As Bailey’s Lane comes to an end, I follow a well-trodden path onto the disused airport. Even though the pathway is clear, I feel like I have entered a place where I don’t belong. Swathes of this land are now a construction site. What was Brownfield is now being churned up and chewed by rubble crushers. The disused airport is being built on. This is what generally happens to Brownfield sites – this is their destiny…
I approached a man in a big yellow earthmover to ask if I am somewhere I shouldn’t be – as far as he knew, there was a right of way through this land and I was on that right of way. It all looked pretty inaccessible to me, but he assured me I could continue. He warned me that it would be very muddy and if I get struck – give him a holler. I thought he was joking, but sure enough my bike and I sank in the mud.

I was forced to divert – through a hole in the fence and over a ditch – onto the coastal path that is now part of the Mersey Basin Coastal Reserve.