Canal Walk Brierfield to Hapton 8 miles

Once again I parked at Blackburn station and got the train to my starting point. There is parking in Burnley but I enjoy the train ride. Today I was sat with a group of bell ringers off for a weekend of bell ringing. As the train followed the canal I saw two boats on the move, one was heading into Gannow Tunnel.
I got off the train at Brierford station which is a short walk past some inbred girls down the hill to the canal at Lob Lane bridge #137. I went up as far as the next bridge Clogger Bridge #138 to see if the 77 mile milepost had emerged from the undergrowth since I was last here. It hadn’t. With the sun shining and the sky blue I turned around and headed towards Burnley. Half a mile on and I did find a milepost that had eluded me on the last visit, 76.5 miles from Pall Mall Liverpool is a half mile post with the top missing. Near to the half mile post is the original milestone in better condition than its metal replacement.
Once past hawks House Bridge #136 I was on new untrekked towpath and with one of the seven wonders of the canal world ahead of me I went on.
Between Heald bridge #133 and the railway ridge 132A there are the remains of a wharf where coal boats once loaded from the mine. The is a photograph of this wharf in use in the Burnley canal walk guide. At Old Hall bridge #132 a friendly Muslim ask if I wanted to take his photograph and hoped I would have a nice time on my journey. There is something about towpath that makes people friendlier. The bridge itself has very high sides, I could only just see over the shelly sandstone parapet.
I took a diversion from the towpath to see the aqueduct which carries the canal over the River Brun from the bottom rather than the top. I was glad I did, it continue on without stopping would be to miss seeing an impressive piece of engineering. Another milepost,number 74, and it was off to find a wonder.
And then there it was. I came around the corner and saw a long straight stretch of canal, 60 ft above the town, Burnley Embankment. Unlike the aqueduct this is a feature best taken from the top. I have been to Burnley before and been within feet of the embankment not paying it any attention it despite its size. From the bottom its an overgrown embankment, from the top you can see the whole city and like Ewood embankment in Blackburn you can see the towns football stadium. There is access for those who can walk to the embankment at the town’s bus station or further along by the large Tescos which has a café. I stopped off at Tescos for lunch and noticed my feet were beginning to hurt. I had worn the wrong boots for the job. Much of the towpath on this section has been very recently relaid so trainers would have been a better choice of footwear than brand new Royal Mail DMs. But I was stuck with them so had to carry on. At the other end of the Embankment is Finsley gate bridge #130E which gives a great view along the “straight mile”. Passed the old canal depot are some large mills and in a niche in a wall is milepost 73.
Unfortunately the visitor centre in the old toll house by bridge #130B was shut and not due to open until Easter but I did appreciate how well the warehouses have been renovated. The warehouses and redevelopment are similar to those at Wigan Pier and Eanam Wharf. A bit further on are the unique canal side houses for mill workers. On the bankside and fronting directly onto the canal. Now empty they would be worth a fortune anywhere else. Many of the mills are empty and I saw quite a few that were being demolished.
By the time I reached Gannow Tunnel my feet were hurting quite a lot. It was clear I had some nasty blisters developing on both feet. I had passed up the chance to escape at Mitre bridge #129A and get the train at Burnley Barracks Station. The idea of walking barefoot kept passing through my mind. Approaching Gannow Tunnel you can appreciate why it was needed, in front of you is a steep hill, to a sandgrounder like me it looked like Everest. All the directions I had read on how to walk from one side to the other assumed you were going the opposite way ad were in any case the bottom of my rucksack. Luckily two girls were walking ahead of me and I correctly guessed they were going the same way. Trying not to look like someone from Crime Watch I followed them to the other side of the tunnel. Its not the easiest of routes, via underpasses and across busy roads. I can see why some people get lost at this point. A few sign posts would be a nice idea.
Its about three miles from the tunnel to Hapton. I found milepost 71 though it was in poor condition. The river class barge Kennet was moored by Gannow Bridge. Milepost 70 is not on any maps, and now I know why. It’s under the railway. Its rather buried but it has most of its plaques and was a welcome find showing me I had only one mile to go to Hapton bridge. Even knowing the end was near I could only manage a slow trudge and by the time I got to the Hapton it was a limp. I left the canal at hapton bridge and walked up the hill to the station where I had just 20 minutes to wait for the train back to Blackburn.
I will definitely be going back to Burnley to see the visitor centre and have a look at the culvert under the embankment. This walk means I have now completed the first 89 miles of canal from Liverpool to East Marton.

