Downham
Circular
17th June 2025
7.3 miles / 11.8 km
269 m ascent
Easy
8.7 Naismith miles
Downham
Step by Step | OS Map | Downloads | Gallery | Fly through
It seems like a while since we visited the Forest of Bowland, and a quick check on the website confirms that it was on April 15th that we walked at Newton; so it’s a nice to renew our acquaintance with this quieter area.
This time we base our walk at Downham, a lovely village just outside Clitheroe. It’s one of the traditional starting points for a walk up Pendle Hill. We have the famous hill looming above us for much of the route, but we don’t climb it. Instead, we follow beck-side paths up to Twiston, and then loop back via Twiston Mill, and Downham Mill using the Lancashire Way path. A quick visit to the lovely Swanside packhorse bridge makes a great lunch stop before we head over to Chatburn crossing the A59, and a Roman road to skirt round Worsaw Hill, known for burial mounds and fossils, before returning to Downham for ice cream.
Step-by-Step
We start at Downham Village where there is a large free car park with a visitor centre and public toilets – what a great start. Downham is easy to find – just head toward Clitheroe on the A59 then take signs for Chatburn. From there the road to Downham is well signposted, and the car park is in the village centre, just off West Lane. If you are using satnav to get there then try BB7 4BS as a postcode, or if your device accepts What-3-Words tags then until.roaring.lawfully pinpoints the car park and visitor centre. If you prefer paper maps, then the OS grid reference is SD78494409.
Before setting off, it might be worth taking a moment to explore the visitor centre – don’t expect a tourist information centre, with an “exit through gift shop” approach, just a lovely well cared for room with some background information about the village, the wider area, and important local history. Next to this are the public toilets, which are an award winning repurposing of old farm buildings. The gents in particular are worth seeing and make imaginative use of old animal stalls.
The walk itself starts by heading out of the car park and back to West Street where we go left passing the ice cream shop – we save this treat until later in the day when we can more honestly say we earned it.
Ahead of at this point is Downham village centre, and we notice that it is remarkably free from intrusive signage, “street furniture”, or satellite dishes. This is because the village is privately owned by the Assheton family, and the 2nd Lord Clitheroe does not allow overhead electricity lines, aerials or satellite dishes, making the village a popular location for filming period dramas.
Downham was one of the locations used in the 1961 film Whistle Down the Wind, and the BBC One series Born and Bred, set in the fictional village of Ormston, was also filmed in the village. The 2012 BBC drama The Secret of Crickley Hall was filmed in and around Downham.
Back up the road toward Chatburn, and only a short diversion from the route of the walk is the church of St Leonard’s – the church tower dates from the 15th century, whilst the rest of the church was rebuilt in 1909–10. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building. Behind the church (and not open to the public) is Downham Hall. Successive generations of the Assheton family have lived at Downham Hall since 1558.
We soon arrive at the Pendle Road, and head right, and then almost immediately take a track on the left following the side of Downham Beck up past a number of very attractive cottages accessed via bridges over the beck.
Our path follows a beck for a while now – initially Downham Beck, then a tributary with no name marked on the OS map. After crossing three fields, we arrive at a minor road – we have Clay House to our left here and the Pendle Road to our right, but we cross and take the stile opposite to pick up a path through vibrant meadows and up to a barn at Lane Head 250m away.
We find a bench here and note that there are great views back to Clitheroe and Easington Fell – an ideal place for a coffee break, therefore.
To continue we take the stile over the wall next to the barn, and at this point have a choice of paths. There is a tempting stile to our right – that would take us over the Pendle Road and then up the steep side of Pendle hill – perhaps a route for another day, there is also a little used path back round the back of the barn, and on to the road.
We opt for a path heading northeast through three fields passing Hollins Farm (on our left) then going on to Hecklin Farm some 500m away.
At Hecklin Farm, we again have a choice of paths. Ours is the stile behind the large tree which takes us north along a field boundary and to a gate. Once through the gate we take a hard right turn and head east though a series of field boundaries, the third of which features an usual stile with a handrail to make the descent safer.
The path continues down into a valley carved by the Twiston Beck where we find a rather idyllic set of stepping stones allowing us to cross.
At the far side we continue east crossing a large field, and climbing slightly, we arrive at the opposite corner where we bear left following a drystone wall and a tree line for a short while before crossing and striking out toward Hill Foot – just to the west of Twiston.
We go left at Hill Foot, and do not visit Twiston on this walk, but it’s only a short diversion (perhaps 250m out and back) should you wish – it’s an attractive but small hamlet, with a recorded population of just 64 in 2001. For those interested in industrial archaeology, a particularly fine lime kiln, and the remains of an associated tramway are worth seeing.
We take the path to the left and follow the field boundary northwest for 250m, with great views of Pendle Hill all along this section of the walk. We arrive at a gate and beyond that follow a track down though woodland to a barn, which we pass on the left. We now have Twiston Beck to our left and we follow it for a while, crossing a footbridge after 150m.
A glance at the OS Map shows that there is a body of water identified as a reservoir to our right just beyond the footbridge. Do not expect a reservoir in the sense of a managed and rather clear expanse of drinking water – what we appear to have here is an old mill pond no longer used and so silted up and colonised by bull rushes and flag irises, and hopefully a plethora of invertebrates.
The mill that the pond served was Twiston Mill, the site of which we see in a moment, first though we arrive at a minor road and head right walking on the road for the next 100m or so before the road bears right where we see a typical farm building ahead. This is the site of the Twiston Mill. A water powered corn mill existed here as early as the 14th century, but by 1792 had been converted to a cotton twist mill and extended to be 3 stories high with 312 powered spindles and six attached cottages to help house the workforce.
