Length : 45 miles
Started : 17th May 2003
Finished : summer 2004
Companions : ( in part) Mike Bethel, Rob Harrison, Linda Mehta, Debbie Farnworth, Joshna Patel, TQ (see below) , Julie Farrell. Anup Mehta provided some logistical support
Guide : Pack of leaflets produced by Pendle Borough Council
Strangely enough this one began almost as an afterthought while Julie and I were still in the middle of The Wyre Way.
To explain we need to go back to Bolton Outdoor Group. By the time of the AGM in February 2003 I was beginning to see my post as a poisoned chalice. We hadn’t picked up any new members in 2002 and the resolve of the existing members to continue was perceptibly weakening. One couple had just had their first child, another were about to split up and another became preoccupied with moving house. With due regard to the libel laws the Chairman didn’t inspire any confidence. There was also Susan to contend with; she was still in touch with many of the remaining members and inviting them to both private events and a new walking group she’d joined (of them more later). I’m not sure now (back then I, perhaps inevitably, saw it as a re-run of the New Life scenario) that she was deliberately trying to undermine us but it was having that effect.
It was mainly to combat her that I decided to arrange a youth hostelling weekend at Earby in May 2003. The Group had actually started life as Bolton YHA Group but been pressured into changing the name when the national organisation got insurance-related jitters about events going on in their name over which they had no control. The Group hadn’t done any weekends since Susan’s departure so I hoped to re-enthuse some of the waverers by proving that we could still do them without her. Earby was chosen because it was relatively close by and small; there was a good chance we’d have it to ourselves, an important consideration since Julie was ambivalent about the hostelling experience to say the least. I myself hadn’t stayed at one for almost 19 years preferring B & B’s once I was earning.
As The Pendle Way went right past the door it was a good candidate for the walking part of the weekend so it became BOG’s next (and, as it turned out, final) LMDP project by default. I had bought the guide back in 1991 and actually worked the first few miles into a circular walk I did for the Civic Trust that year but it seems wrong to cite that as the starting date particularly as I don’t recall exactly who else was with me that day.
As a weekend it was a qualified success drawing four others besides Julie and myself. Though hardly bursting at the seams there were other people staying there including a middle aged couple who were walking the Pennine Way. The woman apparently decided to dry her socks in the women’s dormitory. The supposed smell (Linda, the other female in our party suggested it was exaggerated) gave Julie the excuse she needed to demand to go home on Saturday morning. As luck would have it, Linda’s husband Anup had a bad knee so wasn’t able to do the walk and he dropped her off at Colne railway station for the train home.
So four of us started the first stage from Barrowford back to Earby on a very unsettled day. Although I had trailed the idea of having lunch at The Moorcock Inn, Blacko (my favourite pub for food) extensively, Rob, our most hardcore member , obviously hadn’t been listening and grumbled that he had brought sandwiches along. Nevertheless he seemed to tuck into his ploughman’s lunch enthusiastically enough and everyone else ( including Anup who joined us there) enjoyed their meal. We went sluggishly onwards as the weather declined making a longer than planned visit to the Bancroft Mill Steam Engine (which Rob, a big Fred Dibnah fan was enthusiastic about) as it sheeted down outside. A mile or so on I felt obliged to point out that there was a direct route back through the fields to Earby cutting out at least 3 miles where the Way went north to Thornton-in-Craven before turning south. Linda decided to take the opportunity and Mike, I’m sure more out of chivalry than exhaustion, decided to go with her. I gave them my back up guide and did the last bit with just Rob so we were already down to two before the first stage was finished. To our chagrin Mike and Linda got back to the hostel just before another cloudburst which drenched us.
We had a good night at the hostel making ourselves a communal meal with the chicken which Julie had brought along and left behind. In the morning the weather was a bit better although my boots were a bit sodden and a much shorter Part Two to Wycoller went without a hitch, finishing around lunchtime. I gave Rob who lived near us a lift home where he revealed he was shortly to see Susan at some event. That suggested the weekend hadn’t achieved its purpose and that turned out to be the case. Rob never came on a weekend event again though we remained friends and he sometimes turned up on our evening walks.
