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Started : 30 August 1992
Finished : January 2023
Companions : ( in part ) Dave Morris, Andy Roughley, Phil Burton, Simon Farrell, Julie Farrell, Theo Lindley, Molly Williams, other members of Hike On Lancashire that I've forgotten or whose surnames I don't know
This one was done in three distinct stages. The first we've already covered as the section from Leeds to Gargrave is also the route of the Settle-Carlisle Way.
Twenty years later, I decided to do the rest as a project for Hike On Lancashire ( then known as Lancashire Young Persons Walking Group). The first section was from Liverpool to Maghull.in April 2012 We parked at Maghull and caught the train into Liverpool. The turnout was OK , a dozen or so but there had been a big social event on the Friday where someone said they didn't fancy it and a negative vibe towards the event had snowballed from there . The walk was a lot longer than I had anticipated so perhaps it was just as well. For the second walk, from Maghull to Burscough, only Phil turned up. Fortunately the weather was good. After that I abandoned the idea as a Group project.
The third and final stage was with my son Simon when we revived the Littleborough Travelling Society in 2020. We started doing it on weekends when the weather looked doubtful so we could shelter under bridges. Our first stage was to start from Wigan and walk in the direction of Burscough in August 2020. We got caught in two cloudbursts and eventually stopped in Gathurst and took the train back to Wigan. We then did Gathurst to Parbold and Parbold to Burscough closing the western gap.
We then went back to Wigan and walked in the opposite direction as far as Wigan Top Lock on another appalling day before taking the bus back. The next stage took us from there to Red Rock with a long diversion into Haigh Park. We walked Red Rock to Adlington over the Christmas period,
We resumed in February 2021 with a walk from Adlington to Chorley. Our next two stages ended in Higher Wheelton and Feniscowles. We walked the Feniscowles to Blackburn section with Julie over Easter. She then joined us for the next section on the May Day bank holiday. We had intended to walk to Oswaldtwistle but the weather was so bad we abandoned the walk at Rishton. We picked it up again in June with a walk from from Rishton to Clayton-le- Moors , a walk marred by Simon losing his rucksack at a rest stop. Our next section took us to Hapton where we were accompanied by Simon's friend Theo. Next stage was Hapton to Burnley then Burnley to Brierfield. On the next stage, Brierfield to Barrowford in October . we were accompanied by Simon's girlfriend Molly.
After a long interval, we walked Barrowford to Barnoldswick in June 2022 then after another six months we walked Barnoldswick to Gargrave in January 2023 which completed the whole towpath walk for me.
