All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
- Tolkein
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| Prince Vulpine and Loki, Walking the Tolkein Trail (c)Emily Traill |
In the years surrounding the turn of the Millenium, when most of Team Vulpine were still children, we spent quite a lot of time exploring the area between the North and South Downs known as The Weald. There was plenty for us to explore in this region of Sussex (and a bit of Kent), with castles, abbeys, Roman remains, stately homes and hillfigures around every corner.
One of the main routes through the area is the A21, heading south from London and terminating at Hastings. At one point it passes through the village of Hurst Green, where one can turn west and make for Rudyard Kipling's home at Batemans, now run by the National Trust. Other NT sites not too far away are the picturesque Scotney Castle and the strikingly photogenic Bodiam Castle, and the remains of Bayham Old Abbey lie to the Northwest. The village lies at the heart of the High Weald NL (National Landscape).
But that was yesteryear. Now, I find myself residing close to another NL, the Forest of Bowland, and in the emerald scenery of the Ribble Valley, and starting an exploration from a village called... Hurst Green.
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| Hurst Green |
My previous article also covered some of the Ribble Valley, as well as parts of Ribblesdale, farther north in the magnificent Yorkshire Dales. It was written almost five years ago, while Eldest and I were engaged upon a short visit to Middle, who had recently moved to the area. Shortly after this visit, the first of the Coronavirus lockdowns kicked in and I took a sabbatical from writing. It lasted longer than I expected, and much has changed in that time. Team Vulpine split apart geographically, only to converge again in the Northwest of England, and we all now live in the County Palatine of Lancashire.
There is much to see in this magnificent part of the world, and when it came to break my writing hiatus it was difficult to know where to start. The Peaks, the Dales and the Lakes can all be reached within an hour of my new home, and I am gradually becoming familiar with them... but the Ribble Valley is the closest, so it makes sense to start there.
Hurst Green, the Lancashire version, was a hamlet back in medieval times. It owes its growth to the Shireburn family, local Catholic gentry, and more specifically to the manor house built outside the settlement by Richard Shireburn in 1537, replacing earlier buildings on the site. Stonyhurst Hall, as it was called, was further enlarged in the early 1700's by Richard's descendant Nicholas Shireburn. The main branch of the family died out toward the end of that century, and the property was inherited by a relative through marriage, Thomas Weld of Lulworth Castle in Dorset. As avowedly Catholic as his predecessors, Weld donated the Hall to the English Academy in France, which had moved from St Omer through Bruges and finally to Liege before the hostile fervour of the French Revolution made their presence in France unviable. A contingent of Jesuit priests and displaced pupils arrived here in 1794, and the Hall became Stonyhurst College. Its success through to the present day guaranteed the growth of the nearby hamlet into a thriving village.
Perhaps the College's most notable alumnus is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (below), who boarded here between 1868 (when he was nine years old) to 1875. His fellow pupils included Patrick Sherlock and the Moriarty brothers, John and Michael.
Other notable alumni include Vyvyan Holland, son of Oscar Wilde, the Poet Laureate Alfred Austin and the actor Colin Clive, famous for his declaration "It's alive!" in his role of Dr Frankenstein in the classic 1931 movie. A teacher at the College was the Irish poet Gerald Manley Hopkins.
Hurst Green is also known for the circular footpath that starts and terminates in the village, the 6.7 mile country trek called the Tolkein Trail. To be fair, it's not the only one. Another exists in Birmingham, where the future author spent his childhood, but as I have never managed to visit Birmingham, there is nothing more I can say about it. The more rural version, however, is a short drive away from my current residence. What, one might ask, does this attractive area of the Ribble Valley have to do with the Oxford professor and renowned fantasy author, J R R Tolkein? Read on...
The Trail begins at the village's prominent war memorial, and I stroll along a quiet street called Warren Fold before entering a field with the turrets of the College visible ahead. Across a couple of fields, the edge of the College itself is reached, and the Trail passes an Observatory and a couple of pavilions. The former was completed in 1868 and the latter in the late 17th century, when they were part of a walled garden.
