Trucks, Trials & Time Travel

Good Morning Cheshire! 👋 

Chester Racecourse kicks off its Autumn Festival, monster trucks roll into Knutsford, and Heritage Open Days throws open the doors of places across Chester and Warrington that are usually locked, town halls, tailors’ shops, even a working watermill.

Let’s dive in!

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🎉 What’s On In Cheshire

🗓️ Fri · 11 September

🏇 The Virgin Bet Autumn Festival (2 Days)
Fri 11-12 Sept, Chester Racecourse
Day one of Chester’s two-day Autumn Festival, with high-quality late-season racing at The Roodee as horses hit peak late-summer form.
👉 Details

🤘 Blizzard Reborn, A Tribute to Ozzy Osbourne
Fri 11 Sept, 7pm, The Live Rooms, Chester
A full two-hour show recreating the look and sound of Ozzy Osbourne’s Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman era, with all the classics plus rarer B-sides like Diary of a Madman and Revelation Mother Earth.
👉 Details

🌻 Gardening Live at Bridgemere Show Gardens
Fri 11 Sept-Sat 12 Sept, 11am-4pm, Bridgemere Show Gardens, near Nantwich
Award-winning garden designers Adam Frost and Frances Tophill share stories and inspiration from their horticultural careers, with live music and food on site. £15.
👉 Details

🏛️ Heritage Open Days: Chester Town Hall
Fri 11 Sept (also Mon 14-Wed 16), Chester Town Hall
Chester Town Hall throws open its doors as part of the national Heritage Open Days festival, free drop-in access to a building most people only pass by.
👉 Details

🗓️ Sat · 12 September

⚓ Heritage Open Day, National Waterways Museum
Sat 12 Sept, 10am-4pm, National Waterways Museum, Ellesmere Port
Free entry to the seven-acre Victorian dock site for Heritage Open Days, with volunteers on hand to chat about the museum and its volunteering opportunities.
👉 Details

🦔 Nature Fest
Sat 12 & Sun 13 Sept, 11:30am-4:30pm, Chester Zoo Nature Reserve
The tenth annual Nature Fest, a free celebration of UK wildlife with hands-on activities, talks on bats, wildflower meadows and peatlands, and family entertainment on the outdoor stage.
👉 Details

🎖️ Cheshire Military Museum Free Entry Weekend
Sat 12 & Sun 13 Sept, Cheshire Military Museum, Chester
Free entry as part of Heritage Open Days, exploring the lives of soldiers and their families from 1689 to the present, with the research team on hand for family history queries.
👉 Details

🎸 These Smiths, Tribute to The Smiths
Sat 12 Sept, doors 7pm, Alexander’s Live, Chester
A Manchester-based tribute act widely rated as the closest-sounding act to the real thing, playing the hits of The Smiths and Morrissey. 18+.
👉 Details

🎤 Monsters of Rock Live, performed by Thunder Hammer
Sat 12 Sept, 7:30pm-11:45pm (music from 8:15pm), The Arena, Crewe
A full-throttle stadium rock tribute set covering AC/DC, Guns N’ Roses, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Bon Jovi and more, from an act that’s played to over 25,000 fans across the UK and Europe.
👉 Details

🌻 Frances Tophill Gardening Talk
Sat 12 Sept, 11am & 2:30pm, Bridgemere Show Gardens
A ticketed talk with Gardeners’ World presenter Frances Tophill, running alongside the wider Gardening Live weekend, with Q&A and a book signing. £15 adult, free under-12s.
👉 Details

🎸 The Music of Bruce Springsteen by Candlelight
Sat 12 Sept, 7:30pm, Chester Cathedral
A candlelit tribute evening of Springsteen’s greatest hits, performed by a live band and cast of vocalists inside the cathedral. From £30 plus booking fee.
👉 Details

🎻 Northern Chamber Orchestra in Concert
Sat 12 Sept, 6:30pm-8:30pm, St Boniface Church, Bunbury
An evening of classical favourites including Elgar’s Serenade for Strings, Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto and Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony. £35.
👉 Details

🎶 Kelsborrow Choir Milestone Celebration
Sat 12 Sept, 7:30pm-9:30pm, St John the Baptist’s Church, Chester
A milestone concert from the Kelsall-founded choir, around 50 mixed voices performing music built up since 1956. £20.
👉 Details

🗓️ Sun · 13 September

🏃 Cheshire Half Marathon
Sun 13 Sept, Capesthorne Hall
A flat, fast, officially measured half marathon on closed rural roads, starting and finishing outside Capesthorne Hall.
👉 Details

