Bloody Gate (literal.) B. bog (swearing.)

 Wednesday 30th October 2024

Dank, dismal, dreary and sometimes dangerous. The contents of a less than satisfactory walk

I crossed the road to New Hutton church. There were a pair of dramatic greyhound gatekeepers on columns at the entrance. Ah! An almost certain snippet for this post. But no! Subsequent research revealed not much was known except they may have been brought there from a local farm.

Squelchy, cow trodden farmer's fields were the main feature of the rest of the day with awful stiles competing with the field for degrees of censure.

OS shows the footpath crossing the wall in the exact corner of the second field of the day. There was no stile. But, thirty yards to the right the wall top was broken where folk had obviously crossed but it was all a loose jumble. I did managed to cross with much difficulty, fortunately without bringing down the whole lot, but it was like playing that game of Pick-a-stick where one false move creates disaster.

Part of the low rating for this day of dismal weather was my own fault with several egregious errors of navigation. At Millrigg farm I did a hundred yards of steep uphill on the wrong side of a fence and had to retreat having missed the footpath sign somewhat obscured by trees. (The slightest ascent is noticeable with my breathlessness.)

The next stile may have been ok in summer but the through stones were covered with green slippery slime and impossible to stand on. I had to climb the wall on the right instead, again with awkward contortion and exaggerated care to avoid breaking a leg or worse.

Approaching Hall Bank farm I could see a bullock feeding from a trough next to the field exit. With one eye on the animal I set about opening those huge double galvanised farm gates. They have a kind of heavy attachment that folds over and down each side of the gate to fasten. With part of my attention on a potential bullfight I let the thing slip and it bashed the back of my hand. A small vein was cut and quite extensive bleeding followed. I wrapped a handkerchief round that and later on a plaster from my rucksack. At the farm there was no indication of the marked footpath. There was an attached holiday cottage and I wondered round the back as there seemed to be nobody at the farm. I was taken aback to see a portly naked guy sitting in a huge outdoor hot-tub bubbling and steaming away. He had no knowledge  of footpaths and was quite curt and unpleasant in his manner which was perhaps understandable. I retreated and found an unmarked route through gates to get back onto the main track- Country walking eh!

A bit of relief followed from a stretch of downhill road taking me to Millholme Bridge and then an ancient sunken uphill bridleway with loose rocky stones underfoot covered by fallen leaves. 

At Ashes farm I thought the path went through the farmyard and I was accosted by a slightly irritated farmer who directed me onto the proper path down the side where again, mea culpa, I had missed the footpath sign.

You can see the rest of the route on the map below, but again I missed a path turning for Hall House and walked several hundred yards downhill in error having to return back uphill. By now with all the diversions and endless stopping to check the map I was starting to worry about it getting dark before I finished.

At Hawkrigg Farm my route coincided briefly with my outward path and perhaps because of tiredness  I made the huge error of turning the wrong way when I was only about a third of a mile from the car. I walked over half a mile in the wrong direction with no option but to return.

On the short common stretch with my outward journey I had crossed a very boggy area with difficulty to a stile. There was no way of avoiding it. As I now ventured back onto this stretch my feet became suctioned and I fell forwards into the mud, Both arms went in right up to my elbows, and I was wallowing in sloppy mud. With my two replacement knees I do have difficulty in getting back up from the ground. There was one thicker tussock I manage to crawl frontside onto then heave myself up pushing down, but my feet were sucked in. Eventually with supreme effort I managed to stand. I took one step forward and the rear foot didn't follow and I fell again and had to start all over. I was there for half an hour. It was now dark and I was completely covered, rucksack and Paramo jacket and trousers and all in wet mud.  I walked the couple of hundred yards to get onto the road. From there a footpath of about quarter of a mile lead back to my car but I didn't fancy that in the dark even though I did have a torch. I could see that I could use the road instead albeit a longer distance. Just then a farmer appeared from the farm on a quad bike and I waved him down and he kindly took me back to my car.

I think I have finished with farmer's fields, blocked footpaths and country walking. I yearn for higher ground but with my affliction that is not easy to attain. I must search out again some of the old Dales limestone lanes even if it means just doing a linear there and back.

In a lifetime's walking there will always be bad days as with any sport or pastime, and if nothing else I did manage to extricate myself without calling out the boys and there was some mild satisfaction in that.

