From the Village Hall car park turn left, walk up Hurst Green to New Street and turn left. Follow the footpath for about 200 yds. Turn left up the track beside Sunnybrook Farm and where the track starts to swing left, opposite the entrance to a new bungalow, go right on a path through the scrub to emerge into the field corner. Walk up the field with the hedge on your right for 350 yds. to reach a stile in the top corner.

  Across the stile you are confronted with an open trackless field rising before you, do not despair but look half right up the rise, you will see two bands of woodland, walk towards the left end of the right hand copse; as you climb the view opens up and you will see the top of an electricity pole beyond the wood corner, aim for that. Join the track by the wood corner and go over the stile beside a gate. Walk ahead into the meadow following the sunken path past the stout post to join a hedge on your right near the opposite corner and cross the footbridge.

  Continue ahead with the hedge on your right, crossing a stile, until you see the conifers surrounding Nook Lane Cottage; just before you reach this there is a small gate in the fence on your right, this leads you round the back of the garden and out into Nook Lane, where you turn right. Walk up to Bluestone Lane, cross with care and turn right for 200 yds then left into Hand Lane. Follow this to Tannersmith Lane then turn right. A footpath goes off left through a gate after 500 yds; the signpost is decrepit and misspelled, indicating Reynolds Lane instead of Wrennall's Lane, the path follows the hedge and drops down to enter Knowles Wood. Cross the footbridge and notice the cylinders of sandstone in the stream bed, these are stone cores that contractors discarded whilst drilling for water nearby. Climb the bank ahead and follow the path through the trees to the house where you turn right into Wrennall's Lane, a stony track. This leads to the Bannister Lane, cross with care, turn left and then in 100 yds, right into Mill Lane.

  You soon reach the footbridge over Syd Brook which would take you into Eccleston but do not cross, instead turn right to follow the path through the trees. Continue past a second footbridge and turn right over the stile opposite the collapsed stone bridge. Walk with the hedge on your left over three fields. The beech wood on your left is called Spring Wood and tucked away inside is Heskin Hall. The footpath veers slightly away from the hedge at the end of the third field to cross a stile about 50 yds from the corner, then heads for the stile beside the gate ahead. The cattle normally in these fields can make them rather muddy. Directly over the track is another stile, cross this and make for the left corner of the wood ahead. The footpath crosses a stile and goes through the wood, crossing two further fields before emerging onto a lane where you turn left.

  A signposted track leads off right after 100 yds Walk past the attractive Pyebrook Hall on your left and as the hedges end turn sharp right. Cross the stile then head half left towards the field corner ahead. Keep the hedge on your right and at the gateway don't go through but look to your left and cross the stile hidden beneath the trees. The path continues beside the hedge and crosses two more stiles before emerging onto a lane where you turn left.

  Follow the lane to its junction with Barmskin Lane and turn left. In a short while you reach The Brook House, a convenient rest and refreshment halt. The Brook House dates back to the 17th century although the name is quite recent; it was originally named the Wooden Legged College, a far more intriguing title than it has today.

  From the inn continue along Barmskin Lane for 250 yds and turn right along the track leading to Charity Farm; this property is believed to have had Quaker links in the past. The track goes through the farm buildings and turns in front of the farmhouse. Where the track turns left continue ahead down a broad green pathway between fences to emerge onto Sanderson's Lane through a gate. Turn left up the hill, ignore the first track off on the left where the road swings sharp right and levels out straight ahead beside the buildings. Follow the track up to Harrock o' th' Hill Farm and continue through the farm to a stile beside a gateway and then up the stony track to the mill on top of Harrock Hill. Pause here to soak in the views across the fertile Lancashire plain; the sea glints on the horizon ahead, you should be able to make out the Ribble estuary with Blackpool Tower beyond and, if you are lucky, the Lake District Fells far away to the north.

  There are several ways back to the village from Harrock Hill, I have already described one in walk no 2. You could take that way, but why not try something different? From the windmill take the path that continues along the edge of the trees to the wall and turn right between the wall and the trees to reach a stile, cross this and go over the ladder stile on your left. Turn right down the sunken path and cross the stile into the farmyard. The right of way goes ahead through the farmyard but a less intrusive route is to walk ahead past the barn on your right and then fork right over the cattle grid. The concrete track takes you down Jackson's Lane where you turn left.

  Bear right at the junction of lanes; the footpath sign indicates where you would have emerged had you walked through the farmyard. Turn right down Bannister Lane walk down to Bentley Lane and cross to Bispham Durning School; the school is over 300 years old having been founded as a grammar school in 1692 by Richard Durning. An enclosed footpath goes beside the right hand end of the school, crosses the stone stile at the end, then follows the hedge to another stile. Cross this and turn right; there used to be a hedge on your right but it has been removed in the name of progress. Walk across towards an electricity pole half hidden in the trees and when you reach the field boundary turn left beside the stream. As you approach the cottage cross the stile into the end of the garden and walk along beside the sheet metal fence to another stile over the stone wall onto the track. Continue downhill and where the track turns sharp left go through the gateway on your right and walk ahead with the hedge on your left. A stile in the field corner leads you into Back Lane beside the Eagle and Child Inn, turn right.

  Follow Back Lane to the junction and turn left into School Lane. In about 300 yds, where the lane swings to the left, cross the stile beside a gate into a pasture. The path heads slightly left to run along the hedge, where the hedge turns left follow it and cross a double stile to enter another field. Aim for the bar stile in the hedge ahead and walk round the graveyard in the enclosed pathway, through another bar stile, onto High Street. The way back to your starting point lies to the right down the hill and over the crossroads by the Methodist Chapel to the centre of the village then left into Hurst Green and back to the Village Hall.

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