THE LANCASHIRE CYCLEWAY - in May 2005 By Alan Parker.


My partner, Barbara Dawson had hip joint replacement surgery which is restricting her from cycling. Barbara and friend Freda make plans for several guided tours of America’s Western National Parks, and while they are across the pond, fly to Hawaii for seven days and see that country. "But what can I do when you are away"? I asked. It was suggested that I go cycle touring, but to where?

County councils are putting together cycle friendly marked routes with the help of members of the Cyclists’ Touring Club, Friends of the Earth and Sustrans (sustainable transport). There are many listed cycle ways in Britain, some are off-road, but I prefer to ride on quiet roads. Why I chose the Lancashire Cycleway; Living in Wirral on Merseyside, a cycle tour of Lancashire is ideal for me. After contacting Lancaster City Council by e-mail, a large envelope containing lots of helpful information arrived at my home in Bebington. Lancashire County Council listed an interesting guide book by Cicerone Press of Milnthorpe in Cumbria which I ordered through a local book shop. THE LANCASHIRE CYCLEWAY (a comprehensive guide) by Jon Sparks is a must if you are planning to cycle part, or all of THE LANCASHIRE CYCLEWAY.

If you are thinking this tour would suit you, a word of warning! Make sure your bicycle has low gears, I used a new RIDGEBACK World Panorama, with a 48/36/26 teeth chainset and 11 to 32 teeth 9 speeds freewheel. If your bike doesn’t have such low gears, make sure you are wearing a good pair of walking shoes for the many 14% gradients. Also check your brakes and wheel rims before you start…there are many turns on the steep descents.

The Lancashire Cycleway comprises of two circular routes forming a figure of eight, totalling about 266 miles which meet in the middle at Whalley in the Ribble Valley. My plan was to start on the southern loop at Town Green, a small village south of Ormskirk and follow both loops in clockwise directions. Some added interests; Preston County Council Cycling Team was offering a free LANCASHIRE CYCLEWAY tee shirt to riders on completion of one or both loops. They provided a form to be signed at some of the various refreshment stops and overnight lodgings. Two friends decide to join me for a few days, Alan H, and Alan N. There is also Alan B and Alan S in our cycle group, but they didn’t join me this time.

Town Green to Whalley; Sunday morning and Merseyrail transports us from Wirral to Town Green station for the start of our Lancashire Cycling Adventure. At Town Green I notice a plastic fastening had broken on one of my panniers, "this is a bad start", I thought. All I can do is to lay the pannier across the support rack and secure it with bungee cords until I find a shop that stocks replacement clips. The weather is dry but the cold northerly winds slow our pace as we head to Croston for lunch. We find Cycle Route 91 to be well marked as we cross Clieves Hill and follow the quiet lanes to Mere Brow, passing the popular Wildfowl Centre at Martin Mere. Arriving at Croston, we join Paul S. and Ted T., two Merseyside CTC members for lunch at Memory Lane Café.


Left-Right, Alan H., Alan N.,Ted T.,Paul S.

The afternoon saw us trying hard on the many climbs through well known places like Samlesbury Bottoms and Mellor Moor before passing Parsonage Reservoir and York village to the final descent of the day into Whalley. "But where will we rest tonight"? ....the location of Whalley Tourist Information Centre eluded us, but no problem. On retracing through town we enquire at The Swan Hotel and secure dinner, bed and breakfast, with the bikes locked together in a large wooden shed at the rear of the hotel. We have a family room with one double and two single beds, and a very large bathroom. Mileage for our first day; 55 miles in 5 hours, slow going, but we are carrying lots of luggage. My panniers weigh in at 22 pounds, which include many changes of clothing for the week long tour; tour guide book, maps, and cycle repair tools in case of a breakdown.

Whalley to Great Eccleston; Monday morning and I awake at 6 am, the sun is shining and I visit Whalley Abbey (founded 1296) before Breakfast. Alan N decides to return home today, he will cycle across Pendle Hill and travel by rail from Nelson to Liverpool. We say goodbye to Alan N and leave town, stopping shortly to photograph the red-brick Railway Viaduct which crosses the River Calder, built around 1850, the viaduct has 49 arches. We continue uphill through Billington and turn right at a mini-roundabout to join Route 90. After crossing the busy A59 road bridge we pass the hamlets of Dinckley and Salesbury Hall and join the B6245 road across the River Ribble into the Roman town of Ribchester. Turning sharp right, we climb steeply for many miles to the busy town of Longridge; I can remember a café on the corner of Longridge Fell Road which was popular with cyclists’ during the 1950s and 1960s.

