Tuesday Walk May 27th
There was a distinct shortage of ladies this morning as 10 men & 2 women met up at Horrock’s Wood car park for the start of this Tuesday walk. Although we had had a few spots of rain on the way there the weather, for the moment, looked quite promising and our walk began along Bryan Hey reservoir before the short climb up to the larger reservoir on Smithills Moor where Bolton beach was pointed out to some. It did appear as though the tide was in though as only a small section of beach was visible probably due to all the rain we had over the weekend.
Despite this, the path over Counting Hill and on to Winter Hill was relatively dry and made for easy walking. Two Lads (maybe it should be Three Lads now – there are three big cairns) was reached and then the bridleway to Burnt Edge was followed. A little used footpath came next and we had an early lunch in some old ruins before continuing along taking a slight detour to visit a trig point which no-one had been to before.
Crossing Old Links golf course we arrived at Barrow Bridge village which is a very interesting place. The old institute and former laundry has been converted to apartments but the original cobbled streets of small terraced houses are as they were with names of Second St., Third St., Fourth St., etc.
We continued to Smithills Hall where we had another stop to allow the group to look inside the windows of this old, black and white timbered manor house. This is Bolton’s oldest building with parts of it dating from the 15th century. It is said that in 1554 a certain George Marsh was held on trial here and that to emphasis a point he stamped his foot on a flagstone and the imprint is still visible today. Rumour has it he was burned at the stake as an heretic and that, on the anniversary of his death, the footprint bleeds.
Finally we passed through Smithills Farm which has developed as an attraction for families and children. We saw deer, llamas, big black pigs and an emu before making our way back to the cars. The weather had improved all the time and we arrived dry and mud free at 2.30pm.
