A group of sixteen Stramblers met at Yarrow Valley Country Park Visitor Centre on 27th July looking forward to a pleasant walk around the area. The weather forecast indicated that after some initial rain it would brighten up. The walk started from the car park where we noticed an interesting face carved on one of the nearby trees.
Anne outlined a little of the history of the valley, which was a large, industrialised area in the 18th century and beyond. It was a centre for bleaching, dyeing, calico printing and mining. Richard Arkwright developed the water spinning frame later named after him and formed part of the start of the Industrial Revolution. Arkwright’s frame made many of the local workers redundant and he eventually had to move away because of local hostility.
The group followed the marked path around the Big Lodge Water until reaching the first of many footbridges. Many of the group watched and took photos of the birds feeding at the bird tables which had been renovated by some local school children. During this time the weather had changed so everyone was walking in waterproofs through the light drizzle and later heavy rain. There was supposed to be another tree carving near here but we didn’t locate it.
The roar of fast-moving water brought the walkers to the impressive 19th Century Birkacre Weir where a group photo was taken. The weir included a fish pass that allowed sea trout and salmon to travel to their spawning grounds in the Pennines.
The route then followed the banks of the River Yarrow past Drybones Wood for a couple of miles. This was very muddy, slippy and often involved walkers helping each other navigate awkward tree roots, standing water and steep stone steps. The group crossed several footbridges safely but at the footbridge near Duxbury Cottage decided to miss out the section to Saunders’ Bank Weir because of the danger of a slip causing an accident.
The path then headed upwards and eventually to open fields where the drizzle had settled on the grass seed heads creating an illusion of snow. The fields led to the new housing development at the edge of Chorley before the path headed back down towards the valley. This path was a major construction of hardcore which may have comprised some of the debris from the earlier industrial buildings.
On returning to Birkacre Weir the party stopped for a second group photo, which showed everyone soaked through. A short walk past Big Lodge Water returned the party to the visitor centre.
The walkers adjourned to the café for some well-earned coffee and refreshments. The very welcoming establishment was called Treeface Café, presumably named after the carving on the tree. Although it had been very wet and certainly a little tricky everyone agreed they had a good walk and appreciated how everyone had helped each other.

Photos in next post