Drive & Stroll, with RON FREETHY

SUNNYHURST Woods on a bright May morning is a delight with flowers in bloom everywhere. A few weeks ago I mentioned the use which country folk once made of our hedgerow plants, long before we relied on the health service.

John Porter reminded me of an anonymous Lancashire poem dating to around 1850:

When Saturn did live, there lived no poor

The King and the beggar on plants did dine

With lily germander and sops in wine

With sweet briar

And strawberry wire

And Columbine.

Sops in wine were probably the pink blooms of clover. Bonfire was an old name for a daisy and may have something to do with the fact that the daisy was one of the first flowers to grow following a fire. The wire of the strawberry was another name for honeysuckle.

These days we know less about the folklore as we tend to concentrate on the scientific lists and details. With regard to Sunnyhurst Woods the expert is Peter Jepson. On sale at Visitor Centre is Peter's list of flowers which occur in the woods.

I love reservoir walks and Earnsdale is scenically beautiful and set close to the source of the River Darwen. Winter is regarded as the best time of the year for reservoir watching but May time can also be interesting.

I saw a dunlin and a shelduck whilst listening to skylarks and meadow pipits singing overhead. A couple of wheatears displayed and their prominent white rumps flashed in the sunlight.

Tockholes is one of my favourite villages. It dates back to Saxon times and perhaps as far as the Iron Age. The people are friendly towards walkers and their wicked sense of Lancashire humour is never far from the surface.

In 1964, the Evening Telegraph covered the story of the Tockholes Treacle Mines. Locals could apparently weave oatmeal and locally mined treacle into parkin. Not surprisingly they refused point blank to reveal the location.

Miracles do not happen in many places but Tockholes has more of an ear to the Almighty than most. The parish church in the 1890s had a larger congregation than could be seated in the nave. The answer to the problem lay in the construction of an outdoor pulpit.

This sort of evangelical preaching sounds more like chapel than the more conventional Anglicans. In the village there is also a splendid Nonconformist Chapel. This is a sure sign that in the early days the Dissenters found it essential to site their chapels in isolated villages such as Tockholes. There are others at Martin Top, near Downham, and at Rivington.

The return journey was not a disappointment. I saw a great spotted woodpecker and a sparrowhawk. This kept my eyes up but beneath my feet bluebells were beginning to carpet the woodland floor.

The route: From the Sunnyhurst Wood Visitor Centre and cafe follow the stream up to Earnsdale Reservoir, on to the Roddlesworth Visitors Centre and then on to Tockholes Village.

The return journey follows this route in reverse and it can also be done by using buses. I don't mind these strolls which retrace a route because you do get a different angle to the scenery.

The total distance is around five miles but it is an ideal spring stroll so take your time.