CHIPPING, IN THE RIBBLE VALLEY

Aaaarrgghh  - I've just typed all this up and then it got lost, so I have to start all over again!!!!!!

A lovely day today, which didn't go to plan but was still lovely nonetheless.

I decided to re-visit Chipping in The Ribble Valley.  I went there on my own last year but afterwards nearly all my photos of it got lost when I had laptop problems!!!

I  had found a new walking app called Komoot where I found a 2.5 mile easy walk to take in the surroundings.  This did not actually happen, read on.

We set off fairly early about 9.10.  The A590 and M60 were good and no problems.  We left at Junction 33  and then at the roundabout just off the motorway we turned onto Hampson Lane, Stoney Lane and Chipping Lane and through some lovely places like the Calder Valley, Oakenclough and Bleasdale.  It takes about and hour and a quarter from home to Chipping.

The village car park was easy to find and has public toilet.  The whole village is bedecked in blooms and looks so lovely.   It is so quiet and peaceful even in July.  On Mondays and Tuesdays the Cobbled Corner and The Sun Inn (with it's tragic ghost story) are closed, as is quite usual round here.  The ghost story of Lizzie Dean is a little bit fictional in the fact that she was not a scullery maid but the daughter of a wealthy Innkeepers I believe.

We started off by going into the Brabin Shop and Cafe  Brabin's is a small village convenience store, post office and coffee shop with beautiful gardens.  Brabin’s is the oldest continuously trading shop in Britain.  It was built during the reign of Charles II in 1668 by wealthy merchant John Brabin as a house and shop from which he traded cloth. On his death John Brabin left the property in trust to the village with the provision that it be maintained as a shop.  There is still a John Brabin Trust Fund in operation today.


In the cafe is a glassed board with a Brabin Token.   The copper halfpenny belonged to John Brabin (see extras).


In the cafe we had a very lovely coffee and brunch in nice surroundings with lovely staff.  She gave us a lovely leaflet called "Chipping - a Village Walk" which is full of interesting facts and the walk takes about an hour.  


After brunch we went to the Village Farm Shop which was supposed to be the start of the walk I wanted to do.  Well we couldn't find it.  It didn't help that some of the local footpaths are being re-directed as they got via the grounds of a Primary School.  It is rather confusing though, one way mark led us through a field which ended up going nowhere.  Another talk us past the school which had a sign saying "this is the newly directed footpath, please feel free to use", but it was gated and padlocked!!!  After a bit we gave up as it was now noon and getting way too hot for me. I discovered later that I had been mis-reading the app and found the walk actually went past the cafe.  Ah well that is something else to do when we visit next time.  I would actually like to go for a couple of nights to stay fairly local so we can be there to start the walk straight after breakfast, but I doubt we can afford it this year if we want our holiday to Pickering!!!


We visited St Bartholomew's Church, briefly and it was lovely and cool in there, but we didn't stay long.   
A church has been present in Chipping since at least 1230, when the first rector was recorded. It's possible that a church was there during the Saxon era. The tower was added around 1450, and the rest of the church was rebuilt in 1506. Further rebuilding took place in 1872, and most of the exterior is the result of that work.

There is also St Mary's Congregational Church in Chipping but that wasn't open.

After this we decided to go home via Settle which should have taken us only an extra 30 minutes, but in fact took us an extra hour because we somehow missed a turning and went a convoluted way almost towards Clitheroe, via Waddington, Grindleton, skirting the edges of Sawley  and Bolton-by-Bowlan, Forest Beck, Wigglesworth and Rathmell before joining the A65 at Settle.  You wouldn't believe how many tiny roads there are around there.  Very pretty though.

We called into the Country Harvest at Ingleton on the A65 for a cup of tea and snack before heading home.  It was really busy, but it was now 1.30 so to be expected really.

It turns out that once again I haven't taken very many photos so I will definitely have to re-visit and do that Village Walk and take loads of photos.

That's all from me for now.  Do take care everyone and stay safe and I will see you all tomorrow.