Length : 40 miles
Started : 27 September 2014
Finished : 27 June 2015
Companions : ( in part ) Andy Daly, Mark Woodall, Pete Hesketh, Mark Roper, Catherine Seville, Pamela Banks, Suzanne Ashton, Richard Lees, Al Pilkington, Steve Briggs, Wendy Guest, Dave Morris, Joanne Stott, Paul Dalessandro, Fiona Corcoran, others I've forgotten or whose surnames I don't know.
Guide : The Burnley Way leaflets produced by Burnley Borough Council
With clocking up 10 years in the LYPWG and not wanting to do repeats it's become progressively harder to come up with new ideas for walks. I chose to start doing The Burnley Way because it's close to some members' homes , has good transport links and would save me having to come up with anything else at the input meetings for a year. It also made sense because I'd walked stretches of it which were also part of The Bronte Way , Witches Way and ( just about ) the Pendle Way so I would be completing the network in this part of the world.
We started it on a Saturday afternoon with the short 5 mile stretch from Burnley town centre to Queen Street Mill museum in Briercliffe. Our starting point was the mill car park and I put a suggestion in the ad for the walk that we should meet early for coffee there. Several members took me up on it but I set off too late and didn't get there on time which made for a good start ! We caught the bus into Burnley and walked back from there. The weather looked very threatening when we were at the mill but it actually turned out nice and we had a very pleasant afternoon.
Stage two from Queen Street to Hurstwood ( not far away as the crow flies but the route takes you out to the county border and back , making it 8 and a half miles ) took place in December and the weather was unpromising from the start. We parked in Burnley and caught the bus back to Queen Street Mill . It's the most scenic section despite an uphill mile on tarmac with the crossing of the Thursden Valley and walking above Widdop Reservoir the highlights. Lunch was quick and cheeerless with some trees providing meagre shelter at Thursden but when we were walking it wasn't too unpleasant , being misty and drizzly rather than soaking wet and rather windy on the tops. When we got to Hurstwood we had to walk an extra half mile to Worsthorne to catch the bus back into Burnley. We had a drink in the Fighting Cocks , a dark and cheerless pub , while we were waiting for it.
Joanne offered to lead the next section from Hurstwood to Towneley Park via Portsmouth and Thieveley Pike in March . It's the longest and hardest section, 11.5 miles long with a descent to Portsmouth then steep re-ascent onto Heald Moor over tough ground. We met in Towneley Park then took some cars to Hurstwood. It was overcast but fine in the morning then just as we were cresting Heald Moor we were hit by a blizzard with horizontal snow blasting us throughout the traverse of the ridge to Thieveley Pike. We didn't linger at the top but started the steep descent back to vally level which was slippery but safe. Even before we got to valley level again the storm had abated and there was no clue as to how bad things had been just half an hour earlier. The stretch back to Towneley was on easy ground but seemed endless. I was shattered and assumed it was because I hadn't done much walking since the previous section but others said they were exhausted too. We went for what should have been a reviving drink at the Kettle Drum in Mereclough though I had what must have been one of the worst cups of coffee of my life there and Wendy confirmed that hers was just as bad.
I led section 4 in May taking us from Towneley Park to Hapton, another moorland crossing but not as long or tough. I picked up Paul in Ramsbottom .We started from the town centre and walked a mile through the park to get to where we'd left off. After a mix-up around the Hall itself where the route isn't clearly signed the walk went smoothly in decent weather. We were going to get the train back but had just missed one so we caught the bus instead.
Joanne agreed to lead the final section from Hapton back to Burnley via Padiham but I was going to be on holiday when it came round on the programme so we arranged that I' d accompany her on her "reccie" of the route so I could complete it beforehand. It was a warm and sunny day. Scenically it was the weakest section though the views towards Pendle and Bowland at the start were good and there was some nice riverside walking in the Calder valley. Lack of waymarks caused the odd stop for consultation but otherwise it was quite easy and we completed the walk around 1.30 pm.
It is a good walk which makes the most of the town's assets and its surrounding countryside and well worth doing.
