Length : 70 miles
Started : 17 July 2011
Finished : 24 November 2013
Companions : Various members of Lancashire Young Persons Walking Group. Andy Roughley, Paul Dalessandro, Helen Smith, Serena Armstrong, Mark Billington and Joanne Scott led individual sections. No one except me completed the full trail.
Guide : The Lancashire Trail - Brian Smailes ( Challenge Publications )
The seed for this one was sown on the penultimate stage of The Ribble Way ( March 2010 )when I bought the guidebook at the Pen-y-Ghent Café in Horton-in-Ribblesdale. It seemed a pretty obvious choice for the Group to move on to after we finished The Thirlmere Way.
The Lancashire Trail was the brainchild of members of the St Helens Rambling Group hence its start in that town which has never been in Lancashire. It runs from there in a roughly north eastern direction to Thornton-in-Craven just over the border into North Yorkshire. The guide was first published in 2003. The Trail has no official status and is not waymarked as such.
I led the first section from St Helens to Orrell in July 2011, just a month after finishing The Thirlmere Way. About a dozen members turned up.We parked at Orrell Town Hall then caught the bus into St Helens. We had a little time to wait so Andy and I went into the Co-Op nearby ; an old bloke on crutches and his mate were in the shop and boy did they reek - we didn't linger. The forecast was terrible but it wasn't actually raining when we got off in St Helens. The first two or three miles were pretty grim, St Helens not being the prettiest of towns and we encountered a not particularly friendly dog as we skirted a housing estate. We got past that unscathed and into slightly nicer territory around Country Park. Unfortunately almost as soon as the scenery improved the weather deteriorated and we were walking in heavy rain for the rest of the day. We had a late lunch on the top of Billinge Hill because the lee of the tower on the summit was the best shelter we could find. By that time we had picked up another member who lived locally whose knowledge was useful as the guidebook was disintegrating in my hands at that time. Andy who was leading the next section joked that he would do it in the winter when the weather was better.
He actually did it in March. There was a slightly larger turnout. We met in Wigan town centre and used buses at the start and end of the walk. There was some confusion at the beginning because one of the roads in the directions was blocked. I stopped at the barrier to ask the workmen where to go and not only were they unhelpful one started taking a picture of my car on the grounds that I was blocking the road ! Needless to say I never received any prosecution notice. That was the only drama on the walk which was a pleasant stroll in fine crisp weather. We finished at Coppull Moor where we had a half hour wait for the bus. One new member strangely decided to walk off rather than wait with us and we eventually overtook her on the bus.
The next section was led by Paul ( in June I think ) a short easy section from Coppull Moor to Rivington, accomplished by a rather complex car shuffle involving parking in Chorley. There were around 8 of us, most of whom had only joined the Group recently. The weather was dodgy and we got caught in a heavy shower around lunchtime. We had to shelter in the doorway of Blackrod Community Centre to eat our sandwiches.
Helen was down to lead the next section from Rivington to Abbey Village in September. I couldn't ,make it on that date as I had to look after Simon so I did the walk by myself a few weeks earlier. It was a decent day but very wet underfoot in places due to recent rain. I parked in Adlington and walked an extra mile to the start. Near White Coppice the footbridge over Dean Black Brook was unreachable as the brook was flowing over the top of it. I had to make a long detour upstream and then a daring leap across the fast-flowing brook to continue with the walk. I caught two buses which connected very well to get back to my car. The day of Helen's walk was another wet one. Simon and I were in the area having done a short, curtailed walk with the Chorley Scramblers near Brinscall so we caught up with the party in the pub at the end. There were about 10 of them and they looked like drowned rats.
Serena led the next section from Abbey Village to Mellor in March this year on a fine but bitterly cold day where you had to keep moving to stay warm. She got a good turnout and after a bit of a struggle to park at Abbey due to a fell race, it was uneventful.
I couldn't make Mark's next section from Mellor to Whalley so I went on his recce on a Wednesday instead while Simon was at school. I popped a tyre in Ramsbottom on the way which meant we were walking against the clock, not helped by one or two wrong turns. The first half of the walk from Mellor to Langho is probably the dullest section of the whole Trail but things improved as we got nearer to Whalley. I didn't get much feedback from the Group walk but I think he got a decent turnout.
Joanne's section from Whalley to Barley via Pendle Hill in September got a huge turnout- 20+ . I took the train up to Whalley rather than drive. Unusually she started the walk in the early afternoon. The weather was good and the walk was done at a fairly fast pace. Some members stayed for a meal in Whalley.
I was due to lead the final section from Barley to Thornton-in-Craven and thought it might be nice and make the car shuffle easier if we stayed at Earby overnight. Unfortunately YHA rules meant we would have to book two nights and this killed the idea stone dead.
I lead the final section yesterday. There were seven of us. We parked at Thornton-in-Craven and took two cars to Barley. We set off in the rain but after half an hour it stopped and we were dry for the rest of the day. It was a pleasant and varied walk and seemed shorter than the 10 miles given in the book. We were finished by 2.30 pm and went to the Pendle Inn in Barley for a drink.
As a whole the Trail is a good walk especially if you don't know the southern half of the county that well. There was little that was unfamiliar to me but it was worth doing.
