Arriving last at the designated meeting point we quickly got ready, said our hellos and set off walking. Our first obstacle lay in the fields, very wet and muddy, not exactly my favourite walking terrain. At least the nearer we got to the great bulk of Pendle Hill our route became clearer as a large gully cut into the flank of the hill, this looked interesting!
Once we had passed by the farm at Little Mearley Hall we entered a wooded area called Little Mearley Wood on the OS map, here there were signs of the previous weeks storms as a few trees had been blown down. This area also coincided with the first real increase in gradient of the day. At the end of the woods we had a brief stop to allow the more animated members of the group to catch up, I thought of saying slower but to be honest Ann and Jill were so deep in conversation that walking upwards was a secondary consideration or so it seemed! At least the stop gave us chance to look more closely into the gully that was Mearley Brook, it definitely looked like an interesting choice of route now.
By now Sam Harry and Bethan were off the lead and started to show that boundless energy and enthusiasm that only dogs can when confronted with pastures new. The party followed at a more sedate pace until we reached the end of the walls and the beginning of Pendle Hill proper. Here a short drink stop was taken while Peter explained the choice of route we now had.
At this point I should say something about the folklore and legend that Pendle Hill is renowned for, as from this point on strange things started to happen , or more correctly my camera started to notice strange things! Legend has it, or more correctly history tells us, as it is based on written evidence from the time, that Pendle is renowned for the Pendle Witches. As a Lancastrian I of course have heard of the Pendle Witches but did not really know anything about them except that they existed sometime in the dim and distant past. It turns out that in 1612, 10 witches were hanged for murder by witchcraft of 17 people at Lancaster Gaol (Jail). These 8 women and 2 men were convicted by their own confessions, apparently after being “possessed” . I have found an interesting web site about the Pendle Witches that explains much more about the whole subject.
Anyway, during the drink stop Peter talked about the choice of routes that we now had. On these sort of walks I always take a back seat and go with the flow as far as route finding goes, we had a choice, a faint track led straight up the steep flank directly ahead or we could make our way up Mearley Brook , a sort of gill scramble. As it happened we ended up in between the two! We followed the grass bank above Mearley Brook. On no less than two occasions individuals came up to me and asked me if I shouldn’t be down in the brook scrambling up! If I had been on my own or with John and Sarah we probably would have been down there, and to be honest after a few minutes of trying to walk up this in between sort of route I wished I was! I found it really hard work, very steep, very slippy grass and little rocks that either moved underfoot or were just downright antisocial in there slippiness (if there is such a word)!)
At long last after what seemed like an age but in reality was only 20 minutes the horrible rocks and slippy grass made way for a more gentle and dignified fell side that soon levelled out and we could see the scout cairn ahead, phew!
The scout cairn is a large beehive shaped cairn with at least three plaques embedded in the side commemorating various people to do with the scout movement. It was situated at thee edge of the level ground that comprises the summit plateau of Pendle Hill. It overlooks the Ribble Valley and on a nice warm summer’s day would be an idyllic setting with miles and miles of views over some of the best bits of Lancashire. Today it was a suitable resting point as we caught our breath, enjoyed the view, chatted about the cairn, and whatever else everyone was doing.
After quite a while we set off for the next landmark that was visible across the plateau, a prominent wind shelter. I lingered back at the Scout Cairn longer than was necessary to take a few photos now that the crowed had gone, by the time I caught up with everyone at the wind shelter I was surprised to see Roger doing a spot of gardening in it. All I could see were turfs of grass being placed onto the top of the high circular wind shelter by someone in side it, apparently the inside had become overgrown and the seating area that ran around the inside needed a bit of a manicure, so much so that it was not practical for everyone in the party to get in and sit down, perhaps if the weather had been slightly drier than it had been over the last few weeks, but the thought of wet bums did not appeal to most people so we soon headed away.
