boats can pass into the Ribble from above Preston, go on up the River Douglas to Tarleton, and join the main Leeds and Liverpool Canal system along the Rufford Branch.
PRESTON’S SKYLINE
Even at this distance Preston’s buildings command the horizon. Gone are the tall chimneys of the mills and engineering factories on which the prosperity of the city once relied, and in their place rise the tower blocks of commercial enterprise and housing. Another relative newcomer breaking the skyline is the latticework stadium of Preston’s football team, North End. Preston North End was a founder member of the Football League and is one of the few clubs in the country still playing on its original ground.
It houses the National Football Museum, and even if you are not particularly a fan you will almost certainly find the displays and exhibitions fascinating – you can even try your hand as a ‘guest commentator’.
Some outlines that would have been familiar to travellers passing this way a century ago remain, however, perhaps the most prominent being the white spire of St Walburghe’s Catholic Church.
St Walburghe’s spire was designed by John Hansom, the same man who gave us the Hansom cab. Soaring to 309 feet (94m), it is the third highest in the country and was built by the Jesuits between 1850 and 1854. Although the church is of dun-coloured sandstone, the towering landmark spire stands separate from the church and is of a contrasting white limestone that shines in the sun. It is said that much of the stone for its construction was bought secondhand from the railway companies as they replaced the stone sleepers supporting the track with wood.
Shortly after passing the outlet of Savick Brook on the opposite bank, the raised grazing narrows and the route progresses over stiles across a culvert carrying Mill Brook. Now left to its own devices the bank assumes an unkempt appearance, going first beneath successive power lines carried high above the river on massive gantries, and then past the entrance to Preston Docks on the far bank. After skirting a golf course continue at the fringe of Priory Park to walk beneath the A59 bypass. This is now the lowest crossing of the Ribble, an honour formerly held by Penwortham Bridge a little further upstream.
PRESTON DOCKS
The docks were opened in 1892 and at the time boasted the largest dock basin in Europe. They served a town rapidly developing on the back of textile manufacture and quickly became some of the busiest in the country. Warehouses, oil tanks and loading cranes once formed a backdrop to the ocean-going cargo vessels that came and went on the high tides. Preston remained a working port into the early 1980s, but despite the advantage of its proximity to both the rail and motorway networks, the dockyard’s reliance on river access rendered it inaccessible to larger vessels, and trade consolidated on the better-placed docks further south at Seaforth and Bootle. The basin has, however, found a new lease of life, and since the area’s redevelopment for housing, retail and leisure, is once more as busy as it ever was. Preston Docks were named after Prince Albert Edward, Victoria’s eldest son, who finally succeeded his mother to the throne at the age of 60, only nine years before his owndeath.
PENWORTHAM
The historic old town of Penwortham sits on top of a prominent hill rising above the Ribble’s southern bank. It developed around a motte and bailey castle that overlooked an ancient fording place there. The Romans appreciated the strategic importance of the site and were the first to establish a fort here, a commanding position that remained in use throughout the Saxon period, and after the Conquest the Normans, too, established a base. Penwortham was one of the few places in Lancashire to be mentioned in the Domesday Book at a time when the area was largely considered an unproductive wasteland.
In 1075 Benedictine monks from Evesham Abbey founded a priory, and it was probably they who first began draining the surrounding marshes to create new farmland. The priory has long since disappeared, and all that remains of the castle is the artificial earth mound.
The oldest building still standing in Penwortham is the 15th-century church dedicated to St Anne, whose squat square tower can be seen through the trees upon the hill. Tradition holds that there has been a church on the site since 644 AD, a not improbable claim given the sustained significance of Penwortham during those early times, when travel across the sea to Celtic Ireland would have been a less daunting prospect than an overland journey to York or Canterbury. As with many churches in the country, St Anne’s was heavily restored by the Victorians – a practice intended as a proclamation of the prosperity that the industrial age had brought. One of the entrepreneurs who helped create the wealth of the industrial age is buried in a railinged tomb in St Anne’s churchyard. Born outside Bolton in 1768, John Horrocks opened Preston’s first factory cotton mill and went on to establish a textile business that became one of the largest in the world.
Beyond Priory Park a track takes you beside allotments to meet the main road at Penwortham New Bridge, over which the Ribble Way crosses to the river’s northern bank.
PENWORTHAM OLD BRIDGE
In the middle of the 18th century a bridge was built at Penwortham to replace the ford and ferry which had until then been the only means of crossing the river this far downstream. The bridge collapsed after only four years but was succeeded in 1759 by a more substantial structure. That survived until 1912, when the present bridge was constructed to meet the demands of a new vehicle on the roads – the motor car.
DAY WALKERS
Unless you retrace your steps along the Ribble Way, it is a 4 mile (6.4km) walk back to Longton, mainly along busy main roads. The most sensible alternative, therefore, is to take a bus, and while it will be easier to find convenient parking in Longton, leaving a car in Penwortham or Preston in the morning and catching a bus to Longton avoids having to wait for one at the end of the walk. The choice is yours.
CHAPTER 2
Penwortham Bridge to Ribchester
| Distance | 11.9 miles (19.2km) |
| Height gain | 830 feet (253m) |
| Route assessment | Quiet roads and lanes; riverside and field paths may be muddy after rain; beyond Preston the countryside is undulating with some short but steep climbs and descents |
| Time | 5¼ hours |
| Public transport | A bus service between Preston and Clitheroe stops at Ribchester |
| Parking | Car parks in Ribchester and Preston (pay-and-display) |
| Refreshments | A variety of pubs and cafés in Preston, with three riverside pubs between Penwortham and Walton Bridges; then there is nothing along the route until you reach Ribchester, where the village offers a choice of pubs and a café |
| Toilets | At Preston bus station and beside the car park in Ribchester |
| Maps | OS Explorer 286, Blackpool & Preston, and OS Explorer 287, West Pennine Moors |
The route around Preston is a surprising haven of calm compared to the frenetic activity of the nearby city centre. It follows quiet streets and passes through pleasant parks along the banks of the river, and also heralds a change in the character of the Ribble valley, for it marks the point at which the river breaks free from the surrounding hills. Upstream, the watercourse snakes within a wide plain, batted from one side to the other by steep bluffs of dun-coloured sandstone. The formal geometry of the efficient drainage system, outlined by ditches, that could be seen in the field patterns of the estuary is replaced by more natural boundaries that follow the lie of the land. Ragged copses of gnarled woodland and stretches of old lane and hedged track give the countryside a more ancient appearance. The hand of man is in evidence in old manors and farmstead buildings, some of which date from the 15th century. More distant views hint at the wilder landscape to be encountered later in the walk, while closer to hand there is great variety in the plants and woodland