Around Preston

Carnforth is a small town seven miles north of Lancaster, its main claim to fame being that it was used for filming Brief Encounter in 1945. The Lancaster Canal runs along is east side, and I started my walk from bridge 127, on the south side of the town. On the opposite side of the canal, Thwaite Gate Farm can be seen, looking like it has not changed since the canal was built. The canal widens as it swings to the right. I wondered if this was where the town wharves were, but I can see no sign of that on old maps. Note the nesting swan in the centre of the image! There is a pub here, called the Canal Turn. Clearly an old building, but it seems to have only been a pub since 2001. The view looking back at the pub from a little further along. The canal skirts the edge of the town, and feels very rural. This is where it passes under the B6254, Kellet Road, the main road to the M6. The inner arch will be the original road, which got widened by adding the outer arch, and then the pedestrian...

Lower Rivington Reservoir is the last in a chain of reservoirs that were built to supply Liverpool, though I think now supply Wigan. They start with the  Roddlesworth Reservoirs , which feed into Anglezarke , via the Goit, which leads to the Upper Rivington Reservoir , and so to the Lower. We started from the Crown Hotel, in Horwich, which is just below the damn. The A673, the Bolton Road, takes us past the entrance to Lever Park. And then along the southwest side of the reservoir. Looking the other way, the town of Blackrod can be see on the hilltop, with St Katherine's Church at the very top. The road departs from the reservoir. On this side, there is no way to walk along the reservoir unfortunately, so we follow the road. There is an Italian restaurant, Luciano's at the Millstone, formerly a pub the Mill Stone Inn, which was there in 1824. We turn right here, and go a short distance along Rivington Lane - previously Pitcher Poke Lane. At the end is a "headless cross...