Wray, Salter Fell, Thrushgill Fell, Lancs.
[ 20.8 km] Wed  23 Dec 2009

SD 6045 6745
My original plan was to use public transport to get to Slaidburn then do a one-way walk north over the Hornby Road to Wray then catch the bus etc home. Recent heavy snow meant the Clitheroe to Slaidburn bus wasn’t running so I went for plan B instead. I drove to Wray hoping to drive up to the Park House Lane area and leave the car there. I got as far as Wray OK but the roads after that were still covered in snow. I drove part way up ‘Above Beck’ then decided to return.

So I was now on plan C and left my car in Wray and set off along School Lane and up towards Salter. I hadn’t gone far before realising that plan C was definitely the correct one. The steep lane was covered in snow and a large 4*4 was taking it very carefully coming down the hill. Walking wasn’t too easy either. Snow that has been driven over is not good for walking on. I came to Beech House where a man was shovelling snow from the yard entrance. We chatted briefly and he said he’d not had any mail for days and he was expecting some fairly important stuff. I continued up and came to the junction with Moor Lane. Further up the road was a snow covered car parked just off the road.

Artistic fodder

It looked like it had been abandoned in the bad weather. There was also some novel art as some of the bales of fodder had faces painted on them by the entrance to Barkin Gate. At Lower Salter I came to the small Roeburndale Methodist Church. It had a date stone of 1901 and a snow man by the entrance gate. As I got higher the weather began to get worse and when I reached Higher Salter there was heavy snow and an increasing wind. The road ended here and I set off along the old Hornby Road. The farmer had just set off on his tractor with a load of animal fodder on the back.

The tractor tracks were even more difficult to walk on than those left by cars so I had to make the best of walking through the snow at the sides. He left the road to unload the feed for some cattle in a field to the left. I pressed on to the SE but found the goig quite difficult due to the depth of snow. The snow had stopped by now and I had a reasonable view ahead. The cross wind had drifted the snow across the road so that it was about knee deep and sometimes deeper. It was taking ages to make any headway so I decided that I would have to find a way to return to Wray.

Tractor on the road to Wray with
the Cumbrian fells in the distance

I didn’t want to just turn round and retrace my steps so decided to head east and pick up the road at Higher Green Bank. In the distance I could see the pine trees of Higher Thrushgill Plantation so I headed to its southern corner. As I left the track the snow got even deeper and at times I was up to my waste. I had a km of open ground to cross and half way across I stopped at a wall to have my butties. As I reached the trees the sun began to come out. Crossing more open ground didn’t appeal so I kept to the fence running along the plantation perimeter. The going was much easier and at Hawkshead Gill I followed the faint line of where the track was buried under the snow. There were now nice views across to Lyth Fell. Eventually I reached the road at Higher Green Bank but the going was far from easy. At least I wasn’t wading through deep snow but it was still quite slippery. At Higher Thrushgill the road was completely covered in snow and only the farm vehicles had been able to get through. The Botton Road continued through Botton Mill, Lane House and all the way back to Wray. Near Leyland Farm the Milk Tanker was being towed out of a bad patch by a farm tractor.

Wray memorial to the floods of 1967