Photos by Michael - Please click on photos to see a larger one
Some of the following information is taken from a DVD produced by Sue Ryder Care and Alison Whitham in a talk she gave to the Friends of Cuerden Valley Park:
Robert Townley-Parker at the age of 21 took possession of the Hall on 21st December 1816
The Cinder Path was a local right of way, in fact some sources say it is part of
a Roman road, which usually means it could be earlier than Roman times, that he'd tried in vain to close so he built a high stone wall along it's length so that people using the path could not see into his lands.
Where the path crossed his driveway he built a tunnel which is now a bat roost.
The Townley-Parkers were opposed to the local people invading their privacy and employed several gamekeepers. Trespassers and poachers were vigorosly prosecuted. In the forties when we used to catch a bus from the end of Kellet Lane my parents told that me if I was caught climbing the wall I would be severely dealt with by the gamekeepers.
A local legend says that a man visiting someone in Bamber Bridge, or just been to the inn at the end, was using the path as a short cut at night when he came across a couple of poachers who thinking the man was a gamekeeper savagely beat him to death in the tunnel.
This map shows the original route of the Cinder Path
- opaque red line
Photo 1 Photo 2
As you walk down Sue Ryder Drive these are sights you don't see.
This is the south entrance to the tunnel under the Drive, i.e. looking in the direction of Bamber Bridge. Photo 2 is looking away from the tunnel
Photo 17 Photo 18
The other side of the tunnel the sign clearly saying keep out. The tunnel is a bat roost and hibernation location during winter
Photo 3
This is looking south along the section of the path still usable today
Photo 17
At the end of the usable path, through the gate you can see a blank solid stone wall
Photo 4
This is a photo taken over the solid stone wall revealing the concealed section of the Cinder Path
Crossing the M6
Photo 5 Photo 6
You can just see the Cinder Path as it emerges from under the M6
Photo 7 Photo 8
Photo 8 is taken from a gap in the wall
looking towards the M6
Photo 9 Photo 10
Approaching the
last remaining section of the path as it disappears under the M65
Photo 11 Photo 12
Taken from the gap in the wall in Photo 10 looking back along the path
Photo 13 Photo 14
Looking south
Photo 15 Photo 16
The northern end of the usable path looking south
Michael Swarbrick
