Sunday September 30th. Manorlands Meander. 18 miles. Leaders: Ken Noble & Viv Lee.

The walk was 18 miles with 8 attendees and was named after Manorlands Sue Ryder Care Centre. The route took in Penistone Hill, Oxenhope, Thornton Moor, Denholm Gate, Hewenden. Here we had fine views of the Hewenden Viaduct, part of the Great Northern Railway Network built in 1884. We also visited Goitstock and Barcroft. 

The weather was kind to us if a little windy at times but we had good clear views all day.

Viv.

Click here for Ken's photos.

Wednesday September 26th. Affetside Amble. But different! 13.6 miles. Leader: Chris Langabeer.

Weather: Overcast becoming sunny

18 walkers left the Pack Horse PH and walked down the hill to pick up the Rotary Way Footpath which led us to Jumbles Reservoir.
After walking alongside the reservoir we arrived at the village of Turton Bottoms. From here the height lost at the start was regained as we reached Walves Reservoir where a short break was taken.
The route then passed through the forest at the Top of Quarlton ( past a very desirable caravan site ) and past Red Earth Farm. After a short stop at Roger Worthingtons grave, the walk continued upwards to reach Moorbottom road.
Lunch was taken at the ruins of Taylor’s Farm before descending through Redisher Woods, passing Simons Farm and Hollingrove Farm which are more luxury houses than farms.
We crossed the main A676 and reached the hamlet of Croichhey. Then after walking through the 2 Brooks Valley, there came a long pull up to cross over Turton Road and continue upwards past the site of the now closed Berry’s Garden Centre.
Onwards we continued past Stormer Hill Close, Hey Head Farm and the newly refurbished Walshaw Hall ( now a Dementia Home)
Bentley Hall Road was reached before the last climb of the day to reach the the junction of Tottington Road and Watling Street. From here it was a short walk back to our cars and after a change of footwear 11 of the group had a well earned drink in the Pack Horse

I hope everyone enjoyed today’s walk!
Thanks for coming
Chris

Thank you to Bernard for the pictures below.

Wednesday September 19th. The Manchester Bee Trail. Leader: Hilary Scott.

Six walkers found the bee at Victoria Station Concourse and set off on a quest to see as many bees as possible. My original thought was to see all those in the city centre but this was too ambitious as some of them were quite hard to find. We may have had a lot of map reading skills between us but the busy city streets are a far cry from fields and it proved easy to lose each other as well as the bees!

Still, we had a lot of fun with a very pleasant hour spent in the Moon under Water pub as well. There were many beautiful bees, some brightly coloured, others highly patterned. There has been an awful lot of work that has gone into them. Unfortunately the Cathedral was closed so we didn't see the small bees in there but I think by then we were nearly bee'd out!

Another point is that the trail introduced most of us to parts of Manchester that we were unfamiliar with and certainly I for one will be paying a return visit to some of the buildings that we passed. We also spotted Julie Hesmondhalgh of Corrie fame and we had a good laugh with some police ladies who were patrolling the centre in advance of a major football game at the Etihad stadium.

Thanks to all who came, I think we did walk about 8 miles or so, nobody had a GPS working. A different day out in very good company.

Hilary

Photos by Don and Hilary

Wednesday September 12th. Arnside Amble. 16 miles. Leader: Geoff Halliwell.

Fourteen walkers met on Arnside Pier on a glorious late summer's day to do the 16 mile 'Amble'.

Setting off along the coast path to Silverdale gave us wonderful views across Morecambe Bay and beyond. 

The morning coffee stop was taken in Silverdale overlooking the beach, before we set off to visit Jenny Brown's Point.

From there we climbed up to a wonderful vantage point above Leighton Hall where lunch was enjoyed, whilst taking in the panorama of the bay and the distant Lake District mountains.

After lunch, we descended to Leighton Moss RSPB centre, before taking a small detour into the abandoned Trowbarrow Quarry. From there, we circuited Hawes Water and then entered Eaves Wood to arrive 'eventually' at the Pepperpot memorial overlooking Silverdale. 

A quick descent took us past Arnside Tower before starting the long climb to the summit of Arnside Knott.

From there we returned to Arnside for a well deserved pint in the Albion Inn.

A great day out, enjoyed by all.

Geoff

Wednesday September 5th. A Breath of Fresh Air. 14 miles. Leader: Norman Thomas.

