Todmorden to Colne (low route) 15/09/21

15.3 miles, Patmos, Lydgate, Vale, Cornholme, Portsmouth, Ratten Clough, Copy Pit,

 Holme Chapel, Cliviger, Walk Mill, Townley Park, Burnely Wood, Burnley, Danehouse, 

  Reedley, Brierfield, Whitefield, Nelson, White Walls, Primet Bridge, and Boundary Mill.

Four days into our week away, and it's already apparent that deciding to dump my original walking plans has proven to be an excellent idea, as taking time out for rest and relaxation has been a much better idea that trying to pound out the miles for three days of the week, which has resulted in giving us time for two trips for dinner out (Sunday Roast at the Shoulder of Mutton, and Tuesday night date with My Calderdale friends in The Old Gate), plus lunch with My Sister on a flying visit from Bolton and another visit due from My Mum's frinds in Skipton due for Thursday. Thus we are feeling like walking plans are being fitted in around the social calls, and only having one midweek trip on the slate, makes that a whole lot easier, again not needing access to the Parental Taxi to get to my starting line in Todmorden, riding the #592 bus to land at the bus stand at 9.15am under the viaduct on Burnley Road, with the A646 being our way ahead, the main trajectory that we'll be taking out of West Yorkshire to seal another long boundary extension onto our field of walking experience as we travel to visit all the end points of our recent trips across the hills to the East Lancs valley. With our destination being the exact same one that we last travelled towards from here, we'll match that route for the first steps, through Patmos (or Cobden) as we head out of town past Aldi, the Todmorden Community College and the cricket field on the main road before that route peels off north and we continue on a steady northwesterly, on the wrong side of the road to get any decent views across Centre Vale Park, going by the House That Jack Built, also passing the Hare & Hounds inn from Sunday's trip before heading on into the narrowing upper Calder valley. Beyond the grounds of Todmorden High school, we meet the bottom of Stoney Royd Road, our limit of experience on the Burnley Road since the Calderdale Way brought us this far in 2012, and thus everything will be new from here as habitation quits the steeply wooded south side of the road and a council estate lurks in the last spot to the west of the town where one could have been accommodated, where the views north head right up the valley side to Orchan Rocks and around to Whirlaw Stones, lurking high above the town.

Landing under Todmorden Viaduct.

Burnely Road leaving Todmorden.

Burnley Road, entering Lydgate.

The looming valley sides could have made the uppermost Calder the other secret mountain pass in West Yorkshire, if it wasn't for the A646 being a very easy going road, gently rising into the village of Lydgate, where the cottages and terraces are stony once again, clustered around the three former mills sites powered by the river, of which Robinwood is the most intact, sitting across the valley from the fall of Hudson Clough, across which the railway passes on Lydgate viaduct, immediately forming the most imposing structure on the Copy Pit line, the view from which is most impressive. The road starts a snaky turn beyond, crammed in tightly below the railway embankment and the rising cliffs on the south side, with the river being virtually concealed as the exposed crags loom above Barewise woods, and the few remaining terraces look rather unsuited to modern living, though the still sustain a pub, the Staff of Life, in this odd little spot that seems detached from either of the settlements above and below it, hidden away among the woodlands which thin out as we come around to the bottom edge of Cornholme, where steep grassy banks loom over the village instead. This is easily the largest village in the uppermost Calder valley, possibly because it also encompasses two others, of which Vale is hard to independently define, met first where the valley widens enough to allow terraces to branch off on both sides, but no longer appears large enough to sustain its old school or church (St Michael & All Angels going onto the lengthening list of dream fixer-uppers) all of which lie ahead of the largely derelict site of Frost Holme mill and the Waggon & Horse inn, where the railway passes over the Burnley Road at a skew, not producing the impressive sight from below to match the downstream view from the train. More urban redevelopment has claimed the mill sites further upstream, creating a modern community at an odd remove from the town way down the A646, deep below the high north flank of Rossendale, filling out the whole valley floor as we come around under the railway again, to meet the spread of Portsmouth, a name to confuse any visitor from elsewhere, sitting below the plantation above Cock Hill wood and the end of the high road down from Todmorden, again drawn here by the industry which constructed it terraces and the Glen View inn, with the mills since replaced by suburban living at the very edge of West Yorkshire.

Lydgate, or Robinwood, viaduct.

The narrow valley between Lygate and Vale.

St Michael & All Angels, Vale - Cornholme.

