Hiley Website

A few pictures, perhaps slightly more due to the unusual nature of the walk and the surprises I found along the way.

Loes, Lill and I take a walk into the rather hidden end of the valley, beyond the top of Loweswater, passing a farm with an apple name and a farm where they grow apples.

We call in the old Church in the fields at Mosser then return by the old mountain track back towards Askhill, back to the 'other' Loweswater phone box.



From the starting point we soon pass the Grange Country House Hotel	In the garden is the Queen's Platinum Jubilee Tree the Village planted in 2022.

My walking companions today, Loes and Lill, not forgetting the hound, here at the start of the driveway to Graythwaite.

Loes is feeling happy because she found a shinny coin on the floor . . . if it's yours John or Judy, just let me know the date on the coin and we might return it.



Our route leaves the field drive and follows the signposted footpath off to the left.	At the start the going was easy and the stiles good.



Life got a bit more interesting as the ground got a little more damp.	Finding and following the path was a challenge at times.



Across the fields to our next way-mark.	An old squeeze stile in the wall.

A place I've never seen before and for that matter hardly noticed on the map . . . this is Bramley Farm.

They seem to have a few visitors today, but the path across the field conveniently avoids the farm itself.

It joins their farm drive just down from a signpost.

Strangely the signpost seems to be in the totally wrong place . . . I suspect it was a redundant highways sign that has been bought and re-homed.

I tried to work out the original location for the finger post but it is full of contradictions.

The combined distance from Mockerkin to Pardshaw for instance,is not 3/4 mile as suggested, its more like a full mile and there's no road junction at an intermediate location.

Also I can't find any local feature known as New Manbray (or Mawbray) on either the old or new maps.

Mosser - circa 1861 O.S.Map

My best guess was that its original home was at a point, either at the footpath end from the Mosser Road

or the river bridge at the (red) Parish boundary on the Pardshaw to Mockerkin Road.

Loweswater (Church) would correctly be about four miles from there, when traveling via Mockerkin Village.

Back to the walk . . .



Leady Moss in the apparent source of Dubbs Beck that flows down into Loweswater.	There are a lot more trees than shown on the map . . . due to Geoff presumably.

A solid cattle grid on the Bramley Farm road takes us out to a right turn onto the Mosser Mains Road.

Across the fields is a footpath to the village of Pardshaw ( pronounced locally as Pardsa' ) . . . but that's not for us today.

We'll take the road and enjoy the panoramic views north to Pardshaw Crag and over towards Cockermouth.

[ The bent gate is just a feature of the camera angle when taking a panorama.]

- - - o o o - - - We pass the entrance to several farms and houses on this back road. Many of them feature in village conversations and we know one or two people who live here but their exact location was not really known until we visited the area. I've only driven this road a few times in all the years I've lived here. We passed Mosser Heights, Paradign and Beech Hill. - - - o o o - - -

The road gradually rises till we get a view of Fellbarrow . . . but those tall trees is where our next objective is hiding.

A set of steps takes us up into the field . . . there's a footpath but no track to the fell side Church.

- - - o o o - - - Dedicated as the Chapel of St Michael. Strangely, looking at the old 1860's maps earlier I note that it is marked down as being dedicated to St Phillip (per Curacy).

- - - o o o o - - -	There's at lease one Service per year and also a social event this July as well,

The path up through the field has lovely views north and east.

That high ground in the distance could even be Caer Mote Hill close to Binsey and Bothel.

The squat little church is surrounded by a small and very old graveyard.

Inside it still has the classic wooden pews, Alter and Pulpit, with a pedal organ to one side.

There's no electricity here, just the hint of some old gas lamps.



Loes signs the visitor book and leaves her newly found coin (actually she left a bit more as well)	Outside a headstone for John Wilkinson of Mosser Mains (died aged just 4 1/2 years old)



Two larger headstones for John Fawcett, Yeoman, of Mossergate Farm and his family.	Next to it, a 1792 memorial to Philip Burnyeate of Mosser, Gentleman.

The second stone is also in memory of Eleanor, great niece of Philip, wife of James McKane, Cockermouth's "Distributor of Stamps" (a job once held by William Wordsworth I believe),

who died in 1894, in her 70th year.

It seems if you survived through early childhood you could live to a good age.

This old JCB digger lived to a ripe old age but now sits abandoned at the edge of the field.

Company founder Joseph Cyril Bamford CBE invented the backhoe digger concept. The first JCB model was manufactured in 1953 and this looks a reasonably early example.

St Michael's hidden in the group of trees across the way and the same ones that we saw earlier from the Mosser Road.

We follow the field path around and through a gate onto the old Mosser mountain road to Loweswater.

The first house we pass is in fact Mossergate, the one mentioned earlier in the graveyard.

It stands close to the end of the tarmac road and in its first days probably had a gate across the track to separate 'farm' from 'fell'.



High Mosser gate . . . okay, that's a bit higher up the road above Mossergate.	High Mosser is now famous for producing Apple Juice and Cider from its orchards.

Mark Even gave a talk recently to the Loweswater 77 Club and he has a great guide on how (not) to grow fruit trees

We put the Cider behind us and headed forward, or should I say back towards home, on the Mosser Track.

It looks okay for cars here, but be warned, the potholes get deeper and the road more rutted as you continue on . . . it's classed now as unsuitable for motors !

It is however, very suitable for walkers

and includes a low wall to act as a temporary seat where you can stop and enjoy the surroundings.

We take the second lane to the left and head down toward the valley through the gate to Askhill Farm.

I'm sure the red lid said something at one time.

This gate says take care . . . farm animals about.

Belted Galoways are a gentle breed . . .

but when the bull gets up close and personal and ask "Who are you looking at" then you do begin to wonder.

The track leads down the hillside above the farm, where we can look over the wall at their rather nice looking self-catering Glamping Yurt

The track continues on until it joins the side road to Myresyke House, seen in the trees below.

One last section, I was going to say one last leg but this picture has four legs,

as we pass the old buildings of Spout House Farm.

It was just a short walk back down to the phone box on the main road, where we had parked the car just after midday.

- - - o o o - - -

Hello from Vermont
I loved your June 30 photos. If you had taken the path straight out onto the almost abandoned Mosser road from the little church and turned left then followed it down and around the bend to the right to Mosser Mains, you would have passed the house I lived in 55 years ago - Ghyll (or Gill) Brow on your right, across the road from Mosser Mains' cattle barn.

The (mountain) road to Loweswater was drivable then and my husband and I would drive - carefully - over to the Kirkstile Inn about once a week. Sometimes we'd walk instead - in the dark on the way home, with great skies and no light pollution.

We attended the Harvest service at the little church in late September about 10 days before my daughter was born in 1968 - I certainly looked ripe for harvest! The gas lights were lit and someone played the little pump organ, there was a wonderful pile of harvest foods (I baked bread) and the small space was filled with rosy-cheeked farm families in browns and grays and even some wooden soled boots. Sheep surrounded the church, kept away by fencing and a gate.

It's a memory immersed in images of life as it was lived there for at least 200 years before I arrived.

Thank you, Judy Hallberg, Chester, Vermon, New York State.

- - - o o o - - -

Technical note: Pictures taken with my iPhone 11pro mobile phone camera.

Resized in Photoshop, and built up on a Dreamweaver web builder.

This site best viewed with . . . a new route with plenty of interest to find.

Previous walk - 26th June 2024 - A Keswick Morning Walk

A previous time up here - 23rd February 2016 - Waterend and Askhill Knott

Next walk - 6th - 9th July 2024 - Jack and Catherine in The Lakes