Tag Archives: #Pendle

Pendle throughout the year

The name Pendle Hill derives from the Ancient British word ‘pen’ meaning ‘hill’, which predates the First Century Roman Invasion. By about the 7th Century, when it was largely forgotten what ‘pen’ meant, the Old English word ‘hyll’ was added and by 1305 the name was recorded as ‘Penhul’ in the Charters of the ManorsContinue reading “Pendle throughout the year”

Downham Hall

Downham Hall is the home of the Assheton family who own Downham estate, it was designed by architect George Webster in 1835 and built on the foundations of and with stone from an earlier sixteenth century hall. It was rebuilt in a simple, classical style compared to other buildings that George Webster designed in orderContinue reading “Downham Hall”

Cotton Chronicles, Queen Street Mill, Part One; Raising Steam

Queen Street Mill can be found down the end of a quiet cul-de-sac in the Lancashire village of Harle Syke on the outskirts of Burnley and is the world’s last surviving operational 19th century steam-powered weaving mill. Set up as a worker’s cooperative in 1894 the mill operated for decades after its contemporaries had ceasedContinue reading “Cotton Chronicles, Queen Street Mill, Part One; Raising Steam”

Clitheroe War Memorial

Clitheroe War Memorial depicts a Grenadier Guard bowing his head and stands in the grounds of Clitheroe Castle in the eponymous Ribble Valley market town, facing East towards the Nick O’ Pendle. The memorial was unveiled on the 18th of August 1923 by Lord Derby, the Mayor of Clitheroe at the time and commemorates theContinue reading “Clitheroe War Memorial”

The Lancashire Witches’ by Carol Ann Duffy

The Lancashire Witches’, by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy One voice for ten dragged this way onceby superstition, ignorance.Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. Witch: female, cunning, manless, old,daughter of such, of evil faith;in the murk of Pendle Hill, a crone. Here, heavy storm-clouds, ill-will brewed,over fields, fells, farms, blighted woods.On the wind’sContinue reading “The Lancashire Witches’ by Carol Ann Duffy”

Unnatural Histories, The Witches Way to Lancaster

It is over Four Hundred years since the infamous Pendle Witch Trials at Lancaster where the accused twelve were taken to be sentenced and hanged in 1612. In that fateful year, between the 17th and 19th of August, Eleven people went to trial on suspicion of practising witchcraft, it should have been Twelve but theContinue reading “Unnatural Histories, The Witches Way to Lancaster”

Unnatural Histories, The Fairy hole Caves at Whitewell

Lancashire isn’t exactly well known for its caves, with neighbouring Yorkshire enjoying all the potholing fun, but the edge of the Limestone reefs that underlie the North Yorkshire moors, which are famous for their extensive cave systems, do show their face again one last time in Lancashire before disappearing beneath the shale and gritstone ofContinue reading “Unnatural Histories, The Fairy hole Caves at Whitewell”