Canal Walk: Riley Green to Cherry Tree

I was hoping to walk at Hapton but there is nowhere to park at the boatyard by Knotts bridge so it was on to Plan B and Riley Green. There was a stretch of towpath between Feniscowles and Cherry Tree that had yet to walk so it was a good opportunity to complete the section.
Riley Green is just off Junction 3 of the M65. The Boatyard Inn makes it clear they do not want people to use their parking spaces while walking even if they use the pub during the visit. So, rather than risk the clamp and fine they threaten, I parked in the roadside parking on the A675 just off Junction 3.


Its a short walk down to the towpath at Riley GreenBridge #91A. There is a picturesque ruin besides the bridge. At the canal I turned right and headed towards Blackburn. The towpath is muddy here and a bit slippy but not so bad that it put off the families on bikes.
It didn't take long before I was at Feniscowles and at the border of Chorely and Blackburn. As the canal crosses and aqueduct next to the large paper works the M65 drones past on a higher viaduct. On the towpath it is easy to ignore the motorway behind the trees. There was a lone mandarin duck amongst the mallards, quite appropriate on Chinese New Year.
I found milepost 53 easily but 53.25 and 53.5 were a bit more of a challenge. The quarter milepost was almost completely buried, the half in a hedge. The stone marked on the OS map turned out to be the milestone for 53 miles, its near to the half milepost. The milestone is well preserved and has lasted better than the metal mileposts that replaced it. It has a bench mark carved on the top.
Between Feniscowles Bridge and Cherry Tree bridge there is a lot of new housing the only signs of the past are the remains of a railway bridge, an old cottage, some warehouses and the canal itself.
The towpath between Feniscowles bridge and Cherry Tree has been recently improved and is idea for people on wheels or those who dont like skidding about in mud. There is a new sign giving information about the towpath route.
Its a nice walk, popular with locals, although I much prefer walking the other way from Riley Green. Now I have done this section I have walked or cycled the first 63 and a half miles of the Leeds Liverpool Canal from Liverpool to Church without a gap.

Canal Walk: Blackburn to Cherry Tree

After some map reading we found our way to the carpark of the Wharf pub at Eanam Wharf. This was my first time at the canal in Blackburn and I didn’t know what to expect. I was hoping to see some mills and signs of the much talked about regeneration of the canal area.

Eanam Wharf is a group of warehouses similar to those at Wigan Pier. The main warehouse is used by the Wharf pub and a conference centre, with the short covered section of towpath in front of the conference centre closed to walkers.

At midday on a Sunday I had expected the pub to be busy but we were the only car in the car park. We walked around the back of the well redeveloped warehouses to head out of Blackburn to the west.

The towpath is well maintained and would be great for cyclists although the bushes in some places could do with cutting back. Throughout the whole walk the towpath felt very isolated and quiet with only a few people walking on it, and none of the cheery “hello”s of the last walk.

The canal is above the city; past bridge #103 you get a good view down to the main railway station and across to the streets on the hills opposite. Walkers feel elevated on this section. As we arrived at Blackburn Top Lock we met a boat going down the flight. It was a welcome sight to see people using the canal. There are six locks and they, like the towpaths, have been refurbished recently. Lock 54 is squashed beneath a modern bridge, the canal only just given room to exist by the road builders.

The BWB sanitary station is in part of a group of canalside buildings which have been very nicely redeveloped. There is even a sculpture of a man on a bike, suggesting that the smart towpath is aimed at cyclists.

After the locks and just past bridge 98 I found a large milestone hiding behind some brambles. It was in very good condition considering it was made obsolete by the metal posts put in in 1898. After the milestone is Ewood aqueduct dated 1810 and a long embankment from which you can see the home of Blackburn Rovers.

At 55 miles to Liverpool the only milepost of the day was a sad sight. Both its plaques have been lost and the top is missing, filled with rubbish. The disappointing lack of mileposts was made up for by the finding of another milestone. The old 54 miles to Liverpool milestone is, like the 55 mile stone, in good condition.

At Cherry Tree Bridge #95 we reached the start of George Birtill’s legendary Towpath Treks. There are a lot of new houses which won’t have been there when Birtill took to the towpath. There was no sign of milepost 54, and we turned around at Livesey Hall Bridge #94.

We returned to Eanam Wharf to find the pub still empty. The warehouse here is said to have a milepost (57 miles) inside it but the conference centre made it impossible to look for it.