On a beautiful sunny Spring day 9 members of the Rambling Group set off to Chorley to climb the 1191 feet high Rivington Pike. Situated on Winter Hill, the Pike is part of the West Pennine Moors. The land and building are owned and managed by Chorley Council and the Pike Tower is a prominent local landmark located below the summit, and is part of Lever Park.
The high moorland is underlain with Carboniferous rocks, the Millstone Grit, sandstones and shales of the Lower Coal Measures which rise high above the Lancashire Plain. Hilary ( who had studied Geology) was on hand to show us the different strata in the rocks and we were also able to see the fossilised remains of water flows in the rocks! On the recce I had walked past the same rocks without a backward glance! Walking from the Visitor Centre we were able to see the remains of the Japanese Gardens, Italian Gardens, Pigeon Tower and the Ravine. In previous times the gardens had been suffocated by Rhododendrons but thanks to the hard work of the volunteers many areas have now been cleared and the gardens are slowly growing back to their former glory. We stopped to chat to a group of the workers today and they gave us a little more information about the history of the area. The area is documented as part of the gift to the people of Bolton by Lord Leverhulme at the creation of Lever Park. It is an area of open access land and has a right to roam. The Pike hill summit was included on the map presented by Lord Leverhulme to Bolton as part of the lands donated for the creation of Lever Park and as such there is a right to ‘free and uninterrupted enjoyment’. The Pike, being located on Winter Hill was one of the destinations in the UK’s largest mass trespass, which occurred in 1896, when 10,000 people marched to enforce their rights of way. Certainly there were plenty of people enjoying this right today and due to the good weather we were able to have far reaching views to Bolton in the West, Blackpool tower in the east, and the Yorkshire Dales in the far distance. We stopped for a while at the summit to enjoy a picnic lunch, then took the downward paths through the gardens down to the ravine. We were lucky with the choice of day as in two days time the traditional Rivington Pike Fell Race takes place. This has been held on the Saturday before Easter Sunday since 1892. The course is 3¼ miles and has a 700-foot ascent and the aforementioned workers told us that only those who have visible injuries are thought to have run the race properly! Thankfully our descent was injury free and we then took a meandering path through beautiful woodland along the banks of Anglezarke Reservoir, stopping briefly to look at Liverpool Castle, a folly built by Lord Levehulme and never inhabited, and back to the Visitor Centre. At about 6.5 miles the walk was not the longest we have done but the number of steps we climbed and descended (including the final 70 up to the Pike) more than made up for the lack of distance. Having invested jackets and boots we took advantage of the lovely sunshine to sit in the courtyard to have coffee and cakes as a reward for our exertions! Another good day out in fresh air, with great company enjoying the lovely countryside which is on our doorstep.