Hurstwood, Worsthorne, Gorple Road, Cant Clough, Lancs.
[10.5 km] Fri 18 Apr 2014

OS Grid Ref: SD 88187 31265
Lat/Long: +53.777584, -02.180742

I made a last minute decision to try a local walk this morning. Being Easter Good Friday and sunny I knew there would be plenty of people wherever I went. I drove to the car park at Hurstwood near Burnley. The main reason was that I wanted to investigate an old brick building on the Gorple Road that John Harrison emailed me a photo. It looked very much like the control room of a WW2 Starfish decoy site. I reached the car park only to find it ‘pay & display’. It was empty. The nearby approach road was quite wide and several cars were already parked there, so I left mine there as well. I headed back along the road through Hurstwood then took the path across fields to Worsthorne. Part of it was stone slabs set in the field and these continued by the side of an old walled lane that went straight to the middle of Worsthorne.

Passing St John’s Church I turned right and east along the Gorple Road. Away in the distance I could see groups of people already walking ahead in the distance.

Before I reached the site of the brick structure I saw two local men by some allotments. I asked the first if he knew anything about the building. He didn’t but said his friend nearby Alf Armstrong (Big Alf) would. He did and remembered when it was a decoy installation during the war. It was partly decoy aircraft hangers made of canvas which eventually caught fire and burned down and not as a result of enemy action.

I walked up to the brick structure and took some photos before continuing up Gorple Road to Wasnop Edge where I mad a short detour to investigate a couple of stone cairn circles shown on the map. There wasn’t much to see, just some small low stones and a ditch. Returning to the track I continued up to the east with the many people also enjoying the sunshine. At the summit and boundary I turned right along a faint path to the rock outcrop called Hare Stones. There was nobody in this area of moor so I stopped for some lunch before following the line of a path shown on the map down to Rams Clough.

There is no sign of any kind of the path on the ground. On Hazel Edge there was a path that I was able to join and follow. It became quite substantial as I continued to Hindle Banks above Cant Clough reservoir. It was a pleasant green lane by the time I reached Hurstwood Reservoir but as I descended along the track down through the trees there were lots of walkers and mountain bikers. I was glad to get back to the car. The road leading away from the car park was now packed with parked cars.