It’s time to fall for the great British autumn
Who needs New England when you have… well, old England, Scotland and Wales? Chris Moss reveals where to witness the best of the changing season
Now is the season of deep content; at least it is if you love the outdoors. Britain may look small on a world map compared with the United States with its legendary fall colour, but it is further north and longer than people think. While we wait to discover when we can travel to the US once more, autumn is bringing out magical changes across our wondrous woodlands. Where else was New England named after, if not our own fair shores?
Shortening, cooler days transform the colours of the canopy at different times, a slow drama enhanced by the range of tree and plant species. Changes take place stealthily and patchily, the light playing a major role in what is and isn’t seen. Arriving in the Lake District in the evening you might think you are surrounded by deep-green forests, only to wake up in your hotel room to a riot of russets and ochres, golds and purples.
An autumn walk has long held an important place in the British imagination. Who doesn’t love the crunch of boot or shoe on dry leaf, acorn and conker, so evocative of childhood? From Keats’s famous ode to harvest services at village churches and the recent American import of leaf peeping, we have truly fallen for the fall.
Finding the perfect wood is a joyous quest. Britain is among the least-wooded countries in Europe yet is home to around 80 per cent of the continent’s oldest trees. Plantations get a mixed press, while forestry sites often border reservoirs and moorland. Our woodlands frame suburbs, quarries and motorways. A walk through British boscage is as changeable in its moods as our weather.
For people, as for nature, autumn is a time of changing and turning. Flashes of warm sunlight through the dwindling canopy hark back to summer; sudden gusts rattling bare branches augur the coming winter. No wonder autumn puts us in a reflective mood. Walking has always been the most enjoyable – and re-energising – way to think deep thoughts. A close second has to be sitting in a country pub, ideally with an open fire and something to lubricate the mind. Within you will find the 10 best places in Britain to do both, with plenty of wildlife, history and mystery en route.
The county that gave us the Industrial Revolution is, today, a largely green and pleasant one, and while the old names of the Forest of Bowland and Pendle Forest describe hunting ranges rather than forests proper, both of these are dotted with native woodland and mixed plantations. Some of the prettiest copses cluster along the becks and streams that wind down the steep ravines known here as cloughs, while hundreds of footpaths wind through villages and towns, with glorious walking around the fells above the Ribble Valley and on the flanks of Pendle Hill.
WALK
Sabden Valley Circular (9 miles)
This lovely hike takes in Sabden Brook, which supplied and powered seven mills, woodlands around Churn Clough Reservoir and, between Stainscombe and Ratten Clough farms, stone walls that are evidence of an ancient form of pastoral enclosure called a vaccary (from the Latin vacca, for cow). ribblesdale.net/leaflets_walking / FOBSabdenValleyCircular.pdf
STAY AT Freemasons at Wiswell
This country pub is the real deal, with low, beamed ceilings, flagstone floors and pictures of hunting scenes on the walls. The owner, Steven Smith, is an acclaimed chef, and his kitchen serves up classy starters and sublime mains such as Lancashire beef sirloin and cheek, smoked egg noodles and mushroom risotto. Doubles from £260, including breakfast (01254 822218; freemasonsatwiswell.com)