Part Three was just a day walk, Wycoller to Brierfield for which Linda and I were joined by a new girl, Debbie. Unfortunately she was quite obviously disappointed in the turnout and openly critical of my stopping at the tea shops despite the baking hot day. She and Linda didn’t have much chemistry either and the latter miles were walked in stony silence. It was no surprise we never saw her again and the malaise in the Group continued through the rest of 2003 although we did manage to hold on to the next new member to come along, Joshna. There seemed little point in continuing with The Pendle Way now there was only me who was on for 100% of it.
That November I was trying to put the winter programme together . Rob and Mike (both of whom had now joined other groups) and the couple who’d moved house all declined to offer anything - despite a pleading letter warning that the Group could fold - and I (correctly) judged weren’t likely to attend anyone else’s events either . That should have been it but I had one last chip in my hand – I was going to start work in Bolton itself in the new year and could advertise more effectively once there. It’s hard to think now why I was so keen to preserve this Group as I’d not been around when it was set up and was completely untainted by the incident which had derailed it. Just a bloody minded determination not to be bested by Susan (who I’ve no doubt would be bemused to read this since we never fell out) I guess and the feeling that I had raised one group from the dead so I could do it again.
So we muddled through that winter and once I’d started the new job - about which I can’t be too specific given subsequent events- in February a trickle of new enquiries were duly received. Nothing spectacular but enough to instil some optimism for the spring programme which included Part Four of The Pendle Way Brierfield to Barley (the stage that includes Pendle Hill itself) for want of any better idea . At the start of that programme the newcomers began to appear . The first of them, TQ, who I won’t name because we’ve since fallen out, and Joshna made up the attendance for Part Four. Thankfully they got on well , the weather was great and it was probably the most enjoyable stage. Once we’d finished that there was only a three mile stretch back to Barrowford left for me to complete. I decided there was no point trying to work it into a circular and other members might think we’d been to Pendle enough times so I just finished it with Julie one Sunday afternoon that summer.
To explain we need to go back to Bolton Outdoor Group. By the time of the AGM in February 2003 I was beginning to see my post as a poisoned chalice. We hadn’t picked up any new members in 2002 and the resolve of the existing members to continue was perceptibly weakening. One couple had just had their first child, another were about to split up and another became preoccupied with moving house. With due regard to the libel laws the Chairman didn’t inspire any confidence. There was also Susan to contend with; she was still in touch with many of the remaining members and inviting them to both private events and a new walking group she’d joined (of them more later). I’m not sure now (back then I, perhaps inevitably, saw it as a re-run of the New Life scenario) that she was deliberately trying to undermine us but it was having that effect.
It was mainly to combat her that I decided to arrange a youth hostelling weekend at Earby in May 2003. The Group had actually started life as Bolton YHA Group but been pressured into changing the name when the national organisation got insurance-related jitters about events going on in their name over which they had no control. The Group hadn’t done any weekends since Susan’s departure so I hoped to re-enthuse some of the waverers by proving that we could still do them without her. Earby was chosen because it was relatively close by and small; there was a good chance we’d have it to ourselves, an important consideration since Julie was ambivalent about the hostelling experience to say the least. I myself hadn’t stayed at one for almost 19 years preferring B & B’s once I was earning.
As The Pendle Way went right past the door it was a good candidate for the walking part of the weekend so it became BOG’s next (and, as it turned out, final) LMDP project by default. I had bought the guide back in 1991 and actually worked the first few miles into a circular walk I did for the Civic Trust that year but it seems wrong to cite that as the starting date particularly as I don’t recall exactly who else was with me that day.