New Hutton church with the unexplained greyhound gatekeepers

Here we go into the squelch

OS marked the footpath at the wall corner fifty yards to the left. There was no access over the wall there - just this precarious problem which I managed to cross without breaking my leg

I had walked up the wrong side of this fence and had to retreat, only then to see the footpath sign partly obscured by trees

Through stones covered in slime. I had to climb round the righthand side of the posts instead

Happy days!

This just shows the gloomy atmosphere that persisted all day contrary to a more optimistic weather forecast

The man in the hot-tub is just under the bush to the right of the house door. I did zoom in Photoshop but he is just concealed by the bush

Route goes clockwise from New Hutton. The odd red lines show where I went the wrong way

Bowland Climber explores my stamping ground

 Tuesday 22nd October 2024

Today's walk had me thinking about local knowledge. Bowland Climber was enthusing about a new guide from Cicerone Press detailing walks around my own domain of Arnside and Silverdale. The guide suggested parking and starting from the Milnthorpe Arnside road at Sandside along the railings of the Kent estuary. When there is a high tide and a contributing wind that road is susceptible to serious flooding. I suggested parking higher up the road leading into Storth village.There is no particular warning that I know of about this and it is an unfortunate omission from the guide. I wonder how often we visit unfamiliar locations and unwittingly launch off without the benefit of some relevant local knowledge.

A short walk back up the road and we were able to double back through the railway cutting footpath. The cutting through solid limestone with a depth of forty feet or so must have been a formidable challenge back in 1876.

The steep exposed rock faces had BC captivated, assessing lines, new routes, first ascents, names in a guide. book, and the like. Some years ago in my Geocaching Period I had told BC about a geocache high up on one of those walls but we never got round to sorting it. Today, thankfully, BC had a look and  considered it would need tackling with rope and protection. We moved on.

We passed to the rear of the Ship Inn, now closed and subject to rumours of its ownership by a local property empire builder with some unidentified redevelopment plan.

We made a diversion to view Hollins Well as marked on the OS map - I had been there before. On the way we got mixed up with a dozen or so folk off to annihilate pheasants. We heard their shots for a while as we viewed the less than spectacular stone trough covered with twigs and leaves under a dank wall in gloomy woods. A lady in the shooting party had offered us lemon sweets which I felt a bit guilty for accepting considering my anti "killing things for pleasure" stance.

That all sounds a bit gloomy but weather-wise this was the best for many a day with sunshine and clear blue skies and the best of autumn colours - a good day to be out.

Emerging back onto the road we crossed and followed a loop back to Dallam Bridge following the river Bela where it emerges into the Kent Estuary with expansive views across to Whitbarrow and back down to the Arnside railway viaduct. When the the sun is in the optimum position and the reeds on the far bank of the Bela have turned golden there is the opportunity for a classic photo with the weir in the foreground, the golden glowing reeds  to the left on the far bank, and picturesque Dallam Bridge in the background. Somewhere I have that photo but for the moment can't track it down on my Mac photos. 

Dallam Estate allows access through its deer populated parkland and gentle climbing gave us more elevated distant views back up the Kent estuary and distant Lake District hills.

Descending through ancient mixed atmospheric woodland BC was keen to locate Dog Hole as marked on the OS map. I had visited previously resulting in a blog post of above average interest which seems to have disappeared, but a subsequent post gives a good summary:

 https://conradwalks.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-dog-hole-sd-482-802.html

Also identified on that visit was an ancient oak  in the middle of a field which I was given to understand had some designated status. I got a good photo of it today.

Our walk finished back through the  village of Storth with its well appointed residences.

As this was a local walk I tended not to record many photos, and overall there is a much more detailed and well written account from BC.

https://bowlandclimber.com/2024/10/24/sandside-discoveries/

The road that floods and the views up the Kent estuary from our start

BC planning first ascents

This is just a gate! Note the yellow handle

Just right for popping down to the local shop

Hollins Well, or perhaps Hollins Unwell?

This is an inferior version of the photo opportunity I mentioned above, especially as I managed to miss most of Dallam Bridge

In Dallam Estate deer park with the River Bela

St. Anthony's Tower above Milnthorpe. When I moved to Arnside over twenty years ago I was compelled to trespass and investigate only to find a dead sheep lying in the bottom

The Dog Hole. More information if you click on the link above. It is not easy to find because its accompanying footpath is not marked as a public right of way on the OS map. GPS, although not essential, was used despite me having been there at least twice before.

