LANCASTER CANAL
& THE KELLETS from CARNFORTH
with
Preface - Langdale Goes Skiing
Summary
Date - 27th December 2009
Distance - 9 miles
Map - OL7/OL41
Start point - Kellet Road,
Carnforth (SD 500706)
Preface - Langdale Goes Skiing
We were in the grip of some cold
and wintry weather. Even in Morecambe, where we hardly get any
snow, one morning we had woken up to find about three inches had
fallen. This prompted our Lakeland Bear pal, Langdale, to get his
skis on and take advantage of it.
"I'm having a great time",
Langdale called out to his friends Ruskin and Beatrix, who had
come out to watch.
Just after Dad had snapped his
photo, his friend Ruskin, while walking over, stumbled and fell
in the snow.
"Oops a daisy, are you all
right ", said Langdale
"Yes I am fine apart from a
rather wet nose and face", replied Ruskin, picking himself
up and posing with Langdale and Beatrix.
Beatrix then went off to check on
her flock of sheep, while Ruskin continued to watch Langdale
enjoying himself.
It was as well Langdale took
advantage, as even though it snowed lightly again a couple of
days later, by Boxing Day it had nearly all melted away. Dad
wanted to get some fresh air and exercise, so we were pleased
when he told us late that evening that we were going to walk
tomorrow.
"Where are we going?",
asked Grizzly.
"I have decided to do a
country walk from Carnforth, as it is not far to drive to the
start, so we won't have to be up at the crack of dawn", Dad
replied.
"Haven't we done that before?",
said Tetley, who has a good memory of past adventures.
"Yes, four years ago, but it
is a nice walk, and the nine miles will do me the power of good",
said Dad.
"That was before I was born",
piped up Little Eric, "so at least it will be new to me."
The Walk
Sunday dawned, and
after breakfast, Dad got his kit together and loaded it into the
boot of the car. This was our cue to trot out and settle on the
front seat. Carnforth is just a few miles away, so it took about
fifteen minutes to get there. It is a small town straggling the A6,
once the main road north to Scotland, before the M6 was built.
Unremarkable, it is perhaps most famous for its railway station,
where many scenes from the classic film 'Brief Encounter' were
shot. By the 1990's the station had fallen into disrepair, and
was in danger of being demolished. However a group of determined
volunteers got together to campaign against this and get the
station restored with a visitor centre recounting its history.
Also celebrating the filming of Brief Encounter, in particular
the faithfully restored Refreshment Room. It just goes to show
what people power can do. More information can be found by
clicking the following link. www.carnforthstation.co.uk
Our start point was just up from
the station at a car park on Kellet Road, that was slippy with
ice, so Dad exercised great care while getting his boots on etc.
We jumped in the rucksack, and got settled, before Dad shouldered
this and set off up the road to the bridge over the canal. Here
we went down the slope and joined the towing path, which on this
particular stretch was ice bound. By hanging on to the fence Dad
negotiated this section on to ice free path.
Onwards now heading north, and soon
passing under one of the many graceful stone arched bridges. This
is bridge 129.
Shortly after this the canal is
crossed by the M6 motorway. This is a modern concrete structure,
that is functional, but completely lacks any style compared to
the graceful bridges such as no. 129.
For most of the section that we
walked beside, the canal was frozen hard, which was hardly
surprising. This did give Dad the opportunity to capture this
rather unusual shot of the reeds and trees reflected in the ice.
Due to the ice, we did not see a
single barge or boat plying its way along, so we got our paws
busy and searched Dad's archive for pictures taken when we last
did this walk on 1st January 2006. We found this one he took of a
barge plying the canal and decided to include it. It was
obviously another calm day then as there are excellent
reflections.
Just a little further
along a seat had been placed by the Lancaster Canal Trust in
memory of a Geoffrey Allen. We thought that this was an
appropriate place to have our picture taken, especially as the
gentleman's surname is shared with one of our group.
After about another mile we reached
Capernwray, where we left the canal, and walked through the
farmyard to the road, then going left until a stile over the wall
on the right was reached. Here
we crossed half right to the trees. Then two stiles either side
of a track, allowed progress alongside the trees to a corner,
where we turned left and on beside them. A stile in the fence
ahead was climbed, and heading slightly right over the brow
another fence and stile was crossed. Now we descended to a tree
girt rocky hummock, cutting through this to a metal ladderstile.
If you look carefully following a
line roughly from the waymark arrow on the post you might just
make out the next distant waymarker and beyond that the buildings
that are part of the village of Over Kellet. This was our
objective, reached via a lane after we had crossed the large
pasture to and beyond the waymark. Over Kellet has a pretty green
at its centre, with a number of seats. We all took advantage of
one of these to sit and have our sandwiches. However we did not
sit too long as we soon began to get chilled.
Our route now lay through some of
the woods seen distantly in this picture. First we walked along
the road towards Nether Kellet, leaving it soon, just before the
building that was the old school, to climb a steep bank and on up
over the fields and into the woods, where initially the path was
still covered with snow.
This path led unerringly for some
distance meandering through the woods. All the time to the right
hidden from view were the workings of two quarries. Dad took us
up to the viewpoint of the second one so we could see just how
huge it is.
The path then took us in front of
the office buildings, and along beside the road, to then follow a
path on the other side into the village of Nether Kellet. Walked
through the village and out over the M6 motorway.
The cars were rushing along on
journeys to who knows where, but Dad was glad to be with us on
the walk, where we were unhurried and free from cares.
Immediately over the bridge, we took the track right, and in
fifty yards another good track left. At its end then we descended
over pastures to another track. Here going left to pass some
houses and come to a crossroads going right on a good track. This
took us past Mount Pleasant, house and farm, and then finally
down again to the canal on the southern outskirts of Carnforth.
Crossed it at the bridge, then walked north to the start. The
sunlight was catching the trees with a dark bank of cloud behind,
just above which we could see the moon.
"That will make a good picture",
remarked Grizzly.
"I agree", replied Dad
getting the camera out yet again.
Well that was to be our last walk
in 2009, and we reflected on a good year of adventures, and a
number of milestones reached. Grizzly completing his Wainwrights,
and us all completing the Outlying Fells. Not least too, the
number of outstanding Birkett tops had been reduced by about 50%.
We look forward to many more adventures in 2010.
We can only say, "thank you
Dad, once again for taking us!"