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Whether you're in the mood for a peaceful countryside stroll or a family-friendly outing, a new book by map experts Ordnance Survey has you covered. Short Walks Made Easy - Greater Manchester features 10 leisurely walks, with no previous country walking experience required. Here is an extract from the book, walk number five, Irwell Vale to Ramsbottom that showcases the landscapes of the Irwell Valley.
Short Walks Made Easy Greater Manchester Walk 5 - Irwell Vale to Ramsbottom This linear walk starts from pretty Irwell Vale, its cottage gardens adorned with roses and colourful borders, and heads for Ramsbottom along the trackbed of the dismantled Accrington branch of the East Lancashire Railway, which passes through avenues of birch, sycamore and oak. In Ramsbottom, you can catch an East Lancashire Railway steam or vintage diesel train back through the valley to the start, where the Irwell Vale Chapel café serves lovely home-made cakes. Check the railway timetable before setting off: eastlancsrailway.
org.uk Market Square, Ramsbottom (Image: Ordnance Survey Short Walks Made Easy - Greater Manchester) Did you know? William and Daniel Grant, 19th-century industrialists who came to Ramsbottom, are reputed to be the inspiration for the Cheeryble brothers in Charles Dickens’ book Nicholas Nickleby. Local legend The East Lancashire Railway has its own ghost, ‘Billy the Guard’, who is said to stalk the waiting room between platforms three and four at Bury’s Bolton Street Station; but the ghost is sometimes seen elsewhere on the line, as well as in the train carriages.
Billy has also appeared in visitors’ photos, usually asleep in his uniform. Start: From the car park entrance, turn left along the road then left again along Meadow Park (also signed Chapel Row), which runs alongside the River Irwell. Continue by the river for one third of a mile to the first bridge over it.
Lumb Bridge near Irwell Vale (Image: Ordnance Survey Short Walks Made Easy - Greater Manchester) As the road turns right over Lumb Bridge, leave it for a track on the left (the river still on your right). The path draws alongside the East Lancashire Railway line and a tarred track ramps up to join the trackbed of the old Accrington branch. On joining the trackbed, follow a tarred path to the left.
It leads through an avenue of broadleaved trees and across the River Irwell viaduct. 500 yards after the viaduct, meet the end of the trackbed where it is closed off. Turn right off the trackbed then left down a lane.
At the bottom, go left under a bridge before passing through the houses of Strongstry and under another railway bridge. Just after the bridge, fork right along a narrow path; this soon follows the riverbank. In winter, and after heavy rainfall, this is likely to be muddy.
After 1⁄3 mile the riverside path reaches housing. At the houses, the path turns right, then left, enclosed by back garden fences. After another left-right zigzag, it comes to the road at Stubbins (A676).
Turn left to cross the footbridge parallel to the main road. At the far end of the bridge, cross the main road with care, and go straight ahead onto a signed, wide track. This soon narrows to a stony path, river to the right, and leads to a path junction.
At the junction, where the main path veers left, leave it for a path ahead. Go through a kissing-gate and follow the path towards a large barn. Passing through another kissing-gate, the path keeps to the left side of a large field and reaches a stiled bridge.
Cross the bridge/stile. The path follows the Irwell again before veering left, rounding the first unit of an industrial estate. Emerging onto the estate road, turn left along it to a T-junction.
Go right to a level crossing; Ramsbottom Station entrance is on the left for the train back to Irwell Vale. Train leaving Ramsbottom Station (Image: Ordnance Survey Short Walks Made Easy - Greater Manchester) STORIES BEHIND THE WALK Irwell Vale: The village of Irwell Vale was founded when John Bowker, a wealthy Manchester merchant, built a woollen fulling mill by the banks of the Irwell in 1801. In the 1830s, he added a cotton mill on the other bank of the river.
The first Methodist chapel was built in the 1850s, but was soon outgrown and a larger chapel was founded at the end of Bowker Street. The old chapel was converted into three houses: Cross the bridge near Chapel Row to see them. The 'new' methodist chapel, Irwell Vale (Image: Ordnance Survey Short Walks Made Easy - Greater Manchester) East Lancashire Railway : Originally opened in 1848, after the Beeching report of the 1960s the last passenger train completed its journey in 1972.
Coal trains ceased in 1980. However, in 1987, after much hard endeavour from the East Lancashire Railway Preservation Society, the line was reopened as a heritage railway on just four miles of track between Bury and Ramsbottom. Now the line operates between Heywood and Rawtenstall, and runs a fascinating transport museum near their Bury station (eastlancsrailway.
org.uk) Ramsbottom Lying in the shadow of Holcombe Moor, Ramsbottom (the valley of the rams) is a thriving market town. The East Lancashire Railway is at its heart.
Like many valleys in Pennine country, the Irwell was transformed during the Industrial Revolution when mills were built for spinning, weaving and printing. Sir Robert Peel, later British Prime Minister, was one of the famous entrepreneurs who drove the process forward and the Grant brothers continued this legacy. Festivals Ramsbottom is known for its events programmes and festivals, like East Lancashire Railway’s 1940s Weekend.
The town holds the Black Pudding World Championship annually at The Oaks pub. Participants have to hurl black puddings to dislodge a stack of Yorkshire puddings. The winner is the one who dislodges the most after three attempts.
There’s also a chocolate festival during the week before Easter. NATURE NOTES Once one of the most polluted rivers in England, the Irwell is now a haven for wildlife. In this stretch you may see a kingfisher.
These bright blue and orange birds are not much bigger than a robin and fly rapidly, close to the surface of the water, and hunt from low-hung branches. They eat small fish, such as minnows, and invertebrates, like dragonfly nymphs. Grey herons are ever-present along the River Irwell.
The shade-loving hart’s tongue fern grows from the mossy stone walls lining the former railway trackbed. It has tongue-shaped glossy leaves with orange-brown spores on their undersides. This evergreen fern can often be found beneath trees and among rocks and streams.
In spring, you will smell the pungent aromas of ramsons (wild garlic). Large oval leaves grow from bulbs appearing in late winter. The plant has small, star-like white flowers with six petals.
The blooms grow in large rounded clusters on a single, leafless stalk. Like bluebells, they usually grow in large carpets on the woodland floor. OS information SD 792 201 Explorer 287 Distance 2.
7 miles / 4.3 km Time 11⁄2 hours Start Irwell Vale Finish Ramsbottom Parking BL0 0QG Irwell Vale Station car park Public toilets The Chapel café, Irwell Vale; Nuttall Park, Ramsbottom Cafés / pubs The Chapel café, Irwell Vale; village shop café, Stubbins; Ramsbottom The garden of the Old Chapel Cafe (Image: Ordnance Survey Short Walks Made Easy - Greater Manchester) Terrain Village streets and country lanes; former railway trackbed; grassy bridleway Hilliness Mostly flat, with one short ramp at 1 Public transport East Lancashire Railway, for the return from Ramsbottom Station: eastlancsrailway.org.
uk Accessibility Wheelchair and pushchair friendly to 3 Dogs Welcome, but keep on leads after 3 (livestock). One stile; three narrow kissing gate.
