#3 Withnell Circular - I'm no Ken! Traditional Cache
#3 Withnell Circular - I'm no Ken!
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Difficulty:
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Size: 
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Withnell Circular can be done in any order and the full route will take around 2 - 3 hours. It is approximately 5 miles long. The cache is a small film canister type container although this may not be obvious straight away. Please re-hide carefully, this path is VERY well used by locals. Major stealth may be required. At this point along the walk you are close to the shops in Withnell. If you come off the nature trail, there's a small cafe, chippy, pharmacy, newsagents and a grocery shop.
Withnell Local Nature reserve stands on what was 'The Walker's Railway', the line from Chorley to Cherry Tree near Blackburn. It went through the villages of Heapey, Brinscall and Withnell before closing to passengers in 1960. Back in the 19th century it wasn't the need to service some remote villages that built the line, but the need to transport coal. The idea for the line was put forward by the mine owners in Wigan, desperate to move coal to the developing cotton mills of East Lancashire.
Back in 1860, the only route was a 21-mile journey via Euxton, Preston and Hoghton and on to Blackburn. A direct line from Chorley to Blackburn was not only shorter, at just eight-and-a-half miles, but it was estimated that it would reduce coal by one shilling (5p) a tonne, saving the mills in Blackburn more than £20,000 a year. Eventually owned and operated jointly by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway and the London North Western Railway, the line cost £530,000 to build and was considerably over budget - taking two years longer to build than planned. Despite a few civil engineering setbacks, for the line had to go over moorland and accommodate trains up gradients of 1 in 60, it was eventually opened in December 1869. Nearly 100 years later the final remnants were finally removed with the demolition of the Botany Bay viaduct – the latter to make way for the new M61 motorway. The four stations on the line at Feniscowles, Withnell, Brinscall and Heapey were built at a total cost of £10,430. The station at Withnell was closer to Abbey Village than its name implies, as was Heapey which was later to become popular with walkers. They would board the train at Chorley and then head for White Coppice and the West Pennine Moors, before walking back to the town. In between Withnell and Heapey was the village of Brinscall, at the highest point of the line some 558 feet above sea level. Up and down the line there were numerous sidings servicing growing industries such as Abbey Village (cotton) mill, Withnell brickworks, Brinscall (calico) printworks and Heapey bleachworks.
The line was closed to passengers on January 4, 1960, and to goods trains some six years later on January 3, 1966. The last length of rails was finally lifted at Feniscowles, near Blackburn on April 22, 1968, although a length of the line was still in use as a 'long siding' at Chorley in 1982. Whilst little remains of the line close to Chorley station, the route can still be traced. Today, a stretch from Brinscall along the track bed to the old Withnell station can still be enjoyed by walkers. What was once "The Walker's Railway" is still that today – minus the trains.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Qbag ybbx qbja gb trg va ba gur npgvba.