Portsmouth (no, not that one).

Past the Roebuck inn and the last remaining fragments of Portsmouth Mill, down from where the piddling stream of the narrow ditch of the River Calder makes its last appearance, we enter the wider valley beyond the villages, where the roughly worked hillsides come down from Cartridge Pasture, with the Coal Clough wind farm sneaking a view over the horizon to the north, giving us our first feeling of space since leaving Tod, with the railway shifting through the field below the lane as it perches on the valley side below the descending woodland, passing into Lancashire as we go, east of the watershed again. It's a moorland sort of stretch to traverse, giving us a break from the urbanism as we pas below the cleft of Ratten Clough and survey the landscape as we spy only three farmsteads in these high fields, while the lane gives us a rise that really advertises the rise to the English Watershed, one that turns out to be an illusion as the road crests ahead of the top of the Calder valleys, not met until we've passed over the railway via the bridge at an awkward angle, angling across the valley with the ribs of the hills, above the Copy Pit summit. Heading downhill, I've already spoiled the best joke in the region, that being that as the Yorkshire Calder valley ends, the Lancashire Calder Valley starts as if it hadn't pinched it name, and we have to note that the was a Copy Pit up here, the former Cliviger Colliery that sat behind the remotest cottages up the Burnley Road, across the valley from the impressively rocky edge of Thieveley Scout Wood, and while the road doesn't suggest an altitude or steepness of any severity, the sound of an ascending freight train coming across the valley from the vicinity of Holme tunnel ought to make you think otherwise. Beyond the cottages secluded among the reach of Berril's Edge Wood, we encounter the impressively ancient Holme House, almost tucked away from view, before the road leads us into the first village on the Lancashire side, namely Holme Chapel, where the Pennine Bridleway would have brought us if we'd trailed it, and we'll pause here for early lunch as the War Memorial garden (with stocks) opposite The Ram inn and down from St John's church and its schools, largely because it offers a bench to sit on, as we can't expect to see many more in the later portion of today's route.

Entering Lancashire below Cartridge Pasture.

Approaching the English Watershed at Copy Pit.

The uppermost (Lancashire) Calder valley.

The Ram inn, Holme Chapel.

Moving on, it seems to have become a village that has stretched its way down the road as it descends the (western) Calder valley, with terraces taking us past the Queen Hotel and then appearing irregularly as we head back into the open valley, offering us a view south to the cleft of Easden Clough, up which the Bacup Road ascends, below the elevated nab of Dyneley Knoll, before we find suburban houses creeping into the countryside, brought here by the view surely, and adding to the mystery of the location of Cliviger, if such a place actually exists. There's enough houses, old and new, around the junction of the road up to Mereclough to suggest the presence of a village, but it seems that Cliviger is a parish without a centre, like Briercliffe to the north, advertised by a lot of signage but actually impossible to locate, as the OS map calls this corner Southward Bottom, and that's enough of the nystery to ponder for this excursion as we need to continue on with the A646 as it takes is dive downhill, teasing a view toward Pendle Hill before we get tangled up in roadworks, thanks to the Gas men. Walk Mill offers itself to the third and final independent settlement of Cliviger, where the mill that named it has gone, but its ribbons of terraces remain, stretching downhill from the Mount Zion chapel down to Cliviger Bridge, where the Calder passes beneath our feet without being even slightly visible, before we start the rise on the south side of the valley, above a suburban cluster of closes which has no apparent access point, as we rise though more roadworks and come up below the railway again, as the Blackburn-bound service trundles past. Pass under the Low Bridge, and around the sweep of the road as it describes a sight that's immediately recognizable from my train trips eastwards, rising to finally get scope on the north side of the landscape that we've passed through, tracking to route through the high fields down from Coal Clough windfarm, but finding the Hameldon Ridge still hides from view, aside from one brief sight line up to Gorple Stones, and there's no views to be has over eastern Burnley either, hidden by foliage as we pass the lodge house and Ingham's Diner on the rise up to the A646's tangle up with the A671 as it comes down from Rossendale.

Dyneley Knoll, from Cliviger.

Walk Mill.

Looking over the railway to the Pennine Horizon.

Townley Hall Park.

