Fell Races of the Past

[Richard Head]

Belmont Winter Hill
Coppice fell race (I think this was run as a one off in the middle of the foot & mouth shutdown, run on the lower sections of the Hambledon Hill route)
Clougha Pike (still run but from Quernmore now rather than the original field)

[mapper]

Now that I've got my book out here are some more to add to the original list:
Bolton by Bowland
Cowpe
Compstons Cross
Gale
Shooters
Stanhill Village
Whirlaw Hill
.........and those are just the Lancashire ones !

[sol]

Waughs Well is no more, I think due to the windfarm and quarry. There's some good info in Stud Marks on the home page library thing. Its a shame the Three Towers isn't run anymore, seemed a popular event back in the day. I recall reading in SMOTS about a race from Ramsbottom that went upto Grants Tower? and that one of the runners may have punched a local...probably got cancelled after that..cant find the article now though.

[Graeme78]

Here's a start with some in your back garden MST:
Fiendsdale (old 9 mile route)
Fiendsdale new route 2014
Witches Clough (on Pendle)
5 Cloughs (on Pendle)
Downham
Black Lane Ends
Boulsworth (from Herders pub)
Rombalds Moor (sorry. this one's in Yorkshire ~ see post below!)

What was the old Fiendsdale 9 miles route?

[wheezing donkey]

What was the old Fiendsdale 9 miles route?

CP1 was same as the current CP1 at the wall/fence junction on Blindhurst Saddle.

N then NE.

CP2 was at a fence junction - 608473.

N then NE to the stream junction in Bleadale Waters (1:25,000 map shows a Cairn).

CP3 was the old out barn at Langden Castle - 606503.

W on shooting track, through ford then L fork on PFP and up the full length of Fiendsdale.

Over Fiendsdale Head, L (SSW) off PFP

CP4 was down at the sheepfolds - still used as a CP on the current route - 588484

Originally, no CP was specified at Paddy's Pole and all competitors ran along the fell side of the intake wall, W of PP / Fairsnape summit - odd ones did experiment with going over Paddy's, as required by now having a CP there.

CP5 was Parlick Summit.

Finish at Fell Foot.

Everthing N of the fence from CP2 (as above) to Fiendsdale Head is United Utilities water catchment property and we were limited to a field of 160.

The arrangement was that every year the RO wrote to the UU estate manager at an office over Pendle way and if he heard nothing back, it was ok.

The FRA invited us to use the race as the opening round of the 2005 English Champs.
The RO wrote his usual letter with indications that we were expecting a field of 450. He heard nothing back. Yippee it was on.
We were totally unaware that the regular estate manager had retired and that UU had closed and sold off the building that he had been stationed in!
UU and the Lancashire County Council Access Officer were very aggrieved at the way the paths down Bleadale Water and up Fiendsdale were "paddled up" by the passage of 450 pairs of feet - the muddied peat gets into the water courses and complicates the filtration process.
It ended up with the RO, myself, another Bowland stalwart and Chris Knox (as FRA Access Officer) in the boardroom at Stocks Reservoir, getting our wrists slapped by senior UU board members, their new estate manager (an old school chum of my son) and the LCC access officer.
We were told not to expect to use that area of the fells for organised events for many years hence.

Ian Roberts, Bowland F.R.

[wheezing donkey]

Clougha Pike (still run but from Quernmore now rather than the original field)

Richard, where do you mean by "the original field". Since the inception of the race in 1982, Quernmore Field Day is now at its third location. Upto around 1988 it was on the flat field E of "Mother's Dyke Drain" and N of the Littledale Road that heads over Baines Crag. Then it moved to Friars Moss on the Caton Road. It moved into the field behind the chapel maybe 10 years ago - always within the parish of Quernmore.

[grahaml]

Ian - I heard a rumour Fiendsdale once went from 1707 to Langden Castle via Bleadale Nab - rough, but the heather was recently burnt in them days! And I'm sure someone said one year it went down the quarries from Blindhurst Saddle and up and over to Bleadale from there. Sure it'll be back one day in the not too distant future.

[Cath H]

The reason Waugh's Well is no longer run is due to difficulties with the venue for registration, toilets etc. The wind farm and quarry don't really cause too much of a problem; Edenfield Fell race (which I now organise) touches on some of the same areas. You will even find a race using the wind turbines, September I think, organised by Richard Stott of Rossendale Harriers.

[Erno]

There's also the Musbury Tor relays held in the late 1970's and the Nickey Nook race from near Garstang.

[Alf]

There were two Rossendale fell races both extinct. One went either side of the Rossendale valley and the other was confined to the South side. Both races visited Cowpe Lowe as one of the climbs in each.