Whitendale, White Crag, Centre of UK, Brennand, River Dunsop, Bowland.
[ 18.5 km] Fri  25 Sep 2009

SD 6549 5152
My walk today is in the Dunsop Bridge area and as it’s less than an hour’s drive I was able to start walking earlier than normal. From Dunsop Bridge the road to Whitendale and Brennand is private and plenty of signs remind you of that. As I was leaving some proof photos at Bishop’s House for Paul I parked outside his house. As I was setting off the Gamekeeper stopped to ask if I had a permit. I explained my reason for being there and he seemed happy. I hadn’t been walking up the road long when his assistant drove by and asked the same question. I continued north along the estate road with the river Dunsop on my right. Where the road splits so does the river. To the left the river Brennand comes down the valley and to the right the Whitendale River. I turned right to the main Whitendale buildings. The main building has a stone shield over the door bearing the date 1854. The whole area was developed as a water catchment for Blackburn Corporation Waterworks prior to 1884 so I don’t know if the building was part of their ownership. It not it seems a large building to be in the middle of nowhere. I continued up the valley along a farm track and then a way marked path to Salter Fell. On the side of Whitendale Fell the indistinct path follows through wet reed beds and the occasional wooden bridge to get over the worst bits. Part of the way I was following the tracks of a tracked vehicle which had crossed the Whitendale River at Higher Stony Clough.

I had been here a couple of weeks ago and seen the machine high on the fell below Burn Fell. It’d assumed it was cutting a path up the hill so after crossing the river I followed the tracks straight up the hill. The reason soon became apparent. I came to a recently constructed shooting butt and higher up were a line of others which had been there some time. When the gradient eased and flattened I was on very rough and difficult ground with no sign of a path whatsoever. I was now looking for the centre of Great Britain which according to the Ordnance Survey is a point not too far away. I’d put the co-ordinates SD 64188 56541 into my GPS and was using that to decide the best way to go. I headed for the fence line coming down from White Crag and following it made for slightly easier going. In the distance were Whitendale Hanging Stones on the left of the fence and the GB centre somewhere to the right of the fence.

The Centre, the GPS reads SD 64188 56541

The Centre of Britain.

Some notes on the centre point from the BBC website.
According to the Ordnance Survey's definition, the centre of Great Britain (factoring in its 401 associated islands) lies on Brennand Farm, about seven kilometres north-west of Dunsop Bridge. On the exact point - grid reference SD 64188.3 56541.43 - there is no monument or sign. It is just an undistinguished clump of grass surrounded by peat bog. Ordnance Survey spokesman Trevor Mouncey said the gravitational method was the standard arithmetic principle of determining the centre of an irregular two-dimensional object. As such it has been used by everyone from Captain Cook to Nasa. It's a standard scientific application. Mr Mouncey said the Ordnance Survey calculated the point at the request of a customer, but he did not understand why it generated such interest. As a cartographer, the centre of a land mass holds no romance or ethereal connotations as every cartographer and surveyor knows there is no such absolute, he said. I guess the less objective among us derive interest and intrigue from these points and I guess it might have something to do with the roll-out of scientific discovery over the last three centuries. The location of Great Britain's true centre may never be entirely clear because of arguments over what method should be used to calculate it and the fact that Great Britain's shape changes with tides and erosion. The basic problem is one of determining the centre of an irregular three-dimensional object on the surface of a sphere, Mr Mouncey said. Not only that, but the irregular object is surrounded by water which keeps moving about and is also responsible for changing the shape of the object on a daily basis.

I decided to check out the stones first and was pleasantly surprised to see that they were of various interesting shapes. There was also some good shelter behind the largest outcrop so I stopped to eat my sandwiches. From the stones to the GB centre it is 225m so I crossed the fence and headed off across very rough moor. I’d assumed there’s be nothing to mark the spot so I picked up a flat rock to mark it when I got there. I soon reached it and found what appeared to be a hole in the ground which could have been made by a pole, though there was none to be seen anywhere nearby. I continued west to Brown Syke then followed Round Hill Water down to an interesting wooden footbridge. It was of suspension construction and seemed overdesigned for such a remote location.

A little south I came to the wooden shooting cabin and the vehicle estate road. I followed it down Brown Bank to the point where the old water aqueduct follows the contour round the hillside. I followed the silted up watercourse via Folds Clough and Well Springs Clough and also photographed the old stone intakes dating back to the 1880s. At Far Pasture Clough I took the direct descent down to Brennand Farm and left an envelope of paper prints of the old photos for the farmer. There was nobody at home so I left the envelope by the front door. I kept to the estate road all the way back to my car and didn’t see anybody all the way back. Apart from the gamekeeper and his assistant first thing I hadn’t seen anyone all day.

Folds Clough 1884

Folds Clough Sep 2009.

Springs Clough 1884

Springs Clough Sep 2009.