Twenty-one walkers and three dogs set off on a gloriously sunny Wednesday from the car park at Conder Green. The now obligatory register caused discussion but no issues as we just got on and completed it. Once everybody was ready, we were away. Under doctor’s orders, Norman discussed a minor reduction in the route by cutting down to the Lancaster Canal near Whinney Croft. We expected the canal footpath would be accessible but without 100% certainty. En route we asked a local who confirmed our expectations and on we travelled. Viv, I and a couple of others at the front overshot due to rabbiting then returned to have our photograph taken by a member of the local voluntary constabulary who was obviously searching for clues to the latest crime-solving in the pages of the Daily Sunstarmailmirror.

Surprisingly the canal towpath is not shown as a footpath on OS maps. After 3 miles included our elevenses stop, we were probably ready for some alternate scenery so we headed past the striking Ellel Grange and past the nearby church. We contoured around the magnificent mountain that is Berries Head, all 36 metres of its peak - that’s over a 100ft above sea level! The most challenging part was the footpath from the road heading to the airfield. It is very overgrown, meaning we took the wrong side of the fence for most of its length before limboing under when we had no choice. Soon we arrived at our lunch spot at the aerodrome which provided us with great entertainment from the parachutists. Some were obviously of very high calibre in the way the controlled their fast descent to break only a few feet above the ground and land on their feet almost exactly where they wanted : very skilled indeed.

My memories of the café from the last time I did the walk was that it was exceedingly good. Although I think all of us had brought our own lunch, nevertheless many of us wanted to give them some custom yet the fare seemed very limited compared with previous years.

The home stretch now beckoned. We headed through to Glasson Dock including passing a farm where the air certainly cleared the airwaves. Some (no name, no pack-drill) succumbed to the temptations of the ice cream parlour overlooking the marina and after a brief perusal of the noticeboard for the walk including our glorious leader’s portrait, we were soon back at the car park. Most of us headed to The Stork to sign the book and enjoy some of their excellent refreshments.

Although slightly shortened, we still covered 14.4 miles with, surprisingly for the area, 380ft of ascent. My stats revealed we were out for 5 hrs 37 with moving time of 4hrs 40 and apparently I burned 1279 calories. The sun shone for us all day without being excessively hot. We saw a variety of wildlife including heron on the canal, egrets and hare. Those with greater knowledge no doubt saw more. A great day out.

Sunday September 2nd. Tower to Bridge. 20 miles. Leader: Jane Hill.

On an overcast warm morning with clear views over towards Manchester, 20 walkers and no dogs, met at Scout Road, Smithills. We welcomed 2 walkers who joined us from the South Manchester group. After a brief description we set off cross country to Horrocks Fold and down to the valley near Dunscar Golf club. We started going North from here, briefly joining Longworth Road and then followed a path along an impressive stone wall and reservoir tower before reaching Walmsley Church. We crossed Broken Stones road onto the Witton Weavers Way to the ruins of Hollinshead Manor near Tockholes. We had a break here and the sun had broken through with blue skies.

A short walk through Tockholes down to the river, and up to Vaughan’s café at the Roddlesworth visitors centre where we had our lunch. Drinks, food and ice creams where purchased and we sat out in the warm midday sun.  A sought-after Lee Child book was found in the charity book corner and it was carried for the rest of the walk. I hope it is a good read!

Back through the woods to Piccadilly on the A675 and then we climbed up to Great Hill. A pause at the top allowed us all to look across Lancashire towards Blackpool Tower and the Fylde Coast. We turned South here following the path to Rivington with a welcome breeze. After crossing Rivington Road we followed the track to the Tower at Rivington. The destruction of trees, broken fences, rough tracks, firebreak banks of earth and the charred peat ground, was evidence of the devastating moorland fires that closed the moors for over a month this summer.

After a short climb up to two lads we stopped for our afternoon break, with views towards Chorley and the Middlebrook. The last leg took us down to Walker Fold and we stopped to look and the large land clearance at the edge of the road here, and wondered what they are planning for this area, which is managed by the Woodland Trust. After crossing the road, we followed the paths to the 64 steps down to Barrow Bridge. Passing the beautiful stone houses with their own bridges to cross the stream, we followed the path left towards the Smithills estate and returned to the car park. After spotting a buzzard we were treated to a fly past by what was thought to be a Lancaster Bomber plane. It turned away from us before giving us another display and then flew off towards Manchester.

Thank you all for coming and helping me today on my first walk as a leader.

A special thank you to Pauline for taking the photos today and to Roger for his help with back marking.

Jane

Pictures below by Jane.