Last Tue 27 March I saw a member of the Milestone Society cleaning the milestone at the junction of Chorley Road (A674) and Bury Ln (SD 6246 2363). This evening I went out for a cycle ride to see how he’d got on. The milestone was freshly pained in white and the text picked out in black. Further along the A674 in the direction of Blackburn is a boundary stone at the junction of Chorley and Blackburn, which is also the boundary between Leyland Hundred and Blackburn Hundred. He’d also refurbished that so I had a look. As it’s partly buried and away from the road it’s easy to miss. It is now gleaming white and can be seen more easily.

Milestone at Bury Lane end
[SD 6246 2363]

Boundary Stone - Moulden Brow
[SD 6394 2522]

The boundary stone on Moulden Brow between Blackburn Hundred and Leyland Hundred

It was another warm sunny day so I thought I’d cycle over to Leeds to visit Bob Jackson Cycle shop and see if they had any rear fork adjusting screws for my old Merlin racing frame that I’m re-building. It was probably just an excuse to ride out that way and explore some of the lanes east of Halifax. I delayed my start till 9am so that I avoided the school and main rush hour traffic.
I hadn’t gone far before making my first stop in Houghton to have a quick word with a man cleaning the milestone at Bury Lane end. He was a member of the Milestone Preservation Society and was hoping to clean and paint 2 today. I rode thought Belthorn, Haslingden and Rawtenstall but in Stacksteads I stopped to look at a roadside memorial to John B. Taylor who was a Local Historian. The plaques is dated 2010 and sits on top of an interesting column of brickwork comprising bricks from various location.

Memorial to John B. Taylor

After a brief stop on Bacup for a bite to eat I reached Todmorden and stopped to photograph a back street with the unusual sight of washing hanging out. On the approach to Hebden Bridge I kept a look out for the lay-bye caravan café of ‘Hot Stuff’ but once again it wasn’t there. I continued to Hebden Bridge where thankfully ‘PK's Food 2 Go’ Snack Bar was still there. I stopped for a bacon butty which was huge and only cost £1.70.

Drying the washing in Todmorden

Dean Clough, Halifax

I continued to Halifax and passing over the bridge that crosses Dean Clough was able to stop and take a photo of the magnificent buildings. It wouldn’t be possible to do this with a car. I was now cycling in new territory and kept to the minor roads as much as possible. After passing through Wyke I rode along to Oakenshaw and stopped to look at an interesting stone column with sundials on the top. A man came up to me and asked if I was interested in the history of the structure as he was a Local Historian and was able to tell me all about it. After riding over Cliff Hollins Lane I reached the A650 road and so ended my quiet riding.

Monument near Oakenshaw

I was now on fairly busy roads all the way to Bob Jackson Cycles. The shop is above a terrace of various shops and the entrance is up Station Mount the side street. I knew they weren’t a shop so had to press the button for entry. My original plan was to finish re-building my refurbished Merlin bike and ride it here to buy the adjusting screws. The man in the shop said they had them in stock and could sell them to me now for £5 so need to come back later. I couldn’t argue with that so bought them and continued on my bike into the traffic of Leeds to the railway station.

Bob Jackson Cycles

I bought a £9.75 single ticket to Blackburn and waited for the train. There was no carriage with a cycle storage facility so I used the wheelchair one instead and hoped a chair wouldn’t get on. In Blackburn it was a pleasant cycle home. I passed both the milestones the man was hoping to clean and both were gleaming white with new paint.

Quality cycle frames

Plan of the route generated by my GPS

Altitude profile illustrating my ride over the Pennines

I was leaving a meeting of Brindle Historical Society on a wonderfully clear evening and couldn't resist taking a snap of the western sky with Venus the Moon and Jupiter continuing to dominate.

The warm sunny Sunday had brought the day tripper out in droves. The lanes of White Coppice were clogged up with cars but I was on my bike so had no problems. Stepping down to the river at Warth Bridge was this display of daffodils.

Yachting on Belmont Reservoir

Last night the clocks went forwards and the lighter evening meant that many people were out to enjoy the sunshine for a bit longer. This barge made the most of the good weather as it passed through the locks at Johnson's Hillock, Whittle-le-Woods.