Dropping down through town, we follow the quiet lanes to Inglewhite where we hope to have our card signed at the Pedallers Rest Café. Being a Monday, it is closed (open Thurs, Fri, Sat and Sundays), the owner is tending his garden; he signs and date our cards. We are now in a quiet part of Lancashire, overlooking the Bowland Fells and the maze of narrow lanes we pass through has many different numbered cycle route signs, but Route 90 is clearly marked for us to follow. After crossing the M6 motorway, we come to Bilsborrow and the A6 Trunk road which we cross with caution and stop to view Guy’s Thatched Hamlet by the Lancaster Canal.

We welcome the route signs on the next section to Woodplumbton, cross the M55 motorway through Lower Bartle and Treales to Kirkham where we have a wonderful lunch at the Old Stables Public House. The next part of the route we found confusing, from Kirkham we are directed south towards Warton, then north through Wrea Green and Weeton to Staining. We are close to Blackpool and can see the Tower to our left, should we stop the night in Blackpool? We decide to continue east through Singleton and cross the busy A585 road (known as Hellfire Corner by local cyclists’) to Elswick where we visit Bonds Ice Cream Parlour for coffee and ask about accommodation in the area.

Arriving at Great Eccleston, we enquire at a public house in the village centre and are directed to Townside House, a converted farmhouse situated in the main street. We can’t believe our luck when Judith tells us we can stay in her newly decorated two bedrooms, two bathroom, ground floor self catering apartment. Our bikes this time secured in a concrete garage, not a wooden shed! Mileage today - 46 in 4 hours 30 minutes. Weather – dry cloudy with sunny intervals, cold north westerly winds.

Great Eccleston to Arnside; We thank Judith for her hospitality and we visit Hike and Bike shop hoping for a Carradice bag clip, but none in stock. Leaving town on the quiet A586 we turn right and drop downhill to cross the River Wyre on the Cartford Toll Bridge (10 pence for bicycles). We are now on the flat lands of the Fylde Plain, this wide open area has good grazing land and we notice many horse stud farms as we continue to Pilling where we join the A588 to Cockerham. I mentioned earlier of the confusion with the route, I now realize how this came about. The marked route map sent to me by Lancaster C.C., has been revised recently but some of the original cycleway signs are still in place.

We leave the flat lands at Cockerham and cross the Lancaster Canal and climb to Forton Village where we take a short detour to have lunch at a garden centre café. After crossing the A6 road we pass the Bay Horse Inn; Alan H remarked he had been to this pub after supporting his rugby team who were playing nearby. We turn right and pass under a railway bridge, climbing steeply; we join the road to Quernmore. The views on this section are spectacular; we are west of the Bowland Forest, looking north to the mountains of the English Lake District and west across to Lancaster, Heysham and Morecombe Bay. Our long fast descent is interrupted by a herd of cows crossing the road as we near Caton. We continue to follow the signs through the houses to a walking/cycling trail on a disused railway track to cross the bridge at Crook O’ Lune. This is a very picturesque spot, popular with artists who prefer to paint landscapes of the Lune Valley. There is repair work in progress on the next bridge, we follow the detour signs through the car park and join the road to Halton-on-Lune hoping to rejoin the cycle trail. We find the trail but realize this section is part of the Lancaster Link, more confusion which costs us time. Back on track, we climb to Nether Kellet, passing the tall television mast before dropping to Carnforth.


Alan H. on the high road to Carnforth.

We call at Dyno-Start Cycle Centre in Scotland Road to have our cards signed and dated, then continue under many railway bridges to a narrow foot bridge over the River Keer. We are now on the final section of our ride to Arnside (which is actually in Cumbria not Lancashire) and the climbs are becoming even steeper, something we could do without near the end of our day! It is a roller coaster of a ride from Carnforth through Silverdale to Arnside, sometime close to the sea with splendid views across the sands of Morecombe Bay, or climbing through wooded areas with no views at all. On one of the climbs…we hear shouting and car horns blowing from behind, a male cyclist passes us carrying a young child in a kiddie seat. "That’s not unusual" we thought, "what’s all the commotion about"? When the mother of the child passed us on the climb, we could see plainly why the car horns are blowing; she is scantily dressed wearing a red coloured thong for all to see!

We continue along the lower slopes of Arnside Knott, past the Pele Tower to Arnside with a smile on our face instead of grimness and enquire at the Youth Hostel if beds are available. John, the hostel manager welcomes us and our bikes are locked in the shed. We walk down to the sea front and follow the promenade into town where we dine at a pub run by a Liverpool licensee; the sun sets over the bay as we relax after a hard days ride. Mileage today; 38 miles in 4 hours Weather – sunny, cold NW winds.

