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Eighteen Stramblers braved the cold and met at School Lane, Westhead for today’s walk. We set off in bright sunshine along Wigan Road and took a raised path past terraced houses. As we stepped down to the lane we intended to take, we had to wait for the bin lorry to pass – a déjà vu moment – we’d had the same experience last time we walked this way. The lane between the terraced houses had numerous water-filled potholes to navigate. Many of these had been frozen over and we crunched along the broken ice spread by the bin lorry. We passed through some farm buildings and took a path to St James Church on Vicarage lane. Half a mile along the lane, we came to Ruff Wood and walked through to emerge at the squirrel and owl carvings. We took a footpath through open fields to Crosshall Brow and crossed it to reach Lady’s Walk. The long downhill stretch took us to Lathom Lane which we crossed to reach Sandy Lane and the Keepers Lodge – which has a George the Fifth post box in its boundary wall. We took a short break here before taking Cranes Lane past Ormskirk Golf Club. More water-filled potholes here, gave Pete the opportunity of road testing his new wellies! Half a dozen donkeys in a field watched us pass by and we soon came to Hall Lane. This busy road meant we had to take single file for half a mile along the narrow pavement past Pilkingtons Technical Centre before turning into a wide track through open fields. Further along, we saw four horses galloping around. They were enjoying themselves racing around the field, kicking their hind legs up – one doing dressage steps. They were very friendly and came to the fence for nose rubs. OhA sign told us we were turning from Footpath 34 (Hall Lane) on to Footpath 31 (Westhead) and we soon came to a housing estate. A sign here advertised “Dog Brooming”. I thought it was a misprint until I read the dog groomer’s name below – Karen Broom! Through the estate we came to Wigan Road and the Prince Albert pub where we had our welcome meal and drinks. We were served large portions of good food by a jolly hostess.

Thanks to Sheila, Judith and Viv for organising, recce-ing and leading the walk and to Anne for organising the meal.

Happy Christmas to you all and see you in the New Year.