Around Preston

 Withnell Fold is a delightful village on the Leeds-Liverpool Canal, between Chorley and Blackburn, though not on a through road. I visited it as part of a loop that started from Higher Wheelton, and included the canal and the River Lostock. From Higher Wheelton I headed northeast on the A674, which runs some way up the side of the valley, and has some pretty cottages along it. I wonder if this farmer is a Newcastle fan. After about 800 m I reached the turn for Withnell Fold to the left. The land on the right here appears to belong to the local manor, Withnell Fold Hall, which seems to be privately owned, and sold recently for around £5m, as described here . It is not possible to see the house from the road, but you can see the gates and lodge. Next door is a Methodist chapel, built 1852. And shortly after we get into Withnell Fold itself. In was built as a "model village" in 1843 to serve the mill, built the same year. As you can see, they keep the place very neat. Many of t...

 At last I come to the end of the Goit! The Goit flows into Anglezarke Reservoir, which is kind of the unknown cousin of the two Rivington Reservoirs, despite being the biggest. All three were built to supply water to Liverpool, though Anglezarke now supplies Wigan. All were built between 1850 and 1857. Wiki tells us the parish of Anglezarke has a population of 23 (2001 census) - I probably saw more walkers than that. It looks like it should have a bizarre pronunciation, but apparently is just "angle-zark" There is a cark park on the east side of the reservoir, towards the south end. There is virtually no signage to inform the public, and going along the access road is something of a leap of faith that you will not end up in a farm yard. When I arrived there was only one other car there - and there were a good dozen parted along the causeway on the way to it. The great advantage of the car park is the shade I could park my car in. I walked all around the reservoir, going anti...

This is just southwest of where I was last week, and in fact the walk uses the same bridge, but we will get to that later. I started from the site of Heapey Bleach Works. I had assumed a bleach works was where bleach was manufactured, but it turns out to be where cloth is bleached. It opened in 1885 (or 1895?), and was at one time the biggest in Europe, employing 300 people, an getting through 4 million gallons of water a day (according to here ). Much of it was destroyed in a fire in 1944, but it struggled on for a while, possibly closing in 1953. Today, the site is a rather nice housing estate, and no hint of the works itself remains. However, it was served by a railway and reservoirs; the reservoirs are still there and evidence of the railway too. This is the bridge abutment where the railway crossed the road before entering the factory site. No sign of it on the other side of the road. From here, the railway passed between two reservoirs, before joining the line from Chorley to Che...