Читать книгу The Ribble Way - Dennis Kelsall - Страница 8

CHAPTER 1

Longton to Penwortham Bridge

Distance	7.5 miles (12.1km) from the Golden Ball in Longton village, 6 miles (9.6km) from the Dolphin Inn at the official start of the Ribble Way
Height gain	125 feet (38m)
Route assessment	Quiet lanes, tracks and generally good field paths; no noticeable ascent
Time	3 hours
Public transport	Regular bus services between Longton and Penwortham Bridge
Parking	By the Dolphin Inn at Longton, and at the entrance to Priory Park beside Penwortham Bridge; also pay-and-display parking in Preston
Refreshments	The Dolphin Inn at the start of the Ribble Way and a choice of pubs in Longton and near Penwortham Bridge
Toilets	Brickcroft Nature Reserve on Liverpool Road, Longton
Map	OS Explorer 286, Blackpool & Preston

Beginning along the edge of the marsh overlooking the confluence of the River Ribble and the River Douglas, the walk later turns beside the Ribble to follow it in an almost dead-straight line towards Preston. Much of the surrounding land has been reclaimed from the estuary and is consequently rather flat and featureless, but as you progress upriver the buildings of Preston and its near neighbour, Penwortham, become more prominent, each occupying higher ground on opposite sides of the valley. Behind them, to the southeast, Winter Hill is conspicuous, the television and communication masts dotted around its summit an unmistakable landmark. Depending on the state of the tide and amount of recent rainfall, the river may present itself as anything from a disappointingly gentle flow between wide muddy banks, to a full-bodied surge lunging angrily at the flood defences. Yet whatever your first impression, you can be sure that the river will adopt many more moods during its journey. Here you see only its final stage, in which its very direct route to the sea follows a course that is at least partly the result of man’s intervention. But while only occasionally dramatic, this stretch of the Ribble is not without interest – there is birdlife aplenty, and many reminders of the time when Preston was as much a seaport as Liverpool.

The official beginning of the Ribble Way is at the Dolphin Inn, otherwise known as the Flying Fish, which lies some 1½ miles (2.4km) west of Longton. However, as public transport takes you no nearer than the Golden Ball pub in the village of Longton, without a car you must begin the walk from there. Follow Marsh Lane, which leaves the main thoroughfare, Liverpool Road, beside the pub. It is a pleasant start to the walk and you soon leave the houses behind as the lane meanders across a deadflat hedged landscape. Keep going past the end of Grange Lane, but where the main lane then bends left, carry on ahead, still on Marsh Lane, to the Dolphin Inn. The way continues beyond along a short track leading to the outer flood defence, a high grassy embankment that separates the reclaimed farmland from the salt marsh. Climb onto the top and follow it away to the right.

THE SALT MARSH

Although richly green and a good 5 miles (8km) from the open sea, the expanse below the outer face of the dyke is still liable to inundation. Even at ordinary high tide this grassy waste is broken by silvery pools and winding runnels as the rising water invades every vulnerable depression – it is certainly no place for the inexperienced to venture alone. However, the salt marsh is a rich feeding ground for birds, and in winter particularly you will see huge flocks of geese, ducks, gulls and waders. Less appealing is the flotsam washed in on spring tides and by winter storms and left stranded as a snaking line of detritus at the limit of the flood. But look above it and you will see in the middle distance a glinting ribbon that is the River Douglas.

Joining the River Ribble on Hutton Marsh

The River Douglas has its source on the western flanks of Winter Hill and is the final tributary of the Ribble before it meets the open sea some 3 miles (4.8km) to the west.

This is the obstacle that prevents the Ribble Way from beginning at the coast, as the nearest crossing over the Douglas is the A59 bridge south of Tarleton, which would necessitate a lengthy and uninspiring detour from the course of the Ribble. During the early days of the Industrial Revolution the River Douglas was made navigable as far upriver as Wigan, so that coal could be transported to the sea for export around the coast and to Ireland.

After ½ mile (800m), swing right with the dyke as it drops alongside Longton Brook to a field access and livestock pens. Instead of simply crossing the culvert, the Ribble Way traces a circuitous route around the enclosures. Over consecutive stiles just to the right, briefly follow the hedge left to another stile. Tackling more stiles, cross a track and then the brook itself. Some 30 yards to the right along the opposite bank, a final stile leads into the corner of a large field. Following the fence away from the brook, maintain your direction as you later cross a farm track and another field, eventually regaining the embankment. The River Ribble soon appears ahead, the levee turning upstream beside it to take the Ribble Way on towards Preston.

MANAGING THE RIBBLE FOR LAND RECLAMATION AND SHIPPING

If allowed to follow its own inclinations, the river would dissipate across a broad tidal estuary. The almost geometrical embankments that now contain it served the two-fold purpose of reclaiming fertile land and rendering the river navigable for maritime trade. However, the wash of the tide from the sea and the silt brought down by the river are liable to obstruct the channel, and during the heyday of shipping regular dredging was necessary to maintain sufficient draught for sea-going vessels.

Posts embedded at regular intervals along the riverbank were used to anchor the dredgers, and some still trail mooring cables and chains into the silted banks below.

THE LANCASTER CANAL

A little further upstream on the opposite bank is the outflow of Savick Brook, recently made passable to allow pleasure barges access to the Ribble from the Lancaster Canal. Begun in 1792, the canal had originally been intended to run between Wigan and Kendal via Preston and Lancaster. The Lancaster Canal was constructed to transport coal, textiles, gunpowder and other manufactured commodities as factory production became established in Lancashire.

