Stan’s Idyll and time travel 26-04-2026 Leader Gill

In Roman times, Higham occupied a position midway between the Roman camp at Ribchester and the Roman colony at Colne. An old Roman road, now a country lane, runs along the top of the village, but was once the ‘Highway of the Legions’.

One of Higham’s most famous citizens was Sir Jonas Moore, a mathematician and engineer, who was instrumental in setting up the Royal Observatory in Greenwich and by extension GMT.

This was therefore a walk of time travel, and it took much longer to walk than anticipated!

After the Romans came the Saxons and they left some evidence of their passage. The name Higham comes from two Saxon words: Heg (High) Ham (small place/village) – inevitably this meant we were going to be walking up to the village at some point in today’s walk. This didn’t deter the 18 walkers who joined me at the Parsonage in Higham.

I pointed out the marker which states that Higham is the birthplace of Sir Jonas Moore and I waffled on for a bit about his fame. Most of the group had heard me waffle before but they indulged me, before the start photo was taken in all the dandelions. I described our route – up, along, down, along, up, along, up more, along, down, along, up and down – and we set off up the track indicated by the Hospice Walk towards the aforementioned Roman road, pointing out Jonas’ birthplace on the way.

After a short distance on the road, we turned through a gate and saw the vista across the ‘Hidden Valley’ towards Pendle which we could clearly see. As there is only a packhorse route running along it, the Hidden Valley is delightfully closed to traffic – and long may it be so. Don’t tell anyone about it!

We dropped down to the farm where Jonas’ grandad lived, passing lapwings and hearing curlews, and then headed towards Sabden for a short time before cutting across a field and up towards Churn Clough reservoir.

From Churn Clough we had the steepest up section of our walk to cross some wild and woollyish land to Rattan Clough Farm and from there to Stainscomb passing delightful vaccary walling en route.

Vaccaries were an early way of dividing land. They were specific land divisions for breeding cattle, granted by the King to local landowners, as a way of ensuring loyalty. Most of the vaccaries in Pendle were owned by the De Lacy family (some of you may have heard of the De Lacy Arms in Whalley).

We dropped into Stainscomb Clough where we spent a fair while talking about Stan Bradshaw whose cabin has had a makeover. We peered through the window, pondered the pictures of German landmarks and trying to read Stan’s obituary. Lorraine and David left us here to walk home, and the rest of us carried on to the Idyll – full of bluebells, and the sound of a trickling stream and birdsong – where we had our lunch, except Ian had already eaten his.

We continued our route along the old packhorse trail (King’s Highway) towards Sabden Fold, frightening lambs on the way. Cut off from mum, one needed rescuing and Chris was the man for the job. Shame about the barbed wire though!

We cut off across the field to the pile of stones that was Drivers, and had our obligatory bridge shot at the stream before going up past what used to be called Back o’t’Hill farm by a rather awkward path. We crossed the Roman road again and then headed down into Higham.

I felt privileged to be leading this lovely group of friends through beautiful countryside so close to home. Thank you for coming everyone, and making this a delightful day.

Huge thanks to Aly for taking the photos and making the leading so much easier as a result.

Thank you to Robert for the additional information about Stan. 

Distance 5.9 miles Ascent 835 ft

 

Slideshow below, but if you wish to see a static view of the pics in one go, then click here