Tuesday, 25 August 1925 Jacob’s Ladder

Post:        Sounds more like an apple ‘scrunching’ run than a bike ride, and I have never seen any of these ladders, situated as they must be in a quarry. Lots of rock climbers now frequent this quarry so perhaps they have been moved or the quarry returned to production in the intervening years.

Tuesday, August 25                                        Jacob’s Ladder

Ben came over tonight for a run by Anglezarke Lakes to Jacob’s Ladder, so we started at 7pm.  Before Lostock was reached, the discovery was made that both of us were without lamps, and as lighting-up time was 9.10pm, we hadn’t much time to throw away.  From Horwich we went by Lever Park to Rivington, the along the rough road that runs by the second lake and gives beautiful glimpses of that reservoir.  A drop through woods brought us to the beautiful banks of Anglezarke, around which we rode to the cul-de-sac.  Leaving our bikes behind a wall, we walked up through the woods on which the setting sun poured golden rays.  Many rough steps took us to the foot of the cliff, up which three iron ladders run, separated by convenient ledges on the second of which is a covered well.

As the route is private, and the farmer, whose buildings are just across a field in full sight, is liable to irate eruptions if he sees anyone on his path, some care is needed to keep quiet.  From the top (where we stood hidden by a wall), we watched the sun, a great red orb, slowly dip into the sea, tinting the Ribble estuary in red streaks.  We would have liked to have stopped here for a space to watch the evening coming on, but our lampless conditions forbade it, and we had to make a reluctant return.  We did spend a moment in the already darkening woods, picking raspberries and watching the reflection of trees and sky in the water.  One cannot hurry away from this type of scenery.

Climbing to Upper Anglezarke Reservoir, we discovered it empty, perhaps it has been drained for rebanking purposes.  It is a lot deeper that I thought, and a river runs along the stubbly bed.  For the most part it is not natural, and we fell to speculating what it used to look like once.

From Rivington village it was a race against time along the main park road to Horwich and along Chorley New road, returning via the new Beaumont road to the old – and better – road through ‘New York’ to Deane and home just in time.                                                    22 miles

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