12th July 2018
Journey Length 12.9ml
Click Here For Route Via Ride with GPS
The weather was due to break we had now had over 5 weeks of hot dry sunny weather, so it was tonight we had to ride and ride hard. I had earlier in the week been looking for somewhere for us to explore and I thought I had found an area. I text Graham Thursday morning checking we were on for tonight, he confirmed that, but first he had to hang some curtains, so we had an adventure.
I arrived home all ready to go just waiting for Grahams text to say he had set off to our rendezvous at the Jaguar garage in Farnworth. I arrived a matter of seconds before him. I explained where I had in mind and showed him the map “ahh you remembered it this week then” relating to me forgetting the map last week.
We set off along Bolton Rd through Farnworth heading towards Kearsley. Once we reached the roundabout at Kearsley we left the road and rode through the subway and over the Moss up towards Blackleach, the Moss was somewhere I hadn’t visited even though I lived close by for many years. We crossed the Moss and came to a dead end blocked by Kearsley Academy. In the left corner of the field we spotted a small path so we headed down it but this was leading us along the top of the railway cutting in the opposite direction we wanted to go .We came to some steps leading down to the cutting, so down we went. Riding along the overgrown path was quite difficult but we eventually made it out on to Springfield Rd and onwards up to Blackleach.
Once in Blackleach park we turned left, but were met by a fence with a sign “ Footpath Closed” but it the fence had been taken down, so sod it we thought we were going down it. The path used to be just a small dirt path weaving between trees, but this had been replaced with a smooth tarmac path which was great, unfortunately for us though they were still building it and it soon gave way to hardcore and gravel but this was fine for us extreme bikers. As we exited the path to continue across the road we were again met by a metal fence. “FOOTPATH CLOSED” the sign read, this time it definitely was, so we had to take an alternative route . A little disappointed we rode up Moss Ln to Manchester Rd turning left to our next point, the path through Ellesmere golf club. The entrance was a wooden kissing gate and as Graham struggled through with his bike he came through facing backwards “ohh no I’ll have to ride backwards the rest of the way ha ha”.
Graham managed to turn his bike the right way round so we proceeded through this unexplored area. It was at this point I commented “ we keep finding these hidden places” to which Graham replied “ YOU do pal, you’re amazing”, a great compliment from my best mate. After a short distance we were in the middle of the woods where Graham pointed out a shelter made out of branches, ”look at that mate” he said, “ yeah it’s a shelter that kids have made” I replied. “No it’s some pagan thing you know where they sacrificed people” he said ,a bit over the top of you ask me!
Leaving the sacrifice altar behind we soon met a large obstacle, 3 fallen trees, I stopped, dismounted and carried my bike over the tree trunks hearing behind me “should have bunny hopped them pal”, “go on then show me how it’s done and I’ll video you” I retorted. Grahams reply “ naa need a bit of practice first” so off his bike he got too. Graham took point from here and was soon stopped again by an even bigger fallen tree, off we got again.
We emerged on the East Lancs Rd and turned right up towards Walkden. After stopping for a quick study of the map we found the steps that took us down onto the Roe Green loop-line which is a lovely smooth path which took us up a slight incline all the way to our turn off at Harrop Fold school . Here the path took us up to Ellesmere Ave then left on to Manchester Rd then right at the lights up Ellesmere St. It was here we came across a pretty new looking building all boarded up and overgrown. We couldn’t decide whether it had been an old people’s home or flats (further investigation later provided us with an answer it was a guest house/ youth hostel called Joan Lester house).
From here we headed on to our next point of call St Mary’s park, as we did Graham pointed out we were going down a one way street, asking him if we were OK to go down , he replied ”yeah the arrows in the road were pointing our way” ,I couldn’t argue with that. St Mary’s park which I had spotted on Google looked quite pretty but when we got there it was a disappointment. Gone were all the flowers, just sun dried grass and overgrown in parts, but at least we had found it which had looked unlikely at one point even following our map
Exiting the park we picked up the Linnyshaw loop line path which should have brought us to the turning taking us back towards home, but as usual on our adventures nothing goes as planned, which just adds to the excitement. After taking a turn off the path we found ourselves in the middle of a courtyard. Not knowing how to get out we rode around aimlessly for a while eventually finding a small path, hooray we were out! Sadly though the path only led us back to main road we were previously on.
Now we rode up towards New Bury where we cut through an estate, rather quickly too, this area had a reputation as being a bit rough.
Once through the area we followed a fellow on a push bike wheeling and going at a pace, we caught up with him shortly on a nearby street rather shadily dropping a small packet of something at a house, we didn’t hang around.
Our next building was St Thomas church a magnificent building and after a quick look around we headed down Egerton St to find they are demolishing the old Moses Gate pub. We took a little detour down the ramp on to the platform at Moses Gate railway station. Whilst on the platform we took a chance to have a little catch up and chat just as a train went passed. Graham then asked “ ever thought of being a choo choo driver, apparently there’s a shortage now and it’s not like you can get lost” .Now I was thinking he meant a steam train “ you’ll need to have some experience of steam engines though” I replied. Graham looked puzzled “no, not steam trains, like that one that went by, only said choo choos because they only had steam trains when you were young”, a little dig about my age, even though we are both in our 50s.
Leaving the platform we parted company “don’t forget to text” , “I wont” I replied.
