Читать книгу The Ribble Way - Dennis Kelsall - Страница 9

CHAPTER 2

Penwortham Bridge to Ribchester

Distance	11.9 miles (19.2km)
Height gain	830 feet (253m)
Route assessment	Quiet roads and lanes; riverside and field paths may be muddy after rain; beyond Preston the countryside is undulating with some short but steep climbs and descents
Time	5¼ hours
Public transport	A bus service between Preston and Clitheroe stops at Ribchester
Parking	Car parks in Ribchester and Preston (pay-and-display)
Refreshments	A variety of pubs and cafés in Preston, with three riverside pubs between Penwortham and Walton Bridges; then there is nothing along the route until you reach Ribchester, where the village offers a choice of pubs and a café
Toilets	At Preston bus station and beside the car park in Ribchester
Maps	OS Explorer 286, Blackpool & Preston, and OS Explorer 287, West Pennine Moors

The route around Preston is a surprising haven of calm compared to the frenetic activity of the nearby city centre. It follows quiet streets and passes through pleasant parks along the banks of the river, and also heralds a change in the character of the Ribble valley, for it marks the point at which the river breaks free from the surrounding hills. Upstream, the watercourse snakes within a wide plain, batted from one side to the other by steep bluffs of dun-coloured sandstone. The formal geometry of the efficient drainage system, outlined by ditches, that could be seen in the field patterns of the estuary is replaced by more natural boundaries that follow the lie of the land. Ragged copses of gnarled woodland and stretches of old lane and hedged track give the countryside a more ancient appearance. The hand of man is in evidence in old manors and farmstead buildings, some of which date from the 15th century. More distant views hint at the wilder landscape to be encountered later in the walk, while closer to hand there is great variety in the plants and woodland trees lining the way.

Despite the construction of the A59 bypass road, Penwortham New Bridge remains busy and is best crossed on its northern side at the traffic lights. The onward way hugs the riverbank along Broadgate, Riverside and then successively at the edge of a sports field, Miller Park and Avenham Park. Beyond that is a playing field, after which The Boulevard takes you past the outflow of the River Darwen, on the river’s opposite bank, to another of Preston’s main arteries, the A6 road at Walton Bridge.

PRESTON

Historically, Preston was the lowest point at which the Ribble could be bridged, and certainly it has no shortage of crossing points today. Upriver of Penwortham New Bridge is the graceful five-arched Penwortham Old Bridge, still standing but closed to traffic, while just beyond it stand the gaunt piers festooned with a jumble of service pipes and cables that once carried the West Lancashire Railway from Southport. Further on, the high and much-widened bridge overshadowing the Continental pub carries the West Coast main railway line into Preston Station, which lies just a few hundred yards up the hill to the north. The next bridge also served a railway, this time from Blackburn and the east, but trains are now routed round by the main line and the bridge is left for pedestrians, as is the next one at the far side of Avenham Park. In a way this last bridge is the most interesting, for it was built to carry the tramway that connected the two halves of the Lancaster Canal, and which ran from a basin in Aqueduct Street, northwest of the city centre, to Johnson’s Hillock beyond Whittle-le-Woods, a distance of some 8 miles (12.9km). The trucks were horse-drawn for most of its length, but stationary steam engines were employed at either side of the river to haul and lower trucks along straight inclines to the bridge. The present metal structure dates from 1860 and replaces a wooden one erected in 1802.

Penwortham Old Bridge

Some 40 yards before Walton Bridge, where you meet the main road, is the site of Old Ribble Bridge, which on 17 August 1648 was contested in the struggle for control of Preston during the Civil War. After a three-day battle Charles I’s forces were finally defeated by the Roundheads, and tradition has it that afterwards Cromwell retired to the Unicorn Inn by Darwen Bridge to plan his subsequent strategy.

Preston claims Saxon foundation in the seventh century, and with charters later granted under Henry I and Henry II, was undoubtedly a medieval town of some importance. It sent a representative to Parliament from as early as 1295, but sadly no buildings from those early beginnings have survived. The only memorial to Preston’s several ancient gates is in street names such as Fishergate, Friargate, Bishopgate and Stoneygate.

In his Tour of the Whole Island of Great Britain (1724–6) Daniel Defoe remarked that it ‘has a great many gentlemen’, but it was the industrialisation of the later 18th century that moulded the town we see today. Richard Arkwright invented his water frame for spinning cotton in Stoneygate, paving the way for a textile industry that helped Britain dominate world trade throughout the Victorian era.