The plan involved taking the waterway across two major rivers, and although an aqueduct was built spanning the Lune upstream from Lancaster, there was insufficient capital to finance the considerably greater engineering feat of crossing the Ribble valley. As an interim measure the canal company filled the gap between the truncated ends with a tramway to convey cargoes, but the additional costs and delays associated with double-goods-handling meant that the canal failed to achieve its potential, and then the railway age arrived before it could be completed.

The revival of canals as a leisure resource during the latter half of the 20th century reawakened interest in joining the two halves of the Lancaster Canal, and in 1981 the Lancaster Canal Boat Club put forward a scheme to connect the northern part of the canal to the River Ribble along the course of Savick Brook. As Savick Brook is lower than the canal, locks were needed to enter this section of the waterway, with another lock downstream to retain water at low tide, and it was 20 years before the work was finally completed. Now boats can pass into the Ribble from above Preston, go on up the River Douglas to Tarleton, and join the main Leeds and Liverpool Canal system along the Rufford Branch.

PRESTON’S SKYLINE

Even at this distance Preston’s buildings command the horizon. Gone are the tall chimneys of the mills and engineering factories on which the prosperity of the city once relied, and in their place rise the tower blocks of commercial enterprise and housing. Another relative newcomer breaking the skyline is the latticework stadium of Preston’s football team, North End. Preston North End was a founder member of the Football League and is one of the few clubs in the country still playing on its original ground.

It houses the National Football Museum, and even if you are not particularly a fan you will almost certainly find the displays and exhibitions fascinating – you can even try your hand as a ‘guest commentator’.

Some outlines that would have been familiar to travellers passing this way a century ago remain, however, perhaps the most prominent being the white spire of St Walburghe’s Catholic Church.

St Walburghe’s spire was designed by John Hansom, the same man who gave us the Hansom cab. Soaring to 309 feet (94m), it is the third highest in the country and was built by the Jesuits between 1850 and 1854. Although the church is of dun-coloured sandstone, the towering landmark spire stands separate from the church and is of a contrasting white limestone that shines in the sun. It is said that much of the stone for its construction was bought secondhand from the railway companies as they replaced the stone sleepers supporting the track with wood.

The eye-catching spire of St Walburghe’s Church

Shortly after passing the outlet of Savick Brook on the opposite bank, the raised grazing narrows and the route progresses over stiles across a culvert carrying Mill Brook. Now left to its own devices the bank assumes an unkempt appearance, going first beneath successive power lines carried high above the river on massive gantries, and then past the entrance to Preston Docks on the far bank. After skirting a golf course continue at the fringe of Priory Park to walk beneath the A59 bypass. This is now the lowest crossing of the Ribble, an honour formerly held by Penwortham Bridge a little further upstream.

PRESTON DOCKS

The docks were opened in 1892 and at the time boasted the largest dock basin in Europe. They served a town rapidly developing on the back of textile manufacture and quickly became some of the busiest in the country. Warehouses, oil tanks and loading cranes once formed a backdrop to the ocean-going cargo vessels that came and went on the high tides. Preston remained a working port into the early 1980s, but despite the advantage of its proximity to both the rail and motorway networks, the dockyard’s reliance on river access rendered it inaccessible to larger vessels, and trade consolidated on the better-placed docks further south at Seaforth and Bootle. The basin has, however, found a new lease of life, and since the area’s redevelopment for housing, retail and leisure, is once more as busy as it ever was. Preston Docks were named after Prince Albert Edward, Victoria’s eldest son, who finally succeeded his mother to the throne at the age of 60, only nine years before his owndeath.

PENWORTHAM

The historic old town of Penwortham sits on top of a prominent hill rising above the Ribble’s southern bank. It developed around a motte and bailey castle that overlooked an ancient fording place there. The Romans appreciated the strategic importance of the site and were the first to establish a fort here, a commanding position that remained in use throughout the Saxon period, and after the Conquest the Normans, too, established a base. Penwortham was one of the few places in Lancashire to be mentioned in the Domesday Book at a time when the area was largely considered an unproductive wasteland.

In 1075 Benedictine monks from Evesham Abbey founded a priory, and it was probably they who first began draining the surrounding marshes to create new farmland. The priory has long since disappeared, and all that remains of the castle is the artificial earth mound.

The oldest building still standing in Penwortham is the 15th-century church dedicated to St Anne, whose squat square tower can be seen through the trees upon the hill. Tradition holds that there has been a church on the site since 644 AD, a not improbable claim given the sustained significance of Penwortham during those early times, when travel across the sea to Celtic Ireland would have been a less daunting prospect than an overland journey to York or Canterbury. As with many churches in the country, St Anne’s was heavily restored by the Victorians – a practice intended as a proclamation of the prosperity that the industrial age had brought. One of the entrepreneurs who helped create the wealth of the industrial age is buried in a railinged tomb in St Anne’s churchyard. Born outside Bolton in 1768, John Horrocks opened Preston’s first factory cotton mill and went on to establish a textile business that became one of the largest in the world.

Beyond Priory Park a track takes you beside allotments to meet the main road at Penwortham New Bridge, over which the Ribble Way crosses to the river’s northern bank.

PENWORTHAM OLD BRIDGE

In the middle of the 18th century a bridge was built at Penwortham to replace the ford and ferry which had until then been the only means of crossing the river this far downstream. The bridge collapsed after only four years but was succeeded in 1759 by a more substantial structure. That survived until 1912, when the present bridge was constructed to meet the demands of a new vehicle on the roads – the motor car.

DAY WALKERS

Unless you retrace your steps along the Ribble Way, it is a 4 mile (6.4km) walk back to Longton, mainly along busy main roads. The most sensible alternative, therefore, is to take a bus, and while it will be easier to find convenient parking in Longton, leaving a car in Penwortham or Preston in the morning and catching a bus to Longton avoids having to wait for one at the end of the walk. The choice is yours.