31st Aug 2023
It was now getting towards the end of our adventure season, the nights had begun to draw in and the evening temperatures had fallen. The weather forecast was for heavy rain around 8.00pm , I rang Graham to advise him of this but I wasn’t surprised when he said we should go regardless. So when I arrived at the bottom of the locks after a very muddy ride it was no surprise that Graham was wearing his jumper, ” Got my jumper on this week pal and you’ve got yours on too”, that meant it was photo time.
Now as the nights were drawing in I had only outlined a small adventure for this evening, a ride over to Drinkwater Park between Clifton and Prestwich encompassing Clifton Viaduct (13 Arches) . We began by making our way towards Ringley and down passed the Horseshoe Pub, just after the pub on the bank on the river Irwell what looked like a house was being constructed , Graham commented that he wouldn’t like to live opposite it , you would be looking at a house instead of the pleasant view of the river.
We rode along Red Rock Ln and came upon a large sign warning of imminent Danger. This was a place we had previously visited in 2016 when we got caught exploring the area by a security guard who in no uncertain terms told us to leave. The sign gave a very stern warning of the dangers, but only a matter of feet away there was a huge hole in the fence which gave easy access if you wanted to risk your life, we obviously didn’t so we carried straight on.
CLICK HERE TO SEE SIDE BY SIDE MAP 1900s- 2022
The path soon turned into a muddy and puddle filled mess but as extreme bikers this was of little hindrance as rode up onto the Outwood trail. We rode up a path of of bricks that where possibly from the old Molyneux Brow railway station that was situated close by and demolished over 50 years ago. We soon arrived at the bridge over the motorway, across the bridge we decided to carry straight on and onto the 13 Arches viaduct. The viaduct built in 1846 has been closed since 1966 and was fenced off for safety reasons, but vandals had made a large opening in the fence and there was a pathway of some description that led across. We left the bikes at the fence and proceeded to follow the path on foot as it wound it’s way across the huge structure. Part way across we spotted a bunch of flowers and a poignant note which related to the loss of someones Dad. We continued on pondering what had happened to the boys father. We got as far as we realistically could across the viaduct before we were forced to head back. The viaduct is some 300m in length and it took us nearly 4 minutes to return to our bikes which we hoped would still be there. As we meandered back across I heard Graham behind me exclaim, “Excuse me I did a little trump then” with a childish grin on his face.
We descended down from the viaduct into Drinkwater park where we stopped to read a sign post, Graham suggested we headed towards Philips Park as we had no real destination in mind. On our way Graham saw a path on our left that was closed and all taped off with hazard tape, he suggested we see why, so we proceeded to carefully explore why. The only reason we could see for the closure was a large pothole in the path. As we rejoined the original route Graham became entangled with the hazard tape as her attempted to follow me underneath but I’d let go of the tape a little too soon.
We rested in the small garden next to the old hall. We chatted about our previous weekends exploits. Louby Lou and myself had been lucky enough to have cruised with some friends on a canal boat along the Shropshire canal which was an absolutely fantastic experience. Graham and Val had been out down Manchester due to the train drivers strike they’d been unable to go on the planned “ale train”.
Suitably rested we continued our journey down towards the river. Graham told me about a friend of his Ian who is an avid follower of our blog, and asked if I could mention him, so there you go Ian you’re now know as our No1 fan. Thank you for taking the time to read about our adventures.
We now headed down hill back towards 13 Arches, as we did I heard Graham behind me “ Brumm brermmm, vroom brummm, vroom “ he sounded like a little child as he made his racing car noises. He then asked, “I wonder what noise children in the future will make, it’ll be all electric motors then that’ll be boring as eck “ . I thought he had a point there, how things would be different in the future.
We arrived back underneath the viaduct on our way up onto the the Outwood Trail, we stopped while I took a couple of photos. As per usual we took a wrong turn before we eventually found the path back up to the bridge over the motorway. At the top of the hill there was another signpost, Graham asked ” Why is there a sign for Bacup ?” ,” that’s some 22 miles away”. This has become a bit of a thing in recent adventures where Graham has given me a bit of a challenge to find out some facts, so here we go again -: The Irwell Sculpture Trail is the largest public art scheme in England, commissioning regional, national and international artists. The Trail includes 28 art pieces and follows a well established 30-mile footpath stretching from Salford Quays through Bury into Rossendale and up to the Pennines above Bacup.
The Outwood Trial follows the route of the old Clifton, Accrington & Colne railway line ,as were rode along the smooth path we saw some joggers approaching from the opposite direction so we pulled over to one side to let them pass, as they did each one in turn thanked us, a little courtesy goes a long way.
We exited the trail up a steep set of steps that after some strenuous effort led us up to Ashed Rd near Giants Seat. We followed the road until we spotted a public path through the fields ,as it looked like a good way to go we headed that way. At first all was well but the field began to get muddier and wetter the farther we went, until at one point we riding through 6 inches of stagnate smelly water, but extreme bikers don’t give up and we eventually made it onto Ringley road back down to the Horseshoe pub. Here we crossed over river Irwell and proceeded up towards our last point of interest, the railway bridge over Stoneclough Rd.
The bridge is undergoing some very extensive repair work. The repair work is said to be essential with the structure having new props inserted to raise the bridge, before the old props are removed. The props will also be raised to ensure that they are not damaged again by any oversized vehicle with the main aim of the work being to secure the longevity of the bridge and safety. We left the bridge behind and passed the Hare & Hounds pub which looked like it had been closed a while, possibly yet another pub lost.
It had just started to rain as we left the pub behind , both of us commented that we had been yet again lucky with the weather. We crossed over Bridge St and onward up to the canal towpath via Prestolee Rd which proved to be a lot easier than our usual route along Seddon St. Along the towpath and up Prestolee Rd we rode and up to the Meccano Bridge. We parted company shortly after and I promised as usual to sent our catchphrase text. The light had faded rapidly and by the time I’d got home it was dark. This may well be our last adventure of the season, but you never can tell.
