Meandanthonys Walk. Capitol Centre, Frenchwood and Avenham 5.5 miles.

After parking up at the Capitol Centre in Walton-Le-Dale we set off along Victoria Road towards Preston. After crossing the bridge over the river, we turned left along The Boulevard. When Danny was a lad their used to be an ice cream and snacks kiosk on the opposite side of the road. Shortly after the kiosk there was a narrow track that led uphill to Frenchwood. It was known to us kids as Plum Pudding Hill. (Yes another Plum Pudding Hill), but alas the track has now been blocked off. We continued on, turning off The Boulevard towards Christ The King high school. Close by is another narrow path that snakes it's way up between some allotments, exiting on Southern Parade. This is the view looking back down the path.

           Cable House. Virgin Media's local H Q, on the corner of Frenchwood Knoll.

    There couldn't be a better place for an uninterrupted open aspect for the satellite dishes.

                        The entrance to the small nature reserve on Frenchwood Knoll.

                                  These are the only wildlife we saw today though.

                                                                         And these.

Coming out of the Knoll. we arrive at the river. The bridge ahead is part of todays walk, but first we have other stops to make.

Heading back uphill into Avenham Park we come to the Belvedere with the white facade of the Italianate Avenham Tower behind and above it. Anthony recalls, in his youth, there was a ships mast in front of the Belvedere. It was salvaged from one of Nelson's ships, the HMS Foudroyant, which came to grief in a violent storm of Blackpool.

                  Morning brew enjoying the lovely view down the valley to the river.

             No visit to Avenham Park is complete without visiting the Japanese Gardens.

                            About to cross the disused Combination railway bridge.

                            Over to the right Is the main line bridge north and south.

Over to the left is the Old Tram Bridge, only used as a footbridge, but now closed to the public for safety reasons, and with no firm plans in place to carry out repairs to this much loved bridge.

After crossing the Combination bridge, a few hundred yards further on, the path is watched over by these sinister looking individuals. On a dark night with perhaps a low lying mist, anyone unfamiliar with this art work could get quite a scare

A frequent dinner venue for us,when roaming these parts, is to take shelter under the pavilion of the bowling club on Factory Lane. Today however, with the sun shining, we opted to sit out in the open on one of the benches. 

The afternoon saw us making our way towards Lostock Hall, then through Walton Park Nature Reserve.

     Some alpine rockery plants, eager to show off their flowers at the firs signs of spring.

                                  The bridge over the River Darwen.

The River Darwen, having negotiated several weirs, waterfalls and rapids on it's journey down from the hills and moors of East Lancashire. has lost it's youthful vigour as it flows  gently into the River Ribble at Walton. We also have reached the end of our walk and are likewise moving along very sedately back to our cars.                                                                                                                                         DK

             

 

 

RIBBLETON

A DEAD BORING WALK  ? ?   5 Miles

Barely Alive :-  John W, Martin, (Don).

You can't get more local than setting off from your own front door.  So that is what we did. We left Martin's house and walked East along Blackpool Rd.  

After passing the Fire/Ambulance station .....

and Morrisons Store we came to the busy Junction with Ribbleton Lane/Avenue.

After negotiating this busy junction we stopped briefly at the little known Ribbleton Cross,

From here we deviated a couple of hundred metres to visit  No.1 Hawthorn Rd. the house John W lived in until he was seven.

Leaving here we returned to Blackpool Rd where a post told us this was the "Trees" estate.

Continuing eastward along Blackpool Rd with Ribbleton Park  across the road to our right .

As a child I knew this as "Waverley Park" and seem to remember visiting the freezing cold open air swimming pool and being alarmed when large diving beetles surfaced for air alongside me.

Arriving at the junction with New Hall Lane I was informed that my memories of The Hesketh's Arms as having two names was incorrect. It was called "The Cemetery Arms " merely because it was next to the cemetery. That title, however, belongs to another establishment.

Turning into the cemetery we found our "Graveyard Guide" waiting for us.

Our guide was Don Stables . Don was one of our early Meanderthals  who still maintains his connections. He is something of a local historian and had agreed to give us a short tour of the notable sites in the cemetery. 

Not a fallen Angel but a vandalised one

Our first stop was at the tomb of Joseph Livesey the founder of the T-Total movement.

We turned back the way we had come and passed the building which is now used by Muslim Mourners.

The next site we visited was one of Livesey's strongest supporters who was , so the headstone tells us , a man on impeccable character, A thoroughly "Good Egg"  Your photographer stupidly missed his name off the photo.   Mmmm !

Again we followed the footpaths through the graveyard until came to the grave of an army chaplain. Those of you who have seen the film "ZULU" will know of the battle of "Rorkes Drift" (Rourkes ?) starring Michael Cane, Stanley Baker, Ivor Emmanuel and others. The Rev George Smith was there at that Battle. "One of the Heroes of Rorkes Drift" the headstone reads

The next grave we encountered was sad indeed . In around1890 two young boys whose father was an Apothecary (Pharmacist ?) drank from a bottle in his shop. It was poison They both died.

There was one further grave that Don wished to show us . That of William Young. This brave man went out into no-man's land. picked  up and carried a comrade back to his lines. as he did so he was shot through the body and in his face. He was recovering from his wounds and went into hospital for surgery to repair his face.  Here he died under the anaesthetic.

 He was awarded the "Victoria Cross". 

That was last grave we were shown......... No, not quite !

Both Don and Martin have already chosen their final resting places. Their ancestral graves.

As for John he is not so well prepared but he does have some very strong garden refuse bags in his greenhouse,

By now we had arrived at the gates to the old cemetery and Don took his leave of us.

Martin and John crossed over Miller Rd. and entered the "New Cemetery" where they found a comfortable spot for lunch.

Lunch over we left the cemetery and turned right into  Ribbleton Avenue where we passed these, some would say, "over the top" gates.

We turned off Ribbleton Avenue to visit Blessed Sacrament Church and met up with this lady, Josette is a superb musician and over the years both Martin and John have played in Bands led by her.

A brief visit to John's church and the Mary Magdelen's.

These two buildings are less than 100 metres apart and both greatly underused. It seems to me that common sense would indicate that they should work together .

We now turned away from Ribbleton Ave. and passed Greenlands estate to cross over the old Longridge railway line.

Once again we were appalled by the amount of rubbish that had been dumped here.

We dropped down from the line to follow Lambert Rd to reach Cromwell Rd. and in doing so we passed the house that JW grew up in (after 7 years old)

From Cromwell Rd. we rejoined the railway track and walked back to Morrisons and so back to Martin's house. We found some much more pleasant sights here.

The last long Mile

Delightful Spring blossom.

The ramp up to Morrisons. the finishing line !!!  ( You never told us there were hills.)

p.s.

"A Dead Boring Walk" ?    absolutely not.

Further research revealed that the Hesketh Arms did indeed originally have two names. A newspaper article in 1855 mentioned the sale of the "Hesketh Arms and Cemetery Hotel"