As a weekend it was a qualified success drawing four others besides Julie and myself. Though hardly bursting at the seams there were other people staying there including a middle aged couple who were walking the Pennine Way. The woman apparently decided to dry her socks in the women’s dormitory. The supposed smell (Linda, the other female in our party suggested it was exaggerated) gave Julie the excuse she needed to demand to go home on Saturday morning. As luck would have it, Linda’s husband Anup had a bad knee so wasn’t able to do the walk and he dropped her off at Colne railway station for the train home.
So four of us started the first stage from Barrowford back to Earby on a very unsettled day. Although I had trailed the idea of having lunch at The Moorcock Inn, Blacko (my favourite pub for food) extensively, Rob, our most hardcore member , obviously hadn’t been listening and grumbled that he had brought sandwiches along. Nevertheless he seemed to tuck into his ploughman’s lunch enthusiastically enough and everyone else ( including Anup who joined us there) enjoyed their meal. We went sluggishly onwards as the weather declined making a longer than planned visit to the Bancroft Mill Steam Engine (which Rob, a big Fred Dibnah fan was enthusiastic about) as it sheeted down outside. A mile or so on I felt obliged to point out that there was a direct route back through the fields to Earby cutting out at least 3 miles where the Way went north to Thornton-in-Craven before turning south. Linda decided to take the opportunity and Mike, I’m sure more out of chivalry than exhaustion, decided to go with her. I gave them my back up guide and did the last bit with just Rob so we were already down to two before the first stage was finished. To our chagrin Mike and Linda got back to the hostel just before another cloudburst which drenched us.
We had a good night at the hostel making ourselves a communal meal with the chicken which Julie had brought along and left behind. In the morning the weather was a bit better although my boots were a bit sodden and a much shorter Part Two to Wycoller went without a hitch, finishing around lunchtime. I gave Rob who lived near us a lift home where he revealed he was shortly to see Susan at some event. That suggested the weekend hadn’t achieved its purpose and that turned out to be the case. Rob never came on a weekend event again though we remained friends and he sometimes turned up on our evening walks.
Part Three was just a day walk, Wycoller to Brierfield for which Linda and I were joined by a new girl, Debbie. Unfortunately she was quite obviously disappointed in the turnout and openly critical of my stopping at the tea shops despite the baking hot day. She and Linda didn’t have much chemistry either and the latter miles were walked in stony silence. It was no surprise we never saw her again and the malaise in the Group continued through the rest of 2003 although we did manage to hold on to the next new member to come along, Joshna. There seemed little point in continuing with The Pendle Way now there was only me who was on for 100% of it.
That November I was trying to put the winter programme together . Rob and Mike (both of whom had now joined other groups) and the couple who’d moved house all declined to offer anything - despite a pleading letter warning that the Group could fold - and I (correctly) judged weren’t likely to attend anyone else’s events either . That should have been it but I had one last chip in my hand – I was going to start work in Bolton itself in the new year and could advertise more effectively once there. It’s hard to think now why I was so keen to preserve this Group as I’d not been around when it was set up and was completely untainted by the incident which had derailed it. Just a bloody minded determination not to be bested by Susan (who I’ve no doubt would be bemused to read this since we never fell out) I guess and the feeling that I had raised one group from the dead so I could do it again.
So we muddled through that winter and once I’d started the new job - about which I can’t be too specific given subsequent events- in February a trickle of new enquiries were duly received. Nothing spectacular but enough to instil some optimism for the spring programme which included Part Four of The Pendle Way Brierfield to Barley (the stage that includes Pendle Hill itself) for want of any better idea . At the start of that programme the newcomers began to appear . The first of them, TQ, who I won’t name because we’ve since fallen out, and Joshna made up the attendance for Part Four. Thankfully they got on well , the weather was great and it was probably the most enjoyable stage. Once we’d finished that there was only a three mile stretch back to Barrowford left for me to complete. I decided there was no point trying to work it into a circular and other members might think we’d been to Pendle enough times so I just finished it with Julie one Sunday afternoon that summer.
The walk itself is interesting and attractive, the one urban bit near Brierfield being quickly passed. Although it was completed in the most disjointed manner of all my LMDP's that shouldn't detract from one of the better municipal trails.
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