OSWALDTWISTLE

GOING to GOBBINLAND  5 Miles

Geriatric Gobbins :-    Anthony, Danny, John W.

Gobbins ?  I'll tell you later.

Not a promising start amongst a forest of terraced streets on a grey drizzly day, but we were in for some most unexpected treats.

Nothing wrong with terraced houses of course. Your writer has spent the whole of his married life living in first a small one in Longridge. Now a larger one in Grimsargh.

The area was a real tangle of older house, new houses, parks and open spaces and old mills and civic buildings . A real Mish Mash of modern, merely old and historic.

 We were soon following paths through the open spaces.

Not for long though. We were soon back amongst the terraces. In this case rather elegant ones.

We have all of course heard of the iconic "Accrington Pals" but each of the East Lancashire towns also played their part.

Just beyond this memorial a short side road led us back into the greenery.

Here's Danny emerging from behind a tumble down wall. What had he been looking at ?

Here's what he was looking at.

Throughout our walk small rivers and streams abounded. All swollen with the many days of rain we have had in recent weeks. 

It was raining now..... of course.

A few minutes later we entered this area of woodland.... The King had beaten us to it !

The woodland was pretty enough but the weather forecast had said bright with occasional "Light Showers". Our occasional light shower lasted about TWO HOURS !  Were we in for another damp day's walking ?

We crossed and recrossed the streams and eventually came to small lake down amongst the trees. A pleasant spot for coffee time.

You will have noticed the surface of the lake is spattered with raindrops.

You will also notice that the concrete apron built for viewing the lake is almost drowned by the high level of water. More evidence of the wet period we are "enjoying"  (Spelt E- N- D- U- R- I- N- G !)

Coffee time over we continued our walk along the invariably wet and muddy footpaths.

We stopped briefly to photograph yet another turbulent stream and noticed how the fence had become embedded in the growing trees.

Crossroad confusion.

We arrived at this "crossroads from the LEFT and continued to the RIGHT. WRONG !

We returned and took the road leading LEFT. Straight ahead in the photo. RIGHT ?   No !  A LEFT turn which eventually proved WRONG !   Did you get all that ?

The path we had taken was a muddy shambles... in fact a total ****heap !  In the next photograph you can just make out Danny negotiating an abandoned shopping trolley.

Our original choice at the crossroads proved, in hind sight, to be drier and more direct.  Ah well that's life.

At the top of the hill we found ourselves back in urban Oswaldtwistle and more of the splendid terraced housing.

 We were now quite near to the station.

For the next ten minutes or so we followed DRY footpaths and even came across artworks like this amusing mural.  Looks like the parked car is about to be run over.

But then it was back to puddles as we dropped down to the canal.

Here's a pretty part of the canal. One one side murky black walls.

and on the other side graffiti laden brick walls.

I am perhaps being unfair,   The canal soon opened out and was to lead us to a fascinating historical site. Note the distance on the white post.

If you look carefully you will see that the distance post tells us that we are 64.5 miles from LEEDS

The other side tells us we are 63 miles from Liverpool. So Oswaldtwistle is approximately halfway between the two cities along the Leeds/Liverpool canal

What's Danny waiting for ? A very SMALL train or a very LARGE rat.

A little beyond this point we arrived at the Aspen Colliery Beehive Coking Ovens  where coal was turned into coke for the steel industry.

Although mostly in ruins they were still fascinating and also offered us lunchtime shelter from our still continuing "Light Shower".

There were originally 27 of them.

On the banks of the canal, as we approached the Beehive Ovens, we found rail tracks . common enough  .........   but WOODEN ?

Wooden rails . Very old if original but who knows. We were later to learn something about the people who worked these rails.

After finishing our lunch we dragged ourselves (quite literally) to our feet and continued our walk.

Beside the canal as we walked we came across this refurbished farm house. I thought it was Tudor. Danny thought it was Jacobean. After searching google to see Jacobean and Tudor architectural styles . I still could not come to a decision but I think ******* was right 😉

Leaving the canal.....

We had just a short uphill tramp and very soon found ourselves back in urban Oswaldtwistle once more.

These modern houses looked like rather large Semis but closer inspection revealed them to be apartments with external steps up to the first floors.

We were not however finished with "wildness and wet" and were soon to be re-entering grassy and woody territory.

Never far from civilisation though. As you can see.

And guess what ?   WATER AGAIN !

and the paths haven't improved.

Back in town where we met this lady.

As we neared the end of our walk we found ourselves across the road from an unusually named cafe................... "THE GOBBINERS"

It was closed but as we stared at it a lady came to the window and signalled that she would open up for us. So in we went. 

We asked about the cafes strange name and OFF SHE WENT !!!! She told us she was a GOBBINER. i.e. Someone born within a certain area of Oswaldtwistle.  GOBBINS were small trucks used to carry rubble and coal away from the mines and the ovens. These were pushed by GOBBINERS along tracks (Remember the wooden ones ?)  The GOBBINERS were considered to lack the skills needed to be a proper miners and thought not to be very bright. The term has become synonymous with people from Ossie. and it has become a matter of pride to be a GOBBINER  living in GOBBINLAND .

Our lady Gobbiner was a delight and agreed to take our photo outside the cafe.

We said our goodbyes and were soon once more on muddy woodland trails leading to the car and Home.

JW

Throughout the walk I had, at no point, the slightest clue as to where we were. Danny's walk was so convoluted as to be impossible to follow. He of course knew where we were all the time .... I think ! Never the less a thoroughly enjoyable and interesting walk .......... BUT WET !