Walking in the Ribble Valley

TRAIL 1 Quarrying & Textiles (map)

Approximately 2.4km (1.5 miles) About 1.5 hours

START:

1. With the Millennium Cross on your left walk up Berry Lane to the Post Office.
The Post Office was built around 1880 and replaced one in King Street. It is one of only two properties in Berry Lane conducting the same business after more than 100 years. (Number 71, newsagent and stationer is the other.)

2. Turn left up Irwell Street and admire the view of St Paul's Church before returning to turn left into Berry Lane.
In the right-hand corner of Irwell street is the Guide Hut, which was opened on October 20th 1934. It was rented by the Borough Council for the 'duration of the war' and used extensively by the WVS (Women's Voluntary Service). Here, among many activities, they rolled bandages, knitted, packed parcels, and made clothes for the troops - pyjamas being a speciality.

3. Continue up Berry Lane to the next turning - Church Street.
On the corner is The Manse built in 1865 by the Rev William Booth to his own design. He also designed and built the Congregational Church across the road. The Anglican St Paul's Church dominates Church Street and was built to supplement St Lawrence's (see Trail 2). It was built, on land donated by Robert Smith, between 1886 and 1890, however the Tower was not added until 1937. Prior to the church being built, the street was known as Calder Street and it was intended to build houses up the hill to meet with Green Lane.

4. Continue up Berry Lane to Market Place.
On your left is The Limes - a building with a varied history. It was probably built in the 1880s and the first reference to it is in 1889 when James Kay junior, a cotton trader, lived there. It remained a private house until the Longridge Urban District Council bought it for offices in 1947. So it remained until the 1974 local government reorganisation, after which it housed solicitors and accountants before the change to its current use as a nursery. The Library was built in the grounds in 1964. It replaced the original building at the junction of Berry Lane with Market Place, which was demolished to widen the road.

5. Turn left into Market Place, which runs into King Street, and walk towards the White Bull.
Note the stone cottages on either side of the road - look carefully for the partially obscured basement windows. Handloom weavers and nail makers originally occupied these cottages built in the early nineteenth century. Looms would have been housed in the basement rooms. Unfortunately many on the left were demolished to build the Health Centre in the late 1960s. The White Bull dates from at least 1776. Be sure to read the history of the White Bull on the wall by the entrance.

6. At the junction, continue straight ahead along Higher Road. This was the original main road from Preston to Clitheroe, known as High Street. We will now walk uphill noting a number of sites along the way.
Immediately on your right is a row of cottages known as Club Row. These 20 cottages built between 1794 and 1804 are thought to be the world's oldest surviving building society dwellings. A group of subscribers met in the White Bull and clubbed together to build them, one at a time. You will notice that the cottages are not all the same, suggesting that they were built separately. Each cottage has a basement with room for one loom.

Next, on your left is Strickland House - note the datestone of 1798. On your right is Broomhill, a mill owner's house dating from the late nineteenth century and on the left is Square Fold believed to have been farm workers' cottages.

7. Continue along the road to the junction with Green Lane.
Early in the 20th century, The Cabin was the site of Harry Clegg's Temperance Saloon, which was housed in a wooden cabin. Just beyond The Cabin is Cut Thorn believed to be eight mill workers cottages dating from the mid 1800s.

8. After passing The Cabin, walk for a further 150 metres along Higher Road.
On the right is a cream coloured building just beyond a row of Edwardian villas. Look carefully at the front and you can see the words Crown Hotel through the paint. The building dates from about 1871 and was built as a hotel. It became the Beacon Café in the 1930s and was later used as a youth hostel. It is now Beacon Private Flats. Next is Heathcote's Restaurant - note the date stone with its Masonic symbols. Until about 1871 it was the Quarryman's Arms, but then relinquished its licence which was transferred to the Crown Hotel. The 1892 ordnance survey map shows it as Quarry Terrace, two separate cottages. Paul Heathcote took over the building in 1990.

9. Continue for about 100 metres to Chaigley Road on the left, and pause by the metal railings just before the junction.
If it is a clear day, enjoy the view across Longridge out towards Blackpool. Behind you on the corner of Ridge Court a Royal Observer post was established during the Second World War.

10. Cross over the road just into Ridge Court. Look over the fence and down to your left and you will see a tunnel opening and the quarry now occupied by caravans.
This is just the start of the Quarries, which extend for some two thirds of a mile (1 kilometre) including Tootle Height, New England, West End, Spencer's, Nook Fold and Copy Quarries on this side of the road. Stone from these quarries was used for many local buildings. It was also used for The Harris Museum, Fulwood Barracks, and the Railway Station in Preston, as well as Blackpool Town Hall, Bolton Parish Church, Liverpool and Fleetwood Docks and many other major buildings in Lancashire.

11. Cross back over Higher Road and into Chaigley Road and then right into John Smith's Playing Field. Just on your right is the cast iron base of a crane, still in its original position. Turn sharp right towards the tunnel entrance.
Steam engines could not get through the tunnel into the quarries beyond, so the crane was used to pull trucks through with rope. The legend above the tunnel entrance reads 'P & L R (Preston & Longridge Railway) - 1839 - F H P C T' (Frederick Henry Park, the engineer, Cooper & Tullis, builders). Look across the park beyond the children's play area and you can make out the quarry face. Imagine how it used to be, the original quarries here and on the other side of Higher Road extended to more than 20 times the amount of space you are looking at! The 1892 Ordnance survey map shows this area as Old Quarry. Once the railway was dismantled the area was used as a landfill before being landscaped into today's park.

12. Follow the pathway downhill; it roughly follows the line of the original railway. After about 175 metres (just after the second of two ancillary paths which join the main path) look to right and you will see a bridge.
This carried a second railway line up to Lords Quarry - named after the Earl of Derby who owned the land - and the bridge provided access to Willows Farm, which can be seen beyond the trees.

13. At the end of the path turn left to rejoin Chaigley Road, turn right and then left at the bottom and right again into Wheatley Drive.
On your right you will see through the fencing the Royal Mail Sorting Office, which is built entirely within the old reservoir of Victoria Mill. The mill was located beyond the reservoir where new houses now stand. It was built in 1862 by Robert Smith of Dilworth House and originally housed 360 looms. It specialised in high quality fancy cloth for the home market. An extension of the factory wall was built so close to the railway that drain pipes had to be inset in the walls. In 1925 there were almost 700 looms operating in the mill, but 10 years later, in 1935, it was closed.

14. At the end of Wheatley Drive turn right into Green Lane and almost immediately left into Mersey Street.
Look straight down Mersey Street towards the Co-operative Hall, which dominates the skyline. (see Trail 2 for more about the Co-op). Mersey Street was built from either end - houses at this top end housed workers for Victoria Mill, whilst those at the lower end housed workers from Cramp Oaks Mill on Berry Lane.

At the end of Mersey Street turn right and return to the start.