Walk Leader: Ian

Number on walk: 22

Distance: 10 miles

Weather: Dry with cold wind becoming warmer after lunch

The bus dropped us off at the pretty village of Chipping where the first group photo of the day was taken. To keep us together as a group I appointed Robb as my number 2, whose responsibility was to keep in the middle of the group, ensuring that he was constantly in sight of me at the front and John, my number 3, at the back. The system worked well which meant there was plenty of chit chat amongst walkers which was good.

We left Chipping via Longridge Road and followed the path at the bend across a beautiful field covered in buttercups. After climbing a couple of tricky stiles, we reached Dobson’s Hall which appears to be a peacock breeding centre as there a literally 100’s of birds on display in the grounds which can be heard from miles away.

We then crossed a footbridge before coming out at Leach House with its wildflower garden. There was a short road walk before setting off across an inclined field with a beautiful ash tree in the middle. The badly damaged stile in the corner of this field was another which was rather tricky to climb and is desperately in need of repair.

Once over this,  the slope gradually increased becoming quite steep as we made our way up to the road. Looking back there was a great view across the bright green cut field over to Parlick and Chipping. From the Jeffery Hill carpark we continued to climb more steadily up to the wall which we followed to the trigpoint where another fine group photo was taken.  We entered the trees at High Beacon where we stopped for lunch sitting on the wall at the side of the track. We then set off on the tricky section making our way through all the wind damaged trees that had blown over, eventually coming out on a forest track which we followed down to the road. We then dropped down to the river Hodder which we followed back to Hurst Green via Stonyhurst College.   A good walk.

A group of seven, led by Neil, did the full 50-mile circuit in one go starting the day before at 6am and one member, Karen Nash actually ran the full 50 miles today starting at 3am and finishing in time to join us all at The Bayley Arms!! Her time of around eleven and a half hours will be hard to beat.

After the walk we were all able to get together with some non-walk members at the Bayley Arms for sandwiches and drinks.

Photos of the 10 mile walk can be seen 'here'

Photo of the 50 mile walk can be seen 'here'