Historic Landscapes in the Forest of Pendle
- Lancashire's Hidden Treaure
- Rimington Lead Mines
- Landscape Learning Brought to Life
- Clay Days in the Forest of Pendle
- Quill Pens, Songs and Haiku Poems
- Seven Months, Four Schools and a Whole Lot of Heritage - Watch the slide show!
- Lancashire Landscape Captured in Felt
- Come Rain or Shine - Watch the slide show!
- Cliviger Cairn Re-visited
- Back to Basics
- Lucky Charms
- New Leaflet for Pendle Forest History Group
Radio Stars
Joan, John, Richard and Jamie from Pendle Forest History Group summed the project up nicely when they were interviewed by Helen Mark for BBC Radio 4's Open Country programme.
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A Pendle landmark could soon be revealing hidden secrets thanks to a group of local historians who are setting out to prove that Pendle Hill has more to it than the story of the Witches.
Over the coming months, members of Pendle Forest History Group will be working with a firm of professional archaeologists to follow historic clues found in the landscape surrounding the famous hill. Staff from Lancaster-based Oxford Archaeology North (OAN), will work alongside local people to provide training in research and field-surveying techniques so that a picture of the area through the ages can be constructed and all without digging a single hole!
The keen residents will use old records, maps and aerial photographs to identify likely historic sites, initially around the villages of Barley, Newchurch and Roughlee. Then, donning boots and backpacks, they will pinpoint these sites out in the field where, using the latest digital technology, they will make a detailed record of their finds.
Little physical investigation has been carried out in this area to date and the information collected by the group will be a valuable addition to Lancashire's Historic Environment Record, the definitive record of all the historic monuments in the county.
During an official launch of the project on 15 July Jamie Quartermaine, Project Manager with OAN explained what the group might expect to find once they get down to work. Using examples from similar areas around the North West Jamie gave an illustrated "tour" through the historic landscape of the region from prehistoric times right up to the eleventh century.
An appreciative audience heard about the nomadic hunter-gatherers of the Mesolithic, evidence of whom is found across the Pennines; the introduction of farming during the Neolithic (a pivotal point in human development) and the dramatic deterioration of the climate during the Iron Age, which led to competition for agricultural land and the subsequent building of defended settlements and large forts such as the site at Castercliffe, near Nelson.
The story continued with the establishment of Roman military sites such as the fort at Ribchester, the emergence of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria following the decline of Roman rule and on to the Viking raids, and ultimately permanent settlement, of the late eighth century onwards. In this period, Jamie pointed out, the River Ribble was an important transport route between the Irish Sea in the west and the North Sea in the east - perhaps the most famous evidence in this area being the discovery of the Cuerdale silver hoard in 1840.
The tenth and eleventh centuries saw Lancashire gradually becoming part of the unifying English kingdom and, unfortunately, that was where we had to leave our whistle-stop tour of this historic county - more recent treasures remaining hidden for the time being!
With the help of Jamie and his colleagues, members of the group are now all set to discover Pendle Forest's very own landscape story. First stop Lancashire Records Office!
Lancashire's Hidden Treasure
The Pendle Forest History Group had a fascinating, behind-the-scenes look at one of the county's most valuable resources recently on a visit to the Lancashire Record Office.
Kindly hosted by Jacquie Crosby, Assistant County Archivist, and organised by Jamie Quartermaine and Kathryn Blythe from Oxford Archaeology North, the visit marked the first step on the group's quest to uncover the landscape history of Pendle's ancient royal hunting forest.
A visit to the Preston-based Record Office is a must for anyone wanting to delve into the history of the county. The office was originally set up in 1940 to look after the County Council's records and the records of the Quarter Sessions.
Quarter Sessions began in the 14th Century and were held in each county or county borough four times a year, right up until the early 1970's when they were replaced by the Crown Court of England and Wales. In fact, the eight miles of shelving at the Record Office hold documents which date back to the 12th Century. A wealth of historic information!
