Botany Bay, Chorley. Tuesday 10th. November 2015

The Pictures:-

To see who was on the walk, click on the following picture:-

To view all the pictures taken on the walk click 'Here' then click 'slideshow' and if necessary 'full screen'.

 The Walk:-

Walk leader - John Evenden.

Of the fourteen of us who mustered for the start of the walk, only John Evenden, our walk leader for the day, had any idea of what to expect. The weather had been pretty dreadful for the previous couple of days and we all knew the countryside round about would be heavily waterlogged and muddy. John's answer was to play safe and turn our backs on it entirely. In doing so he took us along the Leeds/Liverpool canal to the fork with the disused link to Walton Summit, which we followed to Town Lane. We then went through Whittle le Woods, dropping down past St. John's Church and into Cuerden Valley Park. After a talk on the history of Lower Kem Mill, he then took us along the cycle path and into Buckshaw Village. Here we did much of our 10 mile walk, toing and froing between the various points of interest within this huge development, John giving a short talk at each stage. Originally a Royal Ordnance Factory built at the start of WW11 it was sold off to private development around 2000 and is still expanding. With lessons learnt from the old new towns, it boasts a varied mixture of housing, industry, commerce, shops, schools, a health centre and even it's own newly constructed railway station. Tour of Buckshaw complete, John then led us back to our cars, past the Sea View pub and along Moss Lane to the canal, which we followed back to Botany Bay. 

The weather was extremely warm for the time of the year and the rain held off, even a few spells of sunshine. Out of character with most of our walking, the walk nevertheless had lots of interest and a few surprises for most of us. What's more it was free of difficult stiles and those energy sapping muddy fields. Thanks a lot John.

Stan.