Chester to Northgate Village: pavements and city streets, busy with plenty of cafes
Northgate Village to Mickle Trafford: car-free greenway shared with cyclists, good accessibility; refreshments available at Meadow Lea cafe, just off route
Mickle Trafford to Plemstall Church: quiet roads, some with pavements
Plemstall churchyard- worth a visit
Plemstall to Little Barrow: fields and footpaths; currently (June '21) closed due to a footbridge collapse. There is a map showing an alternative route over the Gowy River.
Little Barrow to Dunham and Peck Mill Lane: fields and footpaths mainly, some cattle on the route. Several stiles and quite overgrown in places
Peck Mill Lane to Primrose Lane: a quiet lane next to a golf course
Primrose Lane to Helsby: pavements, initially on quiet roads then alongside the very busy Chester Road.

The route was walked from Chester (The Cross) to the Helsby (row of shops on the Chester Road including Post Office) on Friday 18.06.2021 (late morning/ afternoon) – joined by two friends for the whole route. It was undertaken using the downloaded gpx file, which was then uploaded on to OS Maps. The weather was dry but mostly cloudy for the entire walk.

The Slow Way passes Chester Town Hall and proceeds through the city’s Georgian Northgate. It incorporates a section of the Greenway along the disused railway line between Northgate Ponds (small urban park) and Mickle Trafford. At Mickle Trafford there is the option of resting and taking refreshments at Meadow Lee Farm Coffee Shop on Station Lane. Beyond Mickle Trafford the route largely crosses farmland with a key landmark being Plemstall Church with its interesting graveyard. In addition to crossing fields there are some stretches of road. This includes a short section along the B5132 from Wildmoor Lane to Rose Farm which has no pavement and requires crossing a narrow road bridge. The section along Morley Lane also has no pavement and was fairly busy. The Slow Way passes through the village of Dunham-on-the-Hill (with seating on the triangular village green) to return to farmland after the village. It then proceeds to lanes (without pavements) after Peck Mill Farm but on to pavements on reaching the outskirts of Helsby (at Primrose Lane). The final leg follows the pavement next to the busy A56 (Chester Road).

Many users - mostly walkers and cyclists - were encountered on the Greenway but no users on the farmland beyond Mickle Trafford and before Peck Mill Lane. Several fields had livestock - horses, cattle and sheep.

This Slow Way is mostly on the level with no major gradients. It was felt that the section between Chester and Mickle Trafford is accessible to most users being city streets then purpose-built greenway with no obvious barriers. Crossing Chester’s Inner Ring Road to access Victoria Road can be achieved via a subway or via a traffic light-controlled crossing (adjacent to each other). Notably, after Mickle Trafford there were numerous stiles (some of which were poorly maintained and distinctly wonky), extremely overgrown footpaths, narrow kissing gates and rough ground. One stile between Morley Lane and Dunham-on-the-Hill was completed inaccessible (overgrown with hedging and other vegetation) and the adjacent gate had to be climbed over. Part of the route follows the North Cheshire Way and several sections along this felt - surprisingly - poorly maintained. Approaching Peck Mill Farm the path was particularly overgrown and the footpath was only located with difficulty. In wet weather many sections across the farmland are likely to be muddy – especially near to gates and stiles. On the day (after a prolonged dry spell) the only problematic (deep) mud encountered was adjacent to the narrow footbridge over the River Gowy (near Plemstall Church).

Importantly, currently the Slow Way cannot be followed as mapped because a wooden footbridge over a major ditch (not the River Gowy) is broken and has been taken down and put along the bank (what3words: swift.braked.chaos). Signs near to Plemstall Church and at the entrance to Wildmoor Lane (from the B5132) explain this and provide a diversion via Little Barrow.

Notably, the Greenway is a shared space with cyclists - some travelling a fast speed. The end of the route lacked a landmark, and an alternative could be to extend the Slow Way to Helsby Railway Station. In the row of shops that mark the end of the current Slow Way on Chester Road (Helsby) there was a café (The Old Bank Tea Rooms) which although closing, once they realised that we had walked from Chester, very kindly kept open and provided hot drinks and cakes. The walk along the Chester Road (A56) in Helsby felt unpleasant and a possible alternative could be to follow Robin Hood Lane northwards from Latham Avenue to emerge at the Chester Road closer the row of shops/ Post Office and tea rooms. Also, following a well-defined North Cheshire Way just south of Dunham-on-the-Hill (next to Barrow Lane Farm) might be better than negotiating the many stiles and fields with livestock otherwise encountered after walking along the busy Morley Lane (and therefore also avoid this lane).

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