Start: The Pavilion, Avenham Park, Preston. This is a linear route so readers will need to make arrangements to return to Preston City Centre if they choose to walk. We found the best public transport option was to retrace your steps to Brockholes Bridge and then cut right into Brockholes Woods. Keeping roughly parallel to the A59 climb up to open ground behind Brockholes Wood City Primary School. Keep to the right of the school to reach Orrest Road. Turn left for the A59  close to frequent bus routes.   

         

 Fact file: Distance: 7 ½ k 4 ½ miles
                  Time:  2 - 2 ½ hours walking 40 minutes cycling
                 Summary:  Easy walking, cycling and way finding.   
               Map: OS Explorer 286 Blackpool & Preston

Map by kind permission of the Blackpool Gazette

Directions: The Riverside Café in the Pavilion is a good place to start this walk.

From architect Ian McChesney's award winning design look out on to one of the most attractive municipal parks in England. Like Lancashire itself parks are an easily overlooked asset. Fortunately Preston is proud of its parks (it has seven large open spaces) and continues to invest in them. Avenham and adjoining Miller Park in particular have benefited from a major improvement project funded in part by the Heritage Lottery Fund in readiness for the Preston Guild in 2012. All credit to the city fathers (and mothers!) for their imagination, foresight and courage in enhancing this vital public amenity.

But it does not end there.

As you set out walking or cycling along the riverside path with the River Ribble on the right you are on a section of the Guild Wheel a 21 mile multi-use greenway that circles the city and was created to be a lasting legacy of the 2012 Guild.

  It seems remarkable in these times of economic gloom that there exist people with the vision to see beyond present woes and have come up with a scheme that will benefit the people of Preston for generations to come.

The route quickly passes the Old Tram Bridge and dips down along an avenue to reach the Boulevard.

As you make your way with houses on the left look out for the confluence with the River Darwen opposite.

 Between here and the A6 London Road Bridge one of the most decisive battles of the English Civil War took place on 18th August 1648.

The Royalists had mustered a large army in Scotland which had come across the border with the aim to relieve their besieged comrades holed up in various towns at the fag end of the 2nd English Civil War. Cromwell, with a much smaller army, was in Yorkshire and on hearing of the incursion raced to intercept the Royalists. He pounced on the main column as it was crossing the Ribble at Walton-le-Dale. The result was the destruction of the Royalist force with over 8000 of its soldiers killed; it was said that the River Darwen ran red with blood.

With these cheery thoughts to fortify you cross London Road and pass to the right of the Shawes Arms.

At this point cyclists and walkers separate to be reunited a mile and a half up stream near Mete House. Walkers cross a stile on the right

and continue on the Ribble Way.

Cyclists follow the signs for Samlesbury.
For walkers the way is straight forward over short grassed well drained pastures. As you near the farm complex of Mete House re-join the cycleway.

 Soon after this enter woods below Fishwick Golf Club. This section of the way has been much improved as part of the Guild project. 

As you leave the woods Brockholes Bridge comes into sight.

 Near this point on the opposite bank was the scene of one of the most significant finds in archaeological history. The Cuerdale Silver Hoard was unearthed in 1840. It contained more than 8,600 items of jewellery, coins and ingots. It dated back to the early years of the 10th century when Vikings used the Ribble as a route between their settlements in Ireland and their English capital in York. As to why it ended up here remains something of a mystery. Metal detectors note - the whole hoard can be seen in the British Museum so there is no point in wasting your batteries on these bonny banks.

The route passes under Brockholes Bridge

 and bends to the right close to Lower Brockholes Farm.

 Soon it reaches the service road used by the gravel extraction vehicles and passes below the roaring M6 motorway junction 29.

 In doing so you walk under a significant slab of transport history for this was the start of Britain's first stretch of motorway - the then Preston By pass which ran for 8 ¼ miles from here to junction 32 and was opened by Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in 1958.

The entrance to Brockholes Wildlife Trust Reserve is on the left immediately after the motorway.

It seems breath-taking that anyone should conceive of developing such a project so close to a busy junction.  On the site of a former gravel quarry a range of habitats have been created to encourage and protect wildlife. This is a showcase venture and it is most fitting that the visitor centre floating on the edge of Meadow Lake is one of the most exciting new buildings of 2011.

 "Floating" is the key concept here as the centre sits on a concrete raft constructed with hollow chambers for buoyancy.  Since its position besides the Ribble on a flood plain might make it prone to flooding the architect Adam Khan conceived a floating building.
That is just one element of this imaginative design.

 The other is the look of the centre.

Like an Iron Age settlement that once adorned the lakes and lochs of Britain the complex's buildings - conference centre, gift shop, education centre, and restaurant - are grouped closely at the end of connecting causeways.

The overall effect is that this is of a structure not imposed on the landscape but of one in harmony with its surroundings. As the site matures and the reed beds take hold Brockholes will merge into its environment.

Simply put this is a must-visit place for the Christmas holiday.