Monday 27 October 2025 - GM Ringway Trail Stage 15 - Blackrod to Wigan

Our run of fine weather for our GM Ringway walks continued for this stage. Seven of us (I was joined by Sue, Sheila, Alan, Rick, Paul and Jeanette) assembled together with Rufus at about 10:30 at Blackrod Station after catching the 10:02 to Blackpool from Piccadilly.

After crossing Blackrod by-pass we strolled up a cobbled lane to reach the unremarkable village of Blackrod, admiring on our way one of our last views towards Winter Hill and the Pennines. This stage brings us back into an area of pastureland, waterways and country parks; such features will accompany us all the way to the end of this twenty stage odyssey.

A quiet lane, Half Acre Lane, offered another opportunity for a group photo (thanks, Sheila).

A right turn into a succession of fields led us to the Goose & Gander, sadly not open. Elevenses will just have to wait!

Approaching Aberdeen Farm, Alan offered a short description of the local history - a mining area with a rail track and other accoutrements, plus the remains of a more recent brick building in the foreground of our last look back to Winter Hill.

A good path led to the rather muddy track of a disused railway.

After so many completely dry walks, a bit of moisture came as a surprise, but after all - this area of Lancashire is renowned for its occasional autumn to spring muddiness...

Anyway, trail shoes were still perfectly adquate to keep dry feet today.

We continued under an ornate bridge and left the track at the next bridge to join a lane that soon led to a bridge over the Leeds and Liverpool Canal.

There was a good view (above) from the bridge, beyond which an elevenses stop was dictated by the need for the next bit of the route to be dog free. So we had a standing cup of coffee and cake before pointing Paul and Rufus in a dog friendly direction from which they could meet up with the rest of us later.

We took the lane past Arley Hall and Wigan Golf Club before descending through slippery woodland to a pretty bridge over the River Douglas.

The onward path led us to the Worthington Lakes Reservoirs, around which United Utilities in their wisdom have declared a dog free zone 'for environmental reasons'.

Anyway, we crossed the dam shown below (our path is to the right)  and took a meandering path through pretty woodland near the water's edge.

Sue spotted a heron.

More remnants of the industrial past were seen next to our path around the reservoirs....

... as well as more modern waterworks stuff.

Beyond the reservoirs we were rejoined by Paul and Rufus after a short stretch along a main road, before turning past a pond by new housing and then up to join the canal at Bridge 63.

A nearby hostelry has fallen upon hard times.

There followed a very pleasant 1.6 km section along the canal towpath, passing a family of swans and some polite schoolchilren who for their half term amusement were fishing in the canal rather than staring into their iPads.

Our friends, Robert and Lyn are in the process of acquiring a canal boat. Will it look like this one?

Or is this more likely - the impressive chimney will no doubt appeal to them?...

A disappointing lack of benches left us with no option but to plonk ourselves beside the canal for our lunch break.

After leaving the canal, we headed up Stanley Road to Haigh Woodland Park, passing Haigh Kitchen Courtyard - where a 'food and drink break' could have been taken had we needed it.

After passing a plaque and a lion we continued past various types of playground before heading through the woodland rather than going past the Hall building. We were slightly surprised by this, but the hall can await another visit.

The tree lined avenues were taken very slowly, as Sue was busy trying to identify some of the fungi that are plentiful around here. In that connection she and I were recalling some notable aspects of an interesting presentation on fungi by Merlin Sheldrake at the Factory International theatre in Manchester last week.

Here are a few of Sue's observations in Haigh Country Park.

Oyster Mushroom

Trooping Funnel (20cm diameter)

Fly Agaric

Sulphur Knight

Artist's Bracket

Wrinkled Crust

Cloudy Clitocybe

Late Oyster

Turkey Tail

Common Puffball

Splitgill Mushroom

Beech Woodwart

Apricot Jelly (above and below)

There's a miniature railway that runs through the park. But seemingly not today; or any day soon!

Alan got bored waiting for Sue to identify fungi, so he rummaged around and found an interesting benchmark (no doubt referred to in his report) as well as a half buried brick from 'Orrell Brick & Tile Co Ltd near Wigan'. Another one for Alan's library.

We passed a wooden post that was swarming with Asian Lady Beetles - a species introduced in the UK in 2004 and a competitor of native ladybirds that are consequently on the decline.

We crossed the canal again, and a bit further on we re-crossed the disused railway line that we'd walked along earlier in the day.

A pleasant woodland walk led through sunlit trees to the River Douglas, which we followed all the way into the centre of Wigan.

City streets and pedestrian areas took us quickly to Wigan Wallgate Station, with a minor point of interest along the way being a pretty mosaic on St John's Catholic Church.

We were in plenty of time for the 15:37 train that would drop Alan and Sheila off in Salford and the rest of us at Deansgate, from where a Metrolink tram got us home by before 5pm.

Here's our route - 16.5km, 200 metres ascent, taking a little less than five leisurely hours.

Alan's excellent report is here. It fleshes out much more historical detail than I've managed to convey here.

There's a short break before we tackle stage 16, as Sue will be away for a couple of weeks. Time for others to catch up on stages they may have missed. Note that stage 16 has been brought forward by a day to Wednesday 19 Movember. Here's the flier:

GM Ringway Trail - Stage 16 - Wigan to Leigh. Meet at Wigan Station at 11:07 for this sixteenth 17km stage of the 20 stage circuit of Greater Manchester.
Arrive on the 10:27 from Victoria.
Return to Manchester by regular V1 bus service from Leigh.