The Meanderthals: CLITHEROE

BRIDGE TWO FAR 5.5+ miles

Bridging the gap :- Danny, Vic, Mike, Frank, John.

I shall begin at the beginning.... Well , no actually I shan't. We left the car park near Edisford Bridge then about a mile into our walk your gormless writer/photographer saw a message on his camera screen "No memory card" hence no photos. BUT your brilliant writer/photographer had a spare camera in his rucksack. so, I shall begin at that point in the hope that Danny will fill in the missing part on hid blog entry.

We were part way along the sculpture trail when we came to this object (first of several the same). What was it ? No title . No explanation. Our nearest guess was a pineapple but who knows.

Ah ! Now that's better . Definitely Deer. Perhaps it's just my less than sophisticated level of art appreciation.

We continued along this woodland path with occasional breaks in the trees giving us panoramic views across the Ribble Valley towards The Bowland Fells. We could just make out Parlick and Fairsnape fells. Old friends from the past (and likely to remain in the past).

Suddenly the path ended at a busy road across which was the industrial site containing the famous (or infamous) cement works.

A left turn took us down to a gate which in turn would put us back on the Sculpture trail.

Almost immediately we came across another example of work from the "Pineapple School" of sculpture ..............

Then we came to the next sculpture. What could it be ?

This time there were clues. It had a crown......... it had a fishing rod. Aha ! Could it be a...... KING....... FISHER ?

This next one was dead easy. I shall leave YOU to guess !!

Those of you who guessed a frog are wrong ! Those of you who guessed Otter are correct......... BUT only get half marks if you failed to mention the other creature.

Lunchtime and an old quarry offered us shelter and plentiful seating if needed.

Here's Vic getting out one of the rather smart collapsible stools we all seem to be acquiring.

Those of you with eagle eyes will have spotted a helmeted head peeping over the rocks. It belonged to one of three very amiable young cyclist who happily took a whole group photo for us.

And here is our two wheeled photographer.

Lunch over we set off again along the woodland path..

Not another Mystery sculpture ? Yes another piece from the pineapple school of art. I promise not to photograph any more. Dare I use the word "Phallic".

The next piece of artwork we passed was even simpler to understand than the Otter (and fish....)

At this point our leader Danny offered us a choice . Take the "High Road" or drop down to get a view of a weir on the river. DOWN is always a good choice but there would be a price to pay. Down we went.

Unfortunately recent heavy rain meant the water level was quite high and the weir was reduced to a line of brown turbulence.

It had produced a lot of foam though.

Just at this point was a further art work.

It was sort of quadruped compass. The leg nearest to Danny pointed North and the others followed in sequence.

Now came the payback time mentioned earlier.

This shot was taken looking down the long steps we had just climbed and gives little impression of how steep they were, Certainly steep enough to require a "Breather" stop when we reached the top.

We were now on the section of path leading back to Brungerly Bridge. The bit I missed on the way out.

Out onto the road and across the bridge.

A steep but short uphill climb before we again found ourselves on a track. This time through the lands of Waddow Hall the large Girl Guide's outdoor activity centre.

It would have been inappropriate for a group of elderly gentlemen to walk through a girls only area so we kept to the paths taking us around the activity centre.

Is this is an optical illusion ? One might suspect that Mike has had a close encounter with the local javelin throwers club.

Hmmm....... what is Danny finding so interesting over that wall ?

As we walked we spotted a strange construction up in the woods. It appeared to have a spiral stair leading up to the top. It was not until we spotted the wire leading from it that we realised it was the start of a very long aerial runway going down into the Waddow Hall grounds.

The next stretch of our walk would take us along the road just beyond the wall in front of us.

As we walked along the road your writer fell into conversation with a man on holiday from Cornwall. He was enthralled by the beauty of our Lancashire country side and was amazed at how friendly the people in the North were.

"Isn't Cornwall beautiful ?" "Yes in parts I suppose."

"Aren't Cornish people friendly ?" "No. Not like up here.... and you can't find any in summer !"

One man and his dog. I think this was more than your average North Country farm though.

Over to one side as we walked was an old friend who seems anxious to accompany us on many of our walks

PENDLE ....... AGAIN !

With Clitheroe Castle framed against it's sunny flanks.

Before we arrived at Edisford Bridge we crossed this rather attractive footbridge

Once across the bridge we entered the part of Clitheroe called Low Moor. Although seemingly quite ordinary,....an area of terraced housing, there was an air of community pride and liveliness about it.

Several houses had embraced the fun of Halloween.

At the top of one street was a disused church with the initials UMFC, It took us a while to fathom out what that stood for . Surely the F C couldn't mean Football Club. ? No ! We eventually , with the help of passers by settled for "United Methodist Free Church". It was no longer disused . it was now a carpenters workshop and wood yard.

and there were memorials.