Ribble Way: Longton to A6, Preston

This stage begins on wide-open lands alongside the Ribble Estuary, but soon makes its way towards Preston. Longton Marshes form a small part of the Ribble Marshes National Nature Reserve, 5,689 acres of salt-marsh and intertidal flats on the south side of the River Ribble. It protects the habitat of waders, ducks, geese, gulls and terns. It is a staging point for Arctic migrants, and oystercatchers, grey plover and redshank winter there.

For millennia, the lowest crossing of the River Ribble was – as it still is – at Preston and this aided its development. While Lancaster is the historic county town, Preston is now the administrative capital of Lancashire, and officially became a city in 2002, ahead of 25 other towns which were considered for city status to mark the Queen's Golden Jubilee.

This district of Preston, the area south of Fishergate and around Winckley Square, where Georgian streets run into landscaped Miller and Avenham Parks, is the towns’s visual pride and joy, with many fine 19th-century buildings. Finer still is the Harris Museum and Art Gallery, which dominates the town centre. The building is one of the most notable examples of the Greek Revival in the country.
Preston’s past is Roman and medieval. It was granted its first charter in 1179. Spinning and weaving began there in the 16th century. Arkwright, a Preston man, born in 1732, developed a spinning or water frame. The first cotton mill was started in 1777. Every 20 years a local festival, ‘Preston Guild’, re-enacts the town’s history with processions and many associated events. It was last held in 2012.

From the Dolphin Inn, turn west along Marsh Lane and right along the tidal embankment overlooking Longton Marshes.

At Longton Brook the path bends sharply to the right. Follow waymarks over several stiles, around an odd little loop, then straight again along a field boundary, northwards. After crossing a lane and another field, rejoin the embankment.

Soon join a massive embankment on the south bank of the River Ribble and follow it towards Preston. Keep on along the embankment, path past Higher Penwortham golf course and the site of the former Penwortham Power Station into a traffic-free road. Pass under a flyover and continue to the Liverpool Road (A59).

Cross the river here then turn right on Broadgate. Here you meet the Guild Wheel, a 21-mile (34km) walking and cycling route encircling Preston. If you are doing the entire Ribble Walk, you’ll mostly be following this until well into the next stage.

Follow the riverside route; after passing under a large railway bridge (the West Coast Main Line), it leads into Miller Park. Continue under another railway bridge, now used by cyclists and pedestrians, into Avenham Park. Pass a former horse-drawn tramway bridge, continue along the riverside walk and then alongside the Boulevard to reach London Road (A6) where it bridges the Ribble.