Walk 3

The Top Field, through the Willow Plantation, and The Beech Woods.

45 Minutes Approximately from the Childwall Lane Entrance.

Not suitable for buggies or wheelchairs across the field due to the path there being soft and uneven.

During this walk, you will experience the vastly different environments of the woods and the fields, each encouraging its own particular flora and fauna.

You will need strong shoes to walk on the field during the winter and some of the springtime, depending on the weather.

1 The Concrete Path

The walk begins at the Childwall Lane Entrance to the Fields and begins with the walk up the concrete path.

If you are new to this entrance, you may wonder what this path is doing here. It is made from concrete blocks and is the only one like it on the site. However, if you know the history of the site you will know that Childwall Fields used to be called Childwall Park until it was used as a landfill site in the1960s.

This path is a relic from that time, when heavy lorries would travel up to the top to tip their load. The sharp slopes are a clue to that dark time.

Wheelchair users would find the entrance a problem as it is not very wide.

The concrete path takes you to a newly renovated path that bends to take you onto the top field.

Length: 50 minutes approximately from the Childwall Lane entrance.

It will take you along the overlook path, through the Willow Plantation, into the Beech woods, past the pond and back across the top field.

This steep path takes you to the top field.

2. The path branches here, but keep to your left and take the path across the edge of the field.

The fields have been used for many things through the years.  The gentle grassy slope of Childwall Park became the golf course when leased to Childwall Golf Club in the 1930’s, and it was used for growing vegetables during WW2. Then, sadly, in the 60s, as a landfill site.

A landfill site in the 1960’s. Lime Pictures building can be seen on the right. (LCC archive)

However, that changed in the 70s when the site was landscaped and capped with clay before being covered in topsoil. The aim was to provide the college, which had replaced Childwall Hall, with 3 sports fields, one for football, one for rugby, and one for cricket, but the story goes that they were always too wet and couldn’t be used. The college was sold to Lime Pictures, and the fields were abandoned.

Then nature stepped in to take back the area and did a brilliant job of disguising what lies below

After a programme of habitat improvement in 2021/22, the top field has lost most of its bramble and nettle and was planted with wildflowers to attract many creatures, including butterflies and birds.

Look out for comma butterflies

This is the perfect place to see some of the birds that live on the site.

Our Merlin App will help you identify a few.

Although brambles can be a nuisance to walkers, they redeem themselves in the autumn with their gift of blackberries, and there are plenty here from July onwards.

They are also an essential habitat for birds, butterflies, and small mammals, who use them for food and shelter.

Look to your left.

3. The Overlook 

At this point, you will be rewarded with a panoramic view across Lancashire with some distinctive landmarks visible in the distance.

A pair of binoculars is always useful here.

4  The Willow Plantation

Follow the path around the edge of the top field and you will find yourself entering the ‘Willow Plantation’.

Here, the path is edged on both sides by trees, mostly Willow, that were planted sometime after the field was reclaimed. In summer, it is shady and cool, but in spring and autumn, it holds a few surprises.

  Clouded Funnel (Clitocybe Nebularis) is a forest floor mushroom and seems to love our wooded areas in autumn, especially the Willow Plantation.

5  The Beech Woods. 

The path through the plantation takes the walker into the southern part of the beech woods. Here it joins the main path.

Straight ahead at this junction is the site of the second Lodge that can be seen on maps as far back as 1849. There is little to show of that building these days except for a very low wall in the ground and an artist’s impression of what the Lodge looked like a hundred years ago.

This site was once privately owned by the Gascoyne family who allowed access by invitation only.

This image was kindly donated by Ray Lowe, whose father, Billy, was born in the lodge and worked on the site as a groundsman.

Turn right onto the main path and follow it through the Beech Woods.

Here you will walk past veteran trees 300 years old, planted by the landowners of the day for hunting. Showing their age with large fungal brackets on their trunks, these hollowing trees are irreplaceable habitats for thousands of species of invertebrates, fungi, birds, bats and small mammals.

After a short walk, turn right following a path which will take you onto the field.

6. The Dipping Pond and Wetland. 

The pond on your left was created in February 2022 to provide the site with standing water throughout the year.  This was part of the Habitat and Access Improvement Project.  Although there were scrapes around the field, there has always been a shortage of water that would remain long enough for small amphibians to develop.

It was hoped that by excavating in an already wet area, another habitat would be created for water-loving invertebrates, dragonflies, birds, plants, etc., and that seems to have been the case.

Still young, this pond has become a wonderful habitat for many creatures that cannot survive on the site without standing water.

The first pond of two, this pond has a dipping platform for children to engage in pond dipping when accompanied by a responsible adult.

At the far end of the dipping pond, you can see bullrushes in various stages of development according to the time of year. Autumn is the best time to see them.

These bullrushes make a brilliant screen for the second pond, the ‘Wildlife Pond’, which requires a bit of privacy, hidden away behind them.

Beyond the pond, the path is just a track and becomes quite marshy and rough according to the season.

This is the best place to see lichen covering the branches of the trees.

This lichen makes its own sunscreen as protection

The top field is a wonderful place to see wildflowers in the spring and summer. One of them is the Marsh Orchid, arguably one of the most beautiful flowers of all.  It can be seen all over the wetter areas during May and June.  A sight worth seeing.

On the right side of the top field in summer, you will see a line of pink dividing the field from the woods. Rosebay Willowherb puts on this show each year to delight the observant walker.

You will see many beautiful wildflowers, some of them planted by Friends of Childwall Woods and Fields to bring in more butterflies and bees, at the bottom rung of the food chain.

But don’t just look at the top of the blooms. Some hide a secret few people will ever see.

There is an orange tip butterfly egg in the centre of this picture. Can you find it?

A male orange tip butterfly

You may see the male orange tip butterflies this month. Only the males.    The less colourful females wait for warmer weather.

7 The Oak Trees

Halfway along the top field path, you will come to a few Oak trees. Not very tall and not very wide, but another irreplaceable habitat for many tiny creatures if you look under the leaves.

Silk-button galls

Sputnik or Comb-foot spide

An alder beetle.

The field and its resident wildlife are a great attraction for birds, and it is common to see flocks of magpies and crows. If you’re lucky, the buzzard will make an appearance, but at night, it’s the bats that are the dominant predators.

Having walked down the centre of the field, rejoin the main path at the overlook and turn sharply left. This will take you back to the concrete path where you started the walk.

As you walk back down to Childwall Lane, you might reflect on what a lovely walk this landfill site has turned into.

B Cameron.