Field Trips

Forthcoming Field Trips

Because of public liability and insurance regulations, only members of Chester Society for Landscape History are eligible to join the Society’s field trips. Numbers are limited, so advance booking is essential. Details of how to book will be emailed to members before each field trip.

2025

Saturday 31 May 2025: Eastham Victorian Pleasure Gardens
Leader: David Mottram
From the 1840s to the 1920s, Eastham Pleasure Gardens provided extensive attractions and entertainments for day trippers on the Liverpool to Eastham Ferry. Attractions included floral and zoological gardens, music, dancing and theatre productions, circus acts, a boating lake, water chute and a loop-the-loop railway ride. On this walk we will try to re-live these exciting days.

NB: The photographs in the gallery below were taken on field trips to Churches in the Landscape (2022) and Bidston (2025). A list of all our previous field trips can be seen by scrolling down and clicking on the relevant year. If you would like to revisit any of these places with the Society or suggest new ones, please Contact Us

St Deiniol’s Grade I listed eighteenth-century church in Worthenbury, viewed during the 2022 President’s Visit: Churches in the Landscape (Photograph: Carol Sparkes). 

Previous Field Trips

26.04.2025: Bidston: church, village and geology

12.06.2024: The Old Dock, Liverpool
14.07.2024: Williamson’s Tunnels, Liverpool

13.05.2023: The President’s Visit: Contrasting First World War Memorials in Upton-by-Chester, Pulford, Holt, Farndon and Churton
04.06.2023: Holes in the Ground: Neston rail cutting and former marl pits repurposed for leisure and wildlife

18.05.22: Marbury Country Park
11.06.22: Murgatroyd’s Brine Pump, Middlewich
09.07.2022: President’s Visit: Churches in the landscape (Tilston, Shocklach, Worthenbury,Threapwood, Tallarn Green)

22.05.21: President’s Visit: Aldersey Green
07.07.21: Birkenhead Park

Suspended owing to Covid-19 pandemic

11.05.19: Ruthin
03.06.19: Anglesey
22.06.19: President’s Visit: Chester-Wroxeter Roman Road
07.07.19: Weston Park

24.02.18: Plas Teg and Hartsheath
14.04.18: Lindow Moss
12.05.18: Edward Kemp’s Queens Park and Grosvenor Park
16.06.18: The HS2 Route through Cheshire
07.07.18: New Brighton and Bidston

09.04.17: The Landscape of Peel
26.04.17: Llandudno: It’s not all about the Mostyns
20.05.17: Mellor Mill and Peak Forest Canal
24.06.17: The Landscape of Thelwall [joint visit with St Helens Historical Society]
16.07.17: President’s Visit: Field and Forest: features of the rural landscape in the area of Tarporley and Kelsall

21.04.16: Thornton Hough
07.05.16: Sandbach Discovery Day
14.05.16: Blackden Trust
04.06.16: Aston Hall
18.06.16: President’s Visit: Defining and defending the Welsh border (Shrawardine, Alberbury, Threapwood, Shocklach, Holt, Aldford)
16.07.16: Denbigh
16-18.09.16: Weekend residential: Derbyshire: the power and people of the Peak

25.04.15: Port Sunlight
16.05.15: Cannock Chase
06.06.15: Lion Salt Works and Ashton Flash
27.06.15: Rhuddlan
26.07.15: President’s Visit: Landscapes and the Earls of Chester
08-10.09.15: Midweek residential: Ribble Valley

03.05.14: Weaver valley landscape and a manorial estate: Aston-by-Sutton
17.05.14: Parkgate: port and resort
31.05.14: Brogyntyn Hall
07.06.14: Up the Elwy valley and over the Denbigh Moors (repeated next day)
22.06.14: President’s Visit: Landscape planning along the A41
05.07.14: Buckley Heritage Trail
04.10.14: Nantwich Discovery Day

02.05.13: Civil War Chester
19.05.13: Geological walk around Farndon and Holt
09.06.13: The Great Orme and the copper mines
22.06.13: President’s Visit: In and around north Shropshire
13.07.13: Holywell and the Greenfield Valley
10-12.09.13: Midweek residential: Herefordshire: Follow the Arrow, the Wye and the Lugg

28.04.12: The landscape of the River Bela
12.05.12: The house and landscape at Pensychnant
10.06.12: Secret goings-on at Rhydymwyn
24.06.12: President’s Visit: In and around Oswestry
07.07.12: The northern end of Wat’s Dyke
18-20.09.12: Midweek residential: Leicestershire: Battlefields and Beacons

05.06.11: The buildings of Mold and Tower
26.06.11: President’s Visit: In and around Lancaster
02.07.11: Middlewich Discovery Day
17.07.11: Lymm and Warburton
11.09.11: Neston Collieries (in association with LDNW)
13-15.05.11: Weekend residential: Radnorshire

