Colne – My Favourite Place

I don’t think that there will be many places in Lancashire that haven’t got that certain charm, its people and places are unique. There is so much beauty in its cobbled streets, old mills and buildings, and history, but that is only in the eye of the beholder. Buildings of today look weird to us, the world is now an ever-changing place, with new people and customs, so we have to accept them, like it or not, and be Europeanised, but I’m from Lancashire and stubborn.

What to choose? Where? Our beautiful countryside dominated by tales of witches and Pendle Hill surging upward on the skyline like a beached whale, with its villages nestling in the valley. The magnificent building of Townley Hall steeped in history. Blackpool Tower, and its fantastic coastline. Wycoller with its bridges and tales of the Brontës. Foulridge and its tunnel and the winding canal going west and east joining up our waterways and tales of barges carrying goods to the docks at Liverpool.

Or simply my old chair in the corner of my small yard watching the birds and bees enjoying their freedom at last from the old cat next door.

Clog makers, black puddings from Bolton and its town hall, or my caravan at Morecambe and the wonderful views across the bay. Just a few places to wet your appetite. Or what about the old seat at the top of the park overlooking the flower beds, the ford at the bottom of Shirtneck Harry, Lake Burwain and its sailing club, and good blackberrying patches along its sides? Snow on Bouldsworth from the Coldwell Inn car park – beautiful.

Or simply my old chair in the corner of my small yard watching the birds and bees enjoying their freedom at last from the old cat next door. Remembering days when my girls were growing up, then to my days and why am I still here in bonnie Colne? Having left and returned to my roots.

Bonnie Colne up on the hill, with its old church and tower with its long history standing proud on top of the hill.

My mother inspired in us all the natural beauty all around here, you don’t have to have any money just a healthy body to keep up with her and she’d made sure of that, she followed footpaths shown to her by her grandparents and parents.

What spot in England’s green and pleasant land is my favourite place? Bonnie Colne up on the hill, with its old church and tower with its long history standing proud on top of the hill. The magnificent town hall buildings and clock, dominating the landscape, with rows and rows of terraced houses down each side, like rows of dominoes, ready to fall if pushed. Mills and chimneys now nearly all long gone from its valleys, silent are the weaving sheds of old days, and the sounds of clogs on the cobble streets, the women dressed in clogs and shawls, and children barefoot, playing in the streets – memories. But, after all that, Bonnie Colne will always be my favourite place.

ColneLife Spring 2022