Darwen Tower

I set out this morning to get an image of Darwen Tower, which I have, but it's not the one I had in mind. This is a waymarker on one of the paths leading up to the tower and if you look carefully you can see a delightful little stone cut image of the tower.

Packmen, peddlers, farmers and labourers used the many tracks and moorland paths to go about their business for hundreds of years. In the latter part of the 19th century many landowners tried to prevent access, not just across Darwen Moor, but in Derbyshire (the Kinder Trespass) and not too far away on Winter Hill where the Trespass stone comemorates the peoples right of access. In the 1870s the Lord of the manor of Over Darwen, the Reverend William Arthur Duckworth, blocked ancient rights of way preventing access to the moor even though he was an absentee landlord. Game rights were a valuable commodity and Duckworth did not wish to have his land devalued by trespassers on the moors. William Thomas Ashton, manager of Eccles Shorrock's mines at Dogshaw Clough and Entwistle Moss used the moorland footpaths to deliver coal to farmers and other customers. Whenever Duckworth's gamekeepers blocked his way Ashton cleared the paths. The struggle led to the courts where Duckworth lost and in September 1896 people resumed walking the moorland footpaths and, as Ashton died in 1884, his sons led a procession onto the moors in celebration.

The Tower on Beacon Hill overlooking the town of Darwen in Lancashire, was completed in 1898 to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee and also to celebrate the victory of the local people for the right to access the moor. It was opened to the public on 24 September 1898. Well worth a visit if you're in the vicinity, the Tower is 85 feet (25.9 m) high with an internal staircase which can be climbed to admire the views of North Yorkshire, Morecambe Bay, Blackpool Tower, Cumbria, the Isle of Man, North Wales, Derbyshire, as well as the surrounding moorland.

Darwen's Jubilee Tower lost its fibreglass dome and weather vane during winds of up to 80mph (129km/h) on 11 November 2010. In January this year a new steel dome, made by Darwen engineering company, as a gift to the town, was winched into place. It's actually the third to crown the tower, the original, made from wood, also blew off in high winds in 1947.

So I set off to get a blip of the new dome. Heading west and then north to circle round to the tower thick cloud was all pervasive. Fleetingly, at one point on the highest point of Darwen Moor it almost looked like the sun was going to break through the clag, but that passed quickly. Picking up familiar paths I trotted on, completely missing the path leading to the Tower. I finally arrived at the path I intended to take to get back to Tockholes. I decided that the extra hour to take me back to the Tower in the low cloud was not the one I needed to take today. Came across a couple of walking friends and had a nice chat before heading down to get this blip of the waymarker. A good outing of gentle walk/running to protect my apparently glass calf! No views of the Tower whatsoever - a good excuse to go back.

Anyway if you would like to see some pictures of Darwen Tower take a look here