Drive and Stroll, with Ron Freethy

THE coming of the year 2000 is a bit like the eclipse - two minutes of time and it has gone.

It is, however, a good time to take stock and see how things have changed. Thus it was that I reached for a book called 'Rambles by the Ribble,' written in 1870 by a chap called Dobson: "There is no pleasanter walk on the banks of the Ribble than from Ribchester where the waters of three rivers, Ribble, Hodder and Calder, meet near Mitton. It is not more than a good pedestrian would manage in two or three hours, but I have no faith in excursionists in the neighbourhood of beautiful scenery walking as if they were backed against time, or when the task is being done at such a speed as allows no opportunity of noticing the scenery along the route."

Well said Dobo, I'm proud of you - I'm more of a stroller than a serious walker myself. There is plenty of parking along this week's walk but Dobson obviously relied on what was then a very reliable train service.

So it was that I set off from Ribchester on one of Dobson's 1870 rambles.

He paused to look at Stydd Church and then crossed Ribchester Bridge and turned right to look at New Hall. So did I.

He had then done enough walking for a bit and had a bite to eat at the De Tabley Arms. So did I.

He then set off from Ribchester Bridge to explore Sale Wheel, keeping the Ribble on the left. Pick your day, take your time and this bit of England is a treasure.

My first halt after Ribchester was at Stydd to view the old alms houses built by the Sherburnes of Stonyhurst, but possibly using some Roman pillars from the fort at Ribchester.

It is good to see that the houses are still in use but they obviously now have late 20th century services and the well in the garden is redundant. Swallows, swifts and house martins swooped around Stydd farm and the Crusaders' chapel which share the hill.

Like the alms houses, the chapel has been restored so that the structure is safe.

Inside, however, all is bare, but this enables the 12th and 13th century architecture to be better appreciated.

New Hall, despite its name being old, is as it was built for a member of the Talbot family in 1665; the name was given to distinguish it from the nearby Old Hall at Salesbury.

It was lived in when Dobson halted to enjoy its architecture, lived in but rather worse for wear in 1905 and totally derelict by 1980. During the last few years it has been rebuilt and it has now settled down so well that it is one of the best examples of a mid 17th century house to be found in Lancashire.

I turned round at the New Hall, took refreshments at the De Tabley (once called the Ribchester Bridge) and followed the old road until I reached the footpath to Sale Wheel.

Wheel comes from the Anglo-Saxon word for a whirlpool and this certainly applies after rain when the Ribble twists and turns through an ever narrowing gully of limestone rocks.

This is countryside ideal for anglers and naturalists, as sweeping woodland descends to the river. I sat on a bank with my binoculars focussed on the river on which was a female goosander with her family of eight young. A dipper bobbed up and down on the rocks and a heron waded in the shallows.

As dusk came gently swallows and swifts fed on the flies over the water and pipistrelle bats seemed everywhere. A tawny owl called from the shelter of a Scots pine, and an angler landed a trout almost at the same spot that Dobson told his readers was an ideal place for anglers.

The wonderful thing about this stroll is that apart from the transport used to get there, this route has hardly altered in almost 130 years. Such is the pressure to keep our countryside "natural" that the next millennium will also see few changes. Let us hope that this is the case.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.