Monday 2nd March 2026

Monday 2^nd March 2026

Three Centuries Heritage Trail Walk.

Today’s walk was in support of the Whitehead Gardens Improvement Project.

There is an obvious keen interest of local history in Tottington and Greenmount as forty five walkers were on last month’s Seven Mills Walk and forty three walkers, six of them new to the group, joined us for this month’s walk. The walk followed a route which included heritage sites, in Tottington and Greenmount, over the last three centuries that were brought to life through an illustrated leaflet produced by our local historian, Christine Taylor. We began the walk at Greenmount Old School, itself being part of our history, and after crossing Holcombe Road we walked down to the old stone cottages, on our right, which were originally a pub called The Bull. After walking over the Greenmount golf course, we arrived at our next site that of Whipney House, (1794) home of James and Dorothy Holt who were instrumental in fund raising for the building of St Anne’s Church, Tottington. Further along the lane we arrived at Hollymount, with its religious history, which dated back to 1873 and included a chapel, convent, orphanage, care home and more recently a junior school. The nuns, who ran the orphanage also planted an orchard that was renovated in 2010.

From the orchard we descended into the valley and the site of Fearn’s Mill, a cotton spinning mils that closed in 1885. From the mill we followed a track up onto Turton Road, where we turned left and headed down to our next historic sites, the Dungeon Inn, which the new landlady had kindly open to let us view the inside. The pub was built in 1904 and the actual Dungeon built in 1835 was mainly used to lock up local drunks for the night.

After crossing the road and passing the site of the old Printer’s Arms Pub, now an Italian restaurant we made our way to Whitehead Gardens. The gardens is a memorial, dedicated in 1950, commemorating seven local residents killed by a V-1 “doodlebug” flying bomb on Christmas Eve, 1944. The land was donated by Mr. and Mrs. S.D. Whitehead of Stormer Hill, the site on Chapel Street was intended to serve as a place of reflection.

As well as reflecting on the on the dramatic historic incident we used the time to take our morning coffee break before heading across the road to the church, our next historic site. St Anne’s Church was built on 1799 with the vicarage and school being built later.

After spending time in the church, we made our way up to Stormer Hill House, built by the Smally family in 1762, where we turned right and walked through Stormer Hill Fold and across the fields down to Mill Lane. Our next site of historic interest was Tower Court, originally named Tower Farm built by Joshua Knowles in 1840 to stable his horses and more recently converted into apartments. Our fine final stop was at Nabbs House, built by John Turner around 1840, he was brother in law of Joshua Knowles. Its most interesting feature is the castle like summerhouse with its gargoyles, said to depict local residents. It was just a short walk back to Greenmount Old School having covered four very informative miles.

                                                                       Thank you to the Heritage Fund and National Lottery Players for funding this walk.