BritStops into the Hodder & Ribble Valleys

On Friday we set-off in the motorhome for one of my favourite near-by places. We used to motor there in the 1960s. The route from Oldham to Lancaster and Morecambe via the Trough of Bowland became the habitual way when Dad or auntie Irene took me by car at the start of a university term. The photos of that time were lost long ago. The part of the journey I really liked was going through the market towns and villages of the Ribble and Hodder valleys. 

Our itinerary was to over-night at the BritStops in Bashall Town which is basically a diary farm turned-over to selling 'country produce'.

First we stopped in Whalley and actually went round the dissolved abbey. The state vandalism of Henry VIII and his henchman Thomas Cromwell was on what we would now call and industrial scale. The abbot's house was bought by a local aristo. The abbey is in ruins.

We arrived at Bashall Barn in time for a late but very large lunch, in beautiful weather.

Not a delivery, but a collection of the locally brewed Bowland ales to be sold throughout the county.

And that was our view east for the evening from the van across the Ribble valley to Pendle hill with Clitheroe in the middle distance.

Looking the other way, west, to the Hodder valley and Longridge.

Next day, Saturday morning we set off for near-by Holden where there is a plant nursery of note called "Holden Clough".

Above Erinus alpinus still grows in the retaining wall of the nursery as when Roy Lancaster first visited 50 years ago. He wrote an article in June's The Garden about how the new owners the young and enthusiastic John Foley and Kate Lawson have developed the nursery in the past few years. I had to visit and collect a trolley-load of plants for home. Chris is very tolerant about this kind of thing so long as these venues have cakes, pastries and ice cream, which they do.

 The car park wasn't really made to accommodate motorhomes. Below is part of my purchase - heucheras, iris Holden Clough, and primulas - the sempervivums and pulsatilla. had not yet been added.