Travels with the Kickety Brook ………..

 If there is one thing all the guides agree on, it's if you walk the Kickety Brook out beyond Chorlton  you should wear wellies.

 

“Access is off Hawthorn Lane, or Chester Road, Stretford. Popular with walkers, cyclists and horse riders alike. Be sure to wear boots or wellingtons if you are on foot. 

The path goes through a good mix of habitats for spotting a wide range of wildlife”.*

 I first came across the brook while researching the weir by the Mersey, which had been built to protect the Duke’s Canal in the 18^th century and rebuilt in the 1840s after it had been damaged by flood water from the river.

 With that spectacular disregard for the environment the engineers constructing the Bridgewater Canal had commandeered the Kickety Brook to act as a channel for possible flood water from the weir, thereby reducing the surge of water and protecting the canal.

Over a decade ago I walked the short section of the Brook with my old botanist pal, David Bishop, following its path down under the motorway.

 And this week Andy Robertson walked the same walk and took a series of pictures which testify to the advice on suitable foot wear.

 I remember that back in the 1970s the stretch of land in front of the weir often appeared to be dried out but more recently there has been a significant pool of water stretching back from the stone wall.

That said the last time the weir saw action was back in 1915 which I guess would have meant that the Kickety Brook took the overflow off the fields in front of the canal.

Since then the Brook has been tampered with again and the bit under the motorway has been forced into a concrete channel.

 But the Brook and nature do not easily recognise such a attempts to fiddle with it, and lumps of the artificial channel have suffered over time, while the surrounding vegetation threatens to soften and hide  the work of the motorway engineers.

After a bout of rain, stretches of the Kickety can still look like a respectable water course, but suddenly it becomes just a muddy, shallow and sluggish reminder of its former self.

 

It always amazes me how with in just a few yards the Brook can undergo such a transformation.

So I am grateful to Andy for capturing the different sides of Kickety in what was a warm early summer's day.

Just whether he chooses wellies, stout walking boots or trainers has yet to be revealed, but I hope he didn't get his feet wet in the process of revealing this stretch of water.

Leaving me to hope his pictures will spark a flood of memories from people who payed along it in their youth or who once explored it's route.

We shall see.

As the guide* suggests the brook can be approached down Hawthorn Lane, where it goes underneath the Cut Hole Aqueduct.

 But for those that prefer their stretches of water broader and deeper, the aqueduct gives access to the canal and the tow path from which the serious walker can head off in one direction towards town or out to Sale, Timperley and rural Cheshire.

And yes, on my trip with David, once we had passed under the motorway and left the noise of speeding traffic, the seemingly remoteness of the route presented us with other sounds, from the occasional bird, to the lazy buzz of bees, and the sights of the odd butterfly.

 Location; The Kickety Brook

 Pictures; the Kickety Brook, 2021, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*Mersey Valley Kickety Brook, Stretford, Things to do in Manchester, https://www.visitmanchester.com/things-to-see-and-do/searchresults?sr=1&name=kickety+brook