Brockholes Nature Reserve just outside Preston is a remarkable initiative of the Lancashire Wildlife Trust. I am old enough to remember the building of Britain’s first motorway. And it wasn’t the M1; it was the M6 Preston bypass. For almost forty years I would regularly drive the seven or eight miles from home to join the motorway at Junction 31, very often turning north over the Ribble bridge and passing the gravel pits below. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that there would one day be a wildlife haven down beneath that busy road. But today this is the reality.

The whole area is being transformed, and earlier this year the Trust opened its innovative floating visitor centre. Yes, even the restaurant and shops float on the water. This is not the kind of nature reserve on which green-clad middle-aged adults, toting long-lensed cameras and field glasses, move slowly around the paths like Trappist monks under vow of silence. There is a place for that kind of reserve, but this one is different. It describes itself as an “unreserved reserve” and welcomes the chatter of children.

There are family events of many kinds including recently a food festival and something called “Pumpkin Mania” which I’m sure you had to see to believe. The events calendar has recently included an evening on “Exotic wildlife photography”. There are organised walks, including Sunday afternoon (two and a half hours) guided tours of the reserve, and Wednesday afternoon one-hour “meanders”. Yes this reserve is for wildlife; but it is also for people.

Even the business world is catered for. There’s no anti-business greenery here. A well-appointed meetings centre is available for hire and, unlike so many cafes and restaurants with their “no meetings” notices, people are actively encouraged to leave the M6 and stop off to meet colleagues and customers around a table while floating on the lake.

But don’t be deceived. There’s also a serious conservation agenda here. There’s woodland, wet grassland, hay meadow, and of course the water. These are all being managed with a view to developing Brockholes as a wonderful place for birds, mammals and other wildlife as well as their human observers.

Now for an admission. I’ve written that entirely from what I’ve been told. No longer living in the area I haven’t yet visited Brockholes for myself (hence no picture here) – but it’s very definitely on the agenda. Congratulations to the Lancashire Wildlife Trust for a splendid initiative.

Read more at Brockholes.org.

See also: “Nature in the North”

There’s something very special happening on November evenings at the RSPB nature reserve, Leighton Moss, between Carnforth and Kendal. Yesterday Jen Walker wrote:

“Crowds of people are flocking to see a wilder alternative to watching fireworks this year at Leighton Moss. At this time of year the sky comes alive at dusk, as enormous flocks of starlings can be seen putting on a spectacular aeriel display above the reedbed.”
Click here for full article >>>

Leighton Moss is a great place. I remember many years ago patrolling up and down on the paths around the reed beds, stalking an elusive bittern with my camera and long lens. (Got it eventually!) But in November the big evening show is put on by the swirling starlings. This interesting article, which is also informative about the rapidly declining starling population in the UK, describes the spectacle as “Fireworks with Feathers”. Jen continues:

“Throughout November at Leighton Moss there are ‘Starlings and Soup’ walks being held every Wednesday from 2.30 to about 4.30 pm to explore the reserve and then watch out for the starling roost. As a treat, there will be a mug of soup served afterwards to warm up. The cost is £5.40 for adults (RSPB members £3). There is no need to book, just turn up.”

Why not, as they say, “just turn up” and see the sights.

Last week I mentioned some of the items on the blog that had received most attention since they were published. One of these was on Towneley Hall, Burnley.  The picture there was taken from my copy of the 1909 brochure, so I thought that today I’d put up here one of my own photos from a visit in January 2010.

Towneley Hall, Burnley, January 2010

I also referred to the glorious Hodder Valley.  The emphasis there was on the Hodder river itself, but nearby there is Stoneyhurst College, just outside the village of Hurst Green. Maybe I’ll write more about both of these great Lancashire buildings in the future, but for the present here’s another photo.

Stoneyhurst College, Hurst Green, Lancashire, August 2009

In previous articles I’ve referred to my love of the River Hodder in Lancashire.  Recently I came across some photographs taken one very snowy Saturday morning in, I think, 1991 (or it may have been 1992). It was a splendidly crisp day, and great to walk where no man had gone before, as it were.  I started by the Hodder itself, and then decided to drive into the Trough of Bowland and walk up by the Langden Brook, one of the smaller streams that feeds the Hodder.  I’d lost the photographs for many years, but have never lost the memory.

The Hodder near Dunsop Bridge (1991?)

Got here before the gritters

Looking down on the Waterworks, Langden Valley, Bowland

I’m the first here – apart from the sheep

The snow is thinner here – but desolate for miles now

As I’ve said before, the Hodder with its villages, and the Trough of Bowland deserve to be much better known – but don’t come in droves will you; I’d like to see it stay peaceful.

