WEST PENNINE WAY

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FRIDAY 19th JULY 2019

Walk 10 of the Come Walking Series of Walks: Jumbles to Affetside

 

This was the first Friday night walk of this series that had a poor weather forecast and this was reflected in the number as only eight walkers started the walk, with one walker being new to the group.

We joined the footpath at the far end of Jumbles Car Park and headed down the steep hill, reminding walkers that they would have to climb back up the hill at the end of the walk. We tuned left at the bottom of the slope and joined the path through Kingfisher Valley in the direction of Bradshaw, keeping Bradshaw Brook on our right hand side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stopped to admire the work that had been done to the fishing lakes and café at Bradshaw Hall Fisheries with its colourful hanging baskets. The path, in places, was not visible due to the plant growth on either side, especially himalayan balsam.  We made our way through the valley passing the site of Bradshaw Mill on our left. Records show that there has been a mill on this site from 1542 until the last one was demolished in 1989.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On reaching Rigby Lane we turned left up to Bradshaw Road, which we crossed and made our way along New Heys Way into a small housing estate. At the far end of the estate we joined a path leading to Riding Gate and the attractive hamlet of Lower Knotts where we turned left climbing a steep path up to Top’o’th Knotts, stopping to admire the views which were limited due to the low cloud.

 

 

 

 

 

 

From here it was a short climb to Watling Street, which originally was the site of a Roman Road leading from Manchester to Ribchester. Turning left we passed the Pack Horse Pub on our right and made our way to the centre of Affetside Village where we did not linger as it had started to rain heavily so we decided to make our way, through the fields, back to the Jumbles Car Park having covered a distance of 5 miles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WEDNESDAY 17th JULY 2019

5th of 9 Walks to Complete the West Pennine Way: Bull Hill to Clough Head

 

The fifth section of the West Pennine Way (WPW) started at Bull Hill and in order to get to the starting point eight walkers set out from the lay by on Helmshore Road and climed up through Buckden Wood to Moor Bottom Road. We were saddened to see that a gate at the top of the wood had been broken, demolishing part of the wall in the process. After turning right for a short distance we joined a footpath, on our left, that climbed up the slops of Bull Hill and onto the WPW where we turned right following the footpath around the hill.The route turns right and heads across Alden Ratches to Fall Bank where we had glorious views across Rossendale Valley in the summer sunshine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

From here we climbed up onto Musbury Heights and to the top of the tramway where we stopped for a coffee break and to replace a way marker as one of the aims of these walks is to maintain the WPW way-markers, which was made easier with the gift of a new electrical screw driver.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The tramway was used to transport the finished flagstone down to the valley where they were loaded onto railway wagons and our route took us down the tramway where we had clear views of the valley below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the bottom we followed the WPW which passes in-between Ogden and Holden Wood Reservoirs and through the fields to Grane Road which we crossed and made our way through Leys End Farm and climbed up onto Haslingden Moor where we had to replace another way marker before turning left.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The walk across the moor to Clough Head was made more enjoyable by the abundance of wildlife which included, the sighting of, grey wagtails, oyster catchers, lap wings, wheatears, grouse, several painted lady butterflies and a couple of hares.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once at the information centre and cafe we enjoyed lunch before leaving the WPW for another day. We headed back by following a footpath, to the right of the café, through the woods until we came to a track overlooking Jamestone Quarry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once on the track we turned right and followed a wide green path that skirted around the edge of the quarry eventually descending down onto the access road which leads to the quarries where we turned right. After a short distance we joined a footpath on our left that lead us behind Leys End Farm and into Mary’s Wood that was planted in memory of a local farmer’s wife. The path along the edge of the wood has a number of difficult stiles to climb but eventually we arrived back on the Grane Road, which we crossed and turned right at Holden Wood Antiques onto a footpath that crossed the embankment of Holden Wood Reservoir and down onto Helmshore Road.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once across the road we turned left down some steep steps and joined a footpath that followed Ogden Brook into Helmshore. Our intension was to go through Snig Hole Park and on to Irwell Vale however, the footpath was closed due to renovation so we had to climb back up onto Helmshore Road and join a footpath though the fields which took us to the start of Moor Road. The road climbed steeply past Robin Hood’s Well and back to the Buckden Wood where we retraced our steps through wood back to the lay by having covered 13 enjoyable miles. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FRIDAY 12TH JULY 2019

Come Walking Series of Walks: Winter Hill and Belmont

This week’s walk started at the lay-by on the Belmont to Rivington road where it took a little while to pack all of our cars into such a small space with our concentration being distracted by the noise of the motor bikes racing along the road.

Once organised twenty-six walkers turned right along the road, avoiding the speeding bikes, and turned into the track on the left-hand side of the road, called Belmont Road, and climbed up to a stile, also on the left, through which was a steep path leading to the trig point and summit of Winter Hill, which is 1498ft above sea-level. On the way up several stops were made to admire the views that were limited at this stage due to the cloudy conditions.

 

 

 

 

 

Having reached the summit, the clouds had started to clear and we were able to see the outline of the Lakeland Hills and the sun shining on Morecombe Bay. In the other direction we could see the Derbyshire Hills and closer to home Cope Lowe and Scout Moor were clearly visible. From the trig point we made a detour from our route to visit the 1000ft transmitter tower, built in 1965, to provide most of Greater Manchester and Lancashire with their television programmes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also stopped to look at the memorial plaques which are reminders of past tragedies that have occurred on Winter Hill. In 1958 a plane crash killed thirty-five of the passenger on a flight from the Isle of Man and in 1838 a young Scottish traveling pedlar was murdered on the hill.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leaving the summit, we made our way down a steep path which headed towards Rivington Road, still enjoying views of the coastline on our left, the Pennines on our right and the farmland of Lancashire ahead of us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the bottom of the slope we turned right onto an attractive path, which followed a stream that flowed into The Blue Lagoon in Belmont Village. At the lagoon we crossed the road and passed through a kissing gate on the other side of the road which led on to a path that climbed up onto the moor with views of Winter Hill to our left and Belmont to the rear. The path also took us back to where the cars were parked, having covered an energetic 5 miles