7th August 2008

Evening Walk, Rossendale

For my 2nd evening walk this year, I decided to use the same start / end point – the White Horse pub in Helmshore. After placing details on our club website, as well in our local newspaper (Rossendale Free Press), and on the About My Area (BB4) website, I hoped we’d have a good turn out.

With the weather forecast for the day not looking too good – the national forecast had been rain – the forecasters seemed to have got it wrong. Arriving at the White Horse, I found 22 people this time; some faces were familiar from the last time, including some club members. This also included some children and three dogs. An added bonus was that Tony Lord (club webmaster) was there, and he had his camera with him. Hopefully, he’ll have some good shots.

Setting off from the pub, there was a short downhill walk back into Helmshore arriving at the entrance to the local Memorial Park near Snig Hole (Snig means eel). This area had once housed Snig Hole Mill, owned by the Porritt family, and had been donated to the community in 1922. This is where we hold our annual Remembrance Day event in November each year. The walk from here led us down to the River Ogden, which would eventually lead us down to the River Irwell.

This initial woodland walk was on a well trodden path, and kept us beside the River Ogden. The highlight of this part of the walk was arriving at an area known locally as ‘Little Blackpool’. This was an area that had a waterfall to help divert water to a mill race for mills further along the way. At the bottom of the waterfall, there was a pool area which had been used in the late 19th / early 20th century by Victorians as the local beauty spot. This is also the same point as the old Stubbins to Accrington railway line viaduct crosses the river.

From here, the woodland walk took us across an open field that would eventually bring us to the village of Irwell Vale where the rivers Ogden and Irwell meet. The walk down the Bowker Street (named after a local mill owner from 19th century) had once been on a cobbled surface, but it had recently been resurfaced with tarmac – a real shame, however practical. From here, we took a short riverside walk, and arrived at the village of Lumb. This shouldn’t be confused with another village of the same name near Waterfoot.

Lumb village is even smaller than Irwell Vale and, for the most part, time has stood still. Again we passed under another viaduct for the old railway line, and began what would be our ascent. At the back of the village, behind an aptly named row of terrace houses – Herons Reach – we began our climb on a narrow woodland path that I’d only discovered about a year ago.

Gaps in the forest allowed us the occasional views across Rossendale to the infamous wind turbines on Scout Moor, as well as seeing remnants of our industrial past. The path took us on a higher route, a few hundred feet about the Irwell, then dropped us down to narrow cloughs where we had to cross small streams on plank bridges, then ascend again on wooden steps to gain the height we needed. These steps were probably the one area where terrain underfoot was most slippery. I know the dogs had problems here, but the humans seemed to cope okay.

At a juncture in the path, we could have extended the walk to Stubbins, Chatterton, and even Ramsbottom, but that would be one for another time (perhaps a Sunday afternoon walk). For here, we had to go up through a wet field to get to Holcombe Road, and it was here that it started to rain and didn’t really stop until we got back to White Horse.

Congregating on the road, we had made provision for splitting the group – some would follow the road back to the pub with my wife, Pauline, and the rest would come with me up through a few fields to gain yet more height, and finish the walk at Robin Hood’s Well, then follow the ascent route we’d taken on the previous walk. This brought us down the recently upgraded footpath and back to the White Horse, where we found 4 real ales on, including Timothy Taylor’s Landlord and Moorhouses Pride of Pendle. Spoilt for choice, and reasonably priced.

From comments received, everyone seemed to enjoy the walk – I managed to give out a few details of the club, and will be planning another in about a months time – possibly a repeat of last year’s walk on Haslingden Grane. Watch this space.

Stuart McDonald