[Margaret Pilkington]

Priestley Clough was my playground.......you could enter by the bottom path, near Highams Mill....this took you past the lodge on your right hand side, and the brook on the left side(the lodge had an overflow which fed into the brook).......or you could go via the top path which was alongside the cottage at the bottom of Riley's Hill.
This path allowed you to look down over the lodge.......both paths converged by the bottom of Nelsons Farm.
During our summer holidays we would spend all day in the clough......it was a place where you could let your imagiation run riot.......it could be a wild jungle or red indian country.....in our minds, that is......we climbed trees, made dens, picked flowers......ran played and screeched to our hearts content without incurring the wrath of any adults.......there were none about to disturb. A childhood idyll.