August 2024 Field Trip: Millhouses & Mealbank
Eighteen members enjoyed a(nother!) sunny afternoon for our second summer walk, this time led by Millhouses resident and THS secretary Mike Winstanley. We started at Lane Head, briefly a public house in the nineteenth century, then headed down Millhouses main street to the site of the old mill. Despite having been in use well into the twentieth century, very little remains of the mill itself, though a stone pillar is still standing – it supported the timber launder carrying water to the overshot mill wheel – and the mill after-race can be seen though the vegetation. From here we followed the river and road to investigate an old path leading down to the Hindburn where the rocky bed forms a ford. There is Ordnance Survey and anecdotal evidence of a long-gone footbridge here, once used by Millhouses residents walking up to the former chapel near Higher Broadwood, but no convincing sign of exactly where it might have been.
With time pressing, a planned field path route was discarded in favour of a quick march down the road to Hindburn Bridge, and then along the drive to Gamblesholme, a former farm in an idyllic setting. In the garden, we were welcomed by its owner; he first lived at Gamblesholme in the early 1940s, and was able to answer our many questions about life there over the intervening 80 years. From there, a short, sharp climb through fields brought us to Far Mealbank farm, and just beyond, to Mealbank farm, where we admired Tatham’s most magnificent and ancient oak tree, and the fine views across Lunesdale. There remained a short walk back to Millhouses down leafy Agnes Ing and Trinket lanes, each prompting speculation about the origins of their names.
Our thanks to Nigel and Mary for car parking, and to other local residents for permission to access some private areas.
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