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National Trail Guides UK
NATIONAL TRAIL GUIDES UK
Contents :: RIBBLE WAY :: Day 1
THE RIBBLE WAY RUNS FLOWS FROM ITS SOURCE IN THE YORKSHIRE DALES TO ITS RIVER MOUTH BEYOND PRESTON
Day 1 :: A Good Beginning :: Longton to Preston :: 7 miles
Turning left onto Marsh Lane we walked along a pleasant suburban road admiring the gardens either side. The varied mixture of houses was considerable, farms and cottages being intermingled with standard suburban semis. Some houses had large fields fronting them, with horses and donkeys. We walked past Black Lane, on our right and ventured on until reaching a fork in the road, beyond the limit of the housing. Our path continued ahead along Marsh Lane, the rightmost fork
We soon came to a road junction, the main road bending to the left; however, Marsh Lane continued to the right. On our right and our left there were extensive meadows. On an overhead power line along the roadside there were the occasional swallows and song birds. We passed, to our right, a football field owned by the Walmer Bridge Football Club.
In a short time we reached the Dolphin Inn, where many patrons were drinking outside, absorbing the sunshine and the best of the day.
Passing some attractive houses on our left and some donkeys in the corner of a field our road quickly turned to a track leading to a farm gate and stile, which we crossed to reach a raised embankment on the other side. The River Douglas was running parallel to us on our left.
Our path now targeted on some farm buildings in the distance, but before reaching them we were met with two gates and a diversion around some livestock pens, which meant passing over some 6 stiles in order to turn a tight circle no wider than 30 feet, to return and cross what had been the far gate, where there was a stile to a bridge across Longton Brook. The Longton Brook looked like a narrow trench filled with duckweed and surrounded by wayside flowers and herbage.
Shortly after crossing the brook there was another stile to take us alongside a fieldside hedgerow, to walk in a straight line along a field of maturing wheat until meeting a farmer's track. Our way lay ahead, although this took some musing before deciding it was the correct way to go. There was a Ribble Way sign but it was not visible unless one turned left along the track or first crossed the stile. The way right at first appeared to be the correct route.
We continued ahead along a slightly raised bank across a field until at last reaching a stile taking us to the right to join another levee leading to the River Ribble. Soon the silvery grey glistening of the Ribble appeared ahead, and we kept by its side for the rest of the way. We continued to walk along the levee along a rutted grassy track. Far ahead we could see the tops of buildings and other structures marking Preston's skyline.
There was nothing particularly eventful for awhile save for the nearing of Preston and its buildings. We could see the spire of St Wallburgh's church and the striking arched features of Preston's new football stadium. On the far side of the Ribble the Savick Brook appeared, draining into the Ribble; quite wide for a brook. Along the river we repeatedly saw geese and other ducks.
Soon the levee started to blossom with buttercups, and hugh tracts of dense camomile populated the centre of the levee. On the opposite bank we also saw (we first heard from some distance) motorbikes racing on a dirt track, many of them jumping considerable distances in the air.
As we neared Preston Docks we encountered Mill Brook, a small brook entering the Ribble from our right. Passing under some large pylons we met a wooden wall and entered beyond it along a narrow track between tall stands of grass, herbs and hawthorn. This soon burst into a myriad of blossoms and a golf course appeared to the right. On our left we had a view of the new housing built on Preston Dock.
We then skirted the edge of Priory Park, and our track widened and became graveled. We passed some electricity sub stations and then stopped to eat a late lunch. It was now past 4pm and we hadn't eaten since breakfast. We could hear, but could not see, trains hooting on the far side of the Ribble. Soon we passed beneath the span of the new bypass, some allotments on our right and many relics of old and rotting boats on the far bank of the Ribble.
We almost immediately left the park path and emerged onto the main road at Penwortham Bridge. We turned left and walked over the bridge, crossed the road at some traffic lights below and walked into Broadgate, where our car awaited us.
