3rd August 2023
I had been struggling with where to go on our adventure this week. Places I had found were just outside our boundaries for us riding to, exploring and then returning home. As I pondered, I had an idea of where to go, so a quick Whats App to Graham and we were on.
Luckily Graham was home on time which meant we would have a decent amount of time to explore. From my house we headed on over the Darcy Lever viaduct , as we did Graham crashed into the back of me as I struggled to get through the barrier with my wide handlebars “ sorry pal, forgot about them handlebars “ he said kind of apologetically. As we crossed the second viaduct we bumped into an old friend of ours . A quick chat and we were on our way again, up along Manchester Road towards Bolton Town Centre. We were passed by 2 kid’s riding on one of those electric scooters , flying along with no helmets or anything, weaving in and out of traffic. We had taken the cycle lane and passed them as they tried to get through dodging cars as the traffic lights were red.
We arrived at the site of the old Moor Lane bus station which was now a busy building site where lots of buildings were under construction, they had certainly not hung about building these. Across the road on the site of the old Odeon cinema the area was being cleared, possibly for more buildings to go up in its place.
Up the Middlebrook trail we rode on yet again a lovely evening even if a little breezy. We both commented on how lucky we had been on our adventures recently with the weather Thursdays had been the only decent day in the weeks before. We continued up the trail but we were held up a quite a few times behind people, we couldn’t believe how busy it was , there were walkers, joggers, dog walkers, cyclists and kids on them damn scooters. After we had battled our way up to the Lostock arms we crossed over the road and then up through Regent Park Golf course on our way up to Horwich. The wind had picked up here and Graham said that he’d asked Val if she thought he’d need his sweatshirt, she’d replied no he wouldn’t but he then added “ you’ve not got yours on either pal, it’s alright when you’re in suburbia with your waney lap fencing but up here in the wilds it’s a different matter int it pal, but we’re extreme bikers so we’ll just get on with it “. His little rant over we emerged onto De Havilland way at the major set of traffic lights. We used the pedestrian crossing for safety reasons and successfully negotiated 3 of the crossings as Graham called out at each one “ Go go go “ as he saw the green man illuminated. At the last crossing though he got it wrong, as he shouted, I spotted that the green man wasn’t for us and stopped. Graham apologised for his error but it’s all about team work, each of us looking out for one another.
Once safely up onto Mansell Way we took a narrow path that led us up onto Chorley New Rd at the side of St Joseph’s School. Now we try and avoid major roads as much as possible but sometimes we have little choice. Just as we joined the road a taxi pulled out straight in front of me , fortunately he saw me and stopped at the last minute and I managed to swerve around him, this is why we try and keep off main roads.
As we continued up Chorley New Rd we passed a Co-op convenience store and I asked Graham if it used to be a pub as I was pretty sure it was but he didn’t remember, so another bit of research required-: It indeed was the site of a old pub The Greenwood Arms which closed in 2011 and remained derelict for a number of years until new shopping units were built in 2014 which we see today. A little further along we picked the waft of fish & chips which was emanating from A1 Chippy a little way ahead, it was that wonderful smell you get at the seaside. Graham jokingly said we should have got Pudding, Chips Peas & Gravy, doubt if we would’ve been able to get back on our bikes never mind have rode them
The route I had planned was to take us up towards Blackrod bypass but firstly I wanted to stop of and see my brothers old house on Fairbairn St , so we did , it looked like a lot of improvements had been made to the entire row of terraced houses since I had last visited . Whilst I paused to take a photo I suggested to Graham we continue up towards the Crown pub to see if we could find a weir that had been shown on the Komoot app, he said it was a cracking idea so we set off excitedly on a totally new adventure. We rode up Scholes Bank before we turned off down Squirrel Ln to locate the weir. Part way down the lane we saw a barrier on the left , through the barrier we turned right and followed the noise of the water to find the weir. I could hear Graham behind me “WEER IS IT PAL , WEER’S THIS WEIR” oh he loves a play on words. The weir itself was only narrow but was quite deep set in a lovely part of some grassland. The weir is actually on the River Douglas, not as I’d presumed just on a small brook. Looking away from the weir down into the dip we saw some unusual things in the distance so we set off to check it out, sadly they were behind a fenced area of the NW Scale Model Boat Club so we could only see them from afar.
I’d noticed what looked like a path off to the right, down we went hopefully it would take us in the direction we wanted to go. The path brought us out onto Crown Lane where the Komoot App directed us in the direction to get back on our original route , the App seemed to work like a Sat Nav when it redirects you, which we thought was brilliant, that was until it took us down a very narrow path which ran alongside Pear Brook.
The App said we could turn left at the paths end but disappointingly Network Rail had erected an large fence which blocked our way with a sign informing the Public Footpath was now closed which meant we had to do a y u-turn back up the path which was full of hazards . One of these hazards caught Graham out ,it was not the first time this has happened in recent years.
Fully recovered from the incident we backtracked Graham advised we turn right at the point we had turned up the path “ Don’t fancy going back up that way pal looks a tad rough, this way looks a lot nicer, a nicer estate, got newer cars and everything “. So right we turned and followed the road until we ended back up on Chorley New Road at the junction with Winter Hey Lane. Graham suggested we take a look at the old Horwich Locomotive works.
Most of the buildings of the Locomotive works had been demolished and a new housing development was in full flow but we managed to find a couple of the original structures and went to take a closer look. This is we’re things took a little turn for the worst. The building was fenced off in places and a few cones dotted around obviously it was awaiting demolition. As we approached it a security guard called out “ hey you can’t go down there” as he pointed towards the building. I’d stopped to take a photo of the old railway tracks still visible, Graham though being hard of hearing obviously hadn’t heard him and approached the building, only to be shouted at once again “ hey you, you can’t go near there, out , get away that’s why it’s fenced off” Graham replied “It’s not here tho” being a bit of a smart Alec. The guard yelled to him “that’s why the cones are there!! “ Graham responded yet again as he rejoined me “ but there’s non there tho” , by now the security guard was getting a little irate so it was time to go but not before Graham shouted out to me “ do you want to go and have a look pal ?” Probably not the best idea he’s had. We left the angry security guard behind and headed back up to Chorley New Road only to hear the sound of police sirens “ bloody hell pal that security guards got the coppers on us “ I joked as we assessed our possible escape routes.
We started the long journey down Chorley New Road as we headed back down towards Bolton on our way home, we’d had enough excitement for one evening . Chorley New Road is a very long road when your cycling seems to go on forever. We decided to pay a visit to the place on Victoria Road where our dear friend Phil sadly went to join the angels over 2 years ago. It was nice to see some tributes left to him by his loving family a constant reminder that he is always in our hearts and minds.
Back in the town centre we now called off on Bark St to examine the progress on the properties being built there that we’d visited back in May “Bolton In Decline “ . It didn’t appear that they had progressed very far apart from drilling a lot of holes. It was now time for our selfie and we chose to have it with a local legend, so off we went to find him.
The selfie successfully taken it was now time to head home. As we turned off Manchester Rd up by the police station on Scholey St we once again heard the sound of police sirens, we pulled over now residing to the fact that they had eventually caught us , only to see them drive right passed and straight into the police station, surprised they hadn’t stopped we didn’t hesitate to make good our escape and headed back along the viaduct only for Graham to crash into the back of me yet again at the barriers “sorry bestie forgot about your handlebars “ . Hopefully by the time I’m 60 he’ll remember. We parted company with our catch phrase ringing out “MESSAGE ME WHEN YOUR HOME! “
Brilliant !