Friday 13th June 2025

Friday 13^th June 2025

Come Walking Series of Walks, Jumbles Country Park and Edgeworth.

The second Friday night walk to start from jumbles car park, began on another gloriously sunny evening with twenty five walkers leaving the car park in the direction of the café and walking along the edge of the reservoir, that was very low due to the recent dry weather. At the concrete bridge we headed along the footpath which follows Bradshaw Brook into Turton Bottoms.

On arriving at Vale Street, Turton Bottoms, we turned left and crossed over the bridge and walked up the street for a short distance before turning right, onto a narrow path, which took us over another footbridge into Birches Road. After turning right, we walked past the rows of attractive old cottages before arriving in The Gardens, with its attractive new houses.

Once through the development we climbed up the steps on our left and followed the path through the trees, passing Old Russia Reservoir on our left before arriving in the woods behind The Barlow, Edgeworth.

The Barlow was originally called The Barlow Institute, it was the daughters and sons of Janes and Alice Barlow, a local mill owner, who set up the Institute, but it was very much the vision of their parents. The cricket ground was the first to be used in 1898, with the other facilities such as, openair swimming pool, boating lake, bowling club and hall being established later. Today the building and other facilities are run by Barlow Charitable Trust, which is entirely, volunteer led charitable organisation.

After admiring the facilities of The Barlow, we turned left on Bolton Road and walked down as far as Harbour Lane, where we turned right and made our way through the fields to Wayoh Reservoir.

Once on the embankment, which we crossed and walked into Chapeltown, not before making use of the village stocks. After turning right at the Chetham Arms we walked down to Station Road, where we passed the old bank of William Deacan. Back on the main road we made our way down to The Pill Box, a relic of the second world war, where we joined the path leading back down to the concrete bridge, and Jumbles Reservoir.

It was just a short stroll from the bridge back to the car park, having covered four and a half historic miles.