Summary

Summits Achieved

Preface

"We are still so much in the grip of this long winter, especially with that bitterly cold east wind", shivered Allen. "It must be time for a warming mug of tea."

"You don't need any excuse", laughed Little Eric. "A real tea belly, just like Dad."

Well, as if on queue, Shaun and Grizzly came in with the flasks and cake tin.

"What have you got for us today, Grizzly?", asked Little Eric.

"Well I found a jar of mincemeat that had been in the cupboard for a while, so I have used it to make some mincemeat slice, a recipe of Dad's that I found. First time I have tried this so I hope it comes up to expectations."

Allen had been and got the mugs that were soon filled with steaming Ringtons tea, and he passed the plates round too.

We all helped ourselves to the cake, and taking a bite, Allen said ,"it's delicious Grizzly. So light and tasty too."

Little Eric had said nothing, concentrating on finishing the first piece and then helping himself to another slice.

"Now whose like Dad", joked Allen to him.

"Yes I admit it, I love cake, just like Dad does, as you say", he replied. "And Grizzly the cake is scrumptious!"

"Where's Tetley?", asked Shaun through a mouthful of cake.

"He's gone to ask Dad if we are walking this week", replied Allen. "I have checked the weather and both tomorrow and Thursday seem to be OK, so we will have to see what Dad says."

"Well I guess he won't be too long, so you had better pour him a mug of tea", and seeing Little Eric taking yet another piece of cake, "and put a couple of pieces of cake on a plate for him, before it's all gone", said Shaun.

Just a minute or so later, Tetley strolled in. "Thanks Allen", he said accepting the tea and cake. Then he said, "the walk is on, for Thursday."

"Great", cried Grizzly. "I suppose we have to come up with where to go?"

"Yes, Dad has left it up to us, and on that score I was thinking of Yorkshire, perhaps from Long Preston as we have not walked from there before, and then afterwards Dad will be able to go to Elaine's", Tetley replied.

"Right I will get the map", said Shaun. He then spread it out and pointing said , "there's Long Preston."

We studied it for a minute or so then Tetley said, "I reckon we need to go east, taking the road by the church to Little Newton, and then go over the fields on various paths, passing Goal Farm and so to the hamlet of Otterburn."

"Yes that sounds good", agreed Allen. Then he went on, "if we stop just short of Otterburn, we could then take the track called Dacre Lane running north-west. Look there's a trig point at Newton Moor Top, so we can bag a summit." Then closing his eyes he said, "it was a proud moment for me last Sunday, when I bagged my 1000th summit.

"Yes pal we were all very happy for you", said Shaun. "I am happy too with what you have said so far about the route from Otterburn. To finish the circuit there are then two ways, either returning to Little Newton or the path via Scalehaw."

"Right", said Allen, grabbing the map, "I will go and see what Dad thinks."

"Thanks pal, I'll see your mug is refilled for when you get back", replied Tetley.

He was not long and the smile on his face said it all. Accepting the mug from Tetley, he raised it saying, "here's to Thursday's walk.

"Yippee", cried Little Eric with glee.

The Walk

As we got the picnic ready Allen looked out and said "I guess we are in for another cold day and not much sun either, the only compensation being that for the first time this week the wind has dropped so it will feel a bit less cold."

Dad was carrying his boots and rucksack etc out to the car, and Tetley said, " we are almost ready", as we did not want to delay getting on our way."

"That's OK lad", I have still a few things to do before we go."

Dad could almost drive blindfold, such is his familiarity with the route as far as Settle, as he drives it every Monday, when he and Uncle Brian go to Elaine's Tearoom at Feizor.

"There's the lane to Feizor", called out Little Eric, at the point where the main A65 turns sharp right.

As we drove on, Grizzly asked, "where are you going to park, Dad"

"At the railway station. From what I could see from the Internet, there seems to be plenty of space, and I think it is free too, but just in case there is a charge I have brought plenty of change", replied Dad.

Soon we were coming into Long Preston, and taking a right turn, it was just a short distance to the station. Dad had been right, there was plenty of space and it was free.