We make the halfway progress report to Mum as we pass the acutely angled junction, passing over the railway as is heads through Townley tunnel, and dropping downhill with Todmorden Road as it skirts the southern edge of Townley Hall park, which offers shade by the side of the road as we start to find ourselves in the vicinity of suburban Burnley, as a ribbon of it reaches up the southwest side before the vintage town is met, past the pub and into a knot of terraces and the landscape of the smareter edge of town, away from the prevailing winds and the industrial landscape below. Leave the A671 as it heads north and around the town centre, while we head straight for it, rising up Brooklands Road as it takes us through the leafy villa district, ahead of running us into blocks of tightly packed terraces of Burnley Wood that are much more like what we'd expect to see around here, passing the Royal Butterfly inn on the Hufling Road corner and descending down Hollingreave Road, below the railway's retaining walls and through more densely built terraces, angling themselves downhill to Finsley Gate, where passage can be made over the Leeds & Liverpool canal. Note the redevelopment of Finsley dockyard as the canal angles away from the end of it long embankment, before we pass the remains of Finsley Mills, and notice both the Town Hall tower and Pendle Hill appearing over the roof of the local bowling alley, ahead of us passing under the A682 Centenary Way flyover and rising up to meet Manchester Road, finally stitching Burnley town centre onto the field of walking experience before we cross to Hammerton Street and make our way around the inner ring road. It's nice to look across the town to see the sun shine on it, rising past the combined courts complex and joining Queen's Lancashire Way as presses to the west side of town, passing the Butchers Fayre store and Newtown Mills before we come down to the west end of St James's Street, again failing to acknowledge the passage of the river Calder below, before we join A679 Active Way to head northeast, through the light industrial and commercial band that sits below the looming Bank Top viaduct, while ensuring that we do spy the spot where the Calder and the Brun form their confluence at the roadside.

The Royal Butterfly, Burnley Wood.

The Centenary Way flyover, Burnley.

Hammertone Street, Burnley.

The Meeting of the Brun and the Calder.

Rise around the north side of the town centre, across from Next and Primark, up the old cobbles of the enduring stretch of Bankhouse Street to the old court house, to witness the chaos caused by the kids crossing the A679 on their way down from Burnley Sixth form college, ahead of us making our own passage over Active Way, noting is origin as the name of a Royal Navy vessel, joining the north and west pavement by Sainsbury's and join the way north as it takes us past the Landmark Business centre in the old grammar school and the factory facade of Prestige Park. Discomfort has settled into my pacing as we head onto the A682 East Lancs Road on our northbound trajectory, feeling unexplained soreness in my left foot as we pass up between Thursby Gardens and Thompson Park, making our second crossing of the canal and sealing the walking field again to encompass all the land to the south of the Bronte Way as the route follows the towpath below, and we carry on north, past the long terraced fronts and the old Ebenezer chapel and its Sunday school as the Colne Road passes through Danehouse ward, or Burnley Lanes, depending on which vintage of map you're reading. As we head on through various qualities of terraces up to the Duke of York Buildings and the St Andrew's church complex on the traffic island at the Briercliffe Road junction, attention turns to my foot issues, which have rapidly become agonising, as we locate the only bench at the roadside to shed my boot and discover that I'm suffering a pressure blister which is spreading from the ball of my foot to the under the arch, which requires I locate the gel pad that I have in my bag, unused in three years, to hopefully alleviate the pain. Also feed and water, having found a place to sit in the full view of many passing local folk, getting going again tentatively as we pass the busy shopping frontage that sits along most of the western side of the lane, passing though the northern reach of Victorian Burnley, in its residential and industrial styles all the way up to the Queensgate bus depot and the Prairie inn before we make the sudden transition into the later 20th century suburban landscape which leads us up to the Casterton Avenue corner and the reassoaciation with the bypass road.

The Landmark Business Centre, Active Way.

Crossing the Leeds & Liverpool Canal on Colne Road.

The Duke of York apartments, and St Andrew's, Danehouse.

The limit of terraced Burnley, Colne Road.