The next part of the walk followed a faint path along the edge of the steep escarpment above Worston Moor and then Downham Moor. This section of the walk comprised of about a mile and a half of following the contour of the increasingly massive summit plateau, the more we walked the more I began to realise the scale of Pendle Hill, its massive! At one point a stone wall bisected the path, here some members of the party started to look for a geo-cache, peering around and under various rocks, I was not paying too much attention to this so I don’t even know if they were successful or not! After crossing over the second wall we headed down the path towards Pendle House to escape the ever increasing wind to find some shelter for our lunch spot, this we did in a little section of visible rock that made perfect little seats for everyone.
Lunch for me did not last too long as Sam was very noisy and after sampling some Minestrone soup that I had brought along and not liking it I decide to leave the rest of the group in peace to enjoy their lunch. I wondered back over to the wall and then noticed Andrew Leaney and David Hall making a beeline for the summit trig point, I followed and slowly made my way up the gradual slope towards them. We spent an interesting time up there in the ever increasing wind, it was extreme by now and standing upright was just about possible, great fun! As well as gloves it was now time for a hat as well I was feeling that cold, Brrr!
When everyone else had finished their lunch and walked up we milled around the trig point, to be honest I thought Peter was going to say a few words to the group bearing in mind what had brought us up here today but it never happened. What did happen was a couple of rather cold looking mountain bikers turned up and were persuaded to take a group photo of us, in the end the poor bloke took quite a few photos, juggling cameras in what looked like frozen fingers, the wind was making it bitterly cold now.
A big arrow made out of stones lay on the ground nearby pointing towards our way back. A hundred yards or so away was the start of a flagstone path that led towards Ogden Clough and our way down, the summit plateau is so large, flat and featureless I guess in mist this is an ideal pointer to the path. Once on the path you could not exactly go wrong as the flag stones made easy work of the terrain which in places looked extremely boggy. It is defiantly not the sort of place to go wandering off the beaten track.
At the end of the flagstones we crossed a small stream , the head waters of Ogden Clough (I am not sure if the word Clough refers to a water feature or a landscape feature). From here a small path followed the course of the stream for half a mile before we again had a stop for the party to close up. From here we turned right and followed an old wall back over Mearley Moor. Walking along this wall was very reminiscent of the wall along the summit of High Street for some reason.
This section was a bit of a monotonous trudge I found. We followed the wall until it joined another and turned left following the new wall. Along here we had a another stop as the party had become separated gain, it had been hard work across this moorland, ankle breaking tussocks of grass mixed in with boggy sections, no fun at all! As we had now reached a point where we could again see over the moor and down towards Clitheroe we had a wide view. Unfortunately much of this view comprised of bad weather approaching us! It appeared to be an approaching hail shower, there then followed an interesting conversation on how best to deal with this shower. Ideas ranged from sitting it out behind the shelter of the wall to just getting on with it. My favourite choice came from one of the more experienced Lake District walkers who small remain nameless but the general idea he came up with was this. “We need to go that way, if we do that the shower will be coming straight at us, so time spent under the hail shower will be minimised as we walk through it and it passes over us!” I was impressed with the logic here, it wasn’t rocket science was it, and as he so accurately pointed out we had to go that way anyway! Not that any of this was a problem of course as everyone was fully equipped for the weather anyway.
The passing hail shower passed and the weather started to improve as we followed the wall down wards. As the wall ended another small cairn was reached, this one is known as the Clayton- le- Moors Harriers Cairn, a fell running club from near Preston. It commemorates the death of two members who sadly died in 1994. We now left the wall behind but carried straight on down an ever increasing gradient towards The Nick of Pendle. The Nick of Pendle is a more popular starting point for walks up Pendle Hill following the gentle contours up Apronfull Hill to the summit, we could see the ridge line on our left and as Peter had said a much easier way to the top, I think he also mentioned the word “cheats way” as well!
