Firwood Fold
No 10 Firwood Fold. Birthplace of Samuel Compton in 1753
I’d not visited Firwood Fold for a while, certainly not as a start of a dog walk. Just as I parked an ominous black cloud came across, thunder cracked and it started snowing. We jumped back into the car and let the storm shower pass over. Hail stones the size of dried peas clattered against the roof, drowning out the interesting play on Radio 4. The shower only lasted a few minutes. Setting off again, Luna sniffed the strange cold crunchy substance on the ground, not something you get in her homeland.
Firwood Fold is a small hamlet of farm workers cottages houses some dating back 500 years to the 16th century. Now a conservation area, it includes the birthplace of Samuel Crompton a famous son of Bolton. In 1753 he was born in number 10, the last house in Bolton with a thatched roof. He went on to invent the Spinning Mule which revolutionised the cotton industry. The Fold is surrounded by woodland leading down to the River Tonge and a golf course. A good route on a cold and stormy day, with nobody else around.
Antondotreks 