Martin’s blog will cover things that have been happening in Bowland that may have been missed by the national or local press.
Suggestions and comments are always welcome from locals and visitors alike.
The views and opinions expressed in Martin’s blog are personal and do not represent those of the Forest of Bowland, Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Lancashire County Council or any other partner in the Forest of Bowland Joint Advisory Committee. They are generally light hearted in tone and should be treated accordingly.
Martin Charlesworth - volunteer, and former Community Projects Officer for Bowland.
Please send any suggestions or comments to bowland@lancashire.gov.uk
William Bowland tells the story of how a medieval knight helped create the modern-day hamlet of Whitewell and how the Inn at Whitewell owes its origins to a battle in fourteenth-century Spain.
Read about it here on the page devoted to the Lordship of Bowland in the 'Discovering' section of this website.
Not only have the French dared to insinuate that Gisburn, or as they would have it 'Jeezburn', lacks Gallic passion (see previous post), they also lay claim to the apple that caused Issac Newton to think that the force of gravity exerted its effect over long distances. I note that the supposed apple is of the variety 'Flower of Kent'. Kent is so close to Calais nowadays that it may as well be part of France, so it must be true - tant pis!
Don't despair though, a festival of truly English apples is to be held on Saturday 2nd October at Knowle Green (Knowle Verte) village hall. This elegant poster has all the details. The wonderful organisation Common Ground (Le terrain d'entente) inspires people to cherish and preserve local distinctiveness and they 'invented' Apple (Pomme) days over 20 years ago and although Bowland (Terre de bow) is late in coming to the party, we intend to make up for le temps perdu (lost time). We hope to be serving cider rather than entente cordiale - provided I get the licence.
And a last word about the Flower of Kent - 'It is pear-shaped, mealy, and sub-acid, and of generally poor quality by today's standards.' Ha!
The Tour of Britain swept through Whitewell to Dunsop Bridge and then up over the Trough passing Larry, the RSPBs huge inflatable lapwing tethered outside Thorneyholme school, 'An Outstanding school in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty'. 
I sent the TV company and the Tour organisers the full works about the AONB, ground nesting birds and Thorneyholme school, but the coverage was just about the bikes and the rain. It's just a bike race for goodness sake! What about the context? They could learn form the Tour de France in my opinion which showcases the delights of France with a few bikes thrown in for added colour*.
Pictured left is a giant Peregrine Falcon made up of 70 tiles laid out in the school field. The helicopter hovered overhead for a couple of minutes but was eventually scared away.
*Whilst we are talking about France, I am less convinced that Gisburn (or Jeezburn as the man in the car advert has it) has something to learn from the French (have you seen Renault's advert - Can a car change a town?). Perhaps Jeezburn could redesign my Renault Modus so that changing a lightbulb does not involve dropping the front of the car?
Newton’s Independent Chapel stands on the site of a much earlier chapel associated with a notorious ancestor of the 16th Lord of Bowland. Read THE LORD AND THE PREACHER to visit this forgotten corner of Newton’s history.
Unless the scientists get distracted....
Strange pictures from the Guardian. Two different stories but I liked the thought of putting them together.
Rambling Sid Rumpo used to make up quaint old English words and customs on Kenneth Horne's Comedy programme called Round the Horne when I was young. I got into conversation with someone on Friday night about haymaking who refuses to be named so I've chosen to call him 'Sid' and his equally reticent wife 'Doris'. Sid says that in the 60s, they used to cut the edges of the field with scythes to get every last bit of hay. He said this was called 'piking'. He added that when it was going to rain you all set off with rakes and raked up the hay into 'foot cocks' and stood them up against each other to better withstand the rain. If it was going to be really wet then you were told to get 'Rittling'! This meant to put more 'foot cocks' on top of those already stood up. (I hope you're following this.) If that wasn't bad enough, Doris claims that in Chipping (where else?) the call was 'Come on lasses, get out there and get cocking up!'
Now I'm not 100% certain of all this; part of it sounds familiar. I need some verification and authenticated sources. Send me the whole truth and nothing but the truth! (I also asked Rambling Sid to tell me about his time at HJ Berry's and he said 'No!')
