Smithills Valley is one of Bolton's gems. Smithills Hall is
Bolton's oldest manor house and dates from the 16th Century. Its
now open to the public as a museum. The stables of the hall lay
derilict for many years but in the 1960's they were made into
Smithills Coaching house, now one of Bolton's most well known
restaraunts. Also there is Smithills Open Farm, (it was a visit
here today that finaly led me to put a cache in the vicinity) where
your kids can feed the animals, play on the tractors and meet ziggy
a 6ft long Burmese Python. If this wasn't enough there is also
Smithills Valley nature trail which runs all the way up to the
moors below Winter Hill. There's two things of interest at the
cache site.
The Impatiens Plants. I only know about these because of a log
on one of my other caches (thanks Pieman!). At the moment (i.e the
time the cache was placed) the seed pods are full and they will
burst and explode when you touch them and will project the seeds
quite a distance.
The terraced gardens. Not exactly at the cache site but only a
100 or so yards to the west are the remains of the terraced gardens
of Smithills Hall. These are not as famous as their counterparts in
Rivington and they look rather folorn now. I remember them well in
the 1970's when they where the site of Smithills Garden Center. I
didn't put the cache there to reduce muggling risk but they are
worth seeing while you are in the area.