An update on this old favourite.
I must admit I have crisscrossed these paths in a corner of the Ribble Valley many times long before the Tolkien Trail appeared. It’s a popular area made more so by those well known connections of the Tolkien family to Stonyhurst College. I’ve never been a fan of The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings and I don’t know who came up with the idea of this themed walk, but it has been a great success. There are local guides and videos to the walk, some days Hurst Green is overflowing with visitors, many here for the Tolkien Trail. Local businesses must be rubbing their hands.
This afternoon I need a quick walk somewhere and the pin falls on the Ribble at Hurst Green. Parking up at that well known bus stop at Winckley, just up the road from Cromwell’s Bridge. 
I happen to be on the route of The Tolkien Trail but I don’t follow it directly, I walk up the road to meet it where it enters the grounds of the college below St. Mary’s Hall. I pass Gardener’s Cottage which always brings back memories of an engaging young woman who worked as my secretary for awhile, she lived in that cottage, her father being the head gardener to the college.
St. Marys.
I approach the Chapel but take the well worn path leftwards near the observatory into the field below the cricket pitch. This is the one where you can ring a bell if clay pigeon shooting is going on, I’ve never known it. This path used to be very muddy approaching the village, but recently has been ‘improved’, all very brutal but perhaps necessary. Instead of heading for Smithy Lane, my usual way, I take a vague path across a field to emerge directly into the busy village green. Millie’s is doing a good trade in ice creams and I avoid the temptation of the cosy bar of the Shireburn Arms. 
The trail slips through the carpark of the inn. 
There is a wedding celebration going on in the garden, lucky with the sunny weather, and the band is playing Tainted Love which I didn’t think was the best choice for a wedding. The field is full of cows and calves and a lurking bull. I’m not comfortable in the vicinity of bulls but he seems to have other interests.
Again the footpath has been upgraded all the way down to the Ribble through the woods, which must make coming up the other way from the river measurably better. Himalayan Balsam is taking over in places. You arrive by the river at the impressive aqueduct carrying water to Blackburn.
It is along here that the path has been surfaced with strips of artificial turf recycled from some football club. Don’t step offside! It is wearing well, a good solution to ‘over’popular paths and preferable in my eyes to the linear gravel overlay that has appeared a little farther. Straight line next to a curvy river don’t go.
People are sat on the seat overlooking Jumbles Rocks where I had planned my usual drinks stop. 
The river is low and lazy above Jumbles and I watch this swan drifting about. In winter floods you can’t even walk this stretch, it is under fast moving water. 
I move on up river, there is a popup campsite on the other side of the river at Hacking Hall, looks idyllic for families. The reviews for the site are enthusiastic.
Along here I spot a Heron standing guard, he or she is oblivious to the chattering Sand Martins swooping around the sandy banks.
I eventually get my sit down and drink by the confluence with the Hodder, the day is getting hotter. I’m hoping the recent storms haven’t damaged the Winckley Oak, no it is looking very impressive in full leaf. I realise I don’t often see it like this, I must mostly walk this route in winter, that’s also probably why I have never seen the campsite before.
But what’s this? A sign stating the footpath is closed and a newly erected finger post,
I wonder whether this is an official diversion or just the farm sending you round their buildings. I will contact Lancashire County Council about it, no luck yet as I’m having trouble navigating their new website, they never seem to get any easier. As it happens it is a decent diversion coming out above the farm buildings. It gives a different view of the oak and a good vista to Pendle Hill. 
The path across the once very muddy fields has also been improved in recent times and I’m soon back at the bus shelter. The domes of Stonyhurst College are fittingly on the skyline. 
I lose count of the number of people, and dogs, I have passed. I only miss out the loop around The Hodder today. One wonders what is the average yearly footfall on the Tolkien Trail? The number of recent ‘improvements’ bears witness to its popularity. How far do the authorities, with diminishing cash, go to promote and gentrify the trail?
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