The office has a wide collecting policy and anything which helps to tell the story of the county and its people can find its way into the collection. The county of Lancashire, however, has shrunk over the past 35-40 years and now only information from within the administrative boundary is gathered.
Although stored in climatically controlled strong rooms, the policy of the Record Office is to make documents available for public use as much as possible. However, most of the archives held there don't actually belong to the Record Office. Rather, they are placed there by the owners for safekeeping. Visitors to the archive, therefore, once they have been furnished with a reader's ticket, need to follow a few simple rules in order to make sure that the resources are conserved. Archive staff are happy to assist newcomers!
Our guide, Jacquie, pointed out that the archives within the collection were all created at particular times and for a particular reason. Knowing who created the information, when and why, all help when judging how useful particular documents might be for us now.
As far as the Pendle Forest History Group project goes, Jacquie recommended beginning with maps and starting to read the landscape without actually going anywhere! The current grid referencing system began after the Second World War but prior to that, each county had its own series of maps. We learnt that the group's particular area of study won't have the benefit of enclosure maps unfortunately, because the land, as a royal hunting forest, would have been divided up previously.
However, there are still many other sources of information to choose from not least, the Victoria County History series for Lancashire and Whitaker's History of Whalley, along with countless other items.
It's worth bearing in mind too, that some of the collections might be slightly out of the ordinary. 60lbs books which need two people to lift them, parchment cured with urine and the ability to read Latin being some of the things visitors may well encounter!
One thing Jacquie did point out is that, given the amount of material they hold, quite a lot of the archives at the Lancashire Record Office have yet to be catalogued. So, there is always the chance that someone may yet unearth another Lancashire treasure!
Rimington Lead Mines
Members of Pendle Forest History Group got the chance to practice valuable field walking skills during a fascinating day at Rimington Lead Mines recently, completing a significant stage in their quest to discover new historic sites in the area.
Under the guidance of Jamie Quartermaine and Peter Schofield of Oxford Archaeology North, the group visited this well recorded site in preparation for their own work around Barley, Newchurch and Roughlee.
Industry has been documented on the Rimington site since the late sixteenth century and, although many of the surface features no longer remain, there was still plenty to discover. Although now close to the peaceful Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, this area must have presented a very different face during the height of production!
Rimington Lead Mines are on private land and as there is no general right of access the AONB was grateful for special permission being granted by the landowners. The site is also protected as a Scheduled Monument, which means that it must not be disturbed in any way and the use of metal detectors and taking of samples etc is forbidden without a specific licence from English Heritage.
Despite the less than kind November weather, a great day was had by all!
Landscape Learning Brought to Life
From glaciers to dry stone walls and skeletons to steel toe capped boots – pupils in the Forest of Pendle have been delving into the past with the help of the Landscape Stories project and some expert guidance.
During summer 2009, Pendle Forest History Group was awarded a £5000 Grassroots grant towards the delivery of a local schools' heritage project to complement their own work as part of the Forest of Bowland AONB's HLF programme.
Since November, North Yorkshire-based Kevin Cale, of Community Archaeology Ltd has been delivering a series of workshops to local primary schools, which have seen children dress up in hard hats and lab coats, brave the wintry weather to check out the history on their doorstep then travel to Bradford University to piece together "skeletons" and peek inside laboratories!
The idea behind the Community Archaeology programme is to enthuse children about their local heritage, getting them to look more closely at their surroundings and think about the variety of people involved in discovering and protecting different landscapes and artefacts.
Sessions began with a "who's who" of heritage professionals, introducing the children to the roles of archaeologists, scientists, conservators and local historians. Children then got the chance to handle a whole range of artefacts, guessing how old they were and what they were used for – not easy when all you have is a shard of pottery the size of a two-pence piece!
Next up the children got to practice their geography skills using old maps and aerial photographs to see how things had changed in their area over the years. The comfort of the classroom was then left behind on a field trip to discover exactly what tales might be hidden in the local hills and valleys.
