Hurst Green and Stonyhurst

Today we did a family walk for my birthday – I’d picked this walk as the children love The Hobbit and all things Tolkien.  The thinking was it would make it more interesting than just going out for lunch.  We would do the walk and then finish at The Three Fishes for lunch around 2pm.  It was a good thing I had downloaded 3 walks of various lengths as you can’t control the weather. We set off just after 9 to get to Hurst Green for about 10 to 10.30 ish and it was foggy and raining.  Luckily we had all the gear, the children were well wrapped up and Albert was well layered up when we poked him in the back-pack for Jo to carry him round. 

The rain wasn’t for letting up as we set off.  We turned down the main road towards Clitheroe the directions said turn up a track to Fair Field but we passed the first drive and the second before we finally turned up a track towards some farm buildings

 – we still hadn’t found the track to Fair Field but we knew we were heading in the right direction.  It was very muddy.  At the top we popped out on the right path which was lucky so we picked up the way forward.  We headed of down the lane and there it was

 – JR Tolkien’s school in all its majestic glory.  What an imposing and beautiful building – absolutely stunning architecture. As we walked down towards it we passed the walking tree.

 How daunting must this building seem to a small boy coming down the driveway to this place for the first time? 

Today though the weather was too bad for us to linger – rain was gradually turning to snow and Albert was crying non-stop and wouldn’t keep his mittens on.  So off we went past this beautiful place and up the lane to bear left

 and then left again up a farm track to a muddy way through a farmyard.  Here we had to back track a little as we missed the path through a field.  It was ‘proper snow’ we were battling now.

The path took down a really slippery sliding muddy path to a footbridge over Dean Brook. George came a cropper as his feet slid from under him – I don’t know how he managed it but he balanced on his elbows and kept his trousers dry.  Mabel and I skirted around the undergrowth where it was boggy but less slippy.  I don’t know how Jo managed it with Albert on his back as you have to stay really upright otherwise you feel like you’re going to topple Albert out over your head.  It was pretty muddy the other side of the bridge too and it was a steep climb.  Bernard seems to instinctively know when to go slow and not pull on his lead which is a good thing. From here we skirted around a wood and through a stile onto a broad farm track. 

Albert had finally stopped crying and fallen asleep. All along here Aggie took Bernard’s lead and it was now a straight walk on good tracks (it was now hailing) George pointed out we were going down Shire Lane to a pretty dell and back up to the village where we were parked.

George and I had brought our cameras but the weather meant we didn’t really want to stop and choose a perfect picture. We had all worked up an appetite and were cold and ready for something to eat.  A walk to do again in better conditions.