🚛 Truckfest North West (day two)
Sun 13 Sept, Cheshire Showground, Knutsford
The second day of trucks, stunts and family entertainment at the Cheshire Showground.
👉 Details

🚂 Friends of Hadlow Road Station: Heritage Signal Box Open
Sun 13 Sept, 10am-1pm, Hadlow Road Heritage Station, Willaston
A special open day with the signal box accessible, live music from Western Approaches and Mersey Morris, plus the usual pop-up café.
👉 Details

⚙️ Stretton Watermill Heritage Open Day
Sun 13 Sept, 12pm-5pm, Stretton Watermill, near Tilston
Bring a picnic to this Grade II listed working watermill and take a 15-minute taster tour with the miller, on the half-hour throughout the afternoon. Free.
👉 Details

⚙️ Bunbury Watermill
Sun 13 Sept, 1pm-5pm, Bunbury Watermill
A beautifully restored working watermill dating to around 1840, with machinery in full working order to see in action. £7.50.
👉 Details

🗓️ REST OF THE WEEK

🗝️ Heritage Open Days
Fri 11-Thu 17 Sept, venues across Cheshire West & Chester
England’s biggest festival of history and culture, when normally closed or ticketed places throw their doors open for free for one week each September.
👉 Details

🎭 9 to 5 The Musical
Wed 16 Sept-Sat 19 Sept, Lyceum Theatre, Crewe
Dolly Parton’s stage adaptation of the hit 1980 film, following three office workers who turn the tables on their sexist, egotistical boss. From £23.50.
👉 Details

🎥 Chester Filmmakers
Wed 16 Sept-Wed 21 Oct, Storyhouse Cinema, Chester
A free showcase for local filmmaking talent, running across several weeks at Storyhouse Cinema.
👉 Details

🧺 LOCAL CRAFT MARKETS

• Sandbach Makers Market – Sat 12 Sept, 10am-3pm | 👉 Details

• Stockport Makers Market – Sat 12 Sept, 10am-4pm | 👉 Details

• Northwich Artisan Market – Sat 12 Sept, 10am-4pm | 👉 Details

• Warrington Makers Market – Sun 13 Sept, 11am-4pm | 👉 Details

🗓️ DATES FOR THE DIARY

• R&B Classics, Chester Cathedral – Fri 18 Sept | 👉 Details

• Dirty Dancing Outdoor Cinema, Arley Hall – Fri 18 Sept | 👉 Details

• Wilmslow Artisan Market – Sat 19 Sept | 👉 Details

• Tarporley Makers Market – Sun 20 Sept | 👉 Details

• Run for Nature 2026, Chester Zoo – Sun 20 Sept | 👉 Details

💎 Hidden Gem: Marbury Country Park & Budworth Mere

Once the estate of a grand hall built in the 1850s and modelled on the French château at Fontainebleau, the hall itself is long gone. What’s left are the lime avenues, the old arboretum and the terraces, all folded into a country park that wraps around Budworth Mere.

The walking here is varied. Head along the mere for open water views across to the church at Great Budworth, then loop through ancient woodland and around Neumann’s Flash and Ashton’s Flash, lakes formed when old salt mines collapsed in the 19th century, a reminder that this whole stretch of Cheshire sits on top of centuries of salt working.

Keep an eye out for great crested grebes, coots and herons on the water, and if you’re walking with dogs, the paths here are well used by other dog walkers without ever feeling crowded.

It also happens to link directly to this week’s Heritage Open Day at Anderton Boat Lift, the two sites connect via the Trent and Mersey Canal, so a longer day could easily combine a walk from Marbury with a free heritage boat trip on the Weaver.

Practical bits:

• Start point: Marbury Country Park car park, Comberbach, Northwich, CW9 6AT (£1.50 for 3 hours)

• Route: Marbury Park Circular, 3.7km, easy, around 58 minutes; longer 5-mile options also waymarked for those wanting more

• Terrain: Mostly flat and firm, suitable for families and pushchairs on the main paths, with some rougher, muddier stretches around the flashes after rain

• Dogs: Very welcome, off-lead areas available, but take care near the mere and flashes

• Pub stop: The Spinner and Bergamot, Comberbach, a short walk from the car park; The Milk House on Marbury Road also does raw milk and milkshakes straight from a farm-gate vending machine if you fancy something different

👉 Marbury Country Park Circular

That’s it for this week.

Thanks for reading The Cheshire Buzz! See you next Thursday – same time, same inbox.