Arnside to Slaidburn; We awake to another dry sunny day, but it doesn’t feel any warmer. There is a coach parked outside the hostel, waiting to return a large group of young children back to their school in Kendal. We thank John the hostel manager and rejoin The Lancashire Cycleway. We are confused again by the many cycle route signs but we eventually reach Yealand Redmayne and turn left to cross the A6 road into a narrow lane, we feel we are back on route, but for how long? After crossing the railway, M6 and Lancaster Canal, we join the A6070 road for a short time and turn left to the quaint old villages of Priest Hutton and Borwick.

Our planned route goes wrong again as we leave the valley of the little River Keer and climb through open countryside to Docker. We should be further north coming into Kirkby Lonsdale via Hutton Roof. The B6254 road is eventually reached by Newton and we follow this to Kirkby Lonsdale where we have lunch at a café in the main street. We can’t understand why the revised route should exclude such a wonderful interesting town! We make our way down to the river and join the many bikers on the ancient Devils Bridge before continuing along the Lune Valley through Tunstall to Hornby.

It felt strange riding on flat roads again and with a tail wind, wonderful! After about eight miles of easy cycling, we rejoined revised Route 90 at Hornby and follow the signs for Wray. In front of us is the climb over Cross O’Greet to Slaidburn where we hope to find lodgings. We stop at a cross roads and Alan H. tells me he is exhausted and will return home by train from Lancaster. This is being sensible; there are many hills to cross during the next few days. We say goodbye and Alan H continues along the A683 to Caton, and on to Lancaster’s Railway Station for the train to Liverpool. I call into Bridge House Farm Tea Rooms at Wray to have my card signed before starting the fifteen miles journey to Slaidburn over Tatham Fells.

Four miles of climbing from Wray brings me to a road junction where I stop to photo a Lancashire Cycleway road sign high on the moors. Turning right, I continue pushing hard for a further five miles; there was a time when I nearly had to walk the last few metres to the 428 metre summit. Reaching this summit, I pass over a cattle grid slowly and speed down to Cross of Greet Bridge. It was at this point that I pass a lone cyclist dressed in GB team clothing, racing the other way. I manage another short steep climb through a larch tree plantation, and then recover on a level stretch of road before the final climb up Merrybent Hill and the final three miles down into Slaidburn.



Being near the end of the day, I pass many ramblers returning to Slaidburn after walking in the hills, it’s far easier walking in this area, than cycling! I arrive at Slaidburn hostel and there is a bed for me, what a relief. Two friendly females acting as hostel managers welcome me with a cup of tea and a biscuit, just what I need after a hard day in the saddle! I lock my bike in the out-building and enquire about food, "this is still a self catering hostel, you can buy food from our store, or if you prefer, the pub across the road serves meals", I buy a few tins and sit chatting to my hosts over a second cup of tea. They tell me it’s their first time as acting hostel managers and enjoy it very much. There’s something about the small and friendly hostels that I like. Mileage today; 40 miles in 4 hours 30 mins. Sunny with cool winds.

Slaidburn to Clitheroe; I awake thinking about Alan H. and Alan N., they would have enjoyed Slaidburn hostel. Before I move off, I thank my hosts and walk around the village taking photos. The memories of Slaidburn come flooding back to my first ever visit to the hostel back in December of 1958 with the Intermediate Section of the Liverpool CTC… I join Route 90, cross the river and climb steeply out of the village around a left hand hairpin bend. Left hand hairpin bends are the worse type when going uphill, if I try to keep left on the bend; there is a danger of falling off being that it is the steepest part of the curve. Following the more gradual outside curve can also be dangerous if vehicles are approaching me. I turn off the B6478 and follow the ridge road down through Holden to the River Ribble at Sawley. What a wonderful place, I take time out to photograph the views from the bridge then sit and relax by the waters edge.

Being close to Clitheroe, I wonder if Doris and Doug would like a visitor. They moved to Clitheroe from Liverpool several years ago and are active officials of the Mersey Roads Cycling Club, my old racing club. I continue through Bank Top to Grindleton and West Bradford then cross the river into Clitheroe. The town is busy; I push my bike through the main street and find a cafe to have lunch. This is my first visit to Doug and Doris house but I remember their address and follow directions from a Clitheroe resident to their home down by the river. They are surprised to see me, and when they hear of my Cycle Tour of Lancashire, ask me to stay the night. What a wonderful place to live, a small housing estate with rear gardens backing onto the river with views north to the Bowland Fells. Only 14 miles today in 1 hour 35 minutes, sunny with cold winds.

Clitheroe to Darwen; Doug and Doris ride a Dawes Super Galaxy Tandem much like ours and have Carradice Super ‘C’ Rear Panniers. Doug provides me with one of his fastening clips; it’s good to have my luggage back in place again. I thank my hosts for their generous hospitality and climb away from the river into Clitheroe. Doug suggests I join Cycle Route 91 at Downham; you may remember there are two loops which cross at Whalley, I am four miles north of Whalley on a route which will take me around Pendle Hill and thankfully not over the famous climb called Nick of Pendle! I join the old A59 road to Chatburn and turn right at Hudson’s Ice Cream Shop; if it had been warmer I may have been tempted! You may have used this section of the A59 road on route to the Annual CTC York Cycle Rally from Liverpool.