Here, the story began back in prehistory with the laying down of different rock types and the coming of the glaciers which helped to shape the local landscape. The children heard how the landscape influenced the settlement patterns of the first inhabitants of the area and how, in turn, people throughout the ages have left their mark on the landscape in the form of buildings, field systems and boundary markers.
Highlight of the trip was the chance to have a go at "dowsing". Traditionally used to find water underground, this technique is also said to help pinpoint buried objects such as foundations. Children and adults alike had great fun trying to locate the line of an old wall, eyes closed and dowsing rods at the ready!
Clay Days in the Forest of Pendle
No, not clay pigeons, but the kind of clay you dig out of the ground! Families, both local and from further afield, got their hands dirty in Barley recently when they took part in two Landscape Stories events.
After being re-arranged from earlier in the month due to the snowy weather, Sunday 24th January saw 19 people make their way to the village hall to have a go at creative ceramics with artist Julie Miles.
Barrowford-based Julie demonstrated how to turn red earthenware, or terracotta clay, into beautiful ceramic tiles – representing the kind of artefacts that might be discovered during an archaeological dig. After cutting the clay with a cheese wire, the blocks were vigorously kneaded to make sure that all the air bubbles were removed. This bit was very important as without it, the tiles might later explode in the kiln! Using a rolling pin and template the clay was then rolled out and cut to shape. Hexagons were a popular choice as they could be fitted together easily to make larger designs. At this point, our trainee artists had the option to paint their clay with white "slip" (watered down China clay) to make their final tile that bit different.
Once the slip had dried it was then time to decorate the tiles with patterns and designs, many of which reflected the surrounding landscape of the Forest of Pendle. We did this by scratching the surface of the clay with pen-like scrapers – a technique known as Scraffito. The works of art were then taken away by Julie and allowed to dry for a couple of weeks before firing in her studio kiln to produce the finished ceramics. Take a look at the pictures at this link to see the transformation from block of clay to work of art!
The village hall was a hive of activity again a few weeks later when Maureen Fenton and Hetti Tomlin from Lancashire's Museums Outreach Service came along to run our February event – "The Genie in the Lamp!" This time our crafty visitors were fashioning replica Roman oil lamps – mini masterpieces complete with spout, handle and intricate decorations. Take care if you try these at home as the olive oil eventually seeps out of the air drying clay!!
This type of lamp would have been commonly used during Roman times, and with the Ribchester – Elslack Roman road passing just north of Pendle Hill, close to the village of Downham, who knows what fragments might lie buried beneath the present day Forest of Pendle? 
And, as we won't be doing any real digging as part of our Landscape Stories project, Maureen and Hetti also brought along some table-top archaeological "digs" for all our budding Indiana Jones'! Using trowels and brushes, our historians carefully cleared away layers of soil to reveal the clues within. But rather than uncovering broken bits of pots and clay pipes, our searching uncovered fragments of credit cards, plastic toys and drinks cartons – all designed to make us think about the kind of objects we are leaving behind to be uncovered by future archaeologists!
Quill Pens, Songs and Haiku Poems
Once again, Lancashire Record Office did a good turn for the Landscape Stories project when they hosted a visit by children from Wheatley Lane Primary School.
Year 4 children from the school visited this fantastic resource in March and were treated to a packed programme of activities from quill pen writing and illuminated lettering to a tour of the strong rooms and the chance to work hands-on with archives from their local area. Our thanks go to Jacquie and David who organised the day so well for us. Take a look at our pictures to see some of the things the children did during their visit.
Children and teachers had also been very busy following their first archaeology sessions, which took place before Christmas. A Landscape Stories display full of pictures, poetry and written work was created to brighten up the classroom, whilst the children also had a go at building a mini drystone wall (a key feature of their local landscape) out of plasticine.
And to make sure that the rest of the school community knew what they'd been up to, the Year 4 children even came up with a song which they sang at assembly – complete with costumes and actions!
A clever take on an old favourite, the song manages to include many of the important people involved in heritage work. Thanks to Kev Cale of Community Archaeology Ltd for the inspiration!