As he got ready, we settled in the rucksack and Shaun, scrutinised the map. "We should walk back we way we have come, to the main A65 and then cross it slightly right, and take the left turn along Church Street."

"Thanks lad", replied Dad as he shouldered the rucksack and headed out of the car park.

After carefully crossing the busy A65, Dad strolled along Church Street, and at the point where it turned sharp left, stood unsurprisingly the church of St Mary the Virgin with its rather squat tower. Here it is from the south side across the churchyard, where, as can be seen, quite a number of the gravestones stand on plinths.

This long low stone built church with a stone slate roof and west tower is a grade 1 listed building. Worship here dates back to Norman times, the current building being from the late 14th/early 15th century with alterations in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The picture below shows the 3 bay chancel that was restored in 1867-68 by Healey of Bradford, with its 3-light east window that has rectilinear tracery and trefoil heads. Note the organ on the left, and part of the pulpit dating from the 17th century.

There is a south aisle, shown below, with at its east end a chapel with a three light window.

We enjoyed looking round, non more so than Grizzly. "I love looking round old churches and it saddens me that these days so many are locked, out of necessity, and I do not get the chance to see inside."

Returning to Church Street, Shaun then said, "We go to the left, then immediately right, to walk along New House Lane."

Dad strode out, along the lane, passing Beckstone Laithe and then Fern Hill, where the metalled surface ended and then it became basically a track past New House (hence the name of the lane one presumes), and finally ending at Little Newton, consisting of a house and a farm.

"Now we take that gate ahead, cross Newton Beck and then climb up over the field beyond", instructed Shaun.

This was huge being about half a mile in length, to reach the wall on the far side, where we climbed the stile and then went right to reach a track called Haw Lane.

"Left here", called out Shaun, "then fairly soon we take the path right to a narrow road near Hull House".

"Here's the sign", called out Allen after about 200 yards.

As we walked this track, Shaun said, "after a gate, the actual footpath drops right to Goal Laithe, and then right to join the track from the gate that actually runs through the centre of the field."

"Seems easier just to keep on the field track", replied Grizzly.

Well, when we got to the gate, there was no real sign of the path via the barn of Goal Laithe, so Dad kept to the track, except that due to all the rain last year the dip in the centre of the field had become a small lake. This was overcome by skirting round to the left to rejoin the track and make our way to the road near Hull House. This is the view looking back over the flood with Goal Laithe.

"Where now", demanded Little Eric.

"We turn left pal, then very soon go left again on the drive to Goal Farm", replied Shaun helpfully.

"Here's a sign", called out Little Eric, very soon. "It reads Otterburn, though."

"This is path we want" responded Shaun reassuringly". We go virtually all the way to Otterburn on this part of the walk."

The drive was surfaced and made for easy walking with sheep grazing beside. "Oh I wish they would run away", cried Allen, as he saw Dad line the camera up for a shot. "Bang goes the no sheep picture story again", he went on despairingly.

At the point there the drive turned left down to the farm, we kept on ahead over a stile and field. Beyond we then crossed the subsequent fields climbing two ladderstiles in the process, and then passing just to the left of Wenningber Farm a double step stile.

"We keep on ahead up the field to the right corner", called out Shaun.

A stone step stile got us over the cross wall, followed immediately by a wooden step stile in a fence.

"We keep ahead climbing to the wood at the far side of the field", advised Shaun.

Getting into the wood was via a stone step stile that was a little difficult to detect, as the through stones were not very prominent. Then we followed the narrow path through the wood, to exit onto a wide track called Dacre Lane.

If we had turned right along the lane we would have come to the hamlet of Otterburn. This consists of a small cluster of houses, quite a few seeming to be barn type conversions.

Our route however was left on the good track of Dacre Lane and after just a couple of minutes, Little Eric called out, "what is that big hill over to the south-west."

Glancing across, Tetley immediately, replied, "Pendle Hill. Then looking at the scene more closely, he went on, "just beyond the fields in the foreground is the railway line running along the brown embankment."

"I'll have to take you up Pendle Hill sometime", said Dad. "It would be a first time for me too."

