Tinkers Clough is a quiet and secret world of nature. It is an entirely wooded deep ravine with a delightful stream running through it. The air is constantly damp, ideal for so many ground plants to grow in the shady damp, even wet, ground. The flora and fauna is extensive with many plants and small beasties thriving here when they couldn't survive only 200m away. There is a wide range of mosses and lichens.

All these natural things are reclaiming the clough for their own. Wood rots, paths become overgrown, trees have fallen blocking the way, steps have lost their edges, hand rails have fallen off, wooden benches have fallen over. A few uncaring types have also left their mark with litter - some quite large pieces - and some vandalism.

All this needed cleaning, clearing, renewing, to make the clough accessible once again but without spoiling the nature.

Above left - pallets thrown into the wetland. They would rot away in time but they'd be better off out of it.

Left - this wooden bench seat has rotted to the point that the legs have given way and the boards are no longer capable of withstanding the weight of a person.

Left - this is where the water exits the clough, down a culvert. It will next see daylight at the back of Barrow's butcher's shop!

Why is it underground? Well it probably dates from the 1850/60s when the railway was built and the natural clough was filled with earth to carry the rails from Grimshaw Lane to what today we call the Middlewood Way. The gas works was built in the lower part of the clough, where Spinners Way is today. No doubt it was sensible to carry on under the houses at the bottom of Henshall Road and into the open ground behind Barrow's shop.

This earthen bank and the relatively small diameter of the culvert was probably the savior of West Bollington on the night of 29th February 1912. That was the night that the canal burst a little further up Tinkers Clough and 20 miles of canal water rushed into the clough until it filled up to canal level. If all that water had been free to run full bore into the town buildings would have been swept away. Instead everyone just got their feet wet!

Left - the stream flows well but has a lot of stone in it that shouldn't be there as well as more obvious litter including the inevitable buckled bicycle wheel.

Bottom left - trees have fallen out of the wood into an adjoining field damaging the stone wall.

Now see how the clough has been transformed!