Grindleton is built on the side of a valley. It’s an old village (aren’t they all), It has two pubs, The Duke of York and…… The main street has a curious name, it’s called Main Street. It is as steep a street as you would wish to walk on. In winter I would imagine many people old & young sat on their posterior come any ice or snow. The streets are narrow and the houses mainly local stone. At the top of the hill are the almshouses. The almshouses have been built in many villages, generally by a local benefactor. He may have been the local Squire or Lord, or a group of benefactors. They are still today offered to the widows of farmers and local workers and other elderly people as what we would now call "Sheltered Accommodation"

                 The Duke of York Hotel, Grindleton.                                                            The steep streets of Grindleton

The main feature of Sawley is the ruins of an Abbey. It was a Cistercian Abbey built in 1148 and as many religious orders in the country has had a turbulent past. Nothing more than a few remaining part walls and a rebuilt floor plan, it shows little of it’s past. In a stone wall some 100 yards from the Abbey is an arch, which you would presume was the original entrance. The local pub, The Spread Eagle, like many in the area seems to put more emphasis on the food and restaurant side of business than the "Local Pub" image favoured in the bigger towns. The pub stands on a corner of the River Ribble and has a large out door area, which would be very comfortable on a warmer day. As the day was getting grey and drizzly I didn’t stay.

The Copy Nook Public House is on the junction of the road I took to Slaidburn.  It's a former Coaching Inn about a mile & a half from Bolton-by-Bowland.

The village of Bolton-by-Bowland is a charming spot, with village green with perhaps 10 or 12 houses forming a crescent around it.  There is also a stone cross, and old stocks. It is what you would expect a country village to look like, the houses in the village are mainly 2 storey stone cottages. The main street has a small cul-de-sac leading off it, and a pretty Memorial Garden. Further round the corner and past the church is a village green, on further and to the right is a new private development built around a substantial court yard.

The church has a font dating from 1500 which bears the arms of the Pudsay, Percy, Tempest, Hammerton and other families. The Pudsay tomb has an engraved figure of Sir Ralph Pudsay in full armour with the figures of his three wives and 25 children. (A busy man when not off fighting wars) Overlooking the River Ribble is Rainsber Scar which is a beautiful spot - known locally as Pudsay’s leap where William Pudsay is said to have made the leap on horseback when being chased by soldiers for illegally minting his own coins. (According to legend his godmother, Queen Elizabeth I, later pardoned him).