So that's the word and thought for today 'Zeitgeist'. It's never going to be printed on banknotes but learn it now in case the cash machines do get turned off! (picture above is not of Tolstoy but James Slater who indulged in a spot of face painting as well as railing painting.)
When the cash machines and Chip and PIN cards cease to function and we run out of cash*, we'll have to re-learn bartering skills. Leading the way and preparing for this eventuality is Longridge where I am piloting a 'Paint the railings in return for food' scheme. Last year I was trying to get volunteers to paint some stretches of railings there but didn't have much success. The weather militated against it as well to be fair. This year, I thought we could have a reward system for volunteering. Every volunteer-hour will collect 1 point and when we've done 20 hours we'll have a raffle (1 point = 1 ticket) with a prize of a £30 meal voucher for a local Longridge restaurant.
Just to make it plain, this is not the launch of 'the Big Society'. However, some of my heroes do have the prefix 'Big' applied to them; Big Brother (the one in the book), Big Bill Broonzy the legendary blues guitarist and last but certainly not least Big Willie, the Glaswegian who rode the 37 bus in the song by Michael Toner, famously sung by Hamish Imlach.
If you are interested in joining this innovative, ground breaking and exciting experiment then contact me on 07989 258675 or email martin [dot] charlesworth [at] lancashire [dot] gov [dot] uk These part-painted railings are on Higher Road Longridge on the road to Jeffery Hill and the Forest of Bowland.
*The Economist ran a scary article recently about 'Cyber war'.
I'd been thinking of Tolstoy recently (all to do with hay meadows and scything, it's a long story!) when I came across a picture of him this morning as I was reading 'Bibby's Quarterly' from 1904/5. Here's what the article says about the beliefs of this famous author and father of 13 children; 'All should learn to work with their hands. To eat and not to work is a crime against society. All should live simply.' Tolstoy came to hold these beliefs after he turned 50 whereupon he renounced his former lifestyle and gave away his estates and fortune and then worked as a peasant as long as his health permitted. There's a photo of the great man surrounded by men in beards and women in fur hats with a comment that many of them (not Tolstoi and his family) had moved to Christchurch after being expelled from Russia.
Further on in Bibby's Quarterly is a piece from Spring 1905 about the 'Wool outlook for 1905'. "It is a very long time since English sheep farmers had prospects so bright for their coming clip,...". This was all to do with droughts in Australia and the reduction in surpluses. The price per pound of fleece in Jan 1902 had been 4d (that's 4 old pennies) per pound and the price in Jan 1905 had risen to 12d (one old shilling). Is anyone prepared to do that maths on that and uprate it to todays prices? Perhaps we'd better not.
At the weekend, keen cyclists not only lapped Pendle several times on closed roads (Sunday) but also sallied forth from Barley to Hornby and beyond (Saturday) passing the 'Cat and Rat' Festival at Hornby. Hornby has had a village festival before but this was a special one with added feline and rodent interest!
Why Cats and Rats? All to do with the history of Hornby Castle and an old tale of a cat that helped rid the infested castle of its plague of rats. It was a lovely day; the weather was glorious, there was a marching jazz band, a vegetable stall, bric a brac stall, pottery stall, a fancy dress competition, sack races, egg and spoon races, coconut shy, whack the rat, home made cakes, tea and lots more.
The Tug of War was a mini world cup with girls vs boys, girls vs mums, boys vs dads, and ending up with what appeared to be everyone vs everyone else. A truly lovely day and it seemed all of Hornby was there. They have a packed programme of events for the rest of this week and the organisers have done an excellent job. The Pendle cycling festival was even more scary though than the Cat and Rat festival. On Saturday there was a 'Cyclo-Sportive' event (aka Pendle Pedal) open to all cyclists;150Km or 80Km over Pendle, Waddington Fell and Longridge Fell. On Sunday, a closed 7.5 mile route saw our internationally known cyclists fight for the British National Championships. Everyone was 'playing cat and mouse' according to Emma Pooley as reported in Cycling Weekly.