With the sun coming out we followed a path down to the right and soon came across a gate that led back onto the cultivated land of the Ribble Valley. While we waited at the gate I counted dogs, only 2! A quick check and yes it was Sam who had gone AWOL, again! All the time that the dogs had been off the lead Sam had run about at the front, in the middle or wherever the fancy took him, every few minutes trotting back to find me and check I was still there. Once he had seem me he would run off and do his own thing again for a few more minutes, he must have missed seeing me here and carried on back up the way we had come, thankfully Ann and Andrew had managed to persuade him that I was waiting at the front for a change and turned him around before he retraced his steps all the way back to the summit (thoughts of Great Gable Remembrance Sunday 2005 going through my mind here!)
As if to compound matters once Sam was back with the group he spotted some other 4 legged friends down in the field that he thought he could play with, argh! I actually ended up running down hill (I never normally do running, it’s sort of alien to me!) to catch him and get him away from a local farmers pride and joy. Needless to say that was the end of Sam’s freedom for the rest of the walk that comprised of fields, still wet and muddy. But at least we were treated to some late afternoon sun that made the grass look so green, a real nice change to the dull gloomy weather we had endured for most of the day.
So that was pretty much that for the walk. Back at the cars we said our goodbyes and made arrangements about where to meet for the next part of the plan, an evening meal and talk by Mark Richards. I decided that I had enough time to head back home, sort Sam out , and then get back to Clitheroe for the meal. This I did, giving Sam a good hose down before letting him in the house, feeding him and then in the time it took me to shower and get change he had fallen asleep, probably dreaming about Bethan between his snores, it’s a hard life being a dog!
Driving back to Clitheroe I listened to Radio Lancashire’s commentary from another AW celebration taking place, Blackburn Rovers beating Manchester City at football! Parking outside the hotel that we were supposed to meet at it was strangely quiet, then came a phone call and some very dodgy directions to a back street pub that had all of a sudden become the meeting place, Plan B! Everyone was in the pub, a nice cosy warm pub that had at least a few different types of Bitter on tap, a proper pub! One pint was my limit and as Roger bought it, it tasted great, even a few hours after the end of the walk!
We then retired to the Old Post House Hotel for the meal and talk. The last OFC talk had been in the company of Hunter Davies who had done AW’s biography. That talk had been very interesting and Mark Richards talk was just as good if not better. I was always left with the impression that Hunter was talking about a job he had done in the past. Mark was talking about a passion, a shared interest and his enthusiasm for the subject was so obvious to see. Mark told the story of how the shared passion for pen and ink drawings had drawn AW and himself together. Mark was very proud of a compliment that AW had paid him in writing, I guess only Andrew Leaney and myself knew what was coming as the words “The cairns on Hare Shaw (two) and Harper Hills were erected by a companion, Mark Richards on 10th March 1973”. Words taken from page 228 of AW’s The Outlying Fell’s of Lakeland, describing the The Naddle Horseshoe walk. So here was a man who had worked and walked with AW, I was impressed! I was even more impressed by some of the “memorabilia” that Mark had brought along. I knew that AW had written, or rather drawn, books about Scotland, but Mark then produced a copy of the book full of AW’s pen and ink drawings accompanied by the original photos that Mark had taken and the AW converted into the form that we know and love so much, fantastic! I have often wondered how AW got to Scotland…………
So that was the OFC’s way of marking the centenary of AW’s birth. A really nice walk up Pendle Hill that perhaps I would never had done, a dinner and talk in the company of someone who knew AW and was able to talk so enthusiastically about him and his work. Many of the people present went to the memorial service at Blackburn Cathedral on the Sunday and the annual Wainwright Society AGM. I am not a member of that society and perhaps I never will be, but one thing I know is that Peter Burgess and the OFC arranged something that perhaps AW would have preferred more than a big bells and whistles “do” at the cathedral. But then again who knows, I have visions of AW sat on the top of Haystacks, looking down and wondering what all the fuss was about………………….