The Observatory
Pavilions
Swinging left, I now go through Hall Barn Farm, passing its medieval barn and down its driveway to the hamlet of Woodfields, admiring a broad view that culminates with the ever impressive Pendle Hill.
Woodfields is where the shade of Tolkein looms the most. He was a visitor to Stonyhurst in the 1940's when his son John trained here to be a priest, and again in the 60's when another son, Michael, was a teacher here. On the later occasion Tolkein stayed at Michael's home at Woodfields. It is said that Tolkein drew inspiration from the area when he was writing about 'The Shire' in his Middle-Earth novels and it is certainly easy to believe, with the Shireburn Arms pub highly visible in Hurst Green and a road called Shire Lane in the vicinity. The connections are probably exaggerated, not least because he does not appear to have visited the area prior to writing 'The Hobbit', but it's a nice story and did, after all, inspire the bracing country walk which I am enjoying.
Medieval barn
View of Pendle Hill from Hall Barn Farm
Strolling through Woodfields and leaving the hamlet behind, I cross a field, keeping Over Hacking Wood on my left and then descending a set of steps through the woods, ambling across a small and rustic bridge, and finding myself staring down a wooded slope at the River Hodder. This waterway, rising several miles away in the Forest of Bowland, was once a border between Lancashire and Yorkshire, before the big re-ordering of the counties in 1974.
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River Hodder
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The path climbs a steep and murky incline, the river dropping below me through a steep thicket on the left as a high, ancient wall rises to my right, protecting the property called Hodder Place. The path now falls towards flat, open fields used as livestock pasture, bordering the watercourse as it swings right. At this point there are remnants in the undergrowth, the remains of structures calling back to a time when the Stonyhurst pupils rowed boats along this rapid stretch of water. The wall and a proliferation of garden trees conceal Hodder Place from view until the curvature of the river is reached, when one can look back at the isolated building squatting on its prominent point.
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Features near Hodder Place
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Although now converted into flats, Hodder Place was originally constructed late in the 18th century as a preparatory school for Stonyhurst, and was extended in the 19th century. The site originally held a factory. It was the first home for Conan Doyle when he arrived on September 15th, 1868, at the age of nine.
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| Hodder Place |
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| ACD third from left, top row, shortly after starting at Stonyhurst |
The trail now follows a level track between the verdant floodplain and the relentless flow of the Hodder. A bridge is reached, the New Lower Hodder Bridge, carrying the country road B6243 between the villages of Great Mitton and Hurst Green. The ungainly name of the bridge is to differentiate it from its close neighbour Old Lower Hodder Bridge, which thankfully is better known by the name Cromwell's Bridge.
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| Cromwell's Bridge |
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| New Lower Hodder Bridge |
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| The cobbled surface of Cromwell's Bridge |
The younger bridge was constructed in the early 1800's, but the older was built in 1562, commissioned by Richard Shireburn and neighbouring landowners, and constructed by stonemason Richard Crossley for £70 (about £27,780 in today's money). It is a packhorse bridge, its parapets kept low so as not to snag the packs of the beasts of burden using it.
The connection with Oliver Cromwell lies with the events leading up to the Battle of Preston in August 1648. On the 16th, the future Lord Protector and his 8-9,000-strong New Model Army arrived at the river crossing after marching from Skipton via Gisburn, aiming to cut off the Royalist army at Preston. In a letter to the Speaker of the House of Commons, William Lenthall, Cromwell scribbled: "...it was resolved that we should march over the bridge; which accordingly we did; and that night quartered the whole Army in the field by Stonyhurst Hall being Mr Sherburn's house...".
Cromwell went on to win the Battle of Preston, and five months later his nemesis Charles the First was beheaded for treason. One can only wonder at how long it took to get thousands of men and beasts across the Hodder, and considering that the bridge stood on a natural fording point, presumably most just waded through.
