Inskip
Inskip is a village that many people know from afar with its array of radio transmitter masts scattered about a disused airfield and plainly seen from the M6 and M55 a few miles north of Preston. This easy walk will give you closer acquaintance with the village and the eastern edge of the Fylde Plain.Time: 2½ hours
Terrain: Flat, but quite muddy after prolonged spells of wet weather. Lots of stiles!
Start: Lay-by on B5269 just outside village almost opposite junction with Pinfold Lane. From junction 32 on M6 turn right on A6 north. At Broughton traffic lights turn left onto B5269 Woodplumpton Lane.
After 7 Km or 4 ½ miles you will come to Inskip.
Map
1. Inskip to St Michael’s on Wyre (5 Km or 3miles: 1¼ hours)
From lay-by walk past church on left and into School Lane. Follow it as it bears left beyond a play area and then right.
Take a (narrow) footpath between houses on the left. After the first of many stiles, with hedge on left walk to and cross the next stile and go ahead with hedge on right.
In a little over 100m look for a stile on the right. Cross it, turn left and then pass through a patch of woodland close by a pond on right. Keep ahead with hedge on left to reach Pinfold Lane.
On reaching lane, turn left and then take footpath on right. Follow path across the next field with a hedge on your right.
After the next stile keep ahead with the hedge on your left. As well as an abundance of stiles, you will quickly notice a plentitude of ponds, (quite often in combination with stiles!) The path leads you past such a combination, to arrive at a more delapidated stile.
Across the next field, arrive at a footbridge, and then passing to the left of an agricultural building reach a lane.
Turn right and then take footpath almost immediately on your left. Keep ahead with hedge on left until a(nother) pond comes into sight. Using a stile on the left cross into the neighbouring field. Keep ahead and after a metal gate walk towards Seeds Farm.
Keep ahead with a large unit on the left beyond a wire fence. After the next double stile turn right and with a ditch on right walk into the next field.
Walk towards a screen of conifers on left and cross stile into the rear of Thatcher House.
The right of way passes between buildings to reach a tarmac drive.
On reaching it turn right. When the drive turns right, keep ahead to cross a stile and arrive at a handsome footbridge.
Cross this and keep ahead passing Ashley Hall (either recently constructed or undergoing extensive renovation at the time of writing, April 2008) on your right to come out on A586, Blackpool Road.
Turn right into village.
2. St Michael’s on Wyre to Inskip (5 Km or 3 miles: 1¼ hours)
The church at St.Michael’s with its 16th century tower, has an almost archetypal loveliness about it. Inside on its east wall there is a sombre memorial to the 16 villagers and others, who died in the 1984 Abbeystead disaster.
Just after the church the Wyre Bridge is reached. If refreshment is required the Grapes Hotel is a short way across the river on the right. (Closed Tuesdays). From the Grapes Hotel retrace your steps, across the river, past the church and turn left into Hall Lane. Just past the primary school take the footpath on right.
Follow the side of the field. Where the hedge ends cross the field diagonally left to enter the next field by a metal gate.
Bearing right aim for a stile/footbridge in the hedge.
Beyond this walk down to a strip of woodland with a hedge on your right.
Across footbridge turn left and with dyke on right keep ahead over a number of fields, passing through a pair of unusual brick squeeze stiles en route, until St Michael’s Road is reached.
Turn right. Past junction look for stile on left almost obscured by the trees in the hedgerow, just before a farm entrance.
Cross stile and turn right, skirting the farm buildings to reach a farm track, after passing a large unit on the left.
Turn left onto track. After 700m (12 minutes) the track passes through a narrow neck of woodland to reach a broad field.
Cross it and at the hedge on the far side turn left and then right across a stile near a farm out house. Keep ahead on the track with a hedge on the left. Follow path as it skirts wood and then turn right before the next hedge.
Follow this to a gate and stile next to a stream.
Cross and walk down to footbridge across the stream.
The footpath beyond leads to School Lane and Inskip.