After a short climb I reach the picturesque village of Downham and call in the Post Office/Café to have my card signed. Although a small village, Downham has many visitors, curious to see where the movie ‘Whistle down the Wind’ and the TV series ‘Born and Bred’ were filmed. Downham is particularly suitable as a film and television location because of the absence of overhead cables and television aerials throughout the village. I continue, hoping for an easy day but this section has a few surprises for me; the many streams that cut across the slope of Pendle Hill make for sharp dips in, and hard climbs out. As I get higher, the views open to allow me to see across to the Yorkshire Dales, I am cycling on what looks like a gated farm track but my map shows a through road.

After crossing the A682 road, I follow an ancient Roman Road down into Barnoldswick where I stop for lunch at a ‘Fish and Chips Shop’. I ask if I can sit in the warm shop and shelter from the cold winds, but no, they are closing. Close to Barnoldswick is Earby which has a youth hostel where I would have stayed last night. I follow Cycle Route 91 to Salterforth and decide to change my plans and go to the Carradice Bike Bag Factory in nearby Nelson, and hopefully have my pannier bags repaired. I join the busy A56 road and pass through Colne into Nelson where I call into a Post Office and ask for directions to the factory. By chance I meet a woman collecting her pension who worked at the Carradice Factory for many years, "continue on this road through town to St. Mary’s Church, then turn right down St. Mary’s Street to the works".

I find the works at the end of a cobbled side street, it is Friday afternoon and I climb the wooden stairs and enter the workshop to find only one member of staff on duty. He is designing a large bag to carry a folding bicycle; the work-tops are covered with many panniers for post office bikes. I explain about the broken fastening, "Empty your panniers and bring them to me, I will fit modified fastenings to the top rails and adjustable cords to the rear panels". I tell him they have given me good service during the past fifteen years and ask permission to take photos of the workshop. Well done Carradice, that’s what I call good customer service.




Upgrading the pannier fastenings inside the Carradice factory.

It is now 4 pm and I wonder where I will sleep to-night, no, Carradice don’t do B&B. I continue through Burnley along the A682 to Rawtenstall hoping to find accommodation but no luck this time, the guest houses I find are fully booked. I am back on Cycle Route 91, but not for long; I miss seeing a cycleway sign in Haslingden for Helmshore, and when I pass Ogden Reservoir by Haslingden Grane, I realize I’m heading towards Blackburn. Rather than retrace across the high moors to Holcombe Brook, I turn left and continue to Lower Darwen and stay at Premier Travel Inn alongside the M65 motorway. Mileage today; 45 miles in 5 hours over many hills – sunny cold winds.

Darwen to Town Green; I start my day early by climbing through the mill town of Darwen on the A666 road to join Lancashire Cycle Route 91 by Turton Heights. The air feels fresh as I cycle through Charter’s Moss Tree Plantation and across to Belmont. Winter Hill television mast comes into view and I remember the long climb that’s to come before dropping into Rivington. The thought of having breakfast at the Welcome Tea Rooms in Riverton spurs me on, I arrive at the Tea Rooms as they are opening for Saturday’s business, good timing! I cross Rivington Reservoir to Adlington and continue through the lanes to Coppull Moor and realize the final section of my route has also been revised. I follow the busy A49 road for a couple of miles towards Leyland then turn left towards Camelot Theme Park.

After crossing the M6 motorway, I turn left and left again and follow the lane through a wooded valley to Wrightington Bar, across the B5250 road and continue to the A5209 at Dangerous Corner. I stop to offer assistance to a racing cyclist during the descent to Appley Bridge; he has punctured his rear tyre and is walking the short distance to his home. He thanks me for stopping and invites me to his new home to meet his family and have a cuppa tea. Feeling refreshed, I climb from Appley Bridge to the summit of Ashurst Beacon, then a fast ride down to Dalton Church where I turn left and follow the Lancashire Cycleway signs around Skelmersdale to Westhead.

The end is near, I climb past the modern water tower on Scarth Hill and cross the A570 road towards Aughton. I reach Town Green railway station and board the train for Liverpool and Wirral. Mileage today; 40 miles in 3 hours 50 minutes – sunny cold NE winds. For me, the Lancashire Cycleway was a challenge. The scenery throughout is magnificent. I had seven days of dry sunny weather in May, I would have liked to have worn my cycling shorts; the cold northerly winds stopped me.

THE END OF A WONDERFUL TOUR.

Copyright Alan Parker 2006. This content is intellectual property. No part may be reproduced without permission by the author.