Sun 11 Sep 2016
 |
Looking down into Whitendale
|
It being Andrew's turn to drive he picked me up and drove through Slaidburn and we started our walk on the Hornby Road around 10:45. The weather forecast was, as on the Claife Heights walk, too pessimistic, for we had sunshine all the time, albeit at the road summit the wind was strong and chilly.
 |
New WWII memorial on Hornby Road
|
We parked at the top of House Lane. Just beyond the gate by the signpost indicating the track to Dunsop Fell there is now a memorial stone to RAF, USAF and Polish pilots and crew of aircraft that crashed on the Bowland Fells during the war. It is similar to the one on Hazelhurst Fell.
 |
The names
|
About a mile further on we came upon a different kind of memorial, to the Pendle Witches! It displays verses by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy. It's one of several erected along the Witch Way, a 51 mile long-distance footpath opened in 2012 between Barrowford and Lancaster, as part of the commemoration of the Pendle Witch trials at Lancaster Assizes, 18–19 August 1612.There was also above Whitendale a direction marker indicating the road to be part of the Witch Way.
 |
The witches' memorial
|
 |
Tercet by Carol Ann Duffy
|
It's odd to see these items on the Hornby Road because the women who were accused of being witches were taken along the Trough Road to Lancaster.
Further along we met a group walking south who were apparently going to be picked up when they reached the road to Slaidburn. Just beyond the summit of the road at 1351 feet above sea level we tried to identify the unidentifiable - the course of the Roman Road where it bore right. When I walked up it from further north some years ago, not much of it could be recognised with any certainty.
 |
Roman Road (course of - of course)
|
It had grown quite cold in the wind, and we had difficulty in finding a comfortable place where we could eat our lunches. We had to make do by squatting in the ditch on the east side of the road.
On the journey back we met some bikers, who should not have been using the road, at the new bridge over a stream. We reached the car by about 4:15 and we were at my house by 5:20 or so. Not an inspiring walk, but it kept us exercised!