After enjoying an evening walk along the Leeds and Liverpool canal I was about to pass under the M61 Motorway when I looked up to see (top left to bottom right)

Jupiter, Venus and the crescent Moon

Waiting for a train - a misty wide view of Ipswich Railway Station.

A friend recently asked me if I knew what the statue was that had recently appeared in Astley Park. He said there was no information board or plaque to say who it was. I suspected that it was the statue of Benjamin Disraeli the Earl of Beaconsfield (1804 – 1881) who was Prime Minister in 1868 and 1874-1880. The statue had been sited on the top of a building at the junction of Chapel Street and Cleveland St. Chorley until about 3 years ago when it was removed.

I visited Astley Park this morning to check if my suspicions were correct. They were.
I was horrified to see that the Council had placed it in the corner of the walled garden at ground level with no chance of security. The original plinth was missing so nobody knows who the statue is.
It had already been vandalised with graffiti and there is no doubt that it will soon have graffiti carved in it then probably suffer the same fate that Bolton’s statue of Disraeli did in Queen’s Park. Their statue had its head smashed off and face severely damaged. They managed to replace the head and repaired the face by filling the holes with mortar. It looks a mess.
I can’t understand why the Council have placed the statue in such an accessible and vulnerable position.

They may just as well have put a sign up saying ‘come on vandals, do your worst’

 

Benjamin Disraeli now in Astley Park

The old oil trap

Nearby is Hatch Brook and an interesting feature that is left over from the last war. It is a brick dam with curved earthenware pipes built into the brick. The pipes are now broken but originally they took water from the bottom of the river to run through the dam wile any oil would float on the surface of the water and could be skimmed off. Oil, you ask! The structure was built during the second World War. Upstream of Hatch Brook used to be a series of oil filled containers that could be set alight during a bombing raid of the Munitions Factory at Euxton. The fires would act as decoys for German Bombers who would hopefully drop their bombs on the moors and not the factory.

Rainbow over Stanworth

We left the crumbling structure and headed off across the moors to Withnell Villa then down Norcross Brow to Cockers Garage where we had a look at the tunnel portal of the ‘goit’. The water goes into a vaulted tunnel for about a mile before emerging at the far side of Brinscall. The water comes from Tockholes reservoirs and runs by gravity to Rivington reservoirs.

Going Underground.
The goit water enters the tunnel

Tea and a scone in the Cottage Tea Room

Brinscall Railway Station in 1960

I was out for a cycle ride to Revidge and Mellor. Riding along Whalley Range in Blackburn are several Asian shops and I always try to pick some fresh chillies up as they’re the only place I can find them. It seems odd that none of the supermarkets near where I live stock fresh chillies, just the bottled ones.
 

fruit in Marhaba on
Whalley Range, Blackburn

fresh chillies

Last week I drove to Derbyshire for a walk and parked west of Taddington near Buxton. I drove there via Glossop. This morning I’m back to try a cycle ride. The shortest distanc to drive is via Stockport so I thought I’d try that this time. Even thought he A6 through Stockport and Hazel Grove is a constant succession of traffic lights the journey was a little quicker. I set off on the bike and rode through Taddington to enjoy the quiet roads for a while. Then I joined the very busy A6 road on the descent through Taddington Dale to the valley bottom and the river Wye. Last week it was uncomfortable walking along the road due to heavy traffic and today was no different, even on a bike. I was glad to reach the River Wye where the road is wider and gives more room to manoeuvre. My first stop was Bakewell.

wide view of Bakewell

I didn’t know what to expect and when I got there was surprised how little there was to see. I continued SE along the A6 and the side of the River Wye to Rowsley where I turned left (north) onto the B6012 heading towards Chatsworth House. I’d not been on this road before and wasn’t sure where the main entrance to Chatsworth House was. Over a nice stone bridge there followed a steady climb then the House came in to view. To the left was a large herd of deer. The entrance was well signposted and said the house didn’t open to visitors until tomorrow.

Chatsworth House

I set off along the access drive and over another stone bridge to firstly investigate the feature ‘Queen Mary’s Bower’. It is a strange stone structure which is reputed to have been used to keep Mary Queen of Scots secure while taking exercise during a few times of imprisonment here between 1570 and 1581. I suspect that’s a convenient legend to bring in the tourists, including me. I cycled up to the house but it was closed to visitors. The drive continued north so I followed it to a large gate. The gate was closed but I assumed there would be a pedestrian access for me to escape by. There wasn’t and I seemed to be boxed in. Fortunately a car approached from the A619 road and the electric gates opened to let the car in so I took my chance to escape. Once I’d escaped I cycled to Calver then the B6001 and left to the B6521 and up towards Eyam the Plague Village.

