The Pennine Way

A wonderful 3 days were spent in Manchester at the home of Allan and Ingrid Gilbert at Didsbury.
Their beautiful home gave us much needed rest and the chance to prepare for the next stage. We enjoyed watching a family of foxes playing in the garden each evening.
It gave us the opportunity to spend a bit of time exploring this great city, to admire its architecture and to visit a couple of museums. These included the Rylands library and its private collection of priceless books and manuscripts including pieces from the first printed Bible, and the very impressive Lowry Centre at Salford which featured a gallery of his work. We were also appreciative of the enjoyable luncheon hosted by Allan and Ingrid which raised funds for our charity, the Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia.

Rather reluctantly we farewelled Manchester and returned to Broadbottom where an east stroll took us to Crowden and the much anticipated start of the Pennine Way. A steady plod took us up past Ladlow Rocks on a steep, rocky and very wet path on to the moorland. Our destination was Black Hill which had been described as infamous because of its extensive peat bogs. The peat-coloured streams were fast flowing due to the heavy rain and could only be crossed by wading in ankle-deep water. There was often much pole-prodding to test the depth of the bog before we moved on and progress was quite slow. However as we drew closer to Black Hill we were relieved to find the path had been paved and we were able to move on quite quickly to Wessenden Head. From here the Way followed a series of small reservoirs before we left it to descend into Marsden.

On the way in to Marden we passed the largest of the 3 mills which manufactured the wool and the cotton which the town relied on for its livelihood. The last closed as recently as the late 90s but the soot-stained buildings were reminders of its past. The following day we continued our trek on the Pennine Way on the western escarpment of the South Pennine chain in at times drenching rain. We are beginning to hear mutterings of it being the wettest July on record!!!
At Blackstone edge it followed the ancient cobbles of an old Roman road. A highlight of the road was seeing a 600-year old waymark called the Aiggin Stone. Beyond this the path continued past several large reservoirs before making for the unmistakable landmark of Stoodley Pike which has stood since 1856 to celebrate the defeat of Napoleon. From here we descended into Hebden Bridge, a lively and attractive mill town tucked beneath steep wooded hillsides, again with a number of old mills and factories but now home to a vibrant artistic community.

Another overnight downpour forced us to reconsider a full day on the high moorland and instead we took a more direct route through to Stansbury in the heart of Bronte country where we had lunch at the aptly named Wuthering Heights Inn. The Bronte home was about 3 miles away at Haworth and is now a museum - so populat the signpost is also in Japanese. A definite highlight of the morning was however a visit to the very beautiful waterfalls at Lumb Hole. Former poet laureate Ted Hughes was so inspired by the falls that he wrote a poem at the site to commemorate the lives of 6 soldier friends. Another wet afternoon's trudge across wet and muddy field paths, often invisible and confusing, then saw us descend into Cowling to dry out overnight.

An early hail storm the following morning gave us a similar start to the day!! However we followed the Pennine Way to enter the Yorkshire Dales leaving the boggy moorland behind and the scenery became less harsh and more pastoral but no less wet and muddy. A number of pleasant villages were passed on route including Thornton in Craven and Gravage. For a while the path dropped to the Leeds & Liverpool Canal a reminder of the region's industrial heritage.
Beyond Gargrave the Way became a landscape of gentle walled pasture, easy field paths and riverside tracks. We followed the river Aire into the picturesque village of Malham for an overnight stay.