The trail continues, along the road to Hurst Green for a while before diverting across fields to Winkley Hall Farm, which has buildings dating back to the C17th, and centuries before that was part of an estate owned by the Knights Hospitaller. In the late 1310's, it was in the possession of John de Winkley, who backed the wrong horse when he supported the rebellion of Thomas Earl of Lancaster against his cousin Edward II. The Earl was captured following the Battle of Boroughbridge in 1322, and subsequently beheaded at Pontefract. John de Winkley, presumably to his great relief, was pardoned.
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| The Winkley Oak |
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| Winkley Hall Farm |
Beyond the Farm, we encounter the Winkley Oak which, according to experts from Kew, is at least 300 years old and boasts an impressive bole at its base. At this point the trail becomes riverside again, and also at this point we say goodbye to the Hodder as it crashes into its mother watercourse, the river after which the whole Valley is named, the irrepressible Ribble. Here, herons stalk the confluence, kingfishers dart through the foliage on the far bank, and a cheeky weasel wriggles across the path in front of me. I stroll past the eye-catching Winkley Oak and continue along the riverbank, open fields now to my right.
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| Confluence of the Hodder (right) and the Ribble (centre) |
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| Structure in the river. Fish trap? |
After a few minutes, a second aquatic junction is encountered, and this time it is the Lancashire Calder joining its waters to the Ribble. Sand martins swoop and soar, their nests visible in the raised riverbank near the confluence.
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Sand martin nests near the Ribble/Calder confluence.
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In the fields to the right are a couple of low mounds, only fairly recently identified as man-made, and while they are yet to be archaeologically investigated they appear to be Bronze Age barrows, making them the oldest visible relics in a landscape already steeped in antiquity. Beyond them, on a rising and partially wooded slope close to farm buikdings, can be seen an old stone Cross (known as the Cross Gill Cross, named after Cross Gill Farm, which was named after the Cross Gill, which was named after the Cross), the base of which dates to early Christian times.
Beyond the confluence, on the opposite bank, stands Hacking Hall. It was the ancestral home of the de Hacking family from about the year 1200, passing in later years, through marriage, to the Shuttleworth family and later the Walmsleys. A ferry used to operate here, joining the communities of Dinckley and Hurst Green, but was discontinued in the early C20th. It seems to have been set up by the Shireburns in the C16th to get their parishioners to Great Mitton church on the other side of the river. After a period of decline, the ferry service was discontinued in 1955. One of the ferries survived, and is kept in storage at Clitheroe Castle Museum a few miles away. Naturally, it has been suggested that this crossing - which, to be fair, would have been known to Tolkein - provided the inspiration for the Buckleberry Ferry in his Middle-Earth classics.
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| The confluence of Calder and Ribble |
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| Hacking Hall |
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The Hacking Ferry in action
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Past the confluence, the river kinks right and, after about half a mile, it resumes a western course and passes what appears from a distance to be a bridge, but is in fact a craftily disguised aqueduct. What looks like a structure for pedestrians turns out to be a rather splendid conduit for a water pipe.
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| Aqueduct |
The trail veers away from the Ribble soon after we pass the aqueduct, and after a steep but short climb through a watery thicket, it's just a matter of strolling across a couple of sheep-riddled fields before once more we are in Hurst Green, and the circular Tolkein Trail is complete.
No hobbits, just Stonyhurst schoolkids. No Ringwraiths, just roe deer if you're lucky, and you'd be hard-pressed to compare sand martins with fell beasts. Perhaps the weasel that slunk across my path has a parallel in Gollum.
Even without the Tolkein connection, the countryside around Hurst Green, on the border of the Ribble Valley with the Forest of Bowland, has a scrappy historic energy and a broad variety of countryside to wander, from the wild garlic undergrowth approaching the Hodder, to farms with the shades of medieval traitors haunting the bowers, and the constant gurgling of running water in a land where the New Model Army once noisily traversed.
It's good for both legs and imagination to be wandering again.