Queen Mary’s Bower

The Riley graves in the middle of a field near Eyam

This is a village I’d not visited but just as I passed the village sign there was another on the right indicating the site of the Riley Graves. I was intrigued so set off up the steep track to find the walled plot where the graves are in a field. Mrs Elizabeth Hancock buried her husband and 6 children here between 3rd and 10th Aug 1666. They’d died of Bubonic Plague. Then I had a look around the village and briefly stopped in the Church Hall where there was a coffee morning £1 for a coffee and biscuits seemed good value. The church and graveyard were very interesting to visit.

Elizabeth Riley burying her family in a field.
In 8 days she buried 7 members of her family who had died of plague.

Eyam Church. There is only one plague victim in the church grave yard.

8th Century Celtic Cross

I headed west out of the village towards Foolow and stopped to chat to two men who were re-building a dry stone wall. I cycled through the lanes and descended to the River Wye and the deep valley to the Cressbrook Mill buildings. The original mill has now been converted to private homes. The early overcast weather was now clearing and I had a sunny climb out of the valley towards Tideswell then another descent to the River Wye and Miller’s Dale. It was very impressive riding under the huge disused railway viaducts. A steady climb up the B6049 took me back to Priestcliffe and the car. I decided to drive home via Glossop as I expected the Stockport traffic to be much busier this time of day.

Dry stone wall re-building

Cressbrook Mill

Plan of the route

profile of the route

I drove to the Overdale Crematorium to say goodbye to Brian Platt (1936-2012). Brian was a very interesting man and not like everybody else. When the hearse arrived we followed Brian in to the chapel in his cardboard coffin were the Animals track ‘House of the Rising Sun’ was playing. The next track was ‘Not like Everybody Else’ by the Kinks.

Brian

There was no minister but an enlightening eulogy by his daughter, which I found fascinating. Brian had worked in the teaching profession all his life and retired when the headmaster of Breeze Hill school in Oldham. The memorial leaflet at the funeral said he was ‘Ahead of his time...’ He was a man who didn’t follow the party line and did what he considered right. This often brought him in to conflict with the education authorities.

saying goodbye to Brian

Overdale, Bolton

It's that time again. I was giving blood for the 34th time. The levels of bureaucracy have even increased. A sheet was posted to me to read and sign before I got there. Another had to be read on arrival, another when I had my blood iron level checked and another before they stuck the needle in me. Fortunately I didn’t have to sign another form to get my refreshments!

A lot of paperwork to get this far.

Weighing the blood in.

I had a late morning cycle ride through Bolton

checking for information in Bolton

Bolton
Town Hall

good to see the cyclist paramedic is wearing a helmet

To the south of Brinscall the old muddy footpath that follows the line of The Goit has been upgraded. This section has been reconstructed in duck boards.
On the moors above Brinscall is this ancient Mere Stone boundary marker. It was first referred to in the Hoghton papers under a description of a ‘Perambulation of the Manor’ in April 1697.

Duck Boards through the woods

Ancient Mear Stone (Merestone) showing the cross cut in the rock

I am currently rebuilding my old Merlin Racing bike with modern components. The frame was originally hand built by Bob Jackson’s in Leeds in 1966. Being made from Reynolds 531 tubing it is as good as any modern frame. After removing the original Campagnolo bottom bracket bearings and cups I had to replace them with a set of Shimano ones which are alloy shells. The right one wouldn’t screw in comfortably so I took it to Paul Hewitt Cycles in Leyland who cleaned out the treads by running taps through both sides. They didn’t charge me for it!

After cycling over the Belmont Reservoir embankment I set off for Entwistle Reservoir to check out the track across to the Strawbury Duck Inn and Entwistle Railway Station. I stopped on the embankment as a collection of 4 vehicles were parked while a Health and Safety check was being done by the valve tower. At the same time an 80 year old fisherman had just fallen by the far bank and cut his head quite badly.

I rushed over with some of the Water Authority staff to try and help. The ambulance was called and he was soon on his way to hospital to be checked out.