I fully recommend this walk.
It is based on yet another Walks with Taste. leaflet. I don’t start it at the Higher Trapp Hotel for several reasons. I still, after several years, avoid some venues for complex emotional reasons, the Higher Trapp is one of them. Besides it is a restaurant venue, not suited to my sweaty after walk pint. I suspect its gardens and views over the surrounding parkland will be in superb condition today, see for yourself one day. I also like honest Sabden as a base.
“Admire spectacular views of Pendle and the South Pennines as you pass through pastoral countryside. The trees along the route are also particularly interesting, with the route passing through beautiful old beech woods on the lowland, following the shapes of weathered trees on the high ground” Sounds good doesn’t it?
I park in the village centre, there is plenty of street parking as well, as a pay and display, take your choice. Sabden was originally a farming and quarrying community, but the water quality of the brook that runs through the village led to cotton-manufacture and calico printing. At one time there were seven mills in the village and workers must have travelled from much farther afield. I will be walking some of their ways today. As it happens I start my walk past the one remaining mill building, now used for diverse commercial premises. Union Mill. 
The route out of the village has at one time been cobbled and as I slowly gain height gives good views back to Sabden with the bulk of Pendle rising behind. 
Up the hill are some of those trees mentioned in the blurb above. 
There are god views across the Sabden valley and over to Whalley Nab. 
I come out onto one of the small delightful lanes that seem to wander through the hills up here. 
At New Hall they have an unusual floral display of Petunias in ‘pots’.
Down through more beech woods…
…and then I recognise the country lane I meet, Whins Lane, the original medieval road between Whalley and Padiham before the turnpike road was built lower down in what is now Read. Along here are the posh houses of Read boasting large gardens and views south across the valley.
I stop to take a photo of an amusing cluster of ‘snakes’ painted on old ivy roots when the lady of the house appears to offer me anti-venom if needed. She says the children love them – I have to agree. 
I cross Trapp Lane (where I should have started)…
…and march on along past the sawmill thinking to myself that it would nave been better to have taken to the fields and woods above the lane. After a quarter of a mile I realise I should have done and backtrack to find the rather hidden stile. 
Nobody seems to have walked this way across the fields but the stiles are obvious. What’s that building up to the left? I’m soon entering some impressive beech woods. Another world. 
I emerge at Priddy Bank and weave through the private properties. 
Another hidden gate gives access to a rather boggy hillside, I notice the nearby property has planted large leaved Gunnera to take advantage of the moisture. 
Onwards and upwards in the rough field with no obvious path but I keep coming across stiles until I’m faced with a field of hefty bullocks. 
They crowd around me as soon as I enter the field, I back off and take a diversion on my side of the fence as they follow me closely on their side. 
Eventually out of their range I am able to climb the fence and proceed in the field up to the road at Black Hill unhindered.
From up here there are wide views south over Padiham to the Rossendale hills, the photo doesn’t do it justice.
It’s all down hill from here but beware, don’t take the stile directly ahead but keep to the right side of the fence to avoid very boggy ground. A wooden stile brings you out of the field into rough ground for the descent to Sabden, which is seen in perspective to the road dropping down from the Nick of Pendle. Silver birch trees dominate this last slope. 
Old terraces of mill workers’ cottages make up a lot of the village. 
I find myself in the beer garden of the Pendle Witch inn for a pint of Moorhouse’s Brewery’s White Witch. My table companions had been up Pendle, we share stories in the sunshine. Perfect. There is no mention of the Sabden Treacle Mines!
***
The river is flat calm for a stretch and then along come small rapids. I would think that at the moment the water is medium height, the whole aspect changes in flood conditions. Pendle looks on from afar.
Another from a leaflet in the series of Walks with Taste in Ribble Valley, this time setting off from the centre of Clitheroe. I’m becoming lazy with route planning and relying on someone else’s choice, Ribble Valley BC this time. It promised “starting from Holmes Mill, wandering through the grounds of Clitheroe’s Norman Castle to the River Ribble for an easy riverside ramble” 
Too good to go back to bed. I’m motivated to get out there and do a walk. This one springs to mind. 
The path now continues back along the true left bank of the river. I’ve seen Kingfishers here, but not today. One is soon away from the razzmatazz of the picnic area only to find oneself on the busy little road to Clitheroe’s Waste Recycling centre. Past this there are only a few houses before the road ends and one is back into fields close to the river. I notice a reminder of the Covid restrictions and on the water Canada Geese are protecting their young whilst fishermen discus the best spot. 
As we leave the forest a stark metal silhouette of Chained Witches, (Peter Naylor) being marched from Pendle to Lancaster. I am impressed with the detail imparted by a few strips of metal, a reflection of the artist’s skill. 
We now follow the quiet lanes for a mile or so, at the high point Pendle comes into view again. There are lots of cyclists, presumably from east Lancashire clubs, using this switchback route. A majority of the properties seem to be holiday lets, is this the only future for English farming? See below. 
From this elevated position the Three Yorkshire Peaks are just visible but too hazy to photograph. It is a slightly better view down the Ribble Valley towards the Parlick and Fairsnape group of Bowland. And of course you can’t get away from Pendle in these parts.
Soon we are on the return leg, again on quiet lanes, through the hamlets of Howgill, Newby and Stopper Lane. Lots of interesting buildings are passed and we guess at their original purposes.
Here abouts is the village institute hall, a good half mile out of the village proper. But it does have an information board which tells us, all too late, about the Heritage Trail we have almost followed. 
Jim led us out into the reserve, and we had only gone a few metres before he stopped on a grassy verge. A keen eye was needed to spot the tiny fungi, Blackening Waxcaps, They slowly revert to a black mess. I would have walked straight past them or even worse squashed them. The more studious followers were making notes.
Entering the woods of Billinge Hill we pay particular attention to the guide’s directions. There are paths everywhere up here, some I recognise, but mainly I am ‘lost’ blundering about in a hopeful direction. Using a bit of creative thinking we follow the steep and slippery paths down alonside a ravine. Mike is not happy, any of his group who may have made it this far would be now struggling. 
