At the weekend we headed over to Brinscall near Chorley in Lancashire for another hike from Nick Burton’s ‘ Year Round Walks’ Book. We had chosen a route from the Autumn section. But actually Spring is the perfect time to enjoy the early blossom and flowers that can be seen on this walk. 🌼
We used roadside parking in Brinscall, though there is a carpark next to the Swimming Pool, which looks out over a small lake. Brinscall itself is a nice looking village with The Cricketers Arms Pub , The Cottage Tearooms and a Fish & Chip Shop. The first part of the walk took us through a pretty Nature Reserve on a disused railway line. We followed The Jubilee Path which commemorates the Queens Platinum Jubilee in 2022. Local children designed the cute waymarker signs.
After leaving The Jubilee Path we had a quick look at the V C Memorial located just before the Church.
James Miller lived with his parents in the village of Withnell and worked at a local paper mill. The First World War broke out and James enlisted in 1915, joining the 7th Battalion Kings Own Royal Lancaster Regiment. After seeing action at Lens and Loos in Autumn 1915, the young private found himself moved on to The Somme. In July 1916 Private Miller was ordered to deliver an important message under heavy shell and rifle fire …..and told to bring back a reply at all costs!
James Miller was shot almost immediately after leaving the trench, the bullet hit him in the back and moved through to his abdomen. After compressing the gaping hole in his front James bravely delivered the message and staggered back with the reply, where he immediately fell dead at the feet of his commanding officer. He was 26 years old.
The route then took us along a farm track and down through a residential area, back to Brinscall Village. We then turned left along Dick Lane and headed towards the old Victorian Waterway called the Goit.
Just before Brinscall Hall we turned left and headed downhill and under the disused railway line.. The next part of the walk would take us through woodland alongside The Goit, this man-made stream connects local reservoirs. Unfortunately we completely lost track of our routes instructions here and missed our loop back. Though happily we did end up at a rather scenic spot!
We had arrived at White Coppice! I had seen this tiny picturesque hamlet featured on other peoples blogs, though hadn’t even registered that we were within walking distance of it. The green above is actually a cricket pitch. What a scenic backdrop. 🏏
After a brew here , we decided to retrace our steps back to Brinscall. Hopefully we will be back to explore the area, maybe get up onto the moors or find some of the local reservoirs….🌹
Walk 15 Brinscall, Lancashire Year Round Walks Book, OS Explorer 287 West Pennine Moors, 5 miles.
sunshine and celandines 
What a lovely country walk. You are so lucky where you are.
Thank you. 🙂
Sharon, I love the fact that you are able to reach these areas easily from home! It has been very wet here over the past few days and hopefully we can get out and about towards the end of the week. It is great that you can cross rivers and streams over lovely old bridges, also very photogenic, and is Wil an expert? He spotted Scarlet Elf cups. Here’s a link I thought might interest you both: https://gallowaywildfoods.com/scarlet-elf-cup-identification-edibility-distribution/ I’m not sure I would eat them; red to me signals ‘danger’. As always, a wonderful post. 🤗🌹🙋♂️xx
I agree with you about the colour red. 🙂 Wil isn’t an expert, just good at noticing things. There are some elfcups in the town where I live, very cute, and I didn’t know that they are edible! X
Edible or not, I think I would avoid eating anything involving elves! They can be very mischievous! 😂🤣
Absolutely 🤗 x
Good to see you tramping on my territory – at least near the area where I grew up.
Seeing Hugo on the cricket field brought back memories of walking over the Nab to White Coppice with our pet dog – a black Labrador! We’d usuallythe be off up the path up Great Hill.
Aw you can’t beat a black Labrador, my favourite dog, I’m not biased honest. 😁.What a pretty part of the world.
What a great walk & thanks for the info too. I was very touched by the story of James Millr, then had a giggle with the lane & cottage names. Ooh, those elf caps look like ears listening to us on the forest floor. Thanks for taking us along too, take care & hugs.
Thanks for those lovely comments Susan. 🙂 X
Someone has a sense of humour with that cottage name 🙂 The book sounds interesting and very useful, does it give details of where to park to start the various walks? Incidentally, you might want to revise the date that James miller was told to take a message 🙂 🙂
Ohh thanks Eunice! I hadn’t noticed. Regarding the book, yes it does. Very handy. X
Good old Lancashire.
A pretty walk. That poor young man. Underlines the futility of war for me.
Yes, although he was so extremely brave, his orders were basically to deliver that message and die. 😦 A waste of so many lives.
Indeed. Just cannon fodder.
It’s always a joy to come on these walks with you. Such wonderful scenery and you find such interesting things.
You should write a guidebook, e.g. Hugo’s Lancashire walks 🙂 Very sad story of that poor private. I watched “All Quiet on the Western Front” recently and it still resonates with me.
Thanks Kat. I have thought about watching the All Quiet film, I’m a bit rubbish at watching war movies, I hide all the way through them and can’t cope with the anticipation of something tragic happening.
This looks like such a beautiful spring walk!
Your walk brought back fond memories of our dog walks while staying in the UK. Lovely area.
Aw cheers for your comment Suzanne.