Wheelton & White Coppice (2)

To use a footballing metaphor, this was ‘a game of two halves’ (or more accurately, three halves!) weatherwise. Two hours of glorious sunshine, two hours of wetting rain and half an hour of sunshine.

We parked in the village of Wheelton, northwest of Chorley. I suppose three pubs, a garage, a tea-shop, a Police station, a war memorial and a boatyard give it ‘village’ status.

The start of the walk took us back across the main road and past The Dressers Arms. This pub was gutted by fire back in April but a new, enlarged pub is rising phoenix-like from the ashes and hopes to re-open in the near future. 

Leaving the country lanes, we continued across field paths pausing for ‘morning coffee’ by a disused railway bridge. A very formidable looking bull didn't look like he would allow a bunch of kindly ramblers to share his field and an alternative path was quickly established! 

We continued on to the idyllic village of White Coppice. An early lunch was taken here as rain was threatening and Harry doesn’t like soggy butties. True to form, the rain arrived before we had finished eating. (Remember the last time that happened?)

The rain continued and so did our walk taking us past Heapey reservoir and after a brief shelter from the rain, we re-crossed the main road and joined the Leeds Liverpool canal at Whittle Springs.

We continued along the canal past a flight of seven locks rising up to Johnson’s Hillock and the Top Locks pub. From here it was a short walk along the road back into the centre of Wheelton.

The walkers were John R, Harry, Martin, Mike and Anthony.