Nick Burton is your guide on a walk that will help walk off those mince pies!

START: Roadside parking by Habergham Church along the A671 Padiham Road opposite the George IV pub. The pub is situated at the junction of the A671 and the A646 between Burnley and Padiham.

DISTANCE: 4½ miles (allow 2-2½ hours)

MAP: OS Explorer OL21 South Pennines

Even in the depths of winter there is still plenty of interest to see on our local rivers. This walk follows sections of both the Burnley Way and the Bronte Way and encounters the wooded valley of the River Calder meandering its way through parkland below Gawthorpe Hall.

This is one of Lancashire’s finest Tudor houses, built from 1600 to 1606 on a manorial site associated with the Shuttleworth family since medieval times.

In the 19th century James Kay Shuttleworth invited Charlotte Bronte to the hall and also funded the building of All Saints Church, Habergham.

In fact, Habergham Eaves was once its own rural township between the growing textile towns of Padiham and Burnley.

The Bronte Way long distance path (44 miles in total) actually starts or ends - depending which way you walk it - at Gawthorpe, having crossed the Pennines from West Yorkshire.

1. From the church follow the pavement away from the road junction past the entrance to a business centre.

Immediately after this turn left on the path signed for Cornfield Grove, this follows a track behind a school. Go straight ahead at the crossroads of tracks and follow the access to Top o’th’ Close Farm.

2. Go through the gate to the farm then turn immediately right behind it to a stile waymarked as the Bronte Way.

Turn left after the stile and follow a track towards pylons. At the next path junction fork left still following the Bronte Way and pass under the pylons. Cross further stiles to reach a white house on a lane.

Turn left along the lane and follow it downhill to cross the River Calder at a wide bridleway bridge.

3. Turn left after the bridge and follow the river bank which joins a rural lane leading back in the direction of Padiham. There are views across the river to Gawthorpe Hall.

When the lane enters woodland you can leave it on the left following the waymarked Burnley Way through the Grove Lane Plantation where there are some interesting wood carvings. The path eventually rejoins the lane by a high mesh fence.

4. Turn left here along a concrete walkway with the fence on the right. Turn right along the riverbank and cross the Calder again at the nearby footbridge.

Go straight up the steps on the far side of the river to join a residential avenue.

Turn right and the avenue leads to the A671 Padiham Road. Turn left along the pavement for a short distance until the lodge entrance to Gawthorpe Hall is reached.

Turn left and follow the driveway to the hall straight ahead for about half a mile. Past the car park a field gate is reached from where there is a good view of the hall.

5. Turn right at the gate and walk away from the hall up an adjoining driveway marked as the Bronte Way. When it forks continue straight ahead. The driveway crosses a cattle grid and follows a woodland track soon arriving at a park lodge on the A671 road to the right of the church.