And here are a couple of the children's Haiku poems…..
Seven Months, Four Schools and a Whole Lot of Heritage
If you want to know anything about landscape history and archaeology in the Forest of Pendle – just ask one of the local school children!
Almost one hundred Pendle pupils have taken part in the Landscape Stories project this year, starting with chilly, winter walks in November and finishing with the treasures of the Lancashire Record Office in May, with time for skeletons, archaeological "digs" and dressing up in between.
Thanks to Kev Cale of Community Archaeology Ltd, Pendle Forest History Group, Lancashire Record Office, Bradford University, and some enthusiastic staff the Key Stage 2 children have had a real insight into how to explore, record, interpret and care for Lancashire's local history – especially the heritage right on their doorstep.
And who knows, there might even be one or two future archaeologists in the making…………….
Slide show: Take a look at our story in pictures to find out what we've been all been getting up to! (click Esc to stop the slideshow!)
Lancashire Landscape Captured in Felt
The summer colours and textures of the Pendle Forest landscape were captured in some beautiful pieces of artwork during a family event in Roughlee when budding artists worked with felt maker, Annie Coxey, to create their own individual pieces.
Adults and children at the "Fleece to Felt" workshops then collaborated to make two striking hangings depicting rivers, trees and heather-covered hills.
One young visitor commented, "I loved making the personal felt pieces and the landscape collage, they look amazing."
The landscape theme of the workshop was chosen to link with the work being carried out by members of the Pendle Forest History Group who are surveying the local landscape for archaeological clues to the area's past.
Sunday's workshop was the first in a new series of rural, arts-based activities which are being supported by Lancashire County Council's Arts Development Service. The remaining workshops will take place between September and December of this year and details will be advertised on the website and in local press as dates are confirmed.
The new hangings, along with work completed by local school children who have also taken part in the archaeology project, will be on display at Barley Village Hall during the afternoon of Saturday 14th August and everyone is welcome to attend.
Anyone wanting more information can contact Sandra Silk on 01200 448000 / 07973 923142 or email sandra [dot] silk [at] lancashire [dot] gov [dot] uk
Come Rain or Shine
Since March 2010 members of Pendle Forest History Group have surveyed their way from Water Meetings at Barrowford to Rigg of England above Spen Brook – overlooking as little as possible in their quest to unravel the stories behind the history of the Forest of Pendle landscape.
The field work isn't over yet and it will soon be time to take up rucksacks once again – after a well-earned summer break.
Many thanks to all the land owners who have given permission for the group to visit their land, and also to Oxford Archaeology North for sharing their knowledge and experience.
Slide show: Follow the group's progress through rain and shine! (click Esc to stop the slideshow!)
Cliviger Cairn Re-visited
One of the things we won't be doing as part of the Landscape Stories project is excavation work, so the chance to go and see a "dig" in action was too much to pass up.
And thanks to Dr Rick Peterson, Lecturer in Archaeology at University of Central Lancashire, the processes involved in an archaeological excavation were made that much clearer.
Located in a field above Cliviger on the outskirts of Burnley, the University's summer fieldwork project this year centred on the site of a Bronze Age ring cairn. The cairn had previously been excavated during the 1950's by the then Head Master of Burnley Grammar School, Walter Bennett. Since that time, however, an open cast coal mine had been worked almost up to the boundary of the site, so it was time to see whether this prehistoric feature had any further information to offer.
First step involved the removal of the topsoil from the whole of the excavation site. This was done by a machine with the archaeologists overseeing the work.
Archaeology students then hand dug down through the various layers of material to reach the Bronze Age layer below. A painstaking process, the students scraping away a small area at a time with a trowel, the resulting soil being barrowed away to the spoil heap.
Any "finds" discovered during the excavation were carefully recorded, with each object photographed and given a unique reference number. The excavation area itself had previously been marked out with Ordnance Survey grid squares, allowing the exact location of each find to be noted along with the layer or "context" in which it was found. Any finds were then added to the register.
