Friday, February 10 – Anglezarke

Embarking at 2.45pm, we made for Horwich in a warm bright sun, and with the wind behind us we made good progress, three of us.  One was new to cycling but being under our able (?) tuition he lacked little??  From Horwich we took the Chorley road for a mile or so to the Millstone Hotel, where we turned right, up a long hill.  Two miles brought us to a little village where, at the one and only shop we refreshed ourselves.  The going now became very rough downhill, whilst the ups, which we were obliged to walk, were fairly smooth.  This kind of thing gets your goat.  At length we rattled over the stone bridge at the foot of the lake, and after a short run round the side we halted near to the head of Anglezarke Reservoir.

Anglezarke reservoir and beyond

After lunch we ‘docked’ the bikes against a tree and went for a scamper through the leafless woods, coming to Jacobs Ladder.  I do not know how it came by that name, the ladder being an iron rung one running up the face of a cliff about 50 feet high, and broken in the middle by a little ledge on which there is a well covered by a grating.  I suppose it was put there as a short way down from the farm, just a little way off, to the reservoir below.  A fine panorama of the country towards the coast can be seen from here.  It is private property, as we discovered later.  Retracing our steps we drew anchor and sailed off.  Near the bridge is a footpath through a gate which we followed into Leverhulme Park, and gaining Chorley New Road, sped home.

22 miles, 2.25 hours