"Thanks, that would be nice", replied Allen.

Continuing along the track that undulated, we passed woods between woods with names such as Great & Little Houber and Crook Beck Plantation.

Crook Beck ran through the latter, and Grizzly said, "it is obvious how that got its name, but I wonder what the origin of Houber is."

"Perhaps the name of the people who own or owned the woodland", suggested Tetley.

At the next gate we entered a field passing a small stand of trees within a ruined walled enclosure on the left. Then after a further gate the route reverted to more of a track again. This was rather short lived as beyond the next gate the ground reverted to pasture that was extremely rough and boggy, making for hard going, despite the ground being frozen. Along this section two military jets passed over, the one to the left being barely higher than we were!

We waved our paws to the pilot!

At the end a path joined from the left and ahead we climbed the stile to the next section that would soon lead to the track called Langber Lane. However our objective was to summit Newton Moor Top to the left. It is access land, but not knowing this area, it was not until we were on the hill that we saw that had we walked a little further we would have found the gate in the wall. Instead with the help of the height gained on the stile Dad climbed the wall with relative ease and then headed over the rough tussocky ground to the trig point surrounded by a frozen pool.

"Yippee", cried Little Eric, "that's another summit bagged. Can we have our picture taken sitting on the trig point."

"OK lads, I'll see what we can do", replied Dad. "It is a bit breezy and the ice surrounding it adds to the difficulty of access."

Dad was able however to stride over and get his foot on the concrete base, to place us on the top. However just for devilment, Allen and Grizzly decided to jump down and have a skate on the ice.

Picking then up Dad said, "come on now behave yourselves and sit properly while I line up the shot."

That done we settled back in the rucksack, and Shaun said, "we need to head off about north-west to get to the intersection of two paths on the far side of Newton Gill.".

Taking a bearing we set off, but drifted a bit too far south, so once down the hill, Dad tracked east to find the stile and the small footbridge over Newton Gill.

Both Dad and Shaun looked at the map, and clearly the route was left following the path that came in from the right through the wall that can be seen by the footbridge. The intention had been to return by Scalehaw Lane, but somehow both Shaun and Dad's sense of direction deserted them. The planned route to complete the circle was about west south-west, but somehow we ended up going south arriving back at Little Newton.

Looking at the map afterwards, Shaun said, "all I can think is that we must have gone through the gap in the wall to the left, rather than the one ahead and right."

"I think you are right lad", replied Dad.

Coming back to Little Newton was still OK however, as we were able to just retrace our outwards route to Long Preston. Along here we saw two deer one a stag with quite large antlers.

Halfway to New House, Allen said, "there's a spring over the wall to the right, bubbling up out of the ground."

Looking at the map Shaun said, "it's called Kell Well, and must be the source of Kell Well Beck, although it is not so named on the OS map. It is hard to follow too, but I think it then becomes Pan Beck joining the River Ribble just west of Halton Bridge, near Hellifield."

After taking this picture, Dad strode out and soon we arrived by the church, where it was just down Church Street to cross the main road and walk along to the station car park.

We settled in the car to have the rest of our picnic, Tetley saying, "off to Elaine's now, I guess.

"Yes lad that's right and of course you can come in too", replied Dad.

The route he took was through Settle, approaching from the east and climbing out through Giggleswick, to then near the top of Buck Haw Brow, take the narrow top road right, that leads to the triangle, here turning right to Feizor.

As Dad walked in there was surprise all round, Sharon saying, "what are you doing here".

We jumped out of the bag, and sat quietly on the chair, while Dad enjoyed sausages eggs and chips, followed by apple crumble with custard and two pots of tea.

"That's my Dad", said Allen, who as we all know is just like his Dad for tea.

There was plenty of chat too. First to Sharon about her stay away at the nice hotel in Chester for her birthday, and then a chat with Marian.

Elaine came down saying like Sharon, "what are you doing here." Dad then had a good chat with her and also for a short while too with her husband Jonathan. He had been up since 04:00 with lambing, so soon went upstairs to have a well earned rest.

The visit to Elaine's rounded of another good walking day and it nice to have explored more new ground.

back