Britain's Best Bike Ride by Hannah Reynolds

Author:Hannah Reynolds
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Vertebrate Publishing
Published: 2022-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

WHEELTON TO MELLOR

Wheelton’s centre has tiny sloping streets; some of the terraced houses give the impression of neighbours leaning on each other for support as they make their way up the hill. Turn left in the centre of Wheelton, passing the clock tower to your right. At the end of the village the route meets the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. The Top Lock is a good place to break your journey as the locks are a fascinating reminder of the canal linkage, once vital to trans-Pennine industrial canal traffic, in their difficult descent from the higher reaches of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal to the lower regions of West Lancashire.

Turn right over the canal at the locks and pedal slightly uphill, remaining parallel to the M61 on your left. Turn right at the T-junction to avoid crossing the motorway. In the village of Brindle turn right at the church. Shortly after passing over the M65 turn left on to Hillhouse Lane; from this approach the hill is in your favour. As the road flattens out, a right-hand turn on to a private road which is part of the Lancashire Cycleway takes you to the village of Hoghton.

In Hoghton turn right and then right again on to the A675, followed almost immediately by a left turn that takes you quickly back into the mesh of lanes. Only slightly off the route and found by continuing along the main road is Hoghton Tower. Built in 1565 on the site of a much older fort that dated back to 1109, it is now a visitor attraction with the tower, gardens and cafe open to the public.

Around 900 metres after Hoghton turn right on to Goosefoot Lane. This leads you to Samlesbury Bottoms where, once you cross the small stream in the ‘bottom’, the only way is up for the next mile. Part way up you’ll find a four-way junction; continue straight ahead along Further Lane, signposted to Mellor. We imagine it is called Further Lane after all the cyclists asking ‘how far to the top?’ and getting the reply ‘just a little further’.

After passing Stanley House – an early-seventeenth-century manor house now a luxury hotel – take a short dog-leg (right then left) over the A677, then climb into Mellor, where the stage ends at a T-junction next to the Millstone Inn.

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