As I looked around this morning for something that illustrated the challenges faced by people during this period of unfamiliarly heavy and protracted snowfall in England I came across the following.  It gives a down-to-earth description of the situation for many of the people who produce our food.  The rest of us should be grateful.

From the Lancashire Telegraph

East Lancashire snow: How farmers are coping

Monday, 11th January 2010, By Emma Cruces »

“THE big freeze has left East Lancashire farmers working around the clock to keep their animals fed and watered. ……….”

[And I liked the pragmatic get-on-and-do-it attitude of the closing sentences:] 
” You couldn’t prepare for it, even if you knew, and you couldn’t do anything more. At the end of the day it’s the same for lots of people. You still have to make a shilling, so you get on with it.”

Full article »

When looking through the December 2009 issue of Country Walking Magazine I was rather surprised to find Burnley, Lancashire, listed among the month’s twenty-six recommended walking routes.  Now before anyone jumps to the conclusion that this is a southerner talking out of the top of his hat about the industrial north and “dark satanic mills”, let me point out that I grew up in Burnley, went to school there, and only left on getting married and moving fifteen miles down the road to Darwen.

The photograph above is copied from the 1909 official guide to Towneley Hall which, along with other publications, has been in my Burnley local history collection for many years – actually I have a 1911 reprint, not the 1909 first printing.

Having grown up in Burnley I think I can claim the right to be balanced and fair about it, without indulging in dishonest flettery.  There are some grotty parts.  I recently went back to the Burnley Wood part of the town and was seriously unimpressed with the condition of the area.  On the other hand there are some wonderful places, and Towneley Hall with its open fields and woodland park stands out among them.  So I should not really have been surprised; it’s just that it’s relatively unusual for the message to have got home to people outside the area.

I had the enormous privilege between the ages of twelve and twenty-one of living on Woodgrove Road  overlooking Towneley Holmes.  It was from this base that in my teens I learned the joy of walking in the countryside, across the valley, up and over the hill to Worsthorne and Hurstwood; along the valley to Walk Mill, Holme and  Cliviger Gorge.  Earlier this year, due to the illness and death of a close relative, I had to spend considerable time in the area and was reintroduced to exploring this wonderful landscape – wonderful, and yet so close to the legacy of 19th century industrialisation and 20th century urban sprawl.

The Country Walking route starts in front of Towneley Hall, takes you high above the town on the moors at Crown Point (where as a 10-year-old in the early 50s I was often to be found with the family Alsatian), down past Dyneley to Walk Mill and back along the valley close to the Calder to the Towneley Hall car park – or more likely the Stables Cafe.

This really is a inspired example of how people living in so many of Lancashire’s industrial towns have always been able to get out quickly into splendid countryside.  Towneley Hall itself warrants a future article of its own.

When I launched this blog just over eighteen months ago my plan was to start with the Lake District. I was also at the time developing a ‘non-blog’ site about the Lake District so that made logical sense, quite apart from the fact that along with Lancashire it’s the part of the country with which I have the closest personal connections.  Another piece of the plan right from the beginning, however, was to spread out more widely into the rest of England.

That time has now come. Although there have been occasional posts about other areas you should now begin to see a steady broadening. We’ll look at places in Lancashire and Yorkshire, with initially an emphasis on East Lancashire and West Yorkshire – the Pennine country.  From time to time we’ll look at my current home county of Nottinghamshire and cross the Trent at Newark Castle to explore parts of Lincolnshire. Places in Cheshire will get an occasional visit, and of course we’ll not forget those areas of Cumbria outside the National Park such as the Furness Peninsula.

This does not mean that the rest of the country will be completely ignored, but I don’t want to be overambitious. Let’s take the extension a stage at a time.  The North-East will get some attention, but anything comprehensive will have to come later.

In addition to expanded geographical coverage there will be a greater variety of posts. The descriptive articles will continue, as will occasional travel diary entries. There will be more items about books, and especially those that we have found unusually interesting, and not only new books but also older volumes now available only on the secondhand market.

We’ll link to newspaper sites when there are particularly interesting things happening, and also to official bodies such as the tourism agencies and national park authorities. The site has to pay its way, so there will be commercial components as well. For example, the hotel booking service will continue to be available through the site, extending beyond England to the whole of Britain – and actually far beyond our own islands.

To support all of this we’ll shortly be changing the layout and will be introducing a new indexing system to help people find their way around. During 2010 our target is to become one of the most popular sources of information about places to visit in our wonderful country, especially the northern counties.

So, watch this space.