by The Serf | Apr 14, 2020 | The Wainwrights, Walking
Photo above by Andrew Nichol. Copyright of Chris Butterfield, Wainwright Archive September 2019. Driving up to the Lakes with the radio on, I had the misfortune of hearing the BBC news reporting ‘revelations’ from David Cameron’s memoirs. I switched off and...
by The Serf | Jul 3, 2018 | Walking
Kids in bed and the prospect of the next day free to spend walking on the hills, I was in my element. I spread out the OS Explorer map of the Forest of Bowland across the living room floor. A better read than any book, this familiar map is not just a paper record of...
by The Serf | Jun 26, 2018 | Walking
I consider myself richer than a king when I can walk out of my house on a summer’s evening and climb Pendle Hill to watch the slow sunset over Bowland’s western fells. Then by the light of June’s strawberry moon I can drop down to the hedged back lanes of silent...
by The Serf | Jun 25, 2018 | Walking
From Clitheroe to Pendle Hill Beyond Mearley Hall the softer Ribble Valley landscape of hedges and cows quickly gave way to drystone walls and sheep, the sign of a changing geology. Here is the transition, visible in the features on the ground, from the pastoral...
by The Serf | Jun 24, 2018 | Walking
Any man can draw up a petition, and any man can carry it up to London, with instructions to deliver it into trusty hands, to be presented whenever the House shall meet.” [ William Cobbett, 1816 ] Over the last eight years the traditional English field path has become...