40th ANNIVERSARY RUINS WALK
Tuesday 21st. August:- 40th. Anniversary 20 ruins in 20K
To celebrate 40 years of LDWA, we decided to stage a walk with a 40 theme to it…but how? For a mid-week walk 40 miles or even 40K would rule out many of our members. In the end we felt sure that somewhere along the line, the following formula must be provable:-
20 ruins + 20K = 40 yrs. of LDWA
Brinscall, now a quiet village, was once a thriving community with its own railway station and various industries. On the moors above the village, in an area of no more than 5 square miles, there were 48 farms and small holdings, sadly now all derelict. Our walk was to visit 20 of these ruins, 13 to begin with, followed by a section of walking to stretch our legs, and then the final 7.
START AT WHITE COPPICE
Dave, our walk leader and also our Group’s walks secretary, had prepared well and before the walk started, he gave us all a printed sheet with a brief history of the ruins we were to visit.
By chance there were 20 on the walk (hence 40 feet..how appropriate) as we headed uphill to our first ruin at Coppice Stile House. Aided by extracts from David Clayton’s book ‘Lost Farms of Brinscall Moors’, walk leader Dave was able to add a few words to those on his printed sheet, as we then made our way from one ruin to the next.
ABOVE WHITE COPPICE HISTORY LESSON AT CALICO HALL
Rough going in places but nevertheless full of interest as we tried to visualize what life must have been like on these moors in the 18 and early 1900s.
LOO REMAINS AT GROUSE COTTAGE
Although life was tough in those days, in general the hill farmers had a longer life expectancy than town and city dwellers. This was mainly due to better food, clearer air and clean water. Unfortunately it was the latter that was responsible for their demise, as Liverpool Corporation bought up the land and channeled the water to their reservoirs at Rivington and Anglezarke. The risk of pollution was too great and when tenancies expired, they were sadly not renewed.
Thanks for an interesting walk Dave, just a pity about the heavy rain towards the end.