Navigating Boundaries

The following are directions for the Bradley Ward Boundary.

Starting at the new Hey Street Play Area.

Cross Leeds Road at the Pelican Crossing and turn right up Chapel Street: stay on the pavement on the right hand side.

Carry on until you get to the Railway Crossing: this is a dangerous area to cross the road so please take care.

Once safely across, continue passed Wavelengths and cross the road to Playland.

Keeping Playland on your right, go around the corner and under the Arndale Footbridge.

Carry on until you see the new Nelson Interchange on your left, to your right should be The Place De Criel: a pedestrian corridor leading towards the Marsden Building Society, The Lord Nelson Public House and Market Square, on Manchester Road.

Turn right and head towards Scotland Road, look down Market Street and notice Pendle Hill on your left as it sits on top of the library building.

Notice shops, old and new as you walk down Scotland Road.

Turn left at Kebabish, passing The Silverman Hall on your right and take care crossing the road towards Morrisons supermarket, passing the mosque on your right.

Pass to the right of Morrisons and over the bridge to The Conduit.

Follow The Conduit around to Milton Street and turn right to Car Road.

Watch your speed as you go under the M65 towards Victoria Park.

Enter the park at the sign for Barrowford Town Centre.

Take a rest on the bridge as you listen to the busy motorway traffic.

Over the bridge, you must turn right at the lake and leave the park to turn right again.

Take the first public footpath on your right and follow through to a gate, where you can see what’s on the other side of the river.

Carry on towards a Kissing Gate and passed the three ancient trees on your left to another Kissing Gate.

Turning right passed some small business units on your left, you will see a footpath and a small water measuring station on your right.

Follow the path to Calder Vale, stay on the left hand side of the street next to the shoe shop.

Turn left at the shop for about six doors and find a safe place to cross.

Make your way around onto Gisburn Road, this is the main road through Barrowford.

Keeping going left and cross the road at the pelican crossing.

Still going left, you will come to Wilton Street.

Going up Wilton Street and over the little bridge, stay on the tarmac road leading under the M65, you should be able to see the river on your right.

Stay on the tarmac, passed the trees on your right (Cycle Park) and over a bridge.

You are now at Swindon Playing Fields and across the fields, you can see a nearby town on a hill, slightly to your left.

Stay on the tarmac as it bears left and then turn right up the cycleway path and over the steep canal bridge.

Follow the canal until the you see metal girders supporting the canal banks. This is near the Aquaduct and marks the Bradley Boundary.

Turn around and head back to the first footpath sign, which will be on your left hand side.
Go up the track and turn left onto Regent Street.

Find a safe place to cross and turn left when you get to Junction Street, passing industrial units.

Turn right on Leeds Road and notice you are in Colne, heading towards Nelson, you can see the new Pendle Vale College on your left.

Pass the shops, cross at the Pelican Crossing and turn right.

Find a safe place to cross Walton Lane, away from the roundabouts.

Pass in front of the Hour Glass building and head along Bradley Hall Road.

You will see industrial units and houses along this long road, there are also several different faith buildings too.

Walk to the end of this road until you see the site of the new Youth Centre and be careful to find a suitable place to cross, well away from the roundabouts.

Make your way back to Hey Street Park.

The route is about 7 miles long and should take between 2 and 3.5 hrs depending on abilities. Pushchairs could get round with some help clearing the kissing gates.

The Bradley Boundary

Had a meeting with Lynne and Judith last week to discuss final details for 6 month project proposal: mainly costs and outcomes.
Note to self: I need to clarify those before this Friday.

Last night at the Residents Assoc. meeting, young Hussman presented a slideshow about his experience of working with me and Lynne, highlighting key points along the way: learning new words, working with new people, going on trips etc. He managed to combat his nerves enough to get through the slides before receiving a round of applause from the other residents.

I put the idea to the residents about having a treasure hunt style walk around the Bradley Boundary in August and we got some names for volunteers to help with setting clues/directions etc.

Today, Lynne and I went around the route to assess any risks and to stimulate ideas for clues.
The whole walk is approximately 7 miles and should take about 3 hours at a leisurely pace. It takes in sites around the town centre shops, industrial sites, the canal, a park, Barrowford, The Nelson & Colne boundary, The College, the railway line, the M65, Leeds Road and many local businesses around the town.
I tracked our walk using GPS technology and you can view the route via Google Earth Maps here: http://www.a-trip.com/tracks/view/25006

We met a man called Roger along the way, outside Complete Runner at Hilldrop. He has volunteered to be the first to submit a local memory recipe to The Bradley Recipe Archive with his favourite dish, which is a creative variation on Lancashire Hotpot.

Some activity

Had meeting today to identify possible forms of evaluative measurement data to be collected throughout the project. I think it went ok, with what seemed like some good pointers for presenting key developments in the creative engagement process: community wellbeing, new skills/knowledge etc.

Arranged another meeting with Judith (project manager) to move/develop ideas forward next monday.

Also meeting with members of youth group (probably just one or two of them) who are preparing a presentation for the residents association meeting.

After feeling like nothing has been happening for quite some time, I think things may start to pick up again and we can finally get down to some interesting cultural activity.

Youth Presentation

Had a meeting today with Lynne Mitchell and Paul Hartley at Pendle Vale High School, which is where some of our young people attend.

Only three turned up but it was very productive. Hussmann and Faisal reflected on the learning experience so far on the project: from initial meetings to the recent cycle tour.

We have scheduled another meeting next week to make plans for a Powerpoint presentation by the young people to show the Residents Association what they have been up to.

This will be a great opportunity to develop their communication skills and to evaluate the project.

Bradley Boundary Cycle Tour

Been ages since we last did anything on the project, very frustrating having to wait to get projects passed before engagement with community.

Hopefully things should start moving shortly, once I get the go ahead from the steering group.

Today we took a group of young people on a bicycle tour of the Bradley Ward boundary. We tried to get as close as possible to the actual boundary line but it is difficult on the bikes. We should attempt to do a more specific tour on foot, which will also offer more opportunities for photographs.

This exercise will inform the map development, which will be used to measure how much information has been taken on board by the young participants.

The tour was logged using GPS technology and the route, including photos can be viewed here on Google maps: http://www.a-trip.com/tracks/view/21707

Choose map view and start the slideshow... gps receiver goes off track when we stopped in once place for any length of time but you can get a good idea of where we went.

Pendle Hill

Pendle Hill