Started at 2.50pm today, with the club, from the ‘Three Pigeons’.  We took it easily to Belmont, where a lady member said that she thought she had a puncture.  She went to Jim Rushton’s shop, leaving us to mend it, but we could not find it, so we put the tyre back on again.  Strange to say, it stayed up after that!  Running downhill we soon reached Withnell, and stopped a moment at Hoghton. Hoghton Towers, a castellated, fortified residence, is of great antiquity, and was made famous in Harrison Ainsworth’s book ‘Lancashire Witches’.  We had an excellent view of it from here.  A bylane led us to Brindle, a well known picnic resort, then Clayton Green, Rip Row, and the Wigan road to the tea place.  We did not get to Turpin Green, a hamlet which derives its name from the doubtful fact that Dick Turpin, the notorious highwayman used to call at a cottage there.  Before tea we had a game of football.  It is surprising how many of us had ‘bellows to mend’ inside five minutes.  The game was continued after tea until dusk at 6.45.  At 7pm we started back, taking the Wigan road, then Leyland lane to Chorley.  We then started the hilly, rough road through Cowling and Limbrick to Heath Charnock.  Between here and Horwich I punctured, but it was soon repaired, and reaching Horwich, we sped home, arriving about 9pm.

42 miles