08.05.10: Rhos-on-Sea: Hilltop to shoreline
22-23.05.10: Middlewich: continuity and control
12.06.10: Bollington and Rainow: industrial landscapes
23.06.10: Stanlow Abbey
27.06.10: President’s Visit: In and around Ashbourne
10.07.10: Cairns, caves and crosses – Gop Hill and area
31.01.10: Hale Duck Decoy and Pickering’s Pasture
14-16.09.10: Midweek residential: Wyre Forest: wine, water and worship

19.04.09: Discovering medieval Wrexham and Erddig motte
09.05.09: Fenn’s, Whixall & Bettisfield Mosses
30.05.09: Gwydir Chapel and its landscape
20.06.09: President’s Visit: Bridgnorth
11.07.09: Aspects of the north Shropshire landscape
01.08.09: Return to the Staffordshire Moorlands
14-16.09.09: Midweek residential: Hidden gems of Lancashire

08.03.08: Weaver Parkway
13.04.08: Handbridge
11.05.08: Norton Priory and Halton Castle
22.06.08: President’s Visit: In and around Lichfield
19.07.08: Thelwall
09.08.08: Tower (near Mold)

31.03.07: Urban geology of Port Sunlight
21.04.07: Ruthin (including Nantclwyd House), Denbigh
19.05.07: Staffordshire Alps
16.06.07: President’s Visit: Religious sites in Shropshire
04.07.07: Old Port of Chester (repeated on 10.07.07)
05.08.07: Brymbo Heritage Site
21-23.09.07: Weekend residential: North Yorkshire

13.05.06: Upper Tanat Valley (repeated next day)
03.06.06: Anglesey
17.06.06: President’s Visit: Trentham Gardens and Biddulph Grange
15.07.06: Rhydymwyn
29.07.06: Much Wenlock
15-17.09.06: Weekend residential: Bedford and Northamptonshire

23.04.05: Ludlow
07.05.05: North-West Wirral landscape walk
18.06.05: President’s Visit: Bolsover Castle, Derbyshire
02.07.05: Settlement and landscape at the margin – the Denbigh Moors (repeated next day)
17.07.05: Mold: frontier settlement
06.08.05: Chester geological trail
20.08.05: Mellor archaeological project
16-18.09.05: Weekend residential: Bristol

24.04.04: Anderton Boat Lift
15.05.04: Burwardsley
29.05.04: Hilbre Island and Bidston Hill
19.06.04: South Wirral coastline walk (Saughall to Parkgate)
26.06.04: President’s Visit: Boscobel, Whiteladies and Weston Park
17.07.04: Hawkstone Park
07.08.04: Whitchurch
24-26.09.04: Weekend residential: Norfolk

26.04.03: The defence of the Conway crossing: Deganwy, Conwy and Caerhûn
10.05.03: Clywedog valley: minerals and water power
07.06.03: Llanarmon-yn-Iâl: relict features in an ancient parish
28.06.03: President’s Visit: Herefordshire castles
10.08.03: A5 revisited
26-28.09.03: Weekend residential: Church Stretton

27.04.02: Alderley Edge
18.05.02: Christleton and Hockenhull Platts
22.06.02: President’s Visit: Staffordshire castles
20.07.02: Llangar church and Rûg chapel
18.08.02: Elwy valley (repeated following Saturday)
20-22.09.02: Weekend residential: Richmond, Yorkshire

28.04.01: Mow Cop and Biddulph Grange: ruins, ranters and restoration
23.06.01: President’s Visit: Border castles: Acton Burnell, Richard’s Castle, Stokesay
21.07.01: Malpas
05.08.01: Telford’s A5: Chirk to Bangor
25.08.01: Snailbeach and the Stiperstones
21-23.09.01: Weekend residential: Pembrokeshire

22.04.00: Carden Park and Maiden Castle
13.05.00: Audlem and Engleseabrook
10.06.00: President’s Visit: Shropshire castles and settlements: Ruyton-XI-Towns, Caus, Bishop’s Castle, Clun
09.07.00: Birkenhead (Peter de Figueiredo)
05.08.00: Rivington, Lancashire: the Leverhulme estate
13-15.10.00: Weekend residential: Scottish Borders

18.04.99: Stone circles at Penmaenmawr
15.05.99: Castles of the Welsh Marches: Dinas Bran, Chirk, etc.
24.06.99: The Liver Buildings, Liverpool
17.07.99: Hawkestone Park
21-23.09.99: Weekend residential: Bourton-on-the-Water, Cotswolds

