Acton Bridge

(S/E) From the front door of the Hanging Gate, turn right along West Road. Opposite the narrow entrance to Tower Lane (on your left), turn right into a narrow footpath between hedged gardens. Follow the fenced path to a stile then descend into the cutting containing the A49.

(1) Cross the busy road quickly but carefully, and go up the other side. Bear right to a stile then follow the left-hand edge of the field, bearing right at the railway line. Cross the footbridge on your left and head half-right across a field on the other side to a stile by a gate in the corner. Follow the left-hand edge of the next two fields, joining a metalled lane beyond a final stile. After Grange Brook Farm, pass some houses on your left and, ignoring a driveway on the left with a footpath sign, follow the road round to the right.

(2) On reaching the B5153 in Acton Bridge, turn right and walk past Milton Baptist Church on your right. Before the road begins to rise to cross the railway, turn left at a footpath sign over a stile next to a gate. After a short trackway between gardens, bear left and right to the railway, which you follow to the left. Otherwise, after a fenced section between kissing gates, turn right over the railway bridge and follow the lane out to the public road.

(3) Turn right past the Tennis and Bowls Club, then turn left onto a footpath through a gate alongside a garden fence (the path here was subject to a minor diversion at the time of writing: follow on-site notices and signage). After a gate and stile, walk down the left-hand side of a field to the right of a house and then cross two stiles to the end of Strawberry Lane.

(4) Turn right along the hedged green lane. When the way ahead is blocked by a gate, turn left over a stile. Follow the path downhill with views over the Weaver valley. At the bottom of the hill, go through a kissing gate onto the A49. Cross carefully and turn right, along the pavement.

(5) At the junction with Sandy Lane (B5144, signposted “Weaverham”), turn left. Follow the B-road for about three quarters of a mile, passing the junction with Well Lane on the left partway along, until you find yourself back at the Hanging Gate.(S/E)

Some minor slopes; may be muddy after wet weather. Multiple stiles, and some road walking at the end.