Astbury Mere Country Park - 4 Things to Know Before Visiting

The National Trust's Little Moreton Hall, Cheshire, is an iconic Tudor manor house, moat and manicured knot garden. It is a superb example of a timber-framed moated house with rich ornamental panelling. A National Trust guidebook describes Little Moreton Hall as being "lifted straight from a fairy story, a gingerbread house". The house's top-heavy appearance, "like a stranded Noah's Ark", is due to the Long Gallery that runs the length of the south range's upper floor.

Mow Cop Castle is a folly at Mow Cop in the civil parish of Odd Rode, Cheshire, England. The Castle was built as a summerhouse in 1754 for Randle Wilbraham I of Rode Hall. It was built to look like part of a castle of a bygone era and would have enhanced the view of the newly constructed Rode Hall some 3 miles away on the Cheshire side of the hill.

The National Trust's Biddulph Grange Garden is a landscaped Victorian garden, located near Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.These gardens let you follow paths, steps, and tunnels on a global journey from an Egyptian Court to a Chinese landscape based on the Willow pattern, and a Himalayan glen. This Grade I listed garden is one of the most exciting survivals of the great age of Victorian gardening.

Rode Hall is a fine early 18th century country house set in a Repton landscape. It has been the home of the Wilbraham family since 1669 and the extensive grounds include a woodland garden. The formal garden terraces were designed by Nesfield in 1860. There is a large walled kitchen garden, growing many varieties of fruit, vegetables and flowers; including world record gooseberries.

Knypersley Reservoir is a canal feeder reservoir near Biddulph in Staffordshire. It is located south-east of Biddulph and named after the local Knypersley area. The reservoir was built in 1827 to supply water to the Caldon Canal, along with two others at Stanley Pool and Rudyard Lake. There are actually two adjacent lakes at the site, the upper one being the Serpentine Pool which feeds the lower Knypersley Pool or reservoir.

Rudyard Lake is a haven of peace and tranquility, the two-and-a-half-mile-long lake was created more than two centuries ago to supply water for the then-expanding canal system of the West Midlands. The lake is still used for many water activities such as boating, canoeing, fishing and also for walks and recreational steam train trips.