Mary Towneley Loop #2 - Broadley to Holme Chapel 23/05/22

14.8 miles, on the Pennine Bridleway, via Healey Dell, Spring Mill reservoir, Broadley Fold &   Prickshaw, Rooley Moor (Bottom of Rooley Moor, Warm Slack Hill, Pike Brow, Top of Pike,   

  Bagden Hillocks, Hamer Hill, Top of Leach) Cragg Quarry, Black Hill, Cowpe Bottom, 

   Hugh Mill, Waterfoot, Booth Fold, Edgeside, Shaw Clough, Lumb, Peers Clough, Red Moss,

    Bent Hill Rough, Deerplay Moor, Easden Clough, Stone House Fold, and Holme Station.

Long Distance Trail
means Selfies!
#2 at Broadley

Having had the main excursion of our Sunday rest day be a jaunt over to Ramsbottom to have a Sunday dinner date with My Sister and My Nieces at the Eagle & Child, when the time comes to approach the second leg of the Mary Townley Loop, My Mum has gotten much more comfortable with the tootle over the high road into Rossendale, making the main concern for Monday morning being getting around the rush hour, and school run, traffic in Todmorden, as we need to get a good start on the day as we could be facing down a tight weather window, as we’re deeply uncertain about what the capricious local weather could bring. As it is, we alight at 9.15am again, by the sandwich stand in Broadley, and set off purposefully down into Healey Dell nature reserve to meet the upstream path alongside the river Spodden taking us as far as the bridle bridge before joining the downstream path on part of the lost L&YR Rochdale – Bacup line, which is paced until we’re split off up by the beck and tramway that once led to Spring Mill, now lost to suburban redevelopment at the south end of Whitworth, but still naming the adjacent reservoir, which looms over the valley as we start the press up it west side. Gloom already hangs in the air as we slip back into Rochdale district and come up though the farm hamlets of Broadley Fold and Prickshaw, close enough together to not really warrant separate identities, with Knacks Lane drawing us up among further farmsteads, pressing southward before a sharp turn takes us into the quarry delves as the Bottom of Rooley Moor, directing us towards the nab end of the moorland at Hunger Hill before another sharp right turn pushes us onto the old road over Rooley Moor, where our long ascent northwesterly begins in earnest, with the tower blocks of Rochdale town centre directly behind us. 

Mary Towneley Loop #1 - Sandbed to Broadley 21/05/22

15.8 miles, on the Pennine Bridleway, via Callis Bridge, Callis Wood, Edge End Plantation, 

 Rough Head, London Road, Mankinholes, Lumbutts, Hey head Green, Rake End, 

  Salter Rake Gate, North Hollingworth, Bottomley, Summit Tunnel, Reddyshore Scout, 

   Owler Clough, Higher Calderbrook, Grimes, Turn Slack Clough, High Lee Slack, 

    Hills Clough, Watergrove Reservoir, Higher Slack Brook, Long Shoot Clough, Brown Hill, 

     Lobden golf course, Rushy Hill, Hopwood Hall, and Hindle Pastures.

Long Distance Trail
means Selfies!
#1 at Sandbed.

Late May means Spring Jollies time, and my first opportunity to get away from home at this time of year since 2019, and as we don’t have an obvious holiday locale that fits in with the year’s field of interest, and thusly we look to what we’d been hoping to do before a global pandemic got in the way, and that’s why we’re setting course for Calderdale with the plan we hatched for Spring 2020 (also carried in Summer 2021, but then put on reserve again, because reasons), namely the Mary Towneley Loop on the Pennine Bridleway, 47 miles over the fields, moors and valleys of the three river catchments on the West Yorkshire - Lancashire border. Taking a cottage with My Mum on the hillside above the A646 Halifax Road puts us in a good location for the initial start line, where the parental taxi won’t be needed as we’re only a few bus stops west of Sandbed, where the #590 service can be ridden for a 9.15am start, at the point where the Pennine Way and Bridleway tangle up passing across the valley, and we immediately strike south at Callis Bridge, passing over the river Calder and the Rochdale canal, and hit the rising path that leads up to Callis Wood, giving us a fine view over Charelstown before we disappear into the trees, switching back with the hard track and also wandering off of it as we elevate. Before we can reach the high apron of fields above the valley, we drop down to pass over Beaumont Clough bridge and then rise along the perimeter of Edge End plantation to reach the track that leads across the open plots of Rough Head, directing us towards Stoodley Pike on its high perch, while Blackshaw Head and Heptonstall appear on our reverse horizon, and the bridleway endeavours to keep us low-ish as we come around to Kinshaw Lane, taking us by Swillington farm and onto the passage of London Road, 100m below the high monument. 

Haslingden to Leyland 08/09/15

18.5 miles, via Haslingden Grane, Pickup Bank, Hoddlesden, Darwen, Sunnyhurst Wood, Roddlesworth Reservoirs, Withnell, Brinscall, Wheelton & Whittle-Le-Woods.

First rest day of my jollies features catching the Tour of Britain cycle race, and the Roman remains in Ribchester, as well as me feeling deeply tired after Sunday's excursion, but I'm going to have myself prepped for a big day as the plan for Tuesday is one of those routes in which I might well have over-reached myself, such is my desire to cross Lancashire in only three days of walking. Inspire my parents to get me out early and down the A680 for a start at the main crossroads in Haslingden at 9.20am, departing down Warner Street and Grane Road, immediately noticing that we are going downhill, a good start when you know there's a lot of uphill to come, passing below the A56 and the former L&Y line that ran up the valley between Ramsbottom and Accrington. Grane Road continues, rising into the Valley of Haslingden Grane, past cemetery and the Holden Arms, where I break off from the road to meet the path over the dam of Holden Wood Reservoir, following the path up towards Tenements farm and then rising over the rough grass to the elevated path which will lead us up the valleys side. A decent surface and clear waymarking of the Rossendale Way means easy going as we rise above Ogden Reservoir, with the steep slopes up to Musbury Heights off to our south, and sight of the windfarm on Oswaldtwistle Moor to the north, continuing above Calf Hey Reservoir which seems to be a popular spot for joggers and dog walkers. Slip into the woods and traverse a couple of stream crossing before getting a confusing moment as we start to rise up the valley head as the path has been moved from its location on my map. The clear route is the correct one though, leading through stickiness at a clough crossing and around some romantically ruined farmsteads before a grassy rise takes us up to Edgerton Moss and the remnants of quarrying, where I manage to completely lose the correct path.

Todmorden to Haslingden 06/09/15

My Faithful Companion of 5+ years,
Dead but not yet Buried.

Late Summer Jollies come around at last, and I might have started with a eulogy for my green walking hat, my near constant companion over the last four years of rambling, badly damaged in the laundry after having finally gotten too disgusting to wear, but it's still coming with me despite two severely frayed seams and significant shrinkage, it deserves to see both coasts in 2015, as well as my tilt for 2,000 miles before I'm 41. So load up with My Parents, and spend Saturday heading over the top to Lancashire, and making a surprisingly short trip to Finch Cottage, Primrose Hill, near Mellor high on the edge of the Ribble Valley, conveniently placed for three of my drop off points on the trail to the Irish Sea coast, but not really well placed for the start. Fortunately, a ride can easily be obtained back to Calderdale from Blackburn, thanks to the reinstatement of the Todmorden West Curve and the atlternative route to Manchester Victoria, so my folks don't need to have a long early morning odyssey back to Yorkshire before I can get going again.

11.4 miles, via Todmorden Moor, Bacup, Rossendale & Rawtenstall.