The Healing waters of Ramsdell Hall.

Overlooking the lush green pasture land of the Cheshire plains can be found a striking red brick mansion, the Hall was built around about 1760 by the lowndes Family who were major landowners in this part of the country.

Ramsdell Hall can be found in the district of Odd Rode which is made up of a number of villages which include Scholar Green, Mow Cop, Kent Green and Rode Heath. I wonder whether William Lowndes would have built the Hall if he had known that the Macclesfield canal was going to be built alongside it! Not only was the canal built close to the hall but Mow Cop railway station was built close to the main gates of the hall, however these days nothing remains of the station.

In 1827 an unusual agreement was reached between the Lowndes family who owned Ramsdell Hall and the Macclesfield Canal Company. Originally the canal was planned to run behind the hall, however the Lowndes family allowed the canal to be constructed in front of the Hall as long as no hedges were planted alongside the canal which would spoil the views over the Cheshire countryside. The Canal Company agreed to this and iron railings were erected alongside the canal which were restored in 2007, this gives the passerby an uninterupted view of the hall and vice versa.

In the past this canal was a busy trade route, Bargees would moor their barges alongside this stretch of the canal. This was probably how the healing benefits of a salt stream were discovered, the Bargees would use this stream to aquire drinking water and they must have discovered the health benefits this water contained. The stream runs through the grounds of Ramsdell Hall and flows beneath the Macclesfield Canal through a pipe before emerging in a wooded dell (perhaps Ramsdell Hall takes its name from this?). Although these days I wouldn’t recommend drinking from this water source as it is not known wether or not it is polluted.