28.03.98: Dunham Massey: park and gardens
09.05.98: Welsh castles: Rhuddlan, Denbigh, Ruthin
20.05.98: Manchester Airport extension
09.06.98: Building stones of Chester
04.07.98: Ironbridge Gorge
18-20.09.98: Weekend residential: Durham, Sunderland, Bishops Auckland

22.03.97: Chester Cathedral
20.04.97: Llandudno and the Great Orme Copper Mines
31.05.97: Castles of the Welsh Border
21.06.97: Six medieval timber-framed Cheshire churches
12.07.97: Tre’r Ceiri Hillfort, Llanaelhaearn, Lleyn Peninsula
19-21.09.97: Weekend residential: Abergavenny and the Usk and Wye Valleys

27.04.96: Earthwork castles of the Cheshire/Clwyd Border
19.05.96: The wetlands at Fenn’s and Whixall Mosses
22.06.96: Styal village and Nether Alderley
14.07.96: Royal forest of Bachygraig
27-29.09.96: Weekend residential: Harlech, Lleyn and Snowdonia

22.04.95: Hawkestone Park
13.05.95: Much Wenlock
17.06.95: Stoke and the Potteries
23.07.95: Cheshire Salt Landscape
15-17.09.95: Weekend residential: Lincoln and Gainsborough

26.03.94: Shrewsbury: a town walk
30.04.94: Medieval field and settlement patterns in West Cheshire
21.05.94: Hale Duck Decoy and Speke Hall
11.06.94: Arley Hall and Gardens
30.9-2.10.94: Weekend residential: Carlisle and North-East Cumbria

27.03.93: A look at Peckforton and Bunbury
24.04.93: Castleton, Peverel Castle and Arbor Low (Derbyshire)
22.05.93: Cromford Mill and Village (Derbyshire)
19.06.93: Ysceifiog, an upland parish (Flintshire)
17-19.09.93: Weekend residential: Bakewell, Derbyshire

28.03.92: The Manchester Ship Canal
02.05.92: Medieval planned towns in the Welsh Marches: Montgomery, Bishop’s Castle and Ludlow
06.06.92: Biddulph Grange’s Victorian Gardens and Mow Cop
04.07.92: West Cheshire: four sites of archaeological interest

23.03.91: Strip farming at Laxton, Nottinghamshire (guided tour by Professor John Beckett, University of Nottingham)
27.04.91: Indicator plants of ancient woodlands at Loggerheads, North Wales
18.05.91: Repeat visit: Architectural masterpieces of Liverpool
15.06.91: Hall-i-th’-Wood (near Bolton), Samlesbury Hall (near Preston) and Rufford Old Hall (near Ormskirk)
06.07.91: Wroxeter and Attingham Hall and Park
11-13.10.91: Weekend residential: Hexham: the Roman wall, Saxon churches and village settlements

31.03.90: Greenfield Valley, Holywell, Clwyd
21.04.90: Conwy, Clwyd
05.05.90: Planned villages in Wirral
02.06.90: Norton Priory, Museum and Gardens
07.07.90: Cornmills and model farms 16th to 19th centuries at Nether Alderley and Siddington
01.09.90: Repeat visit: Neston coastline of the River Dee and Parkgate

13.05.89: Macclesfield and Bollington
17.06.89: Iron Age Hillforts of Clwyd
05.07.89: The Neston coastline of the River Dee and Parkgate
02.09.89: Settlement, geology and land use patterns on the Cheshire Sandstone Ridge

16.04.88: Liverpool’s architectural masterpieces
07.05.88: Moated sites in Cheshire: Alpraham Sweetbriar Hall, Chorley Old Hall, Foxwist. Also Roman villa at Eaton by Tarporley.
04.06.88: Conway: the fortified town
02.07.88: Wharram Percy, Malton, Kirkham Priory (Yorkshire): joint visit with Chester Archaeological Society
7-9.10.88: Weekend residential: Herefordshire: Weobley, Pembridge, Kinnersley, Bredwardine, Moccas, Abbey Dore, Kilpeck, Rowlstone, Llanthony, Eardisland, Wigmore, Richards Castle

11.04.87: Crowton Village and its medieval fields (Cheshire)
02.05.87: Gawsworth Hall Gardens and Mellor’s Garden, Rainow (Cheshire)
13.06.87: Montgomery: Late Bronze Age, Roman and later sites
12.07.87: Bershams industrial archaeology trail
10.10.87: Crowton, 1300-1850: its four manors (repeated by popular request)

24.05.86: Tutbury Castle, Hungry Bentley deserted medieval village, Brassington’s field system (Derbyshire)
21.06.86: Belmont Hall and Great Budworth village (Cheshire)
09.08.86: Manchester Cathedral, St Anne’s Church, Moravian Settlement, Ashton-under-Lyne parish church, Newton Hall (Hyde)