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WALK 1

Around Anglezarke Reservoir

Start/Finish	Rivington (SD628140)
Distance	11km (7 miles)
Height gain	185m (605ft)
Terrain	Field paths, good tracks, some road walking

This circuit of the Anglezarke Reservoir (constructed in 1857) uses parts of a number of paths used in other walks, and is typical of the scope for invention that the area around Rivington allows. A pair of binoculars would be useful, as you spend a deal of time close by the water, with the prospect of spotting birdlife. There is ample parking in the many side lanes that branch from the main road through Rivington, if the Great House Barn car park is full.

Wherever you park, head for the small green at Rivington village, taking a moment first to inspect the stocks that held the miscreants of yesteryear.

The Unitarian Chapel in Rivington is interesting; it was founded in 1662, and the chapel built in 1703. In its grounds, on either side of the path, there are some interesting date-stones from the 17th and 18th centuries. Here and in the chapel house beyond, the followers of American poet Walt Whitman (1819–91), known as the ‘Eagle Street College’, celebrated his life and works.

Pass the stocks, keeping them on your left in order to locate and descend a brief flight of steps in a retaining wall, and cross the road to a kissing-gate. Beyond the gate lies a wide, sloping meadow with a grassy path keeping close by the right-hand fence to reach a longer set of steps. These lead down across a stream to a path going right between fences and along the line of Dean Brook. Stay with this path to its end, at a junction with a broader trail.

Go sharp left here, crossing Dean Brook, and ascending gently for a short distance to reach the end of a broad track, on the right, running arrow-straight to the embankment of Yarrow Reservoir. Turn right and follow this track, strolling pleasantly along a walled lane with good views to the left and right. Ignore a branching track descending left, but keep on to cross an overflow that links Yarrow with Anglezarke Reservoir below.

Anglezarke Reservoir

Just before the overflow bridge, one of the capping stones in the wall on the right has been carved, by a reservoir construction worker, into the likeness of a face, allegedly the works foreman. It is not easy to find because over the years it has been rather defaced.

Beyond the bridge, the track continues beside gorse-bearing embankments to give a fine view, right, over Yarrow Reservoir to the distant pincushion of Winter Hill and its clutter of masts. Eventually, the track runs out to a road, and here you turn left, descending the road with care to a junction. Turn right, still following a road, until, at the first opportunity, you can leave it, left, to pursue the Anglezarke Woodland Trail.

There are a number of possibilities for circular tours along the trail, but for our purposes, begin by keeping left, through a gate near the entrance to the car park. This takes you down a surfaced track at the edge of Anglezarke Reservoir, and past side paths that lead, for the curious, into Leicester Mill Quarry. Leicester Mill Quarry provided stone for building and road construction throughout the northwest. Indeed, many of the streets of Manchester are paved with stone from the Anglezarke quarries.

Further on, the track changes direction to move round a small inlet below High Bullough Reservoir. As the road climbs on the other side, leave it, as it swings to the right, by branching left on the apex, to follow a delightful woodland path around the edges of Brook House Plantation.

High Bullough Reservoir was the first reservoir to be constructed in the area, in 1850, to supply drinking water to Chorley. The link with the main reservoir system is no longer used, and the reservoir is given over to visiting wildfowl, notably goldeneye and grebe.

Brook House Plantation was planted in the 1870s, and contains many beech and oak trees that date from that time. The beech provides food for great tits, chaffinches and squirrels, but the tree canopy is quite dense, and prevents light penetrating to the woodland floor, thus minimising the development of undergrowth and providing poor conditions for wild flowers.

The on-going route is never in doubt, and finally descends to a junction of pathways, where the Woodland Trail turns right. Here, leave the trail and go left on a path that heads to a kissing-gate, and then across meadows at the northern end of Anglezarke Reservoir. At one point the way climbs along a narrow path above steep embankments, before finally running out to meet a road at a gate/stile.

Go left along a roadside footpath, passing Heapey Waterman’s Cottage, and then crossing the northern end of Anglezarke Reservoir. On the far side, as the road bends right, a stile in a corner gives access to two footpaths, one of which, the one to follow, sets off down the western side of the reservoir, through pleasant woodland that is often alive with birdsong.

The path is muddy in places, but finally rises to a stile over a fence. Go ahead, and slightly left, to gain a broad track, running left for about 0.5km (¼ mile) to the group of houses at Kays Farm. When you meet their access road, turn right and walk out to a back lane.

Go left along the lane for about 400m until you can leave it, left, to follow a path, initially wet, around a small headland. The headland is splendid place for a rest, overlooking the reservoir and the quarries beyond. Continue on a good path to reach the road that crosses between Anglezarke and Upper Rivington reservoirs.

Cross the road and go down a broad lane opposite. Follow this for a little over 1km until you emerge at the far end onto Horrobin Lane. Turn left and walk down between Upper and Lower Rivington reservoirs until, just after you have passed the church (on your left), you can turn right by the school onto a track that leads to a car park. A short distance further on, branch left to return to the starting point.

Around Anglezarke Reservoir