Everything found during the 2010 dig, and any supporting documentary work, would be cross referenced with Walter Bennett's previous work held at Towneley Hall in Burnley, with the aim of writing up and publishing a project report in the future.
The site has now been back-filled but who knows, perhaps in another 60 years it may get the chance to reveal a few more clues?
Why not take a look at this web link to find out about some of the other excavation work carried out by the University of Central Lancashire and University of Wales, Bangor? This time in Scotland!
http://www2.uclan.ac.uk/scitechmedia/kintyre/fieldwalk_0main.html
Back to Basics
A dozen hardy souls set out for Watermeetings, between Roughlee and Barrowford, at the start of the October half term – and all in the name of historical research.
Our mission was to survey an area of land which the Pendle Forest History Group hoped might reveal clues to the area's past. The group had visited the site during the previous month, but unfortunately, modern GPS equipment just couldn't cut the mustard on that occasion – too many trees and hills blocking the satellite beams. So, under the supervision of Jamie from Archaeology North, we paid a second visit loaded down with what's known in the business as a Total Station.
Thanks to Wikipedia I can tell you that, "A total station is an electronic/optical instrument used in modern surveying. The total station is an electronic theodolite (transit) integrated with an electronic distance meter (EDM) to read slope distances from the instrument to a particular point."
Fortunately, we weren't being tested on the definition! Instead, we paid close attention as Jamie explained how to use the various bits and pieces. It's really a job for a small number of people, but those who wanted to all got the chance to have a go and by mid-afternoon the job was done. (I'm sure our surveying would have taken experienced practitioners a fraction of the time but not to worry. A new set of people now know how to work a Total Station, which is the whole idea!)
As we surveyed the area the information was passed through to a small computer attached to the equipment frame, the idea being that Jamie would then overlay the information collected during the day onto existing project maps in order to produce a more detailed layout of the site.
We're hoping that the next stage of the project will be a geophysics survey, which should tell us whether this particular site warrants – as we hope - further investigation.
As one of the most important jobs this time was holding an umbrella over the equipment to stop it getting wet, let's just hope that the weather is a little kinder next time………..
Lucky Charms
Baubles, Bangles and Beads …….as the old song goes, took centre stage at Roughlee Village Hall this autumn – and very colourful they were too!
Participants at our "Lucky Charms" October jewellery workshops had a great day under the guidance of Bebeady's Samantha Taylor who gave a fascinating insight into the history of Anglo-Saxon jewellery.
Chorley-based Samantha explained that the Anglo-Saxons were skilled in certain crafts, including metalwork, and that their jewellery could be very ornate. Pieces were both practical, such as brooches and pins for fastening clothes, and impressive, often showing social status. Spirals, knotwork and other patterns were used in design whilst amber, rock crystal, amethyst and coral were amongst the materials available.
Archaeological jewellery finds can tell us a lot about people and the way they lived and the aim of the workshops was to give participants an idea of the kind of things which can often be found during excavations or in buried hoards!
Following Samantha's step-by-step instructions our visitors then made their very own Anglo-Saxon inspired necklaces and earings using copper wire, glass beads and shells – and some lovely pieces were created!
Take a look at Samantha's workshop guidelines (pdf 225kb) to find out a bit more information and to look at some of the tools and techniques we used.
The jewellery workshop, along with our felt making course in July, our fused glass workshops in September and our afternoon of Land Art (another October event) have all taken place as part of the Landscape Stories Arts Roadshow, thanks to funding from HLF, Lancashire County Council Arts Development Service and the Duchy of Lancaster Benevolent Fund. Keep an eye on these pages for further events after Christmas!
New Leaflet for Pendle Forest History Group
Members of the Pendle Forest History Group have been working hard over the past 18 months, gathering together information about this fascinating part of the AONB. They are keen to share what they have found and have produced a leaflet directing people to their newly developed website. Why not take a look at the leaflet find out a bit more about the work of the group?
