BORWICK HALL

SILENCE OF THE LAMB 4 & 5 Miles

Woolly Minds :- John W, Paddy, Mike, Danny, Anthony.

After a ten minute struggle with the rear seat belts (the driver was no help as he had never travelled in the back of his own car) we set off to follow the M6 up to the Carnforth turn off and subsequently to Borwick and the Hall.

We had sought and been granted permission to park in the Hall's car park..... and here we are.

and here we see Paddy performing the traditional, pre  amble,  Irish jig for good luck on our days walk.

Across the road was the imposing entrance to the 14th/18th century Hall.

Beyond this were equally imposing wrought iron gates ... LOCKED.

Beyond this was Dave, one of the staff, doing a bit of gardening. He let us in.

Here he is (long haired) pointing out some of the features of this most impressive building.

Before setting off on our walk we went to the office to give our thanks for the parking.

The Hall is now a Lancashire County Council (education) outdoor activity centre and still retains some of it's historic features.

Notably this "Spinning Gallery" and the cheese press close by it.

The gardens, too, are quite impressive ........ when Dave has tidied them up.

Leaving the precincts of the hall we crossed the canal and dropped down the nearby lane. Obviously a lot of water in the canal as the overflow was running hard.

A gentleman was cutting the grass between the lane and the crystal clear ditch running  rapidly alongside.The clearwater ditch was an attractive feature in the warm morning sunshine.

A short diversion (WRONG turn JW  😕) before we left the hard surfaced lane to follow a narrow track.

The "Furrows on either side of the tractor worn track were as much as 12 inches deep with a LOT of Mud. We were obliged to totter along the narrow "Cabbage Patch" in the middle.

COFFEE TIME 😄

Suitably refreshed we continued. We were now following an even narrower but shady and "DRY" green lane.

One of the "Shady" trees was a hazel and here are some nuts to prove it. The nuts are in Mikes hand. and do NOT refer (on this occasion) to the two fellas .. thank you !

Our path is blocked by a flock of very contented sheep...until we arrived.

Oh dear ... what's that lamb doing by the gate..... not moving !

It was SILENT..... still breathing and opening it's eyes but could not move and clearly in a bad way.

There was nothing we could do for the poor thing so we quickly but sadly moved on.

We turned left and followed the road for just a short distance before our route took to the fields again .  This meant negotiated an awkward stile.

Not only was the gap very narrow but it was tall as well.  we had to take off our rucksacks and squeeze through sideways. Even super slim Mike.   JW had to strip to the buff to get through (No he didn't but it was a struggle)

We were now following the banks of the river KEER. Mike and Danny stop to admire the beauty of a Rowan tree on the opposite bank

This brought memories flooding back of a time almost 50 years ago when your writer played in a trio.

One of the much requested songs contained the words "and the bonny rowan tree  🎜🎝🎶" and the girl who sang it was a very pretty young lady with a wonderful voice . Rosemary Kirby (Rosemarie ?) non other than our Danny's sister.   Happy Times !

At intervals, as we walked, we came across fenced cuttings allowing livestock access to the river for drinking.

There was also a water monitoring site.

A couple of fields later and we found ourselves next to a multi-arched railway bridge,

Once through the bridge we were certain we could hear a train coming so we waited several minutes hoping to get a photo, WE were wrong no train appeared.

On leaving the railway behind we found ourselves on the canal bank LUNCHTIME !

Although we crossed the canal and did not follow the towpath we still found ourselves on a path alongside the canal. You can see it in this photo.

Here , a duck is paddling furiously and hopefully towards Mike and Danny. Sorry, we've had our lunch you're going to be disappointed ducky.

 

Danny, whose ecological principles are a credit to him, cannot pass a patch of brambles without stopping to pick the blackberries.

This means he is sometimes behind and needs to catch up.  He is usually way ahead of the rest of us.

Mike. In a rather contemplative mood as we stop briefly to consider a short branch off the canal. What was it for ?

As we climbed away from the canal we passed a deep and steep sided "Gouge" in the hillside and surmised that this had once been a quarry hence the need for the canal to be near 😕????

Back into fields where the grass was thick, wet and heavy. Very tiring and then more tricky stiles to negotiate. Anyone with boots bigger than a "6" would find the  gap that the bottom of the this "Slit" would not accommodate them . Hmmmmm !

At this point in the walk we reached the road back to Borwick.  John , Anthony and Paddy turned left and headed home . Mike and Danny, perhaps feeling a little aggrieved that Priest Hutton had been mentioned and we had not got there, turned right to follow the footpath to Hutton and would join us later at the car park.  We might learn more of their extra excursion in Danny's contribution.

Meanwhile John,  Anthony and Paddy followed the road steeply up and then down to Borwick dodging a regular flow of traffic coming round the many bends.

"THINK HORSE"  ?  WELL THE ODD THOUGHT FLITTED THROUGH THE MIND BUT DID NOT LINGER.

We arrived at Borwick Hall from the other side .

In these woke days FAT shaming is strictly frowned upon but as the guy in the photo is also the writer he feels licenced  to say "Get on a diet fatty "

The rear yard of the hall where the Education department's minibuses are lined up ready for use.

Outside one of the houses surrounding the village green (which was very small.).....

.....Was an old postbox  But what was special about it ?

Well it's very quaint but  ??     Look at the initials.

  V.R.  Victoria Regina.  Its possibly 140 years old You don't see many of those.

Soon after Danny and Mike joined just in time to enjoy some of Anthony's delayed Birthday Cake. Well  done all round. 

J.W.