Further development into a carpet printing mill occurred in the early 19th century and this was a significant industrial site until 1882 when a catastrophic fire destroyed everything. The agricultural buildings we see now then are simply a re-use of the land and stonework from the old mill.
From here, we continue to follow the beck northwest for 200m until we see another path cross ours. We continue north here to another footbridge 100m ahead and then bear left so that we stay near the beck for another 500m as the path comes round to the left.
We soon find a wooden footbridge and cross the Beck – now called Ings Beck -but we stay with it such that we are now walking with it on our right. About 200m later we get a sense of deja vue when we have a wet area filled with bullrushes and flag irises to our right with a mill building ahead – this was Downham Mill, which although no longer in use as a mill has at least survived intact and is recognisably a water mill.
A mill in Downham was first recorded in 1311 but the current mill was built in 1818. It operated into the 20th century and by 1930 had reverted to a farmhouse tenanted by farmer Walter Rigby. Today it is a residential building and some of the original features remain. The garden is particularly well kept.
We follow the road to the old mill up to the minor road 100m ahead and then cross to continue across fields. We soon meet a railway line where we take the path under the green cast iron bridge before following the path down to the right and over a stile to find the lovely Swanside pack horse bridge.
Also known as “fairy bridge” or “monks bridge” the date of construction is not known, but the bridge we see today probably goes back to the 17th century and would have replaced an earlier iteration.
The major building period for packhorse bridges was 1650-1750, after this the construction of the turnpike system with fees collected by turnpike trusts was responsible for phasing out the packhorse trade. However, in areas where the terrain was steep and road building difficult and expensive, packhorses were still around well into the early 1900s. Most packhorse bridges have been extended, others have had parapets added, and many have been completely rebuilt, but Swanside is a genuine bridge, under 6’ wide and could not have accommodated wheeled carts.
So why the name “monks bridge”?
It is thought that this crossing would originally have been initiated by the monks of Sawley Abbey and the more important (and older) Whalley Abbey. Both were within the Cistercian order which was particularly associated with the wool trade, and it is likely that coal was also transported by pack horses on the return journey – just like HGVs now, an empty load was seen as bad business.
The bridge is still passable – and indeed is part of a public footpath. Our route does not cross it today, but it makes great picnic place for lunch.
We now need to head back to Downham. We start by returning to the stile just before the bridge and then heading right past the large tree and then over a wooden footbridge. The path forks here and we stay left such that we follow the edge of the tree line eventually finding a barn. Just beyond this is slight diversion from the path shown on the OS map – the route is the same, it’s just that the kissing gates that were once part of it are now by-passed.
We continue with this path for 1000m or so, crossing the railway line and eventually arriving at the Chatburn Road. Our quickest way back to Downham from here is to go left along the road and into the village. That’s a viable option and does give a better view of the parts of Downham that we did not walk in the morning. We opted to extend the walk a little and go right over the A59 and into Chatburn, following the road for 100m or so until we get to Kayley Lane. We go left here and then right at the end to walk down a track between cottages until we see a footbridge – look out for a track on the right here and take that for no more than 30m to find a stile on the left which accesses a path leading up to the A59.
Unfortunately, we need to cross the A59 – take care here. And then directly opposite notice that there is a track heading along the side of the A road. This is in fact the remains of a Roman road which ran from Ribchester to Elslack – modern historians refer to it by its Margery number of 72a.
Ahead of us now we have a prominent hill – this is Worsaw Hill, and the path over the fields to access a stile at the base of the hill is clear and obvious. We have a steep, but short climb then contour round the hill in a more relaxed manner. The unusual shape of Worsaw Hill is thought to be because it is a “Reef Knoll”, or mud mounds that formed over 300 million years ago in the Carboniferous period. At that time, what we now know as Worsaw Hill lay beneath the sea as did most of the surrounding area – only the top of Pendle Hill would have been visible. Worsaw Hill is the largest reef knoll in the area, another example being the one upon which Clitheroe Castle stands.
There is evidence for a burial mound, or bowl barrow, at the southern side of the summit of Worsaw Hill – thought to date from the Bronze Age. It is a round-shaped grassy mound that looks to be in a reasonably good condition, although there is a hollow at the centre. Whether this was caused by some previous archaeological excavation, or whether the central chamber has simply fallen in is unknown. There is also evidence of ancient settlement close by the mound as there are faint traces of rectangular earthworks, but whether this is of the same age as the barrow is uncertain. It is also possible that these are more recent quarry buildings as there are many bell pits and outcrops both on the summit and around the bottom of the hill. Limestone was obviously quarried here – the walls around the base of the hill being testament to this.
At the base of the hill to the northwest (and so not passed on our route), there is a small cave and some think there was an ancient settlement close to that, and there was perhaps a Romano-British settlement, farmstead, or signal station at nearby Worston, which is near the Roman road we crossed earlier.
The fact that Worsaw Hill was once under the sea is reflected by the fossilised crinoids that can be seen in the limestone of the walls around the hill – these are fern like traces that are due to species which still exist in tropical shallows – and despite looking like plants they are in fact animals.
We are now just 600m from Downham, and the remainder of your route simply follows round the base of Worsaw Hill and then takes a straight line across fields to the village, where ice cream beckons.
Bentham Footpath Group walks are classified according to length and ascent. At just under 12km, this is an easy walk. We noted no specific challenges on the route – but be aware that the climb of the first part or Worsaw Hill is steep, and feels tough so far into the route.
