Tarleton

 I visited Tarleton on a sunny day in July, one of the few! The walk kind of filled in a gap between two previous walks. Two and a half years ago I walked along the River Douglas from Plox Brow to Douglas marina, and this walk started from Plox Blow and headed in the opposite direction.

Plox is spelt "Plocks" on older maps, and takes its name, I think, from the big house on the other side of the river; there is now a pet food factory on the site.

This is the view looking towards the Ribble Estuary, the route I took last time. Note the farmer unloading sheep!

This is actually the Rufford branch of the Leeds Liverpool Canal - the river Douglas is just behind the trees. There is no proper tow path nowadays. instead you walk past some light industry, across a field and into some woods. The path across the field is obvious, but I walked straight past the way into the woods at first...

Once you see it, the path is easy to follow, but brambles and stinging nettles made me choose my steps carefully.

As I approached the A59, I could see an old warehouse across the water.

I went under the A59, and then up the other side to get to road level. There are steps, but some are missing, making the ascent tricky. I was glad it was not wet.

The A59 crosses both the river and the canal here - they are only about 60 m apart here. The warehouse is on the road between the them.

This is the view of the river looking south (upriver). There is a strip of very well maintained grass between river and canal.

About a mile upriver is a bridge where Eyes Lane crosses, which featured in the infamous Croston walk. There is a house just visible in the distance; the house in on Eyes Lane, and the bridge would be just to the left of it.

A bit further along the A59 (heading east) is the former entrance to Bank House, with this delightful lodge, built around 1847, but replaced by another on the other side of the estate.

I always feel a bit weird about taking pictures of people's homes, and especially in this case as the resident was parking her car just as I was about to take the photo, so I asked if it was okay, and had quite a chat with her.

I headed west now, back over the river and canal, and up the hill to St Mary's Church, which I have driven past many times and wanted to see a little better.

It was built in 1717, and extended in 1824 - including an obvious addition to the tower, but was relegated to mortuary chapel in 1886 when a new church was built in the village, and closed altogether in 1980.

At the top of the hill is a busy junction, where the A59 turns left to go to Liverpool, a road continues on to Southport, but I went right, back into the village of Tarleton.

The Wesleyan Methodist Church was founded in 1851 - not sure if the building dates from then, but cannot be much later. The building beyond was the Sunday School, and conveniently says on it it was built 1886.

There are lots of old houses along this road; this is just one example.

The Anglican church that replaced St Mary's; Holy Trinity.

Tarleton seems to have one old pub, the Cock and Bottle built in 1823 I think.

And one rather newer one; the Village Inn.

Beyond the pubs is the shopping area; more unspoilt buildings.

And that brings us back to Plox Brow, which again is littered with delightful cottages.

The walk by the canal was something of a disappointment, but Tarleton more than made up for it. While I had driven through the shopping area a few times, Tarleton was quite a surprise with just how many old buildings there are, with very little modern development to spoil it.