating information about Childwall Hall and its owners.
Turn and walk into the carriageway
8. The Carriageway
The carriageway was created in the early 1800s by the owner at the time, Bamber Gascoyne Jnr.
He was MP for Liverpool and engaged John Nash to remodel the Hall. The carriageway was dug and cut at around this time. The History page on the website will tell the story.
As you walk down the carriageway, you will see sections where it was cut through the sandstone and sections of well-constructed brickwork illustrating the importance of this route.
Is this a passing place built into the wall of the carriageway?
Beautifully constructed, as you would expect in a feature of such importance. Built to impress visitors as the first thing to be seen when approaching Childwall Hall in a carriage
The Bridge
The bridge is known to everybody who walks the woods, but not many walkers get to see it from underneath.
Today, there is a metal bridge, but would that have been the case hundreds of years ago?
A site of Geological Importance
The steep sides of the carriageway expose the Bunter Sandstone, formed millions of years ago.
The RIGS site
The sheer walls show how they were laid down in a warm sea where our woods now stand.
This is recognised as a Regionally Important Geological Site (RIGS)
As you walk through the carriageway, you will see many signs that this was once an important route through the grounds and up to the door of Childwall Hall.
The floor is solid Bunter Sandstone, covered with layers of porous stone to help with drainage, laid many years ago.
It’s hard to understand how long such a feat would have taken without powered tools. A significant engineering project and a work of art
Recently, decades of leaf litter has been removed to make this a good route into the heart of the woods, and you won’t need your wellies.
Ancient Brickwork
Although the carriageway was cut through Sandstone, there are sections of well-constructed brickwork highlighting the importance of this route.
Constructed by craftsmen, these walls have held back the soil for hundreds of years and are still a beautiful sight.
You will leave the carriageway where you began your walk, by the commemorative tree.
But: Take a minute to look around.
Beautiful and sometimes edible fungus appears and disappears according to the time of year, but if the fungus isn’t there to catch your eye, then maybe the Peacock butterflies will be, or the Speckled Wood varieties.
Maybe it will be the blue of the Bluebells that will make you smile, or the rapping of a woodpecker, or meeting a squirrel eye to eye.
There will be something.
B Cameron