A stroll around Todmorden

Sunday 25 Oct

After the exertions of yesterday, and a pleasantly late evening, I confess I was a little slow to get going this morning (but, fortunately, didn’t stay abed so long that my appearance occurred after the post-dinner-party washing up was done!).

Nick’s daughter Nell was then quite happy to completely thrash me on the Wii (I did so badly that I’m surprised Nick let me drive tonight when we returned to Oxford, after seeing my appalling driving on Mario Kart). Needless to say, Nick also thrashed me, although it became a little harder to concentrate once the competition had degenerated into threats to tell supervisors and university administrators about playing computer games!

When the morning’s rain had eased a little Nick, Nell and I headed out for a little circuit walk around the eastern end of Todmorden. We strolled along the canal before heading up onto the low northern slopes following a leafy bridle trail where Nick, after threatening to do so on several occasions, finally managed to lose the tennis ball that she’d brought along for Sparrow to chase.

We managed to find a couple of caches on the way, which introduced Nell to the thrill of the hunt as well (she hadn’t been on our big expedition yesterday).

One of them was located near yet another of the regular locks that occur along the canal. Given the hilly country I guess it should be no surprise that these locks cater for quite a change in water level; this particular one would have had a drop of nearly 3m (errr … about 8 feet for my imperious imperial friends out there). There were also interesting features along the tow paths (the path along the canal, where the horse towing the canal boat would have walked): these looked like really long bench seats, but they are, in fact, for walking along when the canal spills over the spillways that interrupt the regular path.

At the top of the hill there was a rocky outcrop which gave a commanding view over Todmorden and the surrounding countryside. There was absolutely no risk of falling off even if you’d jumped because the wind was blowing so strongly. Every so often the sun would break through the clouds, and light up parts of the hills.

We could also see Stoodley Pike, which is a summit point on the southern hills marked with a large monument (also called Stoodley Pike). The monument was built to celebrate the end of the Crimean War, replacing a damaged monument that had marked the Battle of Waterloo. I wouldn’t mind getting up there one day (the moors do that to you).

The afternoon was a chance to relax, and then it was time for the big drive back to Oxford (it’s nearly 200 miles/320 km). There was a surprising amount of traffic, and I’m glad it’s a route I don’t have to do regularly.

A few more photos are available here.