We get our downstream view of the lower (Lancashire) Calder valley, matching our path on the Bronte Way as we pass the leisure complex on the corner, and soon pass out of Burnley district, entering Pendle, though still being in the town as we haven't met the signage welcoming us to Brierfield yet, which makes this the independent settlement of Reedley, home to the Best Western Hotel and sharing a name with the marina hidden away beyond the suburban spread at the roadside, and having its own courthouse complex too, through which borough it served (and still serves as a family court) feels mysterious. Brierfield does arrive next, with some squat and rustic terraces at the roadside, ahead of Burnley road kinking its way around what feels like a whole bunch of old chapels, as well as the mosque, before we come across the Railway Street junction, where we made our first point of contact with this town, but there'll be no unexpected pick-ups on our second visit, as we instead continue north along the front of the main shopping parade, past the Town Hall, Memorial garden and Library complex and on, passing the largest chapel in the town and The Feather inn on our way out. The blending of the towns up here is pretty remarkable, though we do get an interruption of sorts, once the railway line has passed below Colne Road, letting us look northwest as the view to Pendle Hill opens up across the valley, where the M65, the L&L canal and the flow of Pendle Water have all been hidden from view, and the proximity of the former is only felt thanks to the linking road splitting off to meet it at Junction 12, ahead of our north-easterly transition into Nelson, and getting some nicely framed views up its terraced side streets in Whitefield ward. Past Spring Cottage and its leafy grounds, we land in the next town, with its Parish Church, St Mary's, dominating the skyline, though it seems to no longer be a consecrated building, before Manchester Road, in the last throes of being the A682 draws us out of the inevitable landscape of terraces and onto Nelson's main street, with our side of the semi- pedestrianized precinct retaining it vintage frontages and long glass canopy, across the way from the Pendle Rise shopping centre, which sits between us and the station interchange, and across from the public sculpture on the Scotland Road corner, and the Lord Nelson hotel, which really is the pub that named the town, and not the other way around.

Reedley Courthouse.

Brierfield Town Hall, and company.

Pendle Hill visible across the valley.

Manchester Road, and the Pendle View shopping centre, Nelson.

Still on the same pavements, we are now on the A56 and Leeds Road (a title I wouldn't have expected to find out here), as we carry on out of town, taking us past Home Bargains, the Swimming Pool and Pendle Community hospital on the rise away, into a renewed ocean of terraces around the New Inn and St Philip's church, all looking nicely golden hued in the afternoon sunshine, before we take an odd sweeping deviation from the true course of the East Lancs road, around the Bankfield chapel and RC church and snaring a last great view of Pendle Hill down the suburban stretch of Reedyford Road. The long terrces in curves and straight lines could easily be imagined as aping Georgian Bath on a much more modest and Northern fashion, as the transition is made across the hinterland, with all its light industrial encroachments, from Nelson into Colne, passing the Spinning Mill inn and a stretch of the road closed for painting on the way to the traffic island with the A6068 linking to old valley road to the motorway's head, feeling unsure if this district has a particular identity between the towns, though the old maps call it White Walls, and that's good enough for me. Beyond Holy Trinity church and Colne Primet school, we start our descent from the eastern bank of the valley, really getting a proper reminder of how the land actually lies as we pass through the terraces and into the landscape of mills and light that sit on both sides of Colne Water as it flows south, via Primet Bridge under Burnley Road, and we need a short detour up Knotts Road to get a closer look at Colne viaduct as it carries the railway overhead to the head-shunt that lies beyond on the west side, which we need to climb towards on tiring legs. The limbs and blistered foot have had enough of the late summer heat as we rise up the steps to Colne station, the only place where we can actually get a view onto the high fields to the east, as Castercliff is obvious up the hillside, sealing the eastern side of the East Lancs valley as we go, and landing on the line's terminus in good time for the 15:11 train, if I needed to catch it, but there's no chance to ride trains again as a Parental Taxi is cued up at Boundary Mill, a five minute walk beyond the north end of the station, which might be Colne's main draw and is certainly a useful destination for My Mum to await my arrival, trip all done at 3.05pm.

Leeds Road, Nelson.

The Nelson - Colne transition, White Walls.

Colne Viaduct.

Boundary Mill.

Post-Script: A funny little irony of our return trip to Hebden Bridge is that we manage to land back at base at 4.40pm, the exact same time that we'd have been getting off our second train ride if we'd ridden the railway, despite having had Parental Taxi privileges which ought to have gotten us much more quickly than that, but a leisurely approach allows us to have had a stroll around the shopping centre and taken an afternoon tea (of sorts) on the terrace before My Mum can drive us homewards, proving that the East Lancs valley really isn't that remote, if you're not wholly reliant on public transport.

5,000 Miles Cumulative Total: 5166.7 miles
2021 Total: 424.6 miles
Up Country Total: 4703.7 miles
Solo Total: 4835.1 miles
5,000 in my 40s Total: 3764.5 miles

Next Up: Closing the Loop on My East Lancashire escapades.