Walk leaders:   Doreen & Gareth       

No on walk:       13

Distance:           14.7 miles

Weather:          Mostly dry    

The walk started from Whins Lane heading through Wheelton and South Hill woods down to meet the canal at Top Lock which we followed to Ollerton Bridge No 2. We had a coffee break before walking through the hamlet of Ollerton Fold to the main road for a couple of hundred yards turning left and making our way to Cross Fields farm, Pike Lowe, top of Brinscall and the VC church at Withnell.  After Abbey Village we went to Red Lee, built in 1624, and had our lunch stop just outside Tockholes.

Continuing on, passing the old pinfold, then dropping down through Roddlesworth Woods,which were showing the autumn colours at their best, we crossed the stream and went uphill tp pass the fishing hut on our way to the road where we picked up a bit of the old Bottoms Up! route to the wood yards and the stile which we crossed and walked through rough pasture eventually coming to the track down to the 'murder house' other wise known as Withnell Villa. It was here that in 1992 that a former accountant, David Wilson, was taken to the garage and shot through the head whilst his wife and daughters were tied up in the house. Apparently he had got himself involved with gangsters who were smuggling contraband cigarettes and he wanted out of it. It was 1997 before all the gangsters were caught and prosecuted.

We then walked over Wthnell Moor where we met a young chap who had lost his mobile phone in a field somewhere in the vicinity of Solomons temple. Sue rang his phone and he must have heard it because he set off and before long indicated that he had found it. Descending down Well Lane and the woods in Brinscall plantations to Brinscall Hall  farm and a bit of uphill before meeting the road and dropping down to the Dressers Arms where we turned right through the fields back to the cars.