Bleasdale School, Bleasdale Moor, Fiendsdale, Fair Snape Fell, Parlick, Lancs.
[ 19.4 km] Tue 02 Mar 2010

SD 6003 4437
The week’s weather report said Tue would be better than Wed so here I am on Tuesday hoping they’re right. There was mist and gloom as I drove to the lane below Parlick. I set off along Startifants Lane heading west. I couldn’t see the hills because of low mist but it started to clear after a while. I turned right at Wickins Lane End and headed down to Higher Brock Mill cottages. The map shows a Post Office but there’s non to be seen now. The milkman arrived as I passed the cottages and we chatted briefly.

He was also a local farmer and was the ideal man to ask about the Post Office. They attempted to sell it as a business many years ago but couldn’t so it finished up as a private house. I took the lane to the north to Bleasdale C of E primary School. I could have turned left here to follow the road but decided to continue north past the St. Eadmer’s Church and on to Admarsh Barn and its 1720 date stone. A footpath heads off to the left but the signs and gates don’t help much to get past the building. It isn’t a barn anymore but a private house.

I followed the path across a wet field and clump of trees to rejoin the road at Marles Clough. At Brooks I could see the old pack horse bridge a little further upstream. The access to it from the building had been blocked with tape so I walked along the steep bank of the river to have a closer look. It was quite narrow but had an interesting approach from the east. Later research shows that it isn’t a packhorse bridge as it was built after the 1840s and isn’t on any recognised packhorse route. I continued along the road and saw two children on bikes approaching. At the same time a car approached with children being driven to school. It was interesting to see that the children in the car looked miserable while the two on bike were happy and smiling.

Bleasdale Tower House was further along on the left but a high wall along the road meant I couldn’t see anything of it. Before the main road a Stang Yule I took a minor track to the right to enter open land on Oakenclough Fell. There was a reasonable track for a while but when it turned through a gate in to the wooded area to the right the way on was a rougher path which followed the wall side. At the end of the wall and woods I joined another and better track heading up on to Bleasdale Fell. The weather had started to clear a bit and I had a wonderful view to my right of the whole of the Bleasdale area. With an easy gradient it is a very pleasant track to be on. I wanted to check out the trig point so reluctantly had to leave the comfort of the track for much rougher fell. There had been quite a bit of erosion around the trig point pillar over the years and the base is standing proud of the surrounding ground.

There was now snow covering the heather making the going uncomfortable and rough. I headed east towards Fiendsdale Head but I had quite a bit of ground to cover before getting there. There was no sign of a path anywhere although I could see the occasional boot print in the snow. Approaching the small rise to Whinny bank I found some old pieces of wreckage which had all the appearances of being from a crashed aircraft. The only reference I can find to a crash near here is of a Blenheim BA246 bomber which crashed in 1944 while on a training exercise.