The ancient oak tree

Unusual house name - Internet came up with:
"Istrouma is an unincorporated community in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, United States."

Anticlockwise

Wally of the Month, and Little Grey Fergie

 Thursday 17th October 2024

I am still doing modest Thursday walks with my old pal Pete . He is now 90. We walk half an hour each way on preferably level tarmac and then retire to Café Ambio close to  Jct. 36 on the M6. 

Today we walked along the original version of the A590 running parallel with the new dual carriageway. This is now a quiet lane with pleasant views of Whitbarrow high up to our left.

I parked up where there is several hundred yards of space available along with other parking possibilities in that vicinity.

When we returned to the car A.N. Other had parked right up to my front bumper. See the photo below. Mine is the white one.I had to reverse in order to set off.

WALLY OF THE MONTH AWARD.

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Here is the finished Ferguson tractor affectionately known as The Little Grey Fergie. I have set it up on a small diorama. I am well on now with The English Electric Lighting aircraft. Looks like all this is turning into a series of icons.

CLICK PHOTOS TO ENLARGE

St. Sunday's Beck with a mystery

 Sunday 6th October 2024

!!!!!   *****. !!!!!

I have just spent two hours trying to upload these photos. Blogger has introduced a new interface to upload photos which just adds another step for no purpose that I can see. On top of that my camera has been uploading photos in reverse chronology and there seems to have been some collusion between my camera and the Mac, and the latter seems to be trying to do the same. These two animated bits of tech have formed an alliance to upset me.I do know how to fix how folders are listed  but I ended up  with my brain frazzled. At last I can now start writing this post.

Since changing to Memory Map for the Mac I now have 2024 OS mapping. A new symbol I hadn't seen before appeared on the new map, not far from home - more of that later, except that it provided an objective for a walk. I could have persisted and identified the symbol but it seemed like more fun to go and find out what it was on the ground.

St Sunday's beck from Halfpenny (see map below) is a delight that I have previously walked, but there is often something one has missed, Today it was a substantially stone built ornate tower in a field in the middle of nowhere. The map shows this as "Syphon Well," and it is part of the massive engineering feet of constructing a 63 mile gravity fed water pipe from Haweswater to Manchester between 1935 and 1941. There is a relatively concise account HERE which is worth a read. If you Google "Syphon well" you will find technical details of its working.

At my furthest point north Blease Hall features. There is much on the Internet about its architectural features and internal fixtures but I was taken by this little bit of tittle tattle:

 

hearsay:-	Built by Roger Bateman, cloth manufacturer, 1600. The house has a dobbie stone, a charm against spirits.
ghost story:-	The daughter of the family living in an earlier house on this site died of sorrow when her lover failed to return from the Crusades, 13th century. Her ghostly funeral procession is seen passing, now and then.

I was now nearing my mystery objective a bit further south. It was in an enclosed field. However I could see nothing because as I followed the northern edge on a track Pease Beck lay sunken in between with trees and undergrowth on each bank completely restricting any view into the field. After a few hundred yards I turned right over Blaystone Bridge now following the eastern boundary on a tarmac road. Views were still totally restricted by high trees and hedge. Eventually after another couple of hundred yards I found the entrance to the field revealing its confinement of a massive solar panel installation. The field measures quarter of a mile in length on the map and it is filled with the installation. I couldn't get  a photo showing the full extent.

\

I plodded back to Blaystone Bridge to follow my plotted route. I was able to divert to the summit shown as spot height 117. on the map from where I took s better photo, but it still didn't convey the full extent.

I descended to Greaves farm from where I had intended to follow the footpath to Ellenwray but the path was blocked by a  chained gate also elaborately tied with blue bailing twine. The gate overhung towards me. I tried to climb it but had a premonition of disaster and broken bones so I bailed out back to the road. Further road walking and tracks had me back to Halfpenny after a jolly present 5.5miles walk.

Setting off from Halfpenny

St. Sunday beck along line of trees

Syphon Well

Blease Hall

Steep descent to buried, rotten stile.

First sighting of mystery symbol, and below.

This and below taken from higher vantage point

Note orange dog poo bag - WHY?