Knutsford Heath is a diverse reserve featuring a mosaic of habitats, including broadleaved woodland, scrub, heathland, and grassland. The central heathland area is characterised by heather, wavy hair grass, and common bent, with young heather in its pioneer stage showing signs of colonisation. An area of bare, sandy ground supports this growth, while a large stand of European gorse encroaches from the south and west. The reserve’s dry, semi-natural broadleaved woodland is dominated by English oak, sessile oak, and silver birch, with a dense understory of willow, elder, and rowan. In more open areas, wavy-hair grass, red fescue, rosebay willowherb, and bramble thrive.
A great space for walking your dog, a gentle jog or just clear your head after a busy day with a stroll around this wonderful space.
Royal May Day Festival
Every year, on the first Saturday in May, Knutsford hosts the Royal May Day Festival. Dating back to 1864, the festival features a procession through the town to the Heath, culminating in the crowning of the May Queen, accompanied by music, dancing, and Maypole dancing. The festival gained popularity with the arrival of the railway in 1862 and was honoured with the title “Royal” after a visit from the Prince and Princess of Wales in 1887. The May Day weekend also includes one of the UK’s largest travelling funfairs on the Heath.
Visit the Knutsford Royal May Day website
Horse Racing
Knutsford Heath has a rich history of horse racing, spanning over 200 years. The annual race meeting was renowned for attracting a brilliant assemblage of nobility and gentry, surpassing even Chester. In 1865, a grandstand was opened by the Knutsford Grandstand Company, aiming to draw visitors arriving by train. However, racing ended in 1873 when Lord Egerton refused further use of the Heath.
Wallwood
Wallwood is a charming, triangular area of greenery located opposite St Vincent de Paul Catholic Church and the entrance to Tatton Park. This mature wooded area features benches where visitors can sit and relax, making it an ideal spot for a quiet lunch in the sun. Wallwood is popular with local office workers, businesses, and dog walkers. It also houses a bug hotel, adding to its appeal as a peaceful retreat amidst nature.
Barncroft
Barncroft is a hidden gem situated behind St Cross Church in Mobberley. This small area of parkland offers a tranquil oasis away from the town’s hustle and bustle. Known to locals as a less crowded spot for walking their dogs, Barncroft becomes especially enchanting in the summer months when it features a wildflower meadow. This meadow attracts butterflies and a myriad of other insects, creating a vibrant and picturesque scene. Additionally, Barncroft has a set of goalposts, making it a perfect place for children to play and burn off some energy.
Both Wallwood and Barncroft provide serene environments for relaxation and recreation, whether you’re looking for a peaceful lunch spot, a scenic dog walk, or a place for the kids to play. Explore these quiet oases and enjoy the natural beauty they offer.
The Moor offers a green and pleasant escape from the tightly enclosed streets of historic Knutsford. This serene site features open grass and tree areas, situated alongside the tranquil waters and reed beds at the southern tip of Tatton Mere. It provides a perfect setting for relaxation and recreation for both visitors and residents.
The Moor is particularly popular for its children’s playground, making it an ideal spot for families. The combination of natural beauty and a peaceful atmosphere ensures that everyone can enjoy a break from the hustle and bustle of town life. Visitors can stroll along the grassy expanses, enjoy a picnic under the trees, or simply sit and take in the views of the water and surrounding greenery.
This charming location also offers opportunities for wildlife watching, with the reed beds providing a habitat for various bird species. The Moor’s accessibility and appeal to all ages make it a cherished part of Knutsford’s outdoor spaces.
Whether you’re seeking a leisurely walk, a fun day out with the kids, or a moment of tranquility, The Moor provides a refreshing and picturesque retreat in the heart of Knutsford.
The Cross Town Community Orchard is an open-to-all green space where the local community maintains and shares the bounty of a thriving orchard. It’s a place where you can grab an apple on the way to school or pick some plums to make your own jam!
This community orchard consists of 38 fruit trees, including a variety of apples (both dessert and cooking), pears, cherries, plums, greengages, and quinces. In addition to these fruit trees, we’ve planted a selection of ‘wild harvest’ shrubs such as elderberry, hazelnut, and crab apple.
The orchard is a vibrant space cared for and enjoyed by the community. It’s a place where you can pick a pear for a snack or collect apples for a homemade pie. We encourage everyone to partake in the harvest and enjoy the fruits of our collective labour.
We hold a monthly volunteering day on the last Sunday of each month from 10am to 12pm. We welcome anyone to join us in maintaining and improving the orchard. Whether you have just half an hour or more to spare, every contribution is greatly appreciated.
Come along and be part of this wonderful community initiative, helping to keep the orchard flourishing and creating a space for everyone to enjoy.
Gauntlet Birds of Prey offers a thrilling and immersive experience for wildlife enthusiasts. Located in Knutsford, Cheshire, the park has been home to over 180 birds from 50 different species since its establishment in 1996. As the largest collection in the North West of England and a proud member of BIAZA (The British & Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums), it promises a memorable visit.
Visitors are greeted by an impressive array of birds from every continent (excluding Antarctica), including owls, eagles, vultures, falcons, hawks, and unusual species like the Marabou Stork and Red-legged Seriema. The park hosts magnificent flying demonstrations, informative vulture talks, and engaging meet-and-greet sessions, ensuring something for everyone.
The main goal of Gauntlet Birds of Prey is to raise awareness about birds of prey, their habitats, and conservation needs. The park features educational programmes, such as the Young Falconer’s Club, Owls by Moonlight, and various Birds of Prey Experiences, where visitors can interact closely with these majestic creatures.
Conservation and education are central to Gauntlet’s mission. The park educates thousands of children annually and supports conservation projects through the Gauntlet Conservation Trust. The educational team also visits schools and youth groups across Cheshire and Manchester, sharing the wonders of these birds.
For an unforgettable day out, Gauntlet Birds of Prey combines excitement, education, and conservation, offering a unique insight into the world of these incredible birds.
Discover Knutsford - Take a closer look
We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.
To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.
This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.
Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.
If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email
Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:
Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.
These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.
Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside it.
Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers).
Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs. There may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to