April was the first time the Canal Walking Group used a mini bus to take them to the start and pick them up at the finish of the walk. This proved to be very successful, we left the canal halfway through the walk and had a look around a small village where we had lunch. We finished up at a pub were we had a welcome drink in front of a blazing fire and planned our next walk. We have now reached Riley Green Bridge which is number 91b. We are hoping to reach Skipton by November which is bridge 179. Everyone agreed this stretch of the canal had been the best so far. So onwards and upwards, we will be walking from Riley Green to Whitebirk Bridge next month. Thanks to Tommy for taking great photographs. Read David’s update from April walk
We started at Cowling Bridge Rd on the south eat side of Chorley on a suprisingly pleasant route considering it was so close to the town centre. Once we’d passed under the M61 bridge and the former cotton mill at Botany Bay the views opened out and included the slender silver spire of the Mormon Temple. A little further on we came to the junction of the Lancaster and Leeds/Liverpool at the bottom of a long flight of locks known as Johnson’s Hillock which raised the canal through 20 metres over a mile so. Soon we were on the side of a wooded valley and watched herons standing on the canal bank or flying gracefully over the water. This was a very attractive section of the waterway gently curving under stone bridges with much tree cover. The only jarring note was the appearance of a jumble of unkempt factory buildings surrounded by cars. However once we’d walked up the stone paved road through them we came across the hidden delight of Withnell Fold a small industrial community of terraced stone cottages , school and park which had served a paper mill in the now untidy canalside buildings. After lunch we returned to the canal which curved northwards as the valley opened out again, passed under a a noisy M65 and on to our destination at Riley Green where we left the canal for a short walk to a very pleasant